Tag Archives: Carol Garvin

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The Versatile Blogger Award

Yesterday, I found out that I had been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award by the lovely Terri Giuliano Long. What an honor! What I particularly like about this award is that the nomination comes from a fellow blogger and then is passed on, a la Pay It Forward, by the nominated blogger to other deserving bloggers, forming a never-ending chain of kudos. Thank you so much, Terri, for allowing me to be a part of this!

Here are the Versatile Blogger Rules:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award on to 5 newfound blogging buddies.
4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.

Seven random facts about me:

1. I was named after Rat Packer Dean Martin.

2. I have absolutely no qualms about driving a minivan.

3. I received my Masters in English/Creative Writing from Hofstra University.

4. I sleep curled up in the same spot every night in the corner of my king-size bed.

5. My favorite thing in the world to drink is chocolate milk.

6. My grandfather, who passed away in 2008, taught me how to drive.

7. My whole life, people who’ve met me for the first time have asked me if I’m a teacher. It’s only now that I’m starting to think that they’re onto something.

5 nominations for the Versatile Blogger Award

It was difficult for me to come up with just five nominations, since I come across so many terrific blogs, but here goes…

1. Torre DeRoche. Torre’s blog, The Fearful Adventurer, features, as Torre puts it, “refreshingly honest travel and adventure stories from the perspective of an alarmist who likes to arm-wrestle with her fears.” An enjoyable, fun read by a terrific writer.

2. Erika Marks. Erika’s one of my #1kaday tweeps. Her blog, On Writing, Publishing and Other Delicacies, discusses the writing life as well as the road to publication for her soon-to-be-published first novel, Little Gale Gumbo (NAL/Penguin, October 2011).

3. Brandi-Ann Uyemura. Brandi is a doll. Her blog, The Inspiring Bee, aims to “inspire people to keep motivated, positive and feel hopeful on the path towards pursuing their dreams” and features a compilation of inspiring interviews, reviews and crafts, photos and paintings.

4. Carol Garvin. Carol is the author of Careann’s Musings, what she calls her “mental meanderings on life and writing.” It’s such a wonderful little treat when I see her posts pop up in my email inbox.

5. Rebecca Tsaros Dickson. Her blog, Thinking Too Hard, is like a poem, fed to the world line by line, verse by verse, day by day. Sometimes funny, sometimes heart-wrenching, but always gawgeous.

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There’s Nothing Like Your First Time

We talk a lot about debut authors around here. As a freelance journalist looking to publish her first novel, I’m interested in hearing about the first-timer’s road to publication. (Yesterday, Kathleen Rodgers told us about hers.) Today, Carol Garvin posted a list of debut novels on her blog, many of which I’ve read and enjoyed. I remember when I read A Time to Kill, the first novel written by John Grisham — I read it after The Firm, the book that launched Grisham into the stratosphere. In his author’s note to A Time to Kill, Grisham wrote something that always stuck with me: “This one came from the heart. It’s a first novel, and at times it rambles, but I wouldn’t change a word if given the chance.”

Although my mind right now is focused on another round of revisions, my hope is that when Baby Grand (fingers crossed!) is published one day, I will feel the very same way.