Tags
Accidental Spy Adventure Series, Author Lada Ray, Beautiful Blogger Award, Blog awards, Gold Train by author Lada Ray, Golden Ring of Russia, Kremlin, Moscow, nature photography, Palekh, photos of Russia, Reader Appreciation Award, Sergiev Posad, The Earth Shifter, World Heritage Site
Welcome to my Award Party! Celebrating two new awards!
Wow! I am very honored and touched to receive Reader Appreciation Award from a fabulous guy and fellow author, Jim L. Wright. Thank you very much, Jim!
Here is the link to Jim’s post about the award. http://jimlwright.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/301/
Please check out Jim’s blog, The Left Wright Brain - it’s really great!
The rules for this award are:
- Post seven interesting things about yourself,
- Nominate 5 people who in turn will post on their page the award with the link to the giver,
- Let them know about the nomination
- Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog
- Post the award logo
I already mentioned various interesting things about myself in my “acceptance speeches” for previous awards. 
You are invited to check them out here:
This time, I decided to do something a bit different, something I think my readers will enjoy. In keeping with the theme of this particular award, here are…
SEVEN THINGS I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO WRITE ABOUT!
1. Awesome adventures, mysteries and thrillers. My adventure/thriller series with a touch of romance and paranormal, Accidental Spy Adventures, is well underway. So far, I’ve released Green Desert (Prequel, short novella), STEPFORD USA (US Adventure, full size novel) and GOLD TRAIN (Russia Adventure, full size novel). Coming next year: DRAGON GATE (Asia Adventure).
2. Fantasy and scifi. On September 13 I released my first fantasy/scifi short entitled CATHARSIS, Legend of the Lemurians (Earth Keepers Chronicles: Book 1). In December I’ll be releasing the highly anticipated THE EARTH SHIFTER, my new YA fantasy/thriller novel.
3. Wisdom and Spirituality
4. Futurism, or put another way, predictive analysis of future events
5. Nature and animals
6. Feng Shui, beauty, and Oriental art. (I regularly write about all of the above on my blog and I invite you to check out my posts!)
7. Last but not least! My travels and world cultures. In addition to writing about those, I love photography and try to post great pics of my favorite places to make it visual.
The new series of posts I am starting this fall is entitled “Beautiful Russia.” In this series I will be posting about various beautiful gems of Russian architecture, art, nature and culture. The first 2 posts will be about the Golden Ring of Russia, a ring of beautiful ancient towns north-east of Moscow. Most of these towns are at least 1000 years old and all of them are a feast for the senses, boasting beautiful art, architecture and nature. The UNESCO World Heritage Sites abound here. I will have tons of gorgeous pics soon, but for now, enjoy a sneak peek:
The ancient Kremlin, town of Suzdal, the Golden Ring of Russia
Suzdal monastery
The town of Sergiev Posad, the famous Sergiev Monastery, the Golden Ring of Russia
The town of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, the Golden Ring of Russia
The artisans of the Golden Ring produce exquisite traditional Russian art. The town of Palekh is where the famous Palekh boxes come from. Each tiny box is hand-painted in the secret Palekh technique of feather-light stroke and goes for hundreds and thousands of dollars. And the town of Sergiev Posad is the birth place of the famous Russian Matryoshka (above).
I love this award! Once more, many thanks to Jim L. Wright for nominating me for the Reader Appreciation Award!
In turn, here are five (+ one) of my favorite bloggers whom I want to nominate for this great award. I love reading their blogs and highly recommend them to my readers!
1. Russel Ray is a San Diego photographer and a very outspoken, fun blogger – I love this guy! (purely platonically, Russel ) http://russelrayphotos2.com/
2. M. G. Edwards blogs about his world travels – lots of great pics! http://worldadventurers.wordpress.com/
3. Francis writes lovely poetry and does lovely photography http://niltsi.com/
4. Elisa Cashiola – blogs about feng shui http://elisacashiola.com/
5. Lesley Fletcher – lovely blog http://inspirationimport.wordpress.com/
6. Holly Michael blogs about Christian values, her world travels, writing and family http://writingstraight.com/. I know she has already received this award, but I love her blog and want to honor her here. Holly, let’s consider this an honorary award. 
How awesome is that! Another beautiful award!
I received The Beautiful Blogger Award from a fellow Indie author and wonderful blogger, Cassandra Giovanni. http://cgiovanniwrites.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/holy-cannoli/ Thank you so much, Cassandra! It is a true honor!
Cassandra is the author of the novel, Walking in the Shadows, to be released on October 31, 2012. Check out her blog http://cgiovanniwrites.wordpress.com for more about her and her books!
These are the rules for accepting The Beautiful Blogger Award:
- Write a little something about the Beautiful Blogger who nominated you. See above and don’t forget to go and check her out too.
- Share 7 things about yourself.
- Nominate for this award 7 worthy beautiful bloggers.
Here are the 7 things I’d like to share:
1. I love my collection of Oriental art.
2. …And my writing retreat in the Catskills, NY
3. In 2011 I published two novels and one short novella in the Accidental Spy Adventure Series: GOLD TRAIN (Russia Adventure), STEPFORD USA (US Adventure) and Green Desert (Iraq Prequel). DRAGON GATE (Accidental Spy Asia Adventure) coming in 2013!
4. I love designing my own book covers! I find it to be a very creative, uplifting and meditative experience. I always feel better having designed a new cover–the more beautiful the better!
5. GOLD TRAIN and STEPFORD USA just got a face lift, with new cool covers and updated blurbs. Check them out!
6. I have just released my first fantasy/scifi short CATHARSIS, Legend of the Lemurians (Earth Keepers Chronicles: Book 1), prequel to the upcoming fantasy/thriller THE EARTH SHIFTER. If you haven’t yet, check it out! It’s only $.99 on Kindle and FREE for a limited time on Smashwords. You can also enter the Catharsis Contest.
7. In December, 2012 I will be releasing my new YA fantasy thriller novel, THE EARTH SHIFTER. Earth Keepers Chronicles (see above) serve as companion for the upcoming EARTH SHIFTER trilogy. Incidentally, CATHARSIS includes an exclusive sneak peek excerpt from THE EARTH SHIFTER (first 2 chapters). More about The Earth Shifter.
There are so many beautiful blogs and it’s so hard to choose just 7! These are the bloggers I’ve decided to nominate:
1. Rick Braveheart – beautiful American nature photography http://thegreatamericanlandscape.wordpress.com/
2. http://imaginecontinua.wordpress.com/ Historic photos of Romania and nature
3. http://astronomybythecosmos.com/ Awesome posts about Cosmos, astronomy and Outer Space – I just love it!
4. Carl Pettit, columnist, journalist, author http://carlpettit.wordpress.com/. Cool illustrations.
5. Ash, beautiful poetry http://momentsofclarityandotherthings.wordpress.com/
6. Lovely Christian blog, poetry, devotional and more http://watmattersmost.wordpress.com/
7. Fascinating photography by a Spanish artist http://manolirizofotografia.com/
Once more, many thanks to Cassandra Giovanni!
Congratulations, winners! Enjoy!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
This is Harvest time all over the world and the time of October Fest in Germany. As a total non-drinker, but lover of harvest and the idea of abundant October Fest,
I will host the INDIE BOOK REVIEW FEST on my blog on 10/2. It will include my recent reviews of various great books by fellow authors + the best and most recent reviews by readers of my own books! You are invited to stop by, and I promise a feast for the reader’s soul!
