Liebster Award: And the nominees are….

liebster_award‘Liebster’ means beloved in German, so it is fitting that the award that bears this name requires you to share the love. I am hereby nominating the following blogs that enrich my life as a reader:

  • 365 things I love about France – This blogger finds so many positive things to say about our fair land, I am truly ashamed…yet written with humor and realism.
  • Life on la Lune – I enjoy reading this blog about a British writer’s life in France, which  seems strikingly similar yet very different from my own.
  • One French Word – A beautiful food blog that also make it easy to learn a lot of French culinary terms!
  • Taste of Savoie – Another delicious blog with a lot of interesting tidbits about places to go in our corner of France.
  • C’est la vie – A newcomer deals with her frustrations and family life in France.
  • Long View Hill – I love this writer’s frank approach to sharing her fitness and life challenges.
  • Scene by Minerva – Absolutely beautiful photographs of flora and still life captured through this talented photographer’s lens.
  • Aimée Cartier’s Blog – Only recently started following this blog but her voice and humor hooked me from the get go.
  • Wife After Death – This blog deals with the painful road back to life following the loss of a spouse. Her writing is so good I want to be there for every step!

Fellow bloggers, I know that not everyone will have the time or inclination to participate. Your mission, if you accept, is to follow the Liebster Award rules as outlined in my last post.

Here are your questions:

  1. Blogging takes so much time that you could be spending doing something else. Why do you choose to blog?
  2. Who are your favorite writers?
  3.  If you could have any talent, artistic or otherwise, what would it be?
  4.  Do you ever dream of moving to another country and if so, where?
  5. Where and when do you write?
  6. What is your preferred form of exercise or sport?
  7. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
  8. What household chore do you least like to do?
  9.  Picture yourself in a perfect moment of happiness: where are you and what are you doing?
  10. Let’s raise a toast to your continued to success with blogging – what are you drinking?

Santé!

Stories that go the distance

Foreign and Far AwayI am pleased to say that a short story of mine has been published in the Writers Abroad 2013 Anthology.

Foreign and Far Away is the fourth anthology published by Writers Abroad. Exploring the relationship between people and the landscapes and settings they live in, it’s an eclectic range of writing that evokes the diversities, similarities, connections and misunderstandings of life in foreign places.

My own short fiction entry, Le Choix du Roi, was inspired by the birth of my daughter at Hôtel Dieu in Lyon.

Author Amanda Hodgkinson, who has lived in Southwest France since 2002, has written the foreword. Her award-winning debut novel, 22 Britannia Road, was published in 2011. Penguin Books will publish her second novel, Spilt Milk, in February 2014.

Following a call for submissions, Writers Abroad received 219 contributions of which they selected 94 for the anthology. The anthology includes 38 short stories, 37 non-fiction articles and 19 poems. The work to produce Foreign and Far Away was carried out online.

Book Aid International will benefit from the proceeds of this year’s anthology. This charity increases access to books and supports literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa. They provided 543,280 new books to over 2,000 libraries in 2012 and have sent more than 30 million books to partner libraries since 1954.

Foreign and Far Away is available via Amazon at a price of $10.99, £8.99 or €9.99 from 21st October 2013:

Foreign and Far Away – Amazon.com and Foreign and Far Away – Amazon.co.uk.

To find out more and for a complete list of contributions and authors, please go to the Writers Abroad website, www.writersabroad.com