I am truly grateful to Rizza Jairi for nominating the dark little corner of the Web that is my blog for the Sunshine Blogger Award. Rizza is a budding blogger from the Philippines who deserves our support. https://younggirlsvoyage.wordpress.com/

The Sunshine Blogger Award Rules are as follows:

1. Thank the Blogger who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog so others can find them.
2. List the rules and display an award logo on your blog post.
3. Answer the 11 Questions the blogger asked you.
4. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and notify them by commenting on any of their posts.
5. Ask the Nominees 11 new questions.

Here are my answers to Rizza’s Questions

1. Describe how you first got into blogging? I was looking for something to do in my retirement and had a lifetime’s worth of writings and reflections that I wanted to publish in some way.
2. Can you tell me some of your strengths that really helped you in blogging? Liking writing obviously helps. Being kind and generous in dealings with fellow bloggers is important in today’s online jungle. I am forever grateful to my mother for teaching me to touch type.
3. What type of networking do you think is better to enhance your traffic to the blog? This is something I confess I am not good at. I am too shy. I try, in the words of Philip Larkin, to be ‘true and kind’ or at least ‘not untrue and not unkind’.
4. What do you think is the best service a blogger can provide to his readers? Food for thought
5. What would be your ideal working environment? A walled garden in summertime.
6. How do you manage time to run your blog efficiently? I have plenty of time and really should spend more of it blogging. I find interaction with other bloggers a great spur to productivity.
7. What is your greatest achievement outside of blogging? Surviving thus far in life with a lot of help from others.
8. What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far? For me, the most challenging thing was plucking up the courage to start in the first place.
9. What do you find the most frustrating aspect of blogging? I find it quite lonely a lot of the time.
10. What is the biggest difference in your life post-blogging? I am much more confident, fluent and prolific as a creative writer,
11. Would you encourage other people to make their blog? why? Writing is the best way to develop your soul and blogging is a way of sharing that process with others.

My Nominees and their websites are:

• Stan Carey’s Sentence First https://stancarey.wordpress.com/
• Janni Styles Writing Some Wrongs https://jannistyles1.wordpress.com/
• Lizl Bennefeld The Moments Between https://themomentsbetween.wordpress.com/
• The inimitable Mara Eastern https://maraeastern.com/
• Scattenengel Gedacht, gefühlt und geträumt https://schattenengel.wordpress.com/
• Sarah Zang Pitching Pennies Poetry https://smzang.com/
• Andy Townend https://andytownend.com/
• Katzenworld https://katzenworld.co.uk/
• Fractured Faith https://fracturedfaithblog.com/
• Megan O’Keefe Debatably Dateable http://debatablydateable.com/
• The Peaceful Pub https://thepeacefulpub.com/

And here are some questions for my Nominees

1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What qualities does a good blogger require
3. How do you attract visitors to your blog?
4. What is the nicest comment anyone has posted on your blog?
5. What is the nicest comment you have posted on someone else’s blog?
6. Why is writing important?
7. Why is blogging important?
8. What is the purpose of poetry in this digital age?
9. Can images be as powerful as words?
10. What is your favorite part of speech—noun, verb, adjective, preposition etc?
11. How do you stay sane?