Two Blogging Awards in One Week!

Exciting news! I have been given two wonderful awards for this blog!

The first is the Stylish Blogger Award. Thank you so much to Karen Cioffi for honoring my blog with this award. If you haven't checked out Karen's blog before, do so now -- you're in for a treat!

Part of the gift of this award is that I get to pass it along to seven others. There are so many wonderfully stylish blogs out there that it was hard to narrow it down to only seven! But here they are, in no particular order -- my picks for the Stylish Blogger Award:

• Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews: http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/
• Jana Gifford, I Picked Up a Pen and Wrote: http://janagifford.blogspot.com/
• Kathy Sena, Bad Ballet: http://www.badballet.com/
• Patricia Fry, Writing and Publishing News: http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/
• Debra Eckerling, Write On Online: http://writeononline.com/
• Jill Jepson, The Ninja Writer: http://www.ninja-writer.blogspot.com/
• Jennifer Wilkov, Your Book is Your Hook: http://www.yourbookisyourhook.com/blog/

The second award I received this week is the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award, from my lovely writing buddy and long-time Write On! supporter Virginia Grenier. Virginia runs a sweet and insightful blog "The Writing Mama" at http://thewritingmama.blogspot.com. All writers, not only moms, can benefit from adding Virginia's blog to their favorites list.

Here are the seven blogs I am delighted to pass along the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award to (again, in no particular order):

• Sarah Dessen, one of my favorite authors: http://sarahdessen.com/blog/
• Lauren Cook, The Sunny Girl: http://thesunnygirl.com/
• Margaret McSweeney, Pearl Girls: http://margaretmcsweeney.blogspot.com/
• Deborah Reber, Smart Girls Know: http://www.smartgirlsknow.com/
• Toni Reece, The Get Inspired! Project: http://www.getinspiredproject.com/
• Sue Oliver, The Passions and Possibilities Network: http://www.passionsandpossibilities.com/blog
• Jessica Burkhart, Tween Author & NYC Girl: http://jessicaburkhart.blogspot.com/

The final requirement of both awards is to list seven things that you may not know about me. Here they are:

• I was born three months prematurely, and weighed just two pounds, six ounces at birth.
• My favorite writing spot is Simone's Cafe in my hometown of Ventura, along with a chai tea latte and a maple walnut scone. 
• When I was sixteen, my mom and I hiked to the top of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States. 
• My guilty pleasure TV show is Degrassi: The Next Generation.
• I met my amazing boyfriend when we both taught a writing class for senior citizens in Lafayette, Indiana.
• I love indie music! Some of my favorite artists are Amber Rubarth, Joey Ryan, Skyler Stonestreet, and The 88.
• I'm named after my grandfather, whose middle name is Dallas.

That's it for now! Thank you again Karen and Virginia for the honors!