The Versatile Blogger & Liebster (#2) Awards

Hey, hey, hey! You have my apologies for the minor post drought the last few weeks -- it's been busy around here! I'm working, albeit slowly, on getting the counterpart piece to "Beyond the Ordered Bend" out (about halfway done), but it'll still be a while yet. I've also been updating some design parts of Edge of Night, such as redoing my category pages and reorganizing posts appropriately. I'm going at a snail's pace here, but feel free at any time to let me know what you think of these changes, and if you have any suggestions!

In the meantime, I have a few tags to do that I've had stashed away for eons: back in 2016, I was kindly tagged by Julia @ The Tree of Books and PoiSonPaiNter @ RandomPoison for the Versatile Blogger and Liebster awards, respectively. This will be the second Liebster Award I've participated in, the first of which can be found here.

Thank you to both of these wonderful bloggers, equally for the thought as well as their patience. I highly encourage anyone who is unfamiliar with them to go and introduce yourselves; Julia and Poison are great additions to make to your reading list, and they're fantastic people to converse with!

Early Writings Tag

Tagged by Lisa

Good morning!

I have a question for you: How do you feel when reading your past works?

Doesn't matter if you consider yourself a writer or not, you've written something, be it an academic essay or a dozen novels. So, as you distance yourself from those things via the passage of time, how does your view of them change? Does it become embarrassing to go through them, and you'd rather rip the page out or delete the file than let it continue to exist?

Maybe you get this gut-wrenching feeling whenever someone goes to read them...

Writers have a tendency to hate their old works, and some prefer to pretend that such works never reached paper (or screen, in many of our cases). Thing is, though, that we all have those crappy first stories, and as time passes and our skills improve, it doesn't even have to be an "early" writing to suck. It just has to be old.

That's a good thing, though! Means you've gotten better, and now you can recognize what you did wrong before. Or at least that it wasn't as perfect as it felt when you first wrote it.

(But don't be like me and actually delete them all. You'll almost certainly regret it, I promise.)

Just thought I'd throw that out there, 'cause I've got a fun little tag to go through and it's on this very subject.

A big thank you to Lisa at Inkwell for tagging me for the Early Writings Tag, started by Abbiee!

The Blogging Olympics & Text Tags

Hey there!

Kanra from The Lunar Descent recently tagged me via Twitter for a couple of tags, these being The Blogging Olympics Tag and The Text Tag. Check 'em out below! :) And make sure to give this wonderful blogger a visit as well - she's got a great personality, posts a lot of great tips and advice, her experiences as a med student, and an assortment of other things. She's also a fantastic writer, as shown by her winning entry in my Campfire Tales contest.

First up:

The Wisteria Writer Tag

Good morning, afternoon, or night to you! :) Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow readers in the US (belated, but still I hope you enjoyed the holiday weekend)!

Allie Taylor from over at The Depth Of My Faith tagged me for The Wisteria Writer Tag. Some of the questions and responses you may remember from my last tag post, but there are a few new ones as well, and Allie always comes up with great questions to ask.

Let's jump right into it!

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The Rising Authors Tag

Hi all, how are you this fine morning, day, or night? (It's currently 2:30 in the A.M. here as of writing this, so I beg your pardon if I start to ramble or just stop making sense completely.)

The lovely gal over at The Depth Of My Faith, Allie Taylor, invented a new and interesting tag recently, called The Rising Authors Tag, and she so kindly added my name to her list. Thank you. Allie! :) I truly do appreciate the thought.

Also, if you've not been to this girl's blog before, make sure to stop by sometime - she hosts a weekly writing contest with some great prompts each week, and she's just completed her first book, Jewel Of China.

Alright, I've got a delicious cup of honey lemon tea here that's bound to put me to sleep, likely mid-sentence, but let's get to work, shall we? 

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Favorite Classical Author Tag

Okay, so. Recently I've come across some people in the blogging world who had never heard of a certain favorite famous author of mine, and it was one of those moments that make you go, "What?! Never??" That can't be!

So now I've been inspired to spread the knowledge, and I thought it might be fun to do it in a tag format, since you don't - at least I don't - hear people talk about their favorite classical authors very often. To be expected, it's mainly modern names you hear - like John Green, J.K. Rowling, etc.

