Reflections on IWSG, Events, and a Birthday

Reflections on IWSG
Whew! After trying to just fill a small part of the Ninja Captain's shoes, I felt mind-boggled. After helping out with IWSG for just a day (well two), I came to the conclusion that Alex J. Cavanaugh is a mad super genius at blogging. He assigned me just a few blogs to visit for IWSG. I visited around 80, and he visited more than I can imagine in one day. How does he do it? Does he skim? No, that can't be, because his comments all make intelligent sense. My comments started getting weary and short after several blogs . . . sorry if I visited your blog and that was the case.

Another thing I learned from co-hosting IWSG - every blogger I visited is an awesome writer, and every awesome writer has a few insecurities. Many posts blew me away with their raw honesty, or their cleverness, or both. At the end of the day (actually two), I just wanted to stop and say, thanks. Thanks for sharing your ups and downs, and thanks for sharing your funny stories, and your encouragement. And thanks for visiting me, and giving me such support. It means a lot to me.

Events
 L.G. Keltner of Writing Off the Edge is hosting the Beginnings Blogfest on January 9th to celebrate her first year blogaversary! As the title suggests, it's all about beginnings, almost any type of beginning - beginning as a writer, beginning life, or the beginning of a favorite book or story that you would like to post about that day.

The Geek Twins are hosting the My Favorite Martian Bloghop on January 14th. Share your favorite martian and why you love them, and make new friends.

 Alex J. Cavanaugh is hosting his next blogfest on March 18th. More details coming. Save the date!

There are probably many more events happening, but these are the ones that caught my eye first, and I'll be sticking with these for the moment. I'm trying to cut down my fest time to one or two a month in the next few months while I prep for the release of Champion in the Darkness. Despite my insecurities, I received awesome feedback from my CP, and from some of my family beta readers (who, trust me, can be totally honest about what they don't like), and they keep telling me to go ahead, get it out there. So. . .in the next six weeks I'll be getting all my guest posts figured out, and making final plans for the release day party. I'm still waiting on my cover . . .but I'm hoping to reveal soon.

A Birthday My amazing, super sweet, awesome husband is turning 46 today! We're celebrating with a family lunch with his parents, my parents, our kids, and his sister and her family, and then  we're going to play laser tag! Last night we warmed up our laser tag skills with a round of family nerf wars.

My husband is a multi-talented guy - a supervising electrical engineer by day, but a snowboarding teacher, video editor, tech expert, sound and light guy on the side . . .in addition to being a wonderful huband and great dad.

He's the kind of guy who makes science experiments not only work, but work in an extreme way. My youngest had an electrical car kit with her science lessons last year and he showed her how to upgrade it with a bigger battery and better wheels so it could go twice as fast. I'm also not sure if he or my oldest daughter had more fun with her ballistics class experiments: giant slingshots, potato guns, and carbide cannons have been fired off in our long gravel driveway and into the wooded area around our house more times that I can count this last year.

He's also the kind of guy who likes to hold hands and snuggle, and isn't embarassed about any of that, which makes me really happy.

This photo is from a few years ago . . . can't seem to upload new ones today . . .blogger and I are having a disagreement.

In his honor, I encourage you to go and hug somebody you love today!

So, are you signed up for awesome blogfests, awed by the Ninja's super blog skills, re-energized by IWSG?