Awards and Affiliation

I’m not really an award kind of person. I share the reluctance of most introverts to toot my own horn, and the idea of submitting my writing to a panel of judges is nausea-inducing. But after much encouragement from other authors, I took the plunge and submitted a draft of the second book in my urban fantasy series, Blood Yellow, to the Land of Enchantment chapter of Romance Writers of America, who had a yearly contest for unpublished manuscripts (sadly, I understand the chapter is no longer running the award). I was phenomenally gratified to have placed second in my category.

That was cool enough on its own. But even cooler was that I got three professional critiques of the draft I submitted. The critiques were thoughtful and encouraging. As gut-churning as entering my (unedited) writing to a panel of judges was, it was wholly worthwhile.

Now, on to blogger awards. I’m shamelessly cribbing Nicholas Rossis’s idea regarding blog awards and putting them all in one place. Thank you so much to the wonderful fellow bloggers who have nominated my blog for awards!

    

The Award rules are:

• Display the award on your blog
• Link back to the person who nominated you
• State 7 things about yourself
• Nominate 15 bloggers, link to them, and notify them about their nominations

So I’ll start with 7 (hopefully little-known) facts about me:

1. My first “publication” was in a tiny, local, literary journal. The story was called “The Nature of Love.” I was 14 when I wrote it. Having re-read that story as an adult, I’m deeply grateful that it has never appeared anywhere on the Internet.
2. I’ve visited forty-eight of the fifty states. I missed out on Hawaii and Alaska before I moved to the UK. Maybe someday?
3. My first completed novel was a science-fiction story called “The Lure of Space.” I wrote it long-hand in a spiral-bound notebook. I finished it over Christmas, 1984. It was just over 75,000 words. (I counted them since I didn’t have a word processor.) Since then, I’ve re-written it over a dozen times. There’s nothing left of the original story except the title and the heroine’s name. I still intend to publish it (now as part of the Deep Frontier series).
4. I was given a broken-down moped for my 15th birthday by a family friend and the “gift” of rebuilding it under his tutelage. I remember being incredibly resentful at the time – why hadn’t he just repaired it before giving it to me? Now I consider it one of the most precious gifts I’ve ever been given. Not only did I absorb a great deal of mechanical knowledge while rebuilding it with him, but the restored moped gave me unimaginable freedom for years before I could drive a car.
5. I’m not a “car person,” and struggle to differentiate car models. But having a car has always been important to me, mostly so I could get to the bookstore. I’ll admit I talk to my cars, and they’ve all had the same name (“Rocket” from Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life).
6. Although I write about imaginary people and places, I believe in “writing from what you know.” I incorporated my experiences keeping domestic rabbits and spinning fire poi into Snowburn. For Snowburn’s sequel, Throwing Fire, I took up free-running (Parkour) for a short time. I’m not very good at free-running, and racked up more scars in a couple of months than I have in a decade of spinning fire.
7. Fire poi spinning is, yes, just as dangerous as it looks (video below with commentary from the Child). I’ve caught my hair, my clothes and the ground on fire. (Oops!)

Here are my nominations. Please visit these bloggers for wonderful content:

Nicholas C. Rossis: http://nicholasrossis.me/

Helen Treharne’s Tea Talks: https://helentreharne.wordpress.com/

(J C Cassel’s) Gotta Name My Blog: http://jccassels.com/

Chimera Poetry: https://chimerapoetry.wordpress.com/

Keith Garrett Poetry: http://keithgarrettpoetry.com/

Kimber Vale: http://kimbervale.me/

Laurel’s Writing Desk: http://laurelswritingdesk.wordpress.com/

Laurie A. Green: http://www.laurieagreen.com/category/blog/

Liza O’Connor: http://www.lizaoconnor.com/

Lucy’s Lit Lovin’ Blog: http://ltkelly.com/

Lyndi Alexander and her Worlds of Fancy: http://lyndialexander.wordpress.com/

Pippa Jay: http://www.pippajay.blogspot.co.uk/

Rosie Amber: https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/

S.A. Hoag: http://topaz08.wordpress.com/

Suzanne Leist: http://susanneleist.wordpress.com/

Veronica Scott: http://veronicascott.wordpress.com/

I’ll tag each of these bloggers and hope that they’ll share 7 facts with us as well as point us on to other great blogs!

Finally, a disclaimer. I’ve joined the Amazon Affiliates programme, so here’s their required disclaimer:

E J Frost is a participant in the Amazon Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon stores. If you purchase a product from Amazon via the links I provide, I may receive a commission.

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