The Blog of the Year 2012

I’m SO excited and thrilled to be awarded The Blog of the Year by my lovely and talented writing friend Rosemary Gemmell at Reading and Writing Blog

 

The rules for this are:

1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012′ Award.

2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen - and ‘present’ them with their award.

3. Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012′ Award - and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)

4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them.

5. You can now also join the Facebook group.

6. As a winner of the award — please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award — and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars… Unlike other awards which you can only add to your blog once — this award is different!

When you begin you will receive the ’1 star’ award — and every time you are given the award by another blog — you can add another star! There are a total of 6 stars to collect.

Which means that you can check out your favourite blogs – and even if they have already been given the award by someone else – you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum 6 stars!

I'm passing this on to these fabulous and innovative bloggers:

Carol at Dizzy C’s Little Book Blog as she is such a terrific support to writers and for her fabulous Festive Fun feature that she is currently running every day up to Christmas!

Sharon at Jera’s Jamboree Book Blog as she is also a fabulous support to writers and has recently set up her own book promotion business called Fiction Addiction Book Tours which she is so qualified to do that I’m sure it will be fantastic success.

Kim Nash at Kim the Book Worm is an avid reader, book reviewer, and a generous supporter to writers. As well as her amazing blog, this year Kim has been a radio star with her weekly Book Club programme on Stafford FM talking about her favourite books (and kindly mentioned my latest release!) Together with her co-host, Lee, she has now set up a new Book Club/Podcast feature on Facebook. What a woman!

Rea at Rea Book Reviews blog who says that she is a bookaholic and who I think is one of the loveliest and most enthusiastic book bloggers out there. Rea has a fantastic list of reviews on her blog and is a great support to all writers.

Loveahappyending.com – this innovative magazine style blog (with which I am a featured author and associate editor, I have to say!) is the brainchild of talented author Linn B Halton and is supported by a team of authors, book reviewers, and publishers. It has interesting and fun features posted up by Linn and her associate editors three or four times a week and I love it!

And finally, Rosemary Gemmell, who gave me this award and to whom I’d like to pass it back - so that she gets another well-deserved star award for her blog Reading and Writing - for her generosity and in appreciation of her market expertise in advising writers on suitable markets for short stories and articles. In fact, she has written a feature on this subject for the magazine of the Romantic Novelist’s Association, Romance Matters, this very month.

Thank you so very much for this award – which means so much to me.

Please DO visit the other blogs awarded this accolade and spread the word!

I have one more blog to post for this year - on Friday 21^st December - which will be a fun round up of the events that took place on this blog over the past year. I’m looking forward to it already so please do pop back and join me.

Until Friday then, Happy Christmas everyone!

Oh, and did I mention that you might also like my regularly updated author Facebook Page 

and that

I love to Tweet at @JaniceHorton

 

 

 

Just one more day...

 ...to my Bagpipes & Bullshot launch day of Friday 1st April!

I'm excited to tell you that I've got a lot planned for throughout the day tomorrow, and I cordially invite you to join me, here at Bagpipes & Bullshot HQ. I really need your help on that day to try and push my e-book into the realms of visibility on Amazon and perhaps even into the Kindle charts. Because of the way Amazon calculates its sales, just a few sales on one particular day, can make all the difference. Please consider buying Bagpipes & Bullshot for your Kindle, PC, Mac, Ipad, IPhone, Blackberry, etc, on Friday 1st April or please pass on the word to those who might like to buy it. I'll be forever grateful!

The book is priced at £1.38 or $2.24.

First off, I've got a fantastic prize draw. I'm giving away not one but two Kindle Beach Protectors - a stylish accessory for every Kindle owner. (Alternatively you could use it to protect your phone or camera from sun, sea, and sand!) All you have to do to be in the prize draw (which will be independently adjudicated) is leave a comment on this blog on Friday 1st April or ReTweet one of my Tweets on Twitter with the hashtag #bagpipes. It's as easy as that! (Prize is the Kindle Beach Protector and does not include the Kindle e-Reader).

Then there is the Grand Bagpipes & Bullshot Blog Tour. Eight fantastic writers and bloggers will be hosting me on their own blogs and we'll be chatting about e-books, the Amazon Kindle indie-publishing experience and the writing life. On Friday, I will be here to announce each blog as it goes live and direct you to each one. Allow me introduce my wonderful blogging hosts:

Anita Burgh has had 23 novels published, numerous articles and short stories. She has been a member of the RNA for many years, was a committee member, and has been short-listed for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year award. She continues to write novels and enjoys teaching and mentoring.

Liz Fenwick is a writer, expat, wife, mother of three, and has just been snapped up by Carole Blake of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. She grew up just outside Boston USA but now lives in Dubai and Cornwall. She is a writer of women's fiction and is inspired by the landscape and history of Cornwall.

Kenneth Rosenberg is a California writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Surfer Magazine and other publications. Kenneth attended UCLA where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. When he is not writing, he spends his time surfing, snowboarding and travelling the world on a shoestring. His first novel, No Cure for the Broken Hearted, is available on Amazon Kindle.

David Wisehart is a writer, director, and producer living in Southern California. He received his B.A. in Film and Television from UCLA. He is the author of a forthcoming Kindle novel, Devil's Lair. He famously interviewed Amanda Hocking last summer on his blog ‘Kindle Author’ just before she hit the NY Times Bestseller List.

  

Rosemary Gemmell is a Scottish freelance writer. She writes short stories and articles which have been published in a variety of magazines in the UK, US and online. Her first novel, Dangerous Deceit, is being published by Champagne Books in May 2011.

Bill Kirton has written books on study and writing skills, a series of crime novels set in Scotland, a Scottish historical crime romance and, most recently, The Sparrow Conundrum, a dark comic satire on the crime/spy genre. As Jack Rosse, he’s also published the first in a series of stories for children, Stanley Moves In, and a children’s novel, The Loch Ewe Mystery.

Angela Barton (@angebarton) is a company director and writer. She is represented by literary agent Juliet Burton, who is working hard to get Angela’s first book, Lies and Linguine, published. Angela is busy working on her second novel, Sugar and Spite, in between company work, looking after children, two daft dogs, blogging, and being a member of two writing groups.

Sue Houghton is a freelance writer who regularly contributes to most of the UK women's magazines. She has also been published in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, India, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and South Africa. Her short stories have appeared in many charity anthologies.







So come and join in the fun, the frolics, the virtual fizz, and the prize draws, this Friday, 1st April!

Seven things....

I am delighted to receive ‘The Stylish Blogger Award’ from the lovely and very stylish Rosemary Gemmell of Reading and Writing Blog.

The rules of acceptance are to list seven things about myself and to pass the award on: – so here goes!

1. I was ten years old when I first decided to be a writer, inspired by Ruby Ferguson, who wrote children’s pony books. Some years later I discovered Jilly Cooper, who wrote grown up pony books, and I was inspired all over again!

2. My first full length book took four years to write. It was published in 2004.

3. I’m a member of the wonderful Romantic Novelist’s Association.

4.  I met my own real life hero thirty years ago by accidentally picking him up on a CB Radio. We chatted for a whole year before we actually met and he proposed to me on our third date!

5. Mr JH and I were once 1980’s yuppys (young urban professional people) and dinkys (duel income no kids yet) and we lived in an executive home in Cheshire until we sold up everything, packed in our very stressful full-time careers, and bought a derelict country cottage in Scotland in which to live ‘the good life’.

6. I wrote about our lifestyle swop and it was published in a December issue of Prima magazine. I blogged about our cottage lifestyle for a year (here) and was shortlisted and highly recommended by Candis Magazine in their blog competition.

7. Seven wee things I love.... books, red wine, stilton cheese, sunshine, my doggies, my hens, the music of Santana.

And I’d like to pass The Stylish Blog Award on to: drumroll

http://www.victorialagnehag.com/

http://ange-aspiringnovelist.blogspot.com/

http://dstracywrites.blogspot.com/

http://debcarrs-daydreams.blogspot.com/

http://www.gillyf.blogspot.com/

http://katiecarrwriting.blogspot.com/

http://lizfenwick.blogspot.com/