Loving Life and Visiting Friends

There are so many things to love about life that it can be overwhelming when we stop to think about it.

When Britt Skrabanek asked me to be a life enthusiast, my mind whirled with all the possibilities. Britt is one of those easy to love people and her Life Enthusiast series reminds us of all there is to love. If you’re up for an adventure, let’s hop on over to Britt’s site for my Life Enthusiast guest post. While you’re there, I highly recommend following Britt if you haven’t already. Her posts always make me smile. I’ll close comments here and will hope to see you there for some fun while we stop to inhale the flowers.

Great Blogs and the Winner Is…

It’s about time to add to my list of great blogs. I’m thankful for the friends I’ve found here and this is just a small sampling of a few in alphabetical order. Many of you already know each other, but just in case there’s anyone out there who hasn’t visited these people, you’re missing out.

Carrie Rubin – Very funny observations on life, health, and writing from the author of The Seneca Scourge

Found in France – Photography and observations from a small town in France

4amwriter – Thoughts on writing and life and the balancing act between the two

I Have a Voice – Beautiful, inspirational poetry

JMMcDowell – An archaeologist and writer with serialized fiction posts and author interviews

Joy in the Moments – Posts on writing, author interviews, traveling, and all the joy that can be found everywhere from the author of Eyes of Light and Secret Keepers

LScott Thoughts – Beautiful, fun, inspirational poetry and thoughts

Milka Pejovic – Nature photography from the San Diego area

Miniscule Moments of Inspiration – Observations on life and nature from a writer and picture book illustrator living in Australia

Reading Interrupted – Inspirational posts on the love of books

The Vibes – A talented graphic artist’s collection of photos and artwork

Two Black Dogs – Photography and observances from travels through Europe and at home in Australia with two black dogs

I’ll be adding to this list with future posts. You can see others through the Great Blogs category listed on the home page.

Now it’s time to announce the winner of the $25 Amazon gift card. I plan on doing more of these giveaways in the future. I know we’re all busy so this is just a way of saying thank you to everyone.

All Twitter followers for @SheilaHurst11 were entered to win. Commenters on the last post were also entered to win. And the winner is….

Rebecca Belliston – @rlbelliston

I’ll send you a message for your gift card. As you can see from the photo, I used a very high-tech method for this madness. I printed out my list of Twitter followers, cut each one into fortune cookie strips, added commenters from the last post, and mixed them all together in a bowl before selecting the winner. Just in case you wanted the recipe.

Thank you all for visiting, commenting, and following, but most of all thank you for your friendship. I’m looking forward to laughing together through the winter.

Thank You and a Giveaway

Writing can be a lonely thing to do. We’re observers of life so it does help to get out there every once in a while, but we also need to lock ourselves away as often as possible if we’re ever going to get any writing done.

These days, we’re not writing alone. Thanks to blogging and Twitter, we can find other writers, cheer each other on, and commiserate together. If you’re doing NanoWriMo, you know what I’m talking about and I hope you’re locked away somewhere with a fresh supply of chocolate.

The road to publication is filled with potholes of self doubt. We wonder if anyone will hear our words. We wonder if anyone will care. Maybe they’ll laugh at us or think we’re horrible writers. Still, we take that risk and put ourselves out there. Because we’re hoping someone somewhere will care.

I’m amazed by the friends I’ve found here and I just want to say thank you. So it’s about time to start doing some random giveaways. If you leave a comment on this post, I’ll put your name in for a $25 Amazon gift card. If you already follow me on Twitter, I’ll put your name in again. Finally, if you follow me @SheilaHurst11 by Monday, November 11, I’ll put your name in for the gift card and I’ll make sure to follow back. The winner will be announced here on Wednesday. In the meantime, just think of all the books you’ll be able to get to last you through the winter.

November is a good time to look back at the year and give thanks. I’m thankful for the beauty of the ocean, the joy of finding and reading that perfect book, friends that are more like family, and family that’s more like friends.

What are you thankful for? Which books are you thinking of reading next? If you’re doing NanoWriMo, how’s that going so far?