However, "classic" has a sort of broad definition, and a name that is considered a classic where you're at may not be considered one elsewhere. But essentially I'm using it here to mean any well-known pre-21st century author (preferably 1950 and earlier, but famous works must have been published before 2000).

Let's get into it!
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The Get to Know Me Tag

Hey there!

So, I ran across this little tag from Faith at Stories by Firefly called the Get to Know Me Tag, and I thought I'd give it a go! I'm going to try to keep this one short and sweet today, so let's get right into it...

The Infinity Dreams Award

Nominated by Faith P.

So, it's nighttime here right now. Every time I write one of these up in the dark hours of the day, I'm always very tempted to say, "Good night, everyone!" But that just doesn't work. I mean, am I greeting you for yet another new post, or bidding you all a goodnight and sweet dreams?

I definitely need to figure out something to use for my nighttime posts. Or just a new greeting in general. Many blogs give fun, relevant nicknames to their readers - perhaps I could start calling you all "Night owls"? (No? Too cheesy? Maybe something more unique and oddballish then. Like.. "Ravendears." Because you're all so dear to me! And, you know, ravens. Gotta add that Poe touch, right?)

...Or I could just steer clear of names for the time being. Let me know what you think, will you? :)

Anyway, on with it, on with it. The fabulous Faith of Stories by Firefly went and nominated me for the Infinity Dreams Award, and so I owe her a big thank you! Thanks so much, Faith. I really do appreciate the thought!

Blogger Buddies Tag With Erika Gold

Tagged by Zelus

Good evening (or morning, noon, or night, wherever you may be)!

A while back I was tagged for the Blogger Buddies Tag by Zelus over at My Hopeful Pencil. I must apologize to her for taking so long to get to this - I had taken a lengthy break right after she tagged me, and then the holidays came around. But, finally, here we are.

However, I'm not alone! Part of this tag involves collaborating with a fellow blogger to answer some questions, and so answering along side of me will be Erika Gold, from Books, Stars, and the Pages in Between. Erika is a fantastic book reviewer, she has a wonderful personality, and I had a great time collaborating with her on this. If you don't know her, make sure you stop by sometime and say hello!

Now, I'm a GoogleDocs noob, and I couldn't get the fonts we had picked out to transfer over into Blogger. So, instead, my answers will be in this dark pinkish color, and Erika's responses will be in this purple color.

Let's get started!

Sweater Weather Tag

Happy beautiful fall - er, nearly winter now - to all of you!

It's been a while since I've done a tag, and this one is from sweet ghost ryter over at anything, everything. She tagged me before I went on break for the Sweater Weather Tag, a fun little post with fall-related questions. Thanks, ghosty, and I'm sorry it took me a little while to get to it!

Let's get right into it, shall we?

Liebster Award

Nominated by Chioma

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award!

As with every other award and tag I've received, I'm honored and extremely grateful to have been nominated for this. The Liebster is one that's been floating around the blogosphere for a fair amount of time, and it's a fun, recognizable tag that has done a great job promoting newer blogs.

A huge thank you goes out to dear Chioma from Blue Books and Butterflies for this sweet nomination. The rules for this thing have only changed about 1,576,112 times since its creation, but here's the version I've received!

Blog of Excellence Award

Nominated by Bella

I was nominated by the lovely Bella of bellas bright bookshelf for an award that is brand-new to the blogosphere: the Blog of Excellence Award. Bella got inspired to create her own award after coming across my Blogger Recognition Award post, and I think that's just awesome! There are plenty of these little things out there, but I still stick to the opinion that there can't be too many!

Very Inspiring Blogger & Beautiful Blogger Awards

Hey, hey! So, I've made pretty good progress fixing things up 'round here, and, though I still have quite a few things to tweak and change, I should be able to start posting new content again. Please do excuse me if it's a little slow, however!

Anyway, what greater way to kick off Edge of Night's new appearance than with some awards? I love these things. Can't help it. But I've been kindly nominated for two of them—the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by Quayla, and the Beautiful Blogger Award by Hp20508. A very big thank you to both of these sweet bloggers. Let's get started!

