By Milli Thornton
I’m thrilled to announce that two of my blogging friends—Patrick Ross of The Artist’s Road and Julia Munroe Martin of wordsxo—recently honored the FoW blog with a blogger award or mention.From Patrick, who received The Stylish Blogger Award from one of his blogging friends, we were chosen to be on his Fave Five blog list. Thanks, Patrick!
From Julia it was The Versatile Blogger Award. Julia said: Milli Thornton blogs at Fear of Writing (home of the 10K Days!) about “putting the fun back into writing” and about travel at Milliver’s Travels. Milli has a positive outlook on life and is an enthusiastic advocate for writing and writers.
After much thought, I’ve decided to forgo passing on the awards to other bloggers (in one case I’m supposed to choose 15 bloggers!—that’s alotta work) and just concentrate on the fun of receiving these awards. I’ll do the part that sounds the most fun to me, which is to share 5–7 random things about myself.
1. I wrote my book in four months, back in 1999. I was on fire! It was like channeling something from the skies. I wrote my book from a desperate need to cure my own fear of writing. And it did. But not overnight. First, I was forced to come out of my hermit’s shell and interact with other writers. Using the FoW method in the company of other writers was what cured me.
2. I periodically go on prompt-writing binges. There are 112 writing prompts in Fear of Writing but I have many more lying around in handwritten journals. Here’s one of my prompts from the book:
Roach Lover You are a cockroach sympathizer giving a speech at a rally for animal rights.
3. I lived Down Under for 25 years. I moved around a lot and lived in quite a few places but my most favorite was the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia.
4. My favorite drink is the breve. If you’re not sure what that is or how to pronounce it, you can find out all about it on my travel blog. But, I warn you: they’re seriously addictive! (Espresso: The Art of the Perfect Breve)
5. In 2002, I was privileged to return to the Blue Mountains from Taos, New Mexico to do a writing retreat at Varuna Writer’s House.
The word chouchou in the title of this post is because Julia from wordsxo was born in France; being a travel writer, I just had to work that in somehow. Mon chouchou means “my favorite.”
(The Blogger Chouchou Warm & Fuzzies. Hmm. My grammar may not win me any awards.)
And now for one more cool fact. Both Patrick and Julia have been guest bloggers of mine/ours. Each wrote Certified 100% Wonderful posts and you’ll be missing something if you don’t go read them (links open in new browser tabs):
Fear of Writing blog
Fear of Rejection by Patrick Ross
Milliver’s Travels
Maple Syruping in Maine by Julia Munroe Martin
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Milli Thornton (aka Milliver) is the author of Fear of Writing: for writers & closet writers. She is owner of the Fear of Writing Online Course, where her mission is to put the fun back into writing. Milli also coaches writers individually at Writer’s Muse Coaching Service.
Twitter: patrickrwrites
Milli, you have been declared stylish and versatile in one week. I guess that means you really know how to create wardrobe ensembles!
Thanks for the love.
Twitter: fearofwriting
You’re welcome, Patrick.
As for creative wardrobe ensembles, I’ll have a chance to experiment tomorrow. We’re going to see Collective Soul performing at the Cleveland Rib Fest. Not sure what the outfit is for a soulful rock concert within sniffing distance of the “Greatest Rib Sauce in America” contest. 😀
These honors passed to you from Patrick and Julia are well deserved by you Milli! You’ve done so much over these years to put the fun back in lots of people’s writing.
I love both your blogs Fear of Writing and Milliver’s Travels. They really speak volumes about who you are.
I also love this post and the 5 things you listed.
Keep up the good work and thank you for making a big difference!
Hugs, catherine 🙂
Twitter: fearofwriting
Thank you, Catherine. Your words touched my heart. ♥♥♥
Twitter: wordsxo
Aren’t you the SWEETEST!! I very happily mon chouchou and send it back your way too! And I am so happy to share this blog with Patrick; I now am going to check out HIS blog since it must be wonderful if you two are friends! Thank you so much, Milli!
Twitter: fearofwriting
You’re welcome, Julia. I had a lot of fun writing this post and it was all because of you and Patrick. 🙂
Speaking of Patrick . . . you won’t be sorry if you visit his blog. Be sure to watch at least one of his road trip videos. He did a special road trip where he interviewed all kinds of unsung creative people and the results are so inspiring. He’s planning to write a book about it.
Very much deserving of both awards, Milli, congrats! 🙂 And I really liked reading more about you.
Twitter: fearofwriting
Thank you, Estrella! I always love to see you and thanks for reading me. ♥
Congratulations, Milli! 😀 I always knew you had it in you. 🙂
Twitter: fearofwriting
Lois! So glad to see you. I heard from purple kangaroos that you had a shed flying around in your backyard and had to leave your pets to go to a tornado shelter. Have been meaning to get over to your blog to read the full story so I’m glad you posted. Now I have the link and I’m going straight there.
Yeah, it was a crazy couple of nights! 😛
Twitter: Zumbalicious_
Milli, I love your list of random things about yourself! I do hope that we can meet for coffee ( perhaps my first breve?) when I’m in OH. I think we’d have much to talk about!
I look forward to reading the blogs that you’ve mentioned. Thanks for inspiring us all!! 🙂
Twitter: fearofwriting
Robin, I’d love to meet you for breve next time you’re in Ohio!! I agree, we would have tons to talk about. We would probably sound like ladies drinking triple shots, trying to say everything at once. LOL!
Twitter: Zumbalicious_
You are so right! That is a funny thought… Imagine if we DID have triple shots!! LOL. I will be in OH this August. Can’t wait!
Twitter: fearofwriting
August. Alright!!
Tweet me your travel dates closer to August and we’ll see if we can hook up for coffee. BTW, I might have to make you do a travel story for Milliver’s Travels set in … Ohio. LOL!
P.S. Where will be your main port of call while you’re in OH?
Twitter: Zumbalicious_
I will do that, Milli! Cincinnati is still “home” to me. We’ll be there most of the time, although a trip to the beach is also in order! 🙂
As for a travel piece- you’ll laugh- but I actually DO feel foreign when I’m in OH!!! I am so slow compared to everyone else. And I stare at how big everything is- the cars, houses, stores, & even the portions of food at restaurants! LOL
Twitter: fearofwriting
Actually, I wouldn’t laugh at you for that. I think that kind of slowness is preferable. 🙂 And I can relate from my own experience. When I first moved back to the States from Australia in 1997 I was dazed by the bigness of everything.
I’m still not a fan of the jumbo-sized anything. Especially not coffee! Can’t understand people who go to the petrol station (“service station”) and fill up a veritable plastic jug with a handle with brewed coffee from a thermos. Ugh! It’s not only a taste turn-off for me, I also hate those ugly giant plastic coffee mugs. It denotes a lifestyle of living in your car, always busy going somewhere.
OK, that’s my rant for the day. LOL!
Twitter: Zumbalicious_
You are completely right! Though I confess to having a (normal sized) coffee thermos for my long drives… LOL. At least there are no drive throughs in Ireland yet, so we are still safe enough from living in our cars. 🙂