by Naomi L. | August 19, 2013 | Blog, News |
Time for another news update! Here are a few things to look out for on my blog in the upcoming weeks.
New Blogging Awards
Some of you may have noticed a fancy new slideshow in my sidebar. Well, since my nomination for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Jennifer M Zeiger, I’ve received two more awards for my blog! One is the Liebster Award, for which I was nominated by Emily Morgan of Emily Morgan Writes and Mama Going Solo. The other is the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award, given to me by Lily of Lilica’s Place. Thank you so much, ladies! I’m truly honored!
I’m still working on my post for the Liebster Award, which might take at least a couple of weeks to be published. Since the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award has simpler rules to it (just passing the award on to other female bloggers you like, no questions to answer or anything), I may end up sharing that one first. It shouldn’t be too hard for me to find enough nominees for this one, as most of the blogs I’m currently following are written by women. This one is going out to the awesome ladies I’ve been meeting in the blogosphere! Thanks for all your inspiration, and be sure to look for a nomination soon!
Also, with three blogging award nominations and a writing contest win so far, I’m putting together an Awards page for my blog. So exciting to know I’m inspiring my readers! Thank you!
Word of the Week Index
With almost 20 words featured in my Word of the Week segment so far, I think it’s about time for me to add a vocabulary index to my blog. If I can manage to complete it, it’ll be on a new page attached to the Word of the Week category link under Resources in the menu bar. I’ve already installed a table plugin on my site, for easy sorting of words alphabetically or by publish date. Hopefully I can find the time to set it up soon!
Sharing the Link Love
Since I started blogging actively, I’ve been meeting quite a few interesting people with equally interesting websites. After all the inspiration and encouragement I’ve been getting from other writers, I think it’s only fair for me to give something back.
I’d love to share links to the great blogs I’ve been following, so I’m adding a new blogroll widget to my sidebar. Because I want to be fair to everyone featured among my picks, the links will always be randomized, like the quote rotator at the bottom of my site. The blogroll will display links in a different order every time the page is refreshed, so that everyone has an equal chance of being listed first (or at all, when I have more than ten links). I apologize in advance to anyone I may forget to add at first; I can be quite the scatterbrain!
This concludes another news update. Thanks for reading! Have a great week!
by Naomi L. | July 8, 2013 | Blog, Journal |
So last week started off with my blog’s first news update, and now today marks my first official journal post. Like the news posts, my journal won’t be a regular segment, but it’s where I’ll occasionally be sharing random thoughts that don’t quite fit into the other topics on my blog. Hope you enjoy!
A few weeks ago, talented writer and blogger Jennifer M Zeiger nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! I was honored to receive the notice, as the award is passed between bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere. It’s wonderful to know I’ve been inspiring readers with my writing; that’s exactly what I hoped to achieve with my creative writing blog!
Now I’m supposed to share a little information about myself. Here goes…
Ten Facts About Me
1) I was born and raised in the United States, but I’ve been living in Brazil for several years now, making me fluent in both English and Portuguese.
2) I’ve been in love with creative writing since the fourth grade, and with reading since before preschool. Although I’ve wanted to be a writer since elementary school, I recently graduated from college with a Bachelor’s in Biology, and I plan to attend grad school soon to get my Master’s in Marine Biology.
3) My favorite literary genres are science fiction/fantasy, because I find it fascinating to imagine worlds that different in key aspects from ours; and romance, because I’ve always been intrigued by the theme of love.
4) Some of my greatest writing influences include the authors Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter series), Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl series) and Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon saga).
5) Five of my favorite movies are Finding Nemo, West Side Story, Forrest Gump, Beauty and the Beast and Tangled.
(Edit 7/12/13 – Oh yeah, one more favorite that I forgot to add to this list: How To Train Your Dragon!)
6) My greatest role models are my parents. They taught me almost everything I know about life and love, and they’ve been incredibly supportive of me and my writing. I feel so blessed to have been raised by such wonderful and intelligent people.
7) That “best friend” of mine whose been mentioned in a few of my blog posts? He’s also my boyfriend (and we’re in love).
8) Video games have been a major inspiration for my writing over the years, especially my fantasy stories.
