Wow! I Won a Prize!

Thank you, Laura!
I was looking at my Feedjit, and wondering why I had so many hits from I Promise Not to Laugh During the Seance.
I clicked through to there, and found that Maya's Granny had given the author the pictured award, and that she was encouraged "to name three things that I believe most important to powerful writing and then pass on the award to five blogs I believe deserve recognition."

Much to my delight, she named me as one of her five. I need to say that I am a bit surprised at the righteous company with which I am included! Thank you, Laura!

Naming three things that constitute powerful writing might be more difficult. Naming five blogs I read daily that I think others would enjoy is the easy part.

I'd say that honesty has to be the first trait of powerful writing. Even if you are writing fiction, honesty is so important. Facility with language is also a necessity, and humour, as well.

With that in mind, and disqualifying Laura, as she has already won, I have to start with The Marshalogues. I know Marsha in real life, and was stunned to hear that she was battling cancer. That battle appears to be won, except for some rear-guard skirmishes that are painful but not life-threatening. I so admire her courage and humour and expressiveness.

Another, though not updated often enough, has to be Observations of a Misfit. Loretta has been extremely busy with real life, and has had to back off on her blog recently, but I expect an upsurge come Spring. Her blog was THE place to get info and opinion during the Scott Peterson Trial, and she wrote and published a book of her blog entries at that time. The book was a finalist in the First Annual Blooker awards, for books published from blogs. Witty, pithy and honest, she has been my inspiration.

Lisa, of The Lisa Life covers a little bit of everything, with an edge. Another opinionated lass, she writes scary fiction in her spare time. Gotta love that.

Nelly's Garden comes to us all the way from Northern Ireland. Nelly's entries are always succinct, frequently humourous, and give us a nice glimpse into life in the country, in another country.

Last, but not least, the gentlemen are represented by Steve Huff at Random Lunatic News, a personal blog that he updates in his spare time. He is a prolific crime blogger, but this one is a repository for his non-crime writing. Like "Observations of a Misfit," he doesn't update often enough to suit me, but when he does, the entry is well worth the wait.

There are other blogs I read daily, but these five fit all the criteria.

Thanks, Laura...I haven't been this excited since Ronni Bennett of As Time Goes By put me in her blogroll.

I left her off the list, as I did several others whose blogs have a focus, be it politics, crime, or ageism. Every blog I cited is a personal one, with no particular axe to grind. Just good stories to tell. I tried to include only blogs that have fairly regular updates. If you have gone a month or more without an entry, I didn't include you, though I'm gamely hanging in there, waiting for some of you to get back in the groove...