TREATS for a Thursday's Readings

My apologies here. I have been very remiss, neglecting my promises to give out TREATS to bloggers who really do deserve 'em. I meant to do this Tuesday night but got waylaid when our power went out - again! And then, it kept going out, coming back, going out, brown outs, etc. till almost 3 a.m. I have no clue what the reason was for this outage but we had it none the less.

And so, without further ado, here's some more very well-deserved TREATS.

Today, I'd like to take everyone in a different direction via bloggers - to honor several of my favorite bloggers who are - legitimately - authors, writers, and/or photo-journalists! A few I've found via other blogs and such but some of these are also members of a great writer's group I joined about two years go. Some are writers in the writing stage, others have actually had books published as well, but all really deserve a great big Sweet TREAT for working diligently at this craft.

For this blogger - Authorblog - Australian, David McMahon, an award winning photographer/journalist plus he has one book - "Vegemite Vindaloo" that was on the best-seller list for several months in 2006 and has just finished writing his second book, "Muskoka Maharani," a big, big TREAT. David also has a great blog full of his photos, lots of quips from around the world and often mentors writers/bloggers as well.

The next stop is James Burnett's blog - Burnett's Urban Etiquette - where this journalist, a writer for the Miami Herald, discusses various behavior patterns within society. A great place to read his take on all kinds of topics plus get a chance to read many of the articles he writes for the newspaper. Stop and read his posts and get to know a real gentleman in the process. A big TREAT for you, James!

This young lady from Oklahoma is a budding author - has two books she's currently working on, writes some great poetry too and organized writer that she is, just returned from a four-week stay at Eureka Springs working strictly on her craft of writing. In addition to being a great writer in the making, she is also very talented and makes and sells - to order - jewelry! Way to go Jen Nipps who gets the Third TREAT here today!

Number four getting a Sweet TREAT today is blogger/writer/mother Heather Armstrong and her blog, the very popular Dooce. One of Heather's "claims to fame" is that she was I think the first person fired for blogging about her workplace. Today, she writes/blogs from home and if you've never read any of her work, brace yourself - don't risk trying to drink coffee or soda or anything else, while reading her work is one warning I will put here about her blog. She is at times outrageously funny but also, a devoted wife and mother who also can write equally well about that aspect of her life. Check it out; see for yourself!

A great member of the Writer's Life group, Laura Crawford, has her own Writing Service, participates in the Write a Novel in a Month group and is just a darned nice writer to get to know. She's been working on editing/polishing up the novel she wrote for last year's competition and getting ready to have another go at writing another next month.

The Sixth member of this elite group is Marilyn Celeste Morris - who has a book about the disease Lupus as well as three other books to her credit - "Sabbath's Room," Once A Brat" and "The Women of Camp Sobingo." Marilyn draws very heavily from her own life experiences for all of her great works, plus as a member of the Writer's Life group, she's a big help to other beginners in the writing trade.

This young lady, Sandy Lender, is accomplished in many areas - writing as well as editing - and just had her first novel - of the epic fantasy genre - "Choices Meant For Gods" published this past spring. She frequently posts lots and lots of tips about writing, including occasionally having a "Word of the Day" feature too plus being bright, adventurous, funny and very, very good at her craft too. You can get her book through Amazon, Barnes and Noble too - for openers as well as ordering it from other book stores if they don't already have it on their shelves. Stop by Sandy's place and tell her Jeni sent you there.

Finally, Dorothy Thompson has this blog -"The Writer's Life" with loads and loads of information in it about many things pertaining to writing, blogging, publishing, advertising books too. Dorothy is one very busy lady who wears many hats and also has the Yahoo Writer's Life writing group that is very helpful for those who are published writers, aspiring writers or people who just enjoy writing and might someday want to try their hand at doing it as their true calling in life too.

The above bloggers currently on my favorites list are just a few of many writers who also indulge in blogging. They work very hard at their craft and all are very good at what the do too. And, I probably could include everyone on my blog favorites list as a "writer" too because after all, that is what we all do too, isn't it?

Enjoy the Sweet TREATS for today and thanks to each and every single one of these folks for providing some great reading materials for the rest of us to enjoy.