Share the Blog Love

Months ago, fiction writer/blogger Sally Driscoll honored me with the Liebster Award. Although I was thrilled, I was afraid it came with tough-to-follow rules like tell ten deep, dark secrets on your blog, write twelve pages of fan fiction about a character in your work-in-progress, and rearrange your writing space according to feng shui principles. I should have trusted Sally. When I looked up the award's background, I found it's given to bloggers who inspired the giver in some way and who have fewer than 200 followers. Liebster comes from the German word meaning "beloved, dearest, or favorite." Danke, Sally!

Here are the only rules I found:

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them.

2. Post the award to your blog.

3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value.

4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have received this award.

In other words, the award is a way for me to alert others to blogs I find meaningful Since many blogs speak to me, the 200-followers stipulation came in handy. I was able to rule out blogs that post total numbers of followers. The blogs I cite here may have many more than 200 followers but don't post numbers, or only post numbers of e-mail subscribers. I'm happy to play dumb.

By the way, even small blogs like this one have long reaches. Lark Howard's post on her visit to Lourdes, France has been viewed more than 2000 times.

My first two Liebster nominees are fellow members of RWA's Women's Fiction Chapter

Florence Fois grew up, raised a family, and worked in NYC. Her blog, FoIS in the City celebrates
the food, landmarks, street games, and people of the five boroughs.

Rosemary DiBattista is a Jersey Girl with a love of Shakespeare, good food, and the shore. Murder Marinara, the first in her Casa Lido mystery series, will be published by Penguin/NAL in early 2014.

Eden Mabee recently joined my WANA group. WANA stands for We Are Not Alone. The acronym has nothing to do with Roswell or alien sightings; it expresses social-media expert Kristen Lamb's view that writers must band together to help one another promote blogs/market books/encourage creativity. Eden's blog, Many Worlds from Many Minds, offers musings on writing, motherhood, and other topics as well as snippets from Eden's older works.

Reetta Raitanen has been an important part of my WANA group from the beginning, but she took her sweet time launching her blog. (One look at it, and you'll know why; she's a perfectionist.) The Dark Side Has Chocolate offers lots of links for writers as well as posts on whatever captures Reetta's fantasy/urban fantasy-loving heart. By the way, she's a Finn but blogs in English. Impressive, huh?

Sally Driscoll, who set this Liebster Award post in motion, recently published two short stories, Sleep and Rage, in a genre she dubs "Mommy Noir." I find that term evocative--and it reminds me of the dark moments I experienced when raising my kids. Alas, mommy-blogs didn't exist then, and I could have used the virtual support, laughs, and wisdom.

My fifth nomination for the Liebster Award goes to a group of young writer moms, including Houston's own Shana Galen, who blog at Peanut Butter on the Keyboard. They tackle a range of topics with humor, honesty and smarts. How I wish that blog had been around in the 80's.

I hope you enjoy reading the blogs of my Liebster nominees, and I hope they don't wait as long as I did to share the love. Thanks, again, Sally!