Versatile Blogger - that's me!

One of my fellow StarShip Sofanauts and blogger, writer and podcaster extraordinaire, Dennis M. Lane has nominated for (and thus awarded me with) the Versatile Blogger Award. It sounds quite grand and I'm definitely happy that Dennis thought of me and my blog, but it's more of a way for friends and bloggers to give recognition to others and help point potential audience members their way. I hope it works!

The rules are as such:

Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post (thank you, thank you Dennis!)
Share 7 things about yourself
Pass this award along to 15 others
Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award

So, doing my duty -  and maybe a few of you might not know all of this about me:

1. I played contrabass bugle (like a tuba, but with only 2 valves back then) in 2 different drum and bugle corps when I was a teenager. I started out when I was 13 playing soprano bugle (trumpet) with the CapitolAires and all-girl drum corps in my home town, Madison, Wisconsin. I learned how to play AFTER I joined. After one season I switched to Baritone bugle and became soloist. I moved on to the Star of Indiana from Bloomington, Indiana, a drum corps that competed for top honors on a national level. My first season with them (when I was 16) had me playing Euphonium (a huge version of a Baritone) and for one number (Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind) Contrabass bugle. I was the only girl for 2 years until I attracted a fellow Wisconsinite, Gretchen, to audition. Here are some pictures.

2. I was a girl scout until I was 13. Being one taught me a lot of great things growing up. It also taught me that I'm a terrible salesman. I hated going door to door selling cookies.

3. I moved to Europe when I finished University in Madison, WI at the age of 22 (almost 20 years ago!). I haven't spent more than 3 months in the US since then. Sometimes I miss it, but Germany is a great place to live.

 This is where I've bogged down on interesting things to tell you that one or the other of you might not know. Thing is, if you read this blog, you are interested either because of the work I do for StarShipSofa, or know me through my music, or you're a member of my family, in which case the half or the whole of the above mentioned things are already known to you... But I guess I have to continue on.


4. I used to own lab mice as pets. The first one I had was named Albatross, which turned out to be prophetic. Not because he grew wings, but because he refused to stay inside his cage. He would escape and spend a few days in freedom (helping himself to the cat food and the pan of drip water under the fridge) and then we would catch him. While in his cage he would spend all of his waking hours jumping around trying to get out. Eventually we gave up. Eventually he died.

5. When I was in college in the US I was a member of Greenpeace. These days, my husband is a nuclear engineer working for a large company and is involved in building new nuclear power plants around Europe. I am definitely in his camp. Because when I met him, I informed myself.

6. I had four wisdom teeth removed when I was a teenager. It wasn't so bad. It hurt to laugh for about a week, but otherwise, no complications. Sometimes, I wish they'd left me one tooth of wisdom.

7. I am of Irish decent (but too long ago and with a name like Fitzgerald, impossible to find the Irish cousins), and thus have very fair and freckled skin, dark hair and blue eyes. Classic. Drum corps and fair skin is not a good combo. I used to spend 10 minutes twice a day slathering on sun screen before rehearsals in the summer and still I got bad sunburns regularly. This last summer we spent two weeks at the beach in Italy. In August. Somehow, I didn't get a sunburn, not even a mild one. I guess I've learned my lesson. Still waiting for the skin melanoma though.

OK. These are the 15 blogs I recommend:

Nicola Griffith - Ask Nicola - A speculative fiction author whose work I've been following for years now.
Larry Santoro - At Home in Bluffton - Fellow Sofanaut, author and narrator. Now podcast host! Tales to Terrify
Brenda Cooper - An Author and Futurist whose work I've had the pleasure of recording.
Amy H. Sturgis - Redecorating Middle-Earth in Early Lovecraft -Fellow Sofanaut and Genre History Scholar Extraordinaire!
"Suzy Q. Homemaker" - a fellow mom/singer (of early music even!). She blogs about homey things, stuff for moms/parents, the women who are moms, cool stuff she finds on the web.
Darcy Therese - My cousin's amazing daughter - who blogs about her first year at college, fashion and whatever comes to mind.
Therese Krueger - For the Love of Food - Darcy's older sister, equally amazing, who loves food and loves blogging about it.
Jean-Ronald LaFond - Kashu-do: The Way of the Singer - Voice Teacher in Berlin whose writings on voice study I appreciate.
Ann K. Schwader - The Yaddith Times - Little tidbits about many things weird, poetry, geeky and sciency
Cheryl Morgan - Cheryl's Mewsings - SF blogger and reporter.
Scott Green - Green Genre Poetry - Info about paying markets for genre poetry
David Kopaska-Merkel - Dreams & Nightmares - Poet, Pres. of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and poetry publisher.
Amal El Mohtar - Voices on the Midnight Air - -Award-winning Poet, Harper, enjoyer of life.
Fred Himebaugh - Fredösphere - Choral Composer and fellow Sofanaut.
Elizabeth Barrett - The Wordsmith's Forge - Crowd-funded Poet.

Enjoy exploring!

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