Breath of Fresh Air Award and The Victor

I decided to try my hand at photoshopping to make an award. So here it is. Hope you like the image.

Because I deeply appreciate blogs that revive me, make me think, challenge me and add to my life, I hereby present this "Breath of Fresh Air" award to.......

CKHB!

Thanks for your wonderful blog and for making the electronic air seem less stagnant.

And because I always like to breath more than one breath of fresh air, I would also like to give this award to....

Cindy Wilson!

Your Wednesdays Excerpt or Action posts have been a ton of fun and very refreshing. Not only does your blog make me smile whenever I read it, but the community you've attracted is unique and wonderful. Thank you!

HEADS UP:

There's a book giveaway of The Victor over at Whispered Roars. It looks pretty awesome.

Faith, Dreams and Charity...oh my!

Just when I was beginning to loose faith in social networking, something like this happens. Thank you CKHB for the award. I love the Panda!

And now I'm ready to begin again with the crazy writing-networking balance.

This past week for boring reasons I've been without any word processor whatsoever except the sticky notes on my Mac. (Well, and paper and pencil, the FIRST word processors.) It made me slow down my writing a bit, which made me re-evaluate my dreams and aspirations. I realized I don't have as much faith in my dreams as I used to.

But then this morning I saw one of my characters walk down the sidewalk. He was exactly what the villain in my story is supposed to look like! I was driving so I didn't even have the chance to embarrass myself and ask "Hey, you look like my villain! Can I take a picture?" which I know was for the best. So now I have a little something more to go off of. If anyone's ever seen the movie Inkheart, it was almost like the scene where the author sees Dustfinger alive for the first time. (And it is a great movie for writers. Soothes my burning unpublished heart every time.)

I've been thinking about all this social networking we do, trying to make connections. I feel a little like a lonely little chick just out of the egg. Awkward, struggling, and with goo still stuck to my feathers. But my thoughts so far have led me to this: Social networking is great because it's one of the few tools completely run on charity. People donate outrageous amounts of their time building connections and making one more weave in the net of people connected. So, in following with CKHB's recognition, I too wish to say thank you to everyone following this blog. It makes a difference to me and to the world. Seriously. Baby whales somewhere are spouting for joy.

I appreciate your charitable contributions of time and attention and connectivity.