I got something in the mail recently; not quite like this…
More like this…
Thankfully, I have a few words handy for such occasions:
I want to thank the Academy for the recognition. I want to thank the studio for believing in the project; our director for overseeing the shoot; the wonderful cast for bringing these characters to life so fully; the folks at the agency for getting everyone into the room in the first place; my wife Susan and son James; my parents; my f-
Aw crap, wait- that’s my Oscar acceptance speech; wrong file, gimme a sec…
Ah, going to have to build one from scratch, then:
The Versatile Blogger Award set a few rules for its nominees:
1. Thank the award-givers and link back to them in your post.
-OK, first off, my thanks to Amanda Young at Storyteller in the Digital Age for putting me forward for this. Wishing her the best as she gets geared up to play the writing game…
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
-Well, they require it, so…
a. I have a major interest in history. It started in part because of my dad, who got his PhD in the field and is passionate about it; while other kids got the Three Little Pigs for bedtime tales, the sibs and I got the Song of Roland, which looking back was probably a better deal than we realized then…
b. I have a particular passion for alternative history, aka allohistory or AltHis. It was probably inevitable; as a kid handling a lot of history at a young age, the inevitable question at the end of the narrative tends to be, “So how come this didn’t happen?” So when I finally get exposed to The Man In The High Castle and Bring the Jubilee of course I was going to devour those.
c. Yes, I am a major Beatles fan. In addition to all the history I had as a kid, I nearly destroyed my parents’ copies of Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road playing those LPs to death. Which ultimately comes together years later with the AltHis pursuit when I wrote for the webzine Rooftop Sessions such tales as “Act Naturally,” “Magneto and Titanium Man,” “Out of Gear” and my presonal favorite, “One Bright, Shining Moment.”
d. Speaking of alternate history, I came close to a radically different personal path when I seriously considered not going to college and enlisting in the United States Navy. I’m not sure the shape I was in at the time they’d have taken me, but for a few weeks there I did say “Screw the SATs!” and looked into how to report for enlistment. This of course would have broken my parents’ heart; in addition to everything else involved in such a decision, there was the consideration that most of the family that served went into the Army, which would have made my choice doubly embarrassing. (Had I done so, I could see myself at family reunions wearing a shirt with the line from Duck Soup emblazoned on it: JOIN THE ARMY AND SEE THE NAVY…)
e. One of my first semi-serious writing gigs in college was a film reviewer, where I learned how to write to deadline as I wrote about movies. This gave me a love of film and an appreciation of the form. This said, no, I’m not going to start writing film reviews; the last thing I need is Tom Brazelton and Gordon McAlpin to come after me for trying to cut in on their action. Worse, Joe Dunn is local and knows me on sight, so he could probably find where I live easily…
f. I’ve actually gotten up to sing a few times and gotten some good notices for it. I have to admit the folks I sang along with a few of those times with were far, far better than me, so maybe I did have some cover; the solos I undertook didn’t get me stoned, though, so maybe I do have something there…
g. I have always been into comic books and comic strips since way too long ago. In fact, when I discovered webcomics, I thought about how I could try and get in on this movement; however, as the only thing I draw well are stares when I say something stupid, I had to reconsider that, and instead settled on emulating the webcomic business model as a means of getting my work out there, so…
3. Pass this award along 15 or 20.
-Hoo-boy, that could be an issue; I follow a few blogs, some of whom have gotten this duty, and I’m not sure what etiquette is involved if they get dinged a second time. Also, some of the folks I follow are technically webcomics, not blogs, so there’s a whole taxonomic quandary involved herein…
Nonetheless, in no order that suggests any favoritism whatsoever…
Brave and the Bold/Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues
A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
May Pang’s Asian Media Internet News
Sailor Twain, or The Mermaid In The Hudson
The Bowery Boys: New York City History
4. Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.
-Being done soon upon posting of this.
And if I forgot to mention someone that needed a word or said something out of turn, hit me up for a pint.
That line, by the way, is how I’d end the Oscar speech too…
James Ryan 
Congrats on the award! You have a lot of fun & interesting stuff going on here, so you definitely deserve it! 🙂
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Thanks, Susan!
I hope I can live up to the requirements and expectations of the award, as a few of these blogs I’m trying to pass on notification to make it difficult to let them know they got mentioned here. When you got yours, did you run into this, and if so, how’d you handle that?
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congratulations on your award. I do like the blogging awards season 🙂
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Thank you, Pete. Lord willing, these seasons don’t run like they do for other media, with months of guessing in the media and lots of studio money to try and outspend the other entrants in crowding them out of the voter’s attention. The day bloggers compete for attention with a campaign worthy of the Grammys, we all become a lot poorer…
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