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January 7, 2015

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The “Why Blog?” Party

This Holiday break, while recovering from stomach flu, I read JK Rowling’s new book, Silkworm (published under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith). Has anyone else read it? In it, the author is less than kind in her portrayal of bloggers. Heck, she is less than kind about publishers and agents as well. One of her characters observes that we need more readers and less writers.

I rethought blogging, now that I’m nearing my two year mark. Am I a writer who would be better off stopping and being a reader? Then my blog received an award and I was asked a series of questions about how and why I blog. Do I think it’s going to do me or my career any good? Those are good questions. I’m not a traditional blogger, in that I don’t usually write vignettes about my life and family, but I do put myself in my writing, always. We all have our reasons for blogging. Some of us have health issues, and we are isolated inside our houses. Some of us are poets, and we all know how rich poets are…. Not. Some of us are just starting out, and hoping to learn as we go. Continue reading →

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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November 1, 2013

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Awards!, Holiday

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Tricks or Treats?!

Happy Halloween, and to all my fabulous fellow fairy tale lovers, here are some treats (I’ll leave the tricks to the fae tonight):

Thanks to the blogs I visit, who have filled tonight’s cauldron with treats of many kinds. Some of my favorites, I got again and again! I love when that happens! 🙂

Thanks to Dear Kitty or Petrel41 for the Reader Appreciation Award!! Love her lore, wide-ranging from animals to current events to women’s issues. Hope you get a chance to visit her. 🙂

Thanks to lifebeinggirly for the Versatile Blogger Award. She is adorable, and I love that she is flying the girly flag high. We all need to love who we are, because we are pretty darn terrific!! Painttheworldwithwords then chimed in with another Versatile Blogger Award. Amreen is a poet, a designer and a talented blogger with a penchant for beauty. Here is a lovely poem by him:

