Awards – Page 4

I Received the One Lovely Blog Award

The One Lovely Blog Award. What, another award for World Adventurers? I can’t believe it! Not one, but two writer/bloggers I admire nominated this blog for the OLB Award. Thank you very much! Words cannot express how much I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I’ll try.

A BIG, HEARTY ROUND OF THANK YOUS

A big THANK YOU goes to my colleague and lovely friend Lada Ray, who is one of my favorite bloggers and writers. After she received this prodigious honor, she nominated me for it in early June on the heels of receiving the Versatile Blogger Award (VBA) from me. While I can neither confirm nor deny it, this award may have had something to do with the fact that I adore her thriller Gold Train and amazing heroine, Jade Snow.

Another hearty THANK YOU goes to my enigmatic and witty friend R.M. Wilburn, who received the splendiferous OLB Award and then nominated me for one in mid-June. Whether it has anything to do with the fact that I nominated her for a VBA or think her book Magpie & Dilly is the best novel with that title in recorded history, I can’t be sure. Thank you, R.M. I’m convinced that your initials stand for Really Magnificent.

Whatever the reason, I thank you, Lada and R.M. I really appreciate this honor and am proud to call you colleagues and friends.

ABOUT THE AWARD

As I am wont to do, I did some research into the history of the One Lovely Blog Award. I gave up after an exhaustive Google search turned up nothing. As with the VBA, details about the OLB Award are rather sketchy and only its creator knows for sure. I did, however, find some lovely award badges online. I’m partial to the one with the heart because it reminds me of those “I HEART ___” souvenir T-shirts.

AWARD CRITERIA

To receive this award, the blogger must share the following with their readers:

Thank the person who honored them with this award and post their links;
Nominate 15 other blogs for this honor; and
Tell readers seven things about themselves.

AWARD NOMINEES

Here are my nominations for the One Lovely Blog Award, 15 quality blogs that I enjoy (in alphanumeric order). Many but not all are related to travel with some excellent commentary and travel photos.

3rd Culture Children – A Globe Trotting Family of 5 in the Foreign Service (3rdculturechildren.com)
Letizia Argiolu (dutchgoesitalian.com)
Double Barrelled Travel (double-barrelledtravel.com)
Misti Debonno (mistidebonno.wordpress.com)
Rebecca Humphries (beesbestlife.blogspot.com)
Dmitrii Lezine – Travel Photography (sillymonkeyphoto.com)
Ella Medler (ellamedler.wordpress.com)
Mark Nguyen – Mark39dotcom – 101 Postcards to Myself (mark39.com)
Our Boler – Enjoying the Outdoors as a Family (http://www.ourboler.com/)
Alex Rambler (ramblertravel.com)
ReadyClickAndGo (readyclickandgo.wordpress.com)
Ruth – Bluebalu in Hong Kong (bluebalu.wordpress.com)
Ana Silva – 1,001 Scribbles (1001scribbles.wordpress.com)
Sophie – Interior Design & Trends (interiorstockholm.wordpress.com)
Jason Sullivan – Different Outcomes (differentoutcomes.wordpress.com)

ABOUT ME

Not one to follow the crowd, I’m going to turn this around and ask you, dear reader, what would you like to know about me. I’ll answer the first seven questions I receive as best I can. Okay, let me have it. Let’s see if I made the right choice!

ONE MORE ROUND OF THANK YOUS

Thanks again, Lada and R.M. You’re the best!

M.G. Edwards is a writer of books and stories in the mystery, thriller and science fiction-fantasy genres. He also writes travel adventures. He is author of Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill, a non-fiction account of his attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain and a collection of short stories called Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories. His books are available as an e-book and in print on Amazon.com and other booksellers. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife Jing and son Alex.

For more books or stories by M.G. Edwards, visit his web site at www.mgedwards.com or his blog, World Adventurers. Contact him at me@mgedwards.com, on Facebook, on Google+, or @m_g_edwards on Twitter.

World Adventurers — GoAbroad’s Blog of the Week

Thank you, GoAbroad, for featuring World Adventurers as your Blog of the Week! It’s an honor to be recognized by a leading international education and experiential travel resource.

Thanks to everyone stopping by to visit my blog. You’re most welcome. There are many posts on travel and other topics for your reading enjoyment listed in the Category Cloud and Top Ten List below. Enjoy browsing!

GoAbroad writes in its Blog of the Week feature:

World Adventurers

The official blog of published author, Michael (M.G.) Edwards, World Adventurers was started in 2004 when Michael moved abroad with his family to serve as a diplomat in U.S. missions overseas. With more than 850 posts, 300,000 hits, and features on WordPress’ "Freshly Pressed," World Adventurers is a dynamic travel blog with a large following. The content on World Adventurers lends itself to those interested in adventure travel, with resources that range from Michael’s own travel tips to lists of top things to see and do in a variety of countries.

Why We Love It

Michael’s background and degrees in international studies, political science, history, German, and a master’s degree in China Studies makes it more than apparent that World Adventurers is written by an author with extensive international experience. This is supplemented all the more by Michael’s past career as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, which included assignments such as: working as a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Korea, and as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Asunción, Paraguay, where he focused on political-military affairs and human rights.

What makes World Adventurers unique is the way every post tells a story. The latest blog post, for example – Top Ten Things to Savor in Macau – is depicted with photos and a travelogue, keeping readers interested as well as informed. The photos are rich in detail and give a deeper glimpse into the experiences shared on World Adventurers.

Be sure to check out the blog for more updates on World Adventurers, and explore GoAbroad.com for thousands of adventure travel opportunities!

Thank you very much, GoAbroad!

I Received the Versatile Blogger Award!

I was surprised to receive the Versatile Blogger Award (VBA) from esteemed author and blogger Ella Medler. Thank you, Ella! It’s an honor. Ella is a super duper colleague in the writing field. Please check out her awesome work!

Versatile Blogger Award (VBA)

What is it?

As far as I can tell — details are rather sketchy and only the creator knows for sure — this lofty-sounding award is basically a mutual admiration society where bloggers recognize their peers for writing quality blogs that touched them in some way. The VBAs honor the blogger rather than specific posts. It’s a chance for bloggers to pat themselves on the back like the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does with the Oscars. Until someone starts giving out Blogscars, the VBAs will have to suffice.

What are the criteria?

If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award. I nominated 15 outstanding bloggers below. Congratulations!

Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.

Thank you, Ella. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.

Visit Ella’s blog at http://ellamedler.wordpress.com/. You’ll be glad you did.

Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. (I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)

The envelope, please…

Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.

And the nominees/winners are (in alphabetical order):

August McLaughlin – Savor the Storm (http://augustmclaughlin.wordpress.com/)
CR Hiatt – McSwain & Beck (http://mcswainandbeck.com/)
Craves Adventure – Our Travels Out West (http://cravesadventure.wordpress.com/)
CrissCrossingIndia – Adventure Travel and Photography Across India (http://crisscrossingindia.wordpress.com/)
David C. Cassidy – Because Life is a Really Good Story (http://davidccassidy.com/)
Donna B. McNicol – 2 Taking a 5th (http://www.2takinga5th.com/)
KG Arndell – Musings of a Dark Fantasy Writer (http://kgarndell.com/)
Jeff Whelan – SpaceOrville (http://jeffwhelan.wordpress.com/)
Lada Ray (http://ladaray.wordpress.com/)
Lesley Carter – Bucket List Publications (http://lesleycarter.wordpress.com/)
Pranjal Borthakur (http://pranjalborthakur.wordpress.com/)
R.M. Wilburn – Ponderous Things… (http://ponderous-max.blogspot.com/)
Sheila Pierson – I Write, Therefore I Am (http://sheilapierson.wordpress.com/)
The Jumping Polar Bear (http://jumpingpolarbear.com/)
Vanna Smythe – Fantasy Author (http://vannasmythe.com/)

Congratulations, winners!

Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Hmm, seven things about me. Okay, here goes:

1. In the past decade I’ve lived in nine different locations in five countries on four continents.

2. I proposed to my wife on one knee in a gravel parking lot. She said “yes” anyway after I whined about how much the rocks hurt my kneecap.

3. I joined the Cub Scouts for the first time with my son and am his den leader. I did not participate in scouts as a kid, and this is the first time in my son’s young life that he’s lived where there’s a troop. It’s been fun scouting vicariously through him. Today we built and shot off bottle (water) rockets. It brings out the kid in me!

4. My favorite sport is baseball, but I took a liking to cricket when I lived in Africa because it looks like baseball with different rules.

5. I have a falsetto singing voice like Roy Orbison and Chris Isaak and love to belt out the karaoke version of “Oh! Pretty Woman.”

6. I enjoy getting to know people from around the world. One of my favorite things to do is to meet up in one location with friends I met elsewhere. Today, in fact, I’m getting together in Bangkok, Thailand with friends I met several years ago in Seoul, Korea.

7. One of the toughest challenges living overseas is missing those foods that you love but can’t buy abroad. I miss dishes from my favorite restaurants, not to mention perishable foods that I can’t ship. Thank goodness I can buy and ship beef jerky, cereal, and granola bars. But every once in a while I suffer from store-bought Christmas eggnog withdrawals.

Congratulations to the new VBA winners, and thanks again to Ella Medler for nominating me!

M.G. Edwards is a writer of books and stories in the mystery, thriller and science fiction-fantasy genres. He also writes travel adventures. He is author of Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill, a non-fiction account of his attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. His collection of short stories called Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories available as an e-book and in print on Amazon.com. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife Jing and son Alex.