9) One of the most common motifs in my writing is birds, possibly reflecting my lifelong desire to be able to fly. At least three of the novels I’m planning have strong bird references, as do a few of my short stories. Other motifs I like to throw into my writing are dragons and wolves.
10) I chose the pen name J.C. Wolfe for its potential catchiness as a unisex science fiction/fantasy author’s name. I hope my readers like it as much as I do!
Paying It Forward: My Ten Nominees
- The Musical Blog of Brent Gnecco (His blog isn’t actually active yet, but I feel he deserves a nomination for his inspirational music.)
- Best Ever Easy Recipes
- Emily Morgan Writes
- Vanessa Writes
- Lilica’s Place
- Writers Challenge 2013
- On Becoming a Writer
- Sonia G Medeiros
- Dragons and Snails
- My Forex Trading Room
For those nominated, this is how it works:
- Use the award logo in this post.
- Link to the person who nominated you.
- Share ten pieces of information about yourself.
- Nominate ten fellow bloggers who “positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere”.
- Leave a comment on the nominees’ blogs to tell them about the award.
Thanks again to Jennifer for the nomination, and to the nominees for continuing to add creativity and inspiration to the blogosphere!
By the way, if you haven’t yet, you should really check out Jennifer’s blog. Her stories are awesome! Thanks for reading!
by Naomi L. | July 1, 2013 | Blog, News |
So this is my first news update since I started my blog, and what a way to start the segment! I’m getting productive with my writing, I have a front-row seat to witness South American history being made, and my blog was even nominated for an award after being only a few months old! How awesome is that?
In the interest of keeping things brief, here’s a quick review of what’s happening now.
Sunshine Blogger Award
Two weeks ago, I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Jennifer M Zeiger! It’s a tremendous honor, and I’m very grateful for the recognition, especially from such a talented writer/blogger! An official blog post for the award will be up soon, after I finish sorting through the other great blogs I’ve started following for ten nominees to receive the award as well. The list isn’t complete yet, but note that if you’ve been actively following my blog and participating in the discussion, you can probably expect a notice of a nomination very soon!
Works in Progress
This probably goes without saying, but my blog is not the only project on my plate at the moment. Outside of my little corner of the Internet, I’m currently writing my first novel. Since it’s still very early in the works, however, the only information I can share for now is that it’ll be in the science fantasy genre (i.e. a mixed genre containing elements of both science fiction and fantasy). Aside from that, I’m considering compiling some short stories for publication, most likely in a self-published collection through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, but nothing is set in stone yet. I’m also actively participating in writing contests held at Writer’s Carnival, a great community where writers can share their work and review that of others in a fun and active learning environment.
Oh, and if it counts for anything, I’m also co-writing a scientific paper in the field of Marine Biology.
The Day Brazil Stood Still
I know this doesn’t have anything to do with my writing (yet, at least), but I still think it’s worth mentioning. At the time of writing this post, my current home country of Brazil is undergoing a huge movement for change (if you want to understand why, I recommend starting by watching this video). Since the beginning of June, hundreds of thousands of people in over 100 Brazilian cities have taken to the streets in a series of protests and public demonstrations against the corrupt government (most of which have been pacifistic, though the media seems to prefer showcasing the relatively rare cases of vandalism and violence).
But according to news spreading across social media, the biggest event of the movement so far has been scheduled to happen on the first of July, when the entire population will unite in a nationwide strike. The main objective? To show our politicians that the true power of a country lies with its people, and we won’t back down until we see the positive changes we’ve been needing for too long.
So if you don’t see me around the blogosphere today, chances are I’ve taken to the street to join Brazil’s largest movement in just over 20 years. If you want to support our cause, feel free to share the latest news on Facebook and Twitter. Help us #ChangeBrazil!
This concludes my blog’s first news post. Unlike the other topics, it won’t be a regular segment, but whenever I have important updates to share, I’ll be sure to include them in my Monday broadcasts. Thanks for reading!
P.S. To those of you reading my blog through WordPress, I think I’ve finally managed to solve the problem of the Jetpack Like button not loading properly in my posts. So if you had wanted to Like something on my site but were unable to see the button before, please feel free to go back and try again. Note that I had to disable a certain Javascript function to fix the button, so please let me know if you see any new problems on my blog after this. Thank you!
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