Thank you to Beaton at Becoming The Muse for nominating me for The Blogger Recognition Award: https://becomingthemuse.wordpress.com/2015/08/16/blogger-recognition-award/

It’s lovely that he thought about my blog, I appreciate it, it’s always nice to get noticed!

Especially when you’re only 5 foot 4 and tend not to stand out in the crowd. My husband is 6 foot 1 and makes me look tiny in comparison!

So my advice to new bloggers would be:

• To get involved, have fun, write or blog about what is in your heart, what inspires you. I’d like to mention a post I did about doing what you love: https://mjmallon.com/2015/03/19/a-writing-award-to-give-yourself-do-what-you-love/
•  Join in challenges. There are so many to choose from, try out a few and see which ones appeal. Join in when you want to and don’t beat yourself up when you haven’t got the time.I usually take part in the following fantastic challenges:
•  I love writing haiku so I’d highly recommend Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/category/haiku-prompt-challenge/
• There’s nothing like a quote to inspire you so I often take part in Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday: http://silverthreading.com/2015/08/26/writers-quote-wednesday-pure-inspiration/
• Recently I started joining in Rachael Ritchey’s Weekly Writing Short Story Blog Battle:  http://rachaelritchey.com/blogbattle/
• This week I had a go at Julia at My Red Page’s Camera Lucida Photography Challenge: https://myredpage.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/camera-lucida-divergent/
•  Try out new things, be spontaneous and adventurous.
• If you can write a Book Review then do, these nuggets of pure gold support authors so much.  Or do Bookish posts and memes such as The Friday 56 via Freda’s Voice: http://www.fredasvoice.com/ or Book Beginnings, via Rose City Readers, http://www.rosecityreader.com/. I particularly take great pleasure in supporting new authors, that’s one particular blogging activity that is very dear to my heart. That’s why I love going to Book festivals, both here in Cambridge, and in Edinburgh, I love discovering new up and coming authors.
• If you do Book Reviews it is a great idea to have an A – Z list of all your reviews. Do this right at the beginning otherwise it is a lot of work to catch up with this. I’m currently compiling my A – Z list of Book Reviews and it’s taking me a long time to do this as I have 58 reviews on this blog and counting …….!!!! EEK!!!
•  Don’t be afraid to be who you are, in fact being yourself is super important, if you pretend to be someone else it will probably show.
• Chat to people via comments, like and appreciate other bloggers posts,  make it a community endeavour.
• Have a laugh, but be serious when you need to. Life is made up of both darkness and light so share both.
• Help and support other bloggers, this is a community so encourage others to fulfil their potential too.
• Get to know other bloggers if you can, meeting them in person at a blogger’s event is such a brilliant thing to do.  But don’t meet up with random strangers, keep safe! I’d recommend this kind of organised event wholeheartedly, even if like me you’re intrinsically shy, push your boundaries. I went along to the Bloggers Bash in London on 1st of August and it was such a success: https://mjmallon.com/2015/08/02/the-bloggers-bash-oh-what-a-day/
• This blogging lark takes time, so be patient, developing a blog isn’t an overnight activity it takes a lot of hard work. I blog at all sorts of weird times of the day, forget to talk to my family, burn the dinner, done it all! Be aware that it is quite addictive!!!!!! No, that’s a lie it is 100% quite addictive.
• Remember to breathe, take in the odd bit of fresh air, watch the squirrels in your garden, don’t sit in front of your keyboard all the time! You have to experience life so you have something to write about.
• Don’t take it personally if people follow your blog and then seem to vanish into thin air, this happens. In fact in general try not to be too sensitive, just shrug it off. If people want to read your blog they will, especially if you write great content, so focus on that. That’s my no. 1 tip.

I’ve been very slow with this post, life has been extremely busy just recently, I’ve been helping out my mum up in Edinburgh after her operation, and taking in some of the sights of The Edinburgh International Festival which I’ve shared with you in my recent blog posts. So that’s my excuse.

To make up for my tardiness I’ll try to make this post as humorous as I can, I like a little giggle….

Blogging, well I never, over a year ago if you’d told me I’d be receiving awards for blogging I would have looked at you as if you were barking mad. I would not have believed it. Also I certainly would not have imagined that I’d end up going to a Bloggers Bash on the 1st August in London. No, I’d say stop teasing me, but yes I did go, and it’s been such an experience. What an adventure. Why didn’t I do this Blogging lark years ago? It’s a terrible setback being such a slow developer, ack, that’s life, have to accept that NOW is my time, and I’m lapping it up, loving each and every minute of this Blogging journey. Oh, a thought just occurred to me Blogging rhymes with Snogging. Random thoughts like this are always creeping into my mind. Have you ever noticed that before? No of course you haven’t, and even if you had you’d keep it to yourself wouldn’t you? There are some similarities between the two words I suppose, kissing is connecting with someone, on a personal level, and blogging does all of these things on a much wider platform….  That’s what I love about blogging you can say the most incredibly nutty things and get away with it…

Well, I hope I got away with it! I mean, please don’t unfollow me!! EEK!!

Awards are the icing on the cake, and a great way to shout out about great blogs. Hopefully the bloggers that I’m nominated accept awards – I know that many bloggers don’t accept awards due to time constraints. If I’ve nominated you and you don’t accept awards that’s fine don’t worry, I won’t turn up on your front door step, stand on my tippee toes, and and force you to join in! This Five Foot Four girl is a gentle soul so no cause for concern on that count.  I’ll just smile and say, “No Can Do, No worries,” blow you a bloggy kiss and get going!

Right, where did all that randomness come from? Started off talking about my small frame and ended up having a bit of a moment. Well I’m writing parts of this while consuming a glass or two of wine, that’s my secret.

The other thing I like about blogging is the way that it encourages you to explore all sorts of creative activities and takes you on new pathways. When I started this blog it was mainly about books, and writing and now it’s kind of expanding in all sorts of directions: haiku,  photography challenges, and general craziness, with a touch of magic. I called it Kyrosmagica so it was bound to happen. I’m casting a spell on you….  Beware!!

Here are the rules of the award which I’ve pinched word for word from Beaton’s blog:

The Rules: 

• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
  Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you.
• Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers.
• Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog.
• List who you’ve nominated in the post.
• Make sure to also attach the award itself! (You can do this by right-clicking, saving, and uploading the image above).
• Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them.
• Provide a link to the award post you created. 
• Provide a link to the original post on Edge Of Night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

Without any more jokes about snogging, casting spells, or yapping on about my lack of height, I’d like to nominate some wonderful blogs for this award:

This is quite tricky as I have nominated quite a few people before for various awards so with this in mind I’ve tried to come up with some new nominees, hope I’ve succeeded, if I’ve nominated you before well that’s my failing memory’s fault…

Here in no particular pecking order, (couldn’t resist that!) my nominees for Blogger Recognition Award are:

The lovely Erika At BookVentureLand.: https://errka220.wordpress.com/

Sharukh Bamboat at India Destination blog. I’ve always wanted to go to India but have never been, so this is my way to go there on a virtual visit: https://indiadestinationsblog.wordpress.com/

Annika Perry’s Excellent Writing Blog. : https://annikaperry.wordpress.com/

Kevin at The Screenplay of Life’s Chronicles. Kevin is a stand up comedian, freelance writer and an excellent photographer: http://kevinhotter.com/

A wonderful poetry blog: https://poemsandpoemes.wordpress.com/

Julia at My Red Page. A girl that likes the colour red, writing and photography. Her blog is very stylish:  https://myredpage.wordpress.com/

For creative endeavours look no further than Wild Daffodil: https://daffodilwild.wordpress.com/

D. Wallace Peach’s wonderful blog, Myths of The Mirror: http://mythsofthemirror.com/

Ameena at Randoms by A Random, poetry enthusiast, and mental health advocate: https://randomsbyarandom.wordpress.com/

EmMakwall Explains it all, especially her passion for films, television, humour, and soundtracks: http://emmakwall.com/

Kayleigh, a Scottish lass who blogs about books, life, and everything in between. She is a fellow Edinburgh Book Festival enthusiast. You can find her blogging at Miserable and Magical: https://kayleighm8.wordpress.com/

Hugh over at Hugh’s Views and News, I met him at the Bloggers Bash in London and he’s a lovely bloke, most definitely one to follow: http://hughsviewsandnews.com/

I’m a devotee of holistic health so I’d recommend Holistic Health Consultant, Reiki Master, and Nutritionalist, Gina Briganti’s  blog: http://ginabriganti.com/

Poet and Author Adam Gainer. Adam is very approachable, a friendly guy who shares my love of poetry.  https://authoradamgainer.wordpress.com/

and a new discovery, check out Denis’s wonderful afghan hounds and his haiku at Haiku Hound:

https://haikuhound.wordpress.com/

Thanks for celebrating this award with me.

Do leave a comment I’d love to hear from you. If you found the advice to new bloggers helpful please do remember to share, thanks so much.

Bye for now.

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx