Seriously? Premio Dardos?

Helen Ginger, proud author of the Straight from Hel blogspot (http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com), chose me as one of the recipients of the Premio Dardos award. According to her blog:

The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

I've also learned, from Helen, that the name is Italian for "Prize Darts". I must say, after unintentionally throwing a saw at my ex-husband, this is the closest I've been allowed to any kind of darts for quite a while.

The rules for this award are:
1. Accept the award by posting on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.
2. Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they've been selected for this award.

With this post, I've fulfilled Rule #1. Rule #2 might be harder - 15 blogs? Do I read 15 blogs? I'm a newbie - I barely know 15 people. Most of the blogs I read come via my publisher's blog, http://karensyed.blogspot.com. She was given the Premio Dardos last week, and nominated most of the blogs I read. So I've had to reach out and find others to touch.

Here goes:

http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com - Alex Sokoloff provides incredible insights into structure, plot development, and how to scare the pants off your reader

http://murderati.typepad.com - This is a group of 12 bloggers who post tidbits about writing murder and mayhem. Helen counted the bloggers in each blog, so I'm going to count these as 11, since Alex is one of the bloggers and I don't want to count her twice.

http://deannacameron.blogspot.com - Deanna writes Writely So, where she covers her book that will be published in July (The Belly Dancer) as well as interviewing other authors. I love her standard interview questions because they reveal so much about the person, and she's been great to share publishing/marketing ideas with.

http://scwc.wordpress.com - This is the blog for the Southern California Writer's Conference. I always tell myself I'll only go to one of these a year, and I end up at both. They're good, working conferences, and the blog points to some more interesting folk.

http://barryeisler.com/blog.html - In addition to being a gifted author, Barry writes The Heart of the Matter, a blog that defines/debates/discusses the world, its politics, its leaders, and its general goings-on. It's a great workout for the brain.

Okay, that makes 15 bloggers. I'd like to stay around and extoll their virtues, but I have to scamper off and tell these folks what I've done. Take a look around at their blogs - and their websites. They're all smart cookies.

Oh, and thank you so much, Helen, for reading my blog and thinking I deserve this!