Uh, oh! Randomities Won the Versatile Blog Award!

A while ago, Angela Perry bestowed me with the Versatile Blogger Award. This is one of my favorite awards, because it implies that your writing is not limited to a certain genre, voice or else. Thanks, Angela, for the honor!  


Since the rules for this award became a bit confusing, I'll break my own rules and share a bit more of myself, but I'll not follow Angela's to the letter. (I have principles, you know? :P)


I'll stick to four random facts then:

• I have recently moved across the ocean. That's why my tweets seem to come up so late, but I'm actually going to bed much earlier than when I was in Italy. 

• Most of you already know, but to my new friends I'm revealing that Mari Juniper is a pen name. As a former attorney I have this weird obsession about privacy, which is why I'm not telling anything else about the item above. Sorry? 

• Do you have a favorite writer? I do. It was Neil Gaiman's wonders that drew me to the writing career. Do I want to write like him? No, of course not. I want to write like myself, but I certainly want to write as well as he does. ;) 

• You know I have two dogs, right? If I could, I'd have three. No, four! Gee, My house would probably become a shelter... :P

Okay, breaking one's own rules is fun, but it's more fun to share the love! So, I'm sending the Versatile Blogger Award to:


>> Kevin Mackey, from KjM on the web.


>> Chuck Allen, from Chuck Allen


>> Sonia Lal, from Story Treasury


>> Helen Howell, from Helen Scribbles


There you go. Now go share the award love, my friends! :) 

Uh, oh! Randomities Won a Double Award!

The lovely - and now super-busy - Anne Tyler Lord granted Rantomities not one but two blog awards at once. Thank you so much Anne! :)

You all probably know by now that there are slightly different rules for each award, but they all encompass: 1) Thanking who awarded you, and 2) Passing it on to a certain number of  people, letting them know that you did so. 



Well, since I am sort of a rebel when it comes to blog awards, I'm going to maintain the basic above and change (almost) all the rest. 


I'm passing this double award to fewer people than the normal, and since I'm changing everything the only rule I'd like the following friends to keep is to pass these on together, as Anne and I did. Just to make things interesting. ;)


Most awards ask us to tell something about ourselves, so you can kill your curiosity at this old post and this other one. There's nothing new to tell, I'm afraid, except my reasons to keeping things for myself, if you didn't know them yet. 


Now to the fun part, I'm passing on the double award to:

• Estrella Azul, from Life's a Stage
• Danielle La Paglia, from Danni's  Flash Fiction Blog
• Icy Sedgwick, from Icy's Blunt Pencil
• Nishida C., from Breathing Butterflies

Uh, oh! Plethora of Awards at Randomities!

I have to confess something. I've always wanted to use the word "plethora" but I never had the chance before, so I kind of held out some of the award announcements for a while. :P

Well, this is partially true, since the Zombie Luv Contest kept me quite busy and the majority of them was granted during the crazy times in which I was evaluating or judging the entries.

Either way, sorry for the delay! This doesn't diminish by all means how much I appreciate the awards themselves and the lovely people who granted them to me. :)

The Fabulous Flash Award, was created by Jon M. Strother, the father of the #FridayFlash community. In his own words:

“I have decided to start the Fabulous Flash Award to spotlight some folks I feel deserve recognition for their, well… fabulous flash fiction.”

Gracie Motley was the amazing writer who passed it on to me. She writes the most incredible dragon serials, Fire and Water, and some flash fiction that engrosses you up to the end, making you ask for more. She's also very supportive on her comments and a great person to chat with. Thank you Gracie for this great honor!

This award rules are simple:

1. acknowledge receiving the award in a blog post
2. link back to the person who awarded it
3. select four other fabulous flashers to receive the award to keep spreading the joy
4. write one or two short lines explaining why you’ve chosen each recipient
5. optionally (I know not everyone is on Twitter) tweet, “I just gave the Fabulous Flash Award to (name). They’re worth reading.” Include a shortened URL back to your post in the tweet.

So to the fun part. I'd like to pass on this award to:

• Jodi MacArthur -- This woman is creepy; she writes things that will make your hair stand up. She's not limited to the darker side of the human mind though, her humorous pieces are fantastic, her poetry is deep and moving, and now she's also into a dark mystery serials that I'm most curious about. Her voice is unique, her stories are original and well constructed, I'm sure we'll hear a lot about her in the future.

• Ganymeder -- Catherine Russel has a fantastic sense of humor. See her last flash, Pirates Don't Play Easy that you'll understand. Her mastery in pacing carries you through the story at her will, releasing you only when she desires to. It's almost impossible to have the first reading of her writings with a critical mind; it's the reader in us that take over at first.

• Tomara Armstrong -- I had noticed her writing before, but it was her entry to the Zombie Luv Contest, Three Steps, that showed me how exceptional her writing is. It was my winning choice for quite a while. Of course this is not her only great story, she easily strolls from gruesome, to lovely, and won't shy away of curious writing challenges, coming up with fantastic results.

• Erin Cole -- She writes mystery and horror with exquisite word choice, trapping your attention with mastery. She has recently opened submissions to her macabre anthology, 13 Days of Horror. Check out the great array of writers she collected on the previous edition.

TheVersatile Blogger Award came from the awesome Valerie Valdes. Thanks! :D

She has two awesome ongoing web serials, and man, you have to check out her story that just came out at the Birdville Magazine!

Now, I'm not familiar with this particular award's rules, so I'm passing it on to a few people I believe deserve it:

• Maria Protopapadaki-Smith, from Mazzz in Leads

• John Wiswell, from The Bathroom Monologues

• G. P. Ching, from So, Write

• Lilly Mulholand, from Lily Mulholand, Writer

• Laurita Miller, from Brain Droppings

Finally, the lovely Monica Marier is the one who granted me the One Lovely Blog Award. Thank you! :)

This award's rules are also simple, although more difficult to comply with:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The solution for my dilemma was to acknowledge some great people I've met through the Zombie Luv Contest, so I'm passing the this award to these cool zombie folks I had the pleasure to meet through the contest: ;)

• Joanie Rich, from Tales of a Nightcrafter

• Kemari, from Kemari Writes

• Angel Zapata, from A Rage of Angel (I hope you won't mind the pinkness of the award, Angel, considering the general tone of your blog. :P)

• David Hernandez, from Dividing Canaan (Same pinkness comment goes to you too. ;P)

• Casper Woods, from Building a Universe

• Donald Conrad, from Flashtold

• Delia, from Procrastination Rehabilitation

• David G. Shrock, from Draco Torre

• Lee Hughes, from Lee Hughes Writes (Pinkness! Sorry? heh)

• Erik J. Krause, from Erik J. Krause's Writing Spot

• Melissa Webb, from Ramblings from a Word Weaver

• Matt Merritt, from One Block

• Amalia Dillin, from Good to Begin Well, Better to End Well

• Jason Beymer, from Beer and TV

• Miya Hayson, from My Literary Jam & Toast

Ohh, I made it to 15 people, yay! Now, those who were tagged with excessive pinkness, I'll understand if you decide not to accept the award if it doesn't fit too well the visual of your blogs. I just ask you to bear in mind that roses have thorns and the background is grey, at least. ;)

Congrats everyone! :D