Random Words Challenge

Challenge Accepted!

Nominated by Faith

Gooooood morning/day/evening/night, everyone!

I apologize for posting a bit less than usual lately, but I'm working to get each new piece out as quickly as I can, and I so appreciate your patience. Also, I'm running low on poetry and story ideas—if you have something that you think would make a great little piece, I'm all ears!

Alrighty, so I've been kindly nominated by the lovely Faith over at Chosen Vessels for the Random Words Challenge. I'm absolutely fantastic at being random, but terrible at it at the same time. This should be interesting. A big thank you to Faith, and here are the rules of the challenge!

Books and Reading Tag

Nominated by Christine

Who doesn't love a good book?!

Christine of Everything is Blogsome nominated me for this fun tag, which was originally created by Noor over at A Little Bit of Sunshine. Even though I don't actually make it to a new book very often (I'm working on that), I absolutely love to read and find books to be such nifty little things. So, as always, thank you Christine, and here are the rules as given by herself and Noor!

The Understand Me Award

Nominated by Quayla

Mental illness. Is it just me, or are more and more people being diagnosed as "mentally ill"? 

I'm not one to get offended over labels and names and words that might be considered offensive... You will, inevitably, offend someone, somewhere, no matter what word you use to refer to anything, and attempts by activists to ban certain words (I'm looking at you."Ban Bossy") irritates me just as much as the people who use these words to insult others. 

Nevertheless, words do have power. It's the responsibility of the speaker to use his or her words wisely, and it's up to the listener (sometimes subconsciously) which words have an impact on them, either negatively or positively. 

That's what I'll be focusing on most with this post: Responsibility of the speaker, and choice of the listener. Lovely Quayla from over at Mind of Quayla was kind enough to nominate me for the Understand Me Award, and being able to be proud of your differences is a subject I've always been passionate about, so I am very grateful to her for the nomination!

You're Amazing and So Is Your Blog Award

Nominated by KR

D'aww. Thank you so much to KR from Sweet as a Rose for nominating me for the You Are Amazing And So Is Your Blog Award (bit of a mouthful though, ain't it?). I very much appreciate each and every nomination I've received thus far, and this one no less. They're such creative ways to get to know your fellow bloggers. And they're helpful when it comes to posting regularly. ;)

Ready to answer some questions? Great. Let's get started.

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

Nominated by Outrageous Glamour

Good morning, good day, or good night—wherever you are, I hope this post has found you well! I've been kindly nominated by the lovely Stella of The night writer's diary for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. Stella's got a sweet little blog; please do stop by and say hello sometime!

Alrighty. So, as usual, this award has questions to answer and further nominations to give. I'm not very familiar with this award, and so I don't know the exact rules for it. But it seems pretty straightforward. Let's get started, shall we?

You Have Not Failed Award

Nominated by KR

Oh boy. So many tags going around these last couple of weeks! I apologize for not posting much other than these tags lately (I think I've gotten, what, one post that wasn't an award or tag up within the last week?), it's been a busy few days. 

But, with that said, we have another new tag that was just introduced to the blogosphere! And, just like all these others, the purpose of this one is really quite sweet. KR from Sweet as a Rose (isn't she?) created this award to help out girls who, for whatever reason, may need a little boost in their confidence, or just to know that they're appreciated, strong, and are just as important as anyone else.. And truly, you are.

Stahp Ur Too Sweet for Ur Own Good Award

Ah, Marshall...
Nominated by Kelsey and KR

Edited (11/20/14): Added another nomination by KR.

You've got to love the memes of the Internet. They're just so silly, and even unique—or so unoriginal that it seems unique. Either way, they're good for a laugh. 

Wonderful Kelsey over at Empty Boxes got inspired to create an award of her own, and this is what she came up with. The point of this award is to recognize the amazing bloggers that, quoted straight from Kelsey herself, are "too sweet; whether it's the comments they leave or the things they say in their posts." Well, I like it! It's a great idea. :) She was nice enough to nominate me in her post, and so here we are. KR from the lovely Sweet as a Rose blog also nominated me.