The Liebster Award

Four people honored me with the Liebster Award in the last couple of weeks and each time it was such a pleasant surprise. It’s awarded to blogs with less than 200 followers to generate attention and create new connections. Liebster is German for dearest, beloved or favorite.

When you get one you add the logo to your blog, thank the person who awarded it and link back to their blog. And then give a Liebster to 5 bloggers by leaving a comment on their blog.

Big thanks go out to Penny Klostermann, Angela Peña Dahle, Jennifer Kirkeby and Lynda Shoup for brightening my day with a Liebster.

And then there’s that matter of five random things about me.

1) I’m a New England/New York City girl living in France.

2) I won the National Grand Prize of the Cappy Dick contest in the Sunday comics when I was 10 years old: a set of the World Book Encyclopedia AND atlas. I still remember what my entry looked like (word puzzle and drawing).

3) I used to live in Little Italy, NYC over an Italian caffe. It was noisy.

4) I used to live a stone’s throw from the Château de Versailles and worked in what was, in Louis’s day, the stables of the king as an English teacher to architecture students.

5) I volunteered at a restoration in the French Alpes of an old fortress called La Redoute Marie-Thérèse … for six weeks. If you see a crooked little stone wall there, you can be sure that I made it.

Without further ado I will pass the good vibes along.

Juriko Kosaka is an English language enthusiast who loves drawing and painting. She’s such a dedicated sketcher of things like food, people on the Tokyo subway, desktops. Right now she’s posting a Drawing-a-Day. You will love Juri's blog and tweets in English and Japanese.

Jean Reidy is the author of picture books Too Purpley!, Too Pickley!, Too Princessy! and Light up the Night. She is the champion of worthy causes. Sometimes she has giveaways on her blog where you can win a manuscript critique. What are you waiting for?! Go look.

Elizabeth Stevens Omlor’s blog is called "Banana Peelin': The Ups and Downs of Becoming a Children's Writer" and she’s gotten the down and dirty from the likes of Tara Lazar, Iza Trapani and Katie Davis among others. Find out what faux pas they made on their journey in the publishing industry. Hurry!

Lisha Cauthen says "I write YA novels for boys that girls like to read too. About normal kids who have abnormal things happen to them. Let’s call it horror, for now," on her blog "The Imaginal Realm." She is funny and knows a lot about this writing stuff. She’s an active member of SCBWI Kansas and edits their Sunflower Scoop. Her tweets @lishacauthen are legend.

Sylvia Liu is so great at passing along helpful information. She writes and illustrates for children and is interested in things like "kraken, flotsam and robots." I’m going back to her blog to find out what kraken is. See you there!