Exchange of Realities

Personal post. Yes, I know I try to avoid these things. But this is cool enough to be worth it.

This morning, I received a comment telling me that I’d been nominated for the Superior Scribbler Award. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it (if it’s any consolation, I wasn’t either), it’s an award by bloggers for bloggers, for excellent work and excellent writing.

I was nominated by Noisms, from Monsters and Manuals, who said,

Exchange of Realities, which dubs itself “an attempt to bring the worlds of table-top roleplaying and writing closer together by illustrating techniques usable in both formats.” Always interesting and readable, it’s given me lots of inspiration and ideas about putting a new spin on gaming. The author, Ravyn, is also I think one of the most skilled and intelligent bloggers in terms of writing ability, and her stuff is worth reading for that reason alone.

I don’t get that kind of flattering every day; though I consider it below my dignity to squeal, I made a personal exception today.

And now, as per the rules, I pass the torch on to my chosen five. Talk about a tough decision!

The first blog I thought of when I saw this award was Turtles All the Way Down. Ishmayl has an engaging voice and a strong sense of humor; even were it not for that, I have to respect him for being one of the few people I’ve read who blogs about worldbuilding at as detailed a level as I try to. Besides, that banner is adorable.

People who have been here for much of any length of time won’t be surprised by my second Superior Scribbler. Limyaael has been my blogging idol since long before I even considered the idea of blogging for myself, and much of what I’ve learned I learned from her. Imagine the writing power of a grad student in English, spread out over a number of riffs on speculative fiction, characterization, worldbuilding technique, writing techniques and personal pet peeves, then add a tone that manages to be simultaneously academic and downright snarky, and you have about the right idea.

Then there’s Shakespeare. She’s one of those more introspective, personal bloggers, so between the tips on writing and the tips on helping other people right there’s a lot about her life and what she’s learned from it. Extra credit for being one of the few people I’ve seen to give as good an explanation of how to read stories and papers and poetry as how to write them.

And while I’m at it, another vote has to go to Stephanie of Rocket Scientist. Like me, she’s a fiction writer sitting between two worlds—in her case, that of the SpecFic writer and that of the scientist. She takes science and the real world and makes you think about both. And the science is every bit as good as the writing. (Says someone who knows her way around a lab, even if we’re not in quite the same field.)

Going back to the RPG Blog Network, I scrawl my last Scribble on Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer. I’m not sure if Pointyman’s a native speaker of English, and you really can’t tell from the writing; the words are as well-chosen as just about any blog I’ve read. Ever since his riff on the types of metagaming fun last August, I’ve been making a point of following his blog.

Now that I’ve got the nominations out of the way, the rules.

Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

So there you have it: an exchange of Scribblers.