Thank you so much to both Vivian over at Outside Hook, Lia over at BookLand, Analee at Book Snacks and Safa at Books Over People for nominating me for the Blogger Recognition Award! Once again, sorry it’s taken me so long to respond…

The rules for this award are:

• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to. 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 or the one below – there seem to be two different images).
• 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!

How my blog started:

Earlier this year I finished my final draft (for now!) of my first novel, Art and Soul. Before I started writing another book, and while submitting my work to literary agents (a long process which involves a lot of waiting), I wanted to find another way to keep writing. And a blog seemed like a good idea! I’d thought about starting one for ages, but never seemed to get around to it. I’m glad I finally did as I’ve met lots of lovely people and discovered loads of wonderful books and recipes.

Tips for new bloggers? I have a couple: one non-techy and one techy. Firstly, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to post super-frequently. Post at a rhythm that’s right for you so blogging doesn’t become a stressful experience. It’s supposed to be fun!

The other tip is about your favicon (aka “blavatar” on WP.com). This is the little square image that appears up in the top navigation bar of your web browser next to your website/page name in each tab. For example:

Next to Art and Soul you get the little heart in the square. Twitter always has the blue bird. If you don’t load an image to be your favicon, the blue WordPress icon will appear as your favicon. This is a shame – putting your own image here is another way to help your readers recognise your blog.

It’s so easy to set up. Go to My Site > WP Admin >Settings (down near the bottom of the black menu on the left) > General > On the right you’ll see a white square with the title “Blog Picture /Icon”. Load here the picture you want to appear as your favicon.

It can take a few days for your favicon to start appearing. It will show up eventually!

If these instructions aren’t detailed enough and you’d like some more pointers/pictures, let me know 🙂 Also, here’s the WP support post about blavatars.

My nominations

Honestly, I don’t know many people who haven’t already got this award! So anyone reading this who would like to write a post about why they started blogging and share some tips for new bloggers can consider themselves nominated!

Thank you once again to Vivian, Lia, Analee and Safa for nominating me!

 Claire Huston / Art and Soul