One Lovely Blog Award: a Paper-Pencil-Pen Nomination Part II

Here is my follow-up from Part I of my Lovely Blog Award nominations, with 4 more reading recommendations. (The requirements for "accepting" the award are to suggest 15 great blogs to read, but the research/writing up/linking takes longer than I have time for in one post--so look forward to Part III). Since the last list of 7 focused more on the paper aspects--crafty stationery, ephemera, photography and art with words--this post will hone in on the pencil & the pen.

Coronet Super 12 (Single Spaced blog)

 1. Single Spaced: "a chronicle of life as a clumsy crafter and work-at-home mom." This goal-driven MFA dropout (full-time work+momhood+debt+youth=smart choice) works as a technical writer and also has a blog on Hyphen, where she writes about issues affecting the Asian American community. Single Spaced includes 30 Lists, where blogger Theresa is counting down each Thursday toward her 30th birthday. She's smart & savvy.

2. I've watched Eva Holland, freelance writer/editor and expert in all things arctic, climb the travel writing ranks from blogging at  Rolf Potts' Vagablogging  and Vagabondish--where I published my first two travel essays--to being current senior editor of World Hum. Her posts are a great glimpse into what it really means to carve out a career as a travel writer. A sample: "My feature in the July/August issue of Up Here is called ‘I Found the Sweet Life’ and it’s about the week I spent living among the seasonal tourism workers of Skagway, AK. It features drinking games, creative use of tarps, and a 200 lb. St. Bernard named Bronco."

3. Around the Blog is Stephanie Elizondo Griest's take on her book, Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana. Editor of the anthology, Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010 (I was published in 2009), she's also the author of Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines, as well as 100 Places Every Woman Should Go. A recent MFA graduate, Griest was already offered a post as Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her blog offers "insight into the publishing industry (agents, book proposals, marketing and promotion), the travel writing world, artistic residencies, grants, scholarships, fellowships, MFA programs, etc." BONUS: I just discovered an interview with BWTW contributor Marisa Handler, my first MFA summer thesis adviser.

4.  Patrick Ross is "a writer chronicling his commitment to living an art-committed life" on his blog The Artist's Road: Creativity, Writing & an Art-committed Life. A professional writer for nearly 25 years, he is pursuing an MFA in Writing through the Vermont College of Fine Arts while also serving as a writing instructor. He drove around the USA, interviewing artists, "driven by a profound curiosity about what makes creative people tick" and his blog furthers that exploration. Although Patrick doesn't do "the name-other-blogs-and-things-about-you part," I'm nominating him anyway!