The soul of my poems
define the tune of my life
singing my presence.
~~~
Amreen Shaikh

Thanks to In My Hands for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award! If you can’t get enough of black and white cat pictures and Chekhov, then you must check her out. Cats and great literature. Who can resist that? Then Bullying Prevention came in with another nomination for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award! He is doing god’s work, trying to make the world a better place for all. I’m delighted to see posts from both, they are always food for thought and very moving.

And a new and different icon for the Versatile Blogger Award from Chronicles of a Public Transit User. Oddly enough, we both almost died when we were four. We also both love Halloween. Kudos for a great award posting, too, worth a visit!!

I can’t tell you all how important all of you have become to me. I love to hear your comments, to see your likes, and to read your posts. I’m still here, spinning my stories, pairing photographs and verse, and trying to express my inner voice. Something crucial has changed, though. I feel more connected and less alone than I ever have in my life.

Together, through our words, I believe we can change the world forever. Make it a place where it’s okay to be yourself. I don’t have to look like Angelina Jolie (hey, I wouldn’t turn it down…) to write a good story. We don’t all have to be writing the same things. Viva la difference!! I cherish all of you, and I hope you all have fruitful, productive and glorious Novembers. Special hugs to those of you starting Nanowrimo, you go!!

I nominate these special trick or treaters to share my loot, please reach a hand in the cauldron and take any treats you like (or none if you don’t have a sweet tooth):

aCuriousGal
Tails from Paris
antilandcaper
Persecution of Mildred Dunlap
Dully Pepper

And some Halloween pictures to thank my readers and fairy tale lovers everywhere:

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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October 8, 2013

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Awards!

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Celebration Soup

Do you have a favorite soup? I can’t choose, I like so many kinds, from the thick chili to the clear-brothed chicken vegetable. One of my sons prefers my cream of mushroom with shiitakes and the other likes best my Queen Green Soup. Don’t tell him, but it’s a cream of blended vegetable chock full of kale, spinach and/or chard. My daughter still prefers noodles, but I’m working on her.

Today, I’m making celebration soup. I hope you will join me at the table and break bread with me over some home-cooked soup. (Lots of veggies, sorry!)

First ingredient in any soup, some food, from seeds! Thanks to Belsbror for nominating friendlyfairytales for a Seed of Light Award. The light shines on the seeds in gardens around the world. No seeds, no food. Thanks Belsbror for this award that helps us remember.

Thanks to Donicia, a warm and creative blogger, for her delivery of stock ingredients. Her Grand Award included the Best Moment Award, Semper Fidelis, Shine One, the Awesome Blossom, the Very Inspiring Blogger, WordPress Family Award, the Versatile Blogger Award, and the Most Creative Blogger Award. I’m going to cook those together, nice and slowly for a clear, deep stock. (Since I have them all already, I’m using my award token to accept.)

Thanks to Maria M, a fabulous writer and dog lover, at decidinglybob for some spice: the Versatile Blogger award.

Now for a taste of the islands: Thanks to Bia Helvetti at childoftheisland for the Reader Appreciation Award. I am new to her blog, and I am delighted to be exploring it. Here are her words: Bia Helvetti is a Story Keeper who writes folktales and ballads based mainly around the mythology of Britain and Ireland. Whether reworking the old stories or spinning new yarns, her tales bear the mischievous claw marks of her dark humour, passionate feminism and romantic Gothic influences.

Here’s the 10 veggies: Thanks to Deo at Deo Volente for 10 more awards, some of which I’ve already received: the Sunshine Award, the Awesome Blossom, the Reader Appreciation, the Because You Are Fantabulous Award, the Versatile Blogger Award, the Liebster Award, and the Most Creative Blogger. If you don’t know Deo, you should visit him, he is a very smart and inspiring person with a lot of wisdom: “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” To accept those, I will repost my award token:

He also gave friendlyfairytales three new awards: the Outstanding Blogger, The Kreativ Blogger Award, and the Your Blog Makes Us Smile Award.

kreativ_blogger_award_copy

Trying out a new nomination format: to some terrific bloggers, please accept the following awards, no strings attached, simply an outpouring of admiration and a desire to share the love:

KeithGarrett, please accept the Seed of Light, for your delicious ghost story poems;

LavenderMoonGirl, please also accept the Seed of Light, for your magical nature poems;

BooknVolume, please accept the Grand Award from Donicia above (or any subset), for your restful Quiet Moments;

StockResearch52’sBlog, please accept the Versatile Blogger, for your amazing photographs, like fairy tales themselves;

WindAgainstCurrent, please accept the Versatile Blogger for your science, nature and recent fall colors, sigh;

ACuriousGal, please accept the Reader Appreciation Award, love your photos and love your comments;

MungaiandtheGoaConstrictor, please accept Deo’s Big Ten (or any subset), for your devotion to endangered animals;

DiffusetheMuse, please accept the Outstanding Blogger, for your consistent great poetry;

PhotographicRhodes, please accept the Kreativ Blogger for really connecting with subjects through photography; and

KindnessBlog, please accept the Your Blog Makes Us Smile, for your constant inspiration.

I hope you will check out these terrific bloggers, who really make my reader a fun place to be. I hope you enjoyed my celebration soup. A walk in the woods is a great way to celebrate a warm meal. Care to join me?

Thanks for the awards and thanks for reading!! I deeply appreciate the lovely feedback I’ve gotten these last six months, and it has come to mean more to me than I can say. (Just don’t tell Hubby, he might be jealous!)

Warmly,

Brenda

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Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

August 31, 2013

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Awards!

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Circus of the Impossible at Friendly Fairy Tales!!

Woo-hoo! I’m Brenda, the Friendly Fairy Tales Ringmaster, here to welcome one and all to my Circus of the Impossible!

Impossible to believe I would win 65 awards in 6 months of blogging!

Impossible to imagine publishing 37 magical stories and even 6 fairy tale poems since February 25.

More impossibilities: over 10,000 hits, visits from nearly 80 countries, over 100 people visiting my site daily, nearly 650 followers, and who knows how many likes, over 3300 at last count. I have to sit down a minute, I’m overheating and my head is swelling. Oh wait, it’s just a bug bite.

Blogging has boggled my mind and made my life into a circus of unanswerable hundreds of emails. As I told another blogger, I’m so far behind, I’m learning to like the view from back here. I love it, but holy flying wombats, is it a circus!!

Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute of it, and I’m eating it up like cotton candy. If I could split myself in two, one of me would happily blog all day long, publishing stories, poems and photographs, and reading, answering comments and loving your blogs, too. Since I’m only one human with the same 24 hours other people get, and more obligations than hair on my head, I’ll just keep plugging away: tumbling, juggling, clowning, training animals (oops, I mean kids), walking the high wire and swinging from the trapeze.

Finally, I’ll be your award juggler! Toss ’em high, watch ’em spin, high they fly, win, win, win! Don’t light the torches, I’m not ready yet! Augh, my hair is on fire!! Thanks hubby, always a good man with a bucket of cold water.

Thanks to Sawa Minori for three new awards: The I Love Your Blog Award, The Liebster Award and Because You’re Fantabulous Award. Sawa makes the most divine angels, and she is such an angel herself, she tells me I have no rules to follow. In her honor, I’m now turning somersaults, rolling like a gymnast in flowered tights. Now there’s an image.

liebster-award2

Thanks to Patty at PetiteMagique, who gave me an array of awards, including handing me right back the awards I’d given her very deserving site. And she gave me two new ones I have not received before: The You are a Miracle Award (my own!!) and the Reader Appreciation Award. Oh, no, here come the kids with cream pies, run! Smack, too late! Whipped cream in my hair. (They don’t have to laugh like hyenas!)

To show my appreciation to Patty for a bouquet of awards I’ve already received, I will use my new award acceptance token to acknowledge and appreciate them, but not display all the icons again, which feels like bragging:

Thanks to Belsbror, one of my wonderful friends from the Phillipines, whose writing rings with passion and truth, for the Awesome Blossom and Because You’re Fantabulous Awards!! I’m balancing on the high wire, with an umbrella in one hand and goat in the other. (Don’t ask!)

because-ur-fantabulous awesome-blossom

Just when I thought it was safe to press publish on this post, Belsbror gave me another award!!

the-most-creative-blogger-award2-from-deo

Holy diving dolphins, is that the knife-thrower? I’d better wrap this up! Here’s today’s short list. Nominees, you can pick any two awards/tokens above you desire, or none if that is your preference. Feel free to take the Symphony of Color Icon, and use it like an award, it saves me time. And time is precious! Consider these nominations a hug from me (you have all made me contemplate your wonderfulness recently (is that a word? It should be)):

gita4elamats JayNine toniandrukaitis

jnaima12 stockresearch52 Schelley – What Is It?!?

Thanks for joining me, one and all, at my Circus of the Impossible. I hope many wonderful impossibilities come your way, too (except for the knife-thrower)! Here are a few more glimpses of my world and beautiful flowers to show my appreciation for all you wonderful readers, bloggers, friends, and family: