funny thing happened on the way to my journal last night. stacy (by way of jd wild-child-don't-let-the-grass-grow-under my-feet riso) had honored me with this award, and before i could post my picks, (which included netter and dave) netter named me as one of hers (thanks to mayer, and thank you to netter for thinking of me), and dave too, (dude, seriously, i miss your journal!)

many thanks to both stacy and netter who have been with me longer than i probably need to admit. they have been my friends longer than many "real life" people. you girls are both the BEST and i love you both. you both have qualities that i wish i had (or that i do have but don't have your courage to exhibit)

after looking over the shameless words site, i see that the award is really meant for "bloggers." it's for the blogs we can't miss reading on a regular basis.

so netter and dave, you are still two of my five (and honestly, stacy and jd are up there too)...

that being said...here are the "requirements" of receiving this award...a statement of three things that make for powerful words...

three things that make powerful words (and believe me, i am just catching up on all of this and i think without my glassy, frigid shadow, i will do much better)...

honesty if there is no honesty in your words, whether fiction or the truthful words of everyday life, then everything is flat. the reader will not feel it. As long as it isn't from pure, pure, stupid ignorance, it will be understood.

which brings me to the second...

emotion as editor of a fairly successful ezine, the thing that always grabs me is the ability of the author to make me feel. honesty and emotion go hand in hand, if you're not honest with your emotions, then no one will feel what is being said, and many times any kind of intended "message" or invitation to critical thinking will be lost (apathy destroys).

bravery if you don't believe your words, aren't brave enough to put them to paper for everyone to see and dissect, can't honestly defend with intelligent arguments what you mean, then you are fighting a losing battle.

and i am going to throw in a forth...only because i'm 40-something and sometimes women this age are behind on this because of societal mores...know thyself! if you don't know thyself, how can you be honest and how can you trust your emotions without honesty?

soooooo, i have a small internet circle. each and every one of you have been named...here are my last three picks.


Lisa Marie Lisa takes me back to those early, self-doubting days of motherhood. i was so new and ignorant and paranoid, the nurses actually made fun of me and laughed at my worries while i was still in the hospital (really, they laughed and made fun of me). Lisa is always honest, not always pretty in her posts, yet identifiable. she's a young mother with many responsibilities and shows that even in our modern era, she worries about whether she is doing right by her daughter. (plus she posts the cutest damn pics!) She is the epitomy of the supposed 21st century "i have it all, but i'm tired as hell" mom. cudos, girl! you're managing just fine (it may not feel like it now...but you'll see, eventually...and please be grateful that you do have your husband there with you)

Val MacEwan of Dead Mule School of Southern Literature Val and I grew up in the same small town in Arkansas. We then ended up living in the same state of North Carolina, to me, that was kind of freaky...lol. Although Val is a few years older than me, we attended the same grade school and even had the same 6th grade teacher (Mrs. Cassidy.) As most of my faithful net friends know, I major in that kind of backwoods southern literature. Not the brightest, but i always think the emotion is true-to-life. Val was one of the first to acknowledge, "that's ok." (and dammit, she even glorifies it...my kind of woman!) But more than anything, she writes creative non-fiction, articles on pop-culture, fiction and maintains a thought provoking blog that examines the political atmosphere in her area of NC (uh and yeah, she runs a successful e-zine in the process). She is one of my never-been-mentioned-before heroes.

last by certainly not LEAST Riverbend's Baghdad Burning Though she will probably never acknowledge this "award" (it seems kind of frivolous, considering what she's going through) she brings her honest reality to digital paper. Often sporatic in her postings (especially since our war criminal president invaded her country, bringing her world to its knees) she is what blogging is all about. Intelligent, articulate honesty, from her perspective. Is there some resentment in her words? yes. but reverse the situation and i'm sure there would be resentment in your words as well. she has a truthful look into a culture westerners can not understand.

there you go...enjoy and go forth and read!