I had the honor of being nominated today for the Sunshine Blogger Award by the fabulous and inspiring Jasper Kerkau and the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective.  The Sunshine Blogger’s Award recognizes bloggers who are positive and creatively inspiring. This is my first blogging award nomination and my understanding is the rules stated are as such:

• Thank whoever nominated your blog – Me in this case!
  • Indulge yourself and answer any questions you feel happy to answer.
  • Spread that radiance to some other awesome blogs to keep the light shining brightly.
  • Use these questions or make up your own to ask your nominees.
  • Tell your nominees that they have been nominated.
  • Put your preferred logo award on display.- I chose the one above.  Ginkgo trees are considered to represent resilience, endurance and vitality.  They have fascinated me since I was a child.

I strongly urge you to check out the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective’s blog as well as the blog pages of the contributing writers.  In addition to containing some of the most awe-inspiring, deep and brilliant writing I’ve ever read, the human beings who contribute to it shine like stars in the universe. They fully embrace their lightness and their darkness. They are kind, supportive, complex and fascinating people that I am honored to share a community with.

Questions and Answers

How did Brave and Reckless come about?

I had not seriously written for my own fulfillment in many, many years when my increasingly long and rambling Facebook posts started to make an impression both on my personal homepage as well as in several Mount Holyoke College Alumnae private group pages.   A WordPress blog was suggested to me several times but I didn’t really take it too seriously.  I honestly didn’t think I had that much to say.

On October 8, 2016, I posted a personal essay entitled What Every Woman Knows that I was asked repeatedly to make more publicly available for sharing.  So I thought “why not?” and started the blog that day.  I had a real “aha” moment when I chose the name Brave and Reckless—something really clicked for me and I realized that maybe I did have a unique point of view and that maybe I did want to share it.  I was a little intimidated and thrilled when over 1,200 read that first post on October 8^th but I haven’t stopped writing since!

What are the goals of Brave and Reckless moving forward?

Wow, goals insinuate that I ever had a long-range plan when I started this blog!  I originally thought that maybe I would post an occasional personal essay. What I discovered is that I am passionately in love with writing poetry and short fiction.  I would like to refine my skills in conveying a lot with fewer words and continue to really reach people emotionally.  The most rewarding part of blogging is when someone shares with me that something I wrote really resonated with them or made them think.

Who do you have to thank for Brave and Reckless?

I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to all the amazing Mount Holyoke alums who encouraged me, shared their personal experiences with me, who told me that I had a unique voice that should be heard and who continue to read my writing.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jasper Kerkau.  I sent Jasper a gushing fan email about the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective’s site.  This is something I had never done before but I was just so blown away and excited about them that I couldn’t help it.  He has been incredibly encouraging of my writing and generous with his mentorship ever since. The whole Sudden Denouement Literary Collective are pretty fabulous and have both encouraged me to take myself seriously as a writer and a poet and pushed me to put out my best work every day.  They really raise the bar high.

I also owe a big shout out to Felicia Denise of Miss Nesie’s Place.  Ms. Felicia has been a vocal supporter of my writing and is always willing to give advice or an ego boost when I need it.

My nominations for the Daisy award are:

Sarah Doughty of Heartstring Eulogies– she is one of the first writers I started to follow on WordPress and I look forward to reading her every day.  Her writing is spare and beautiful and haunting.

Rob Marc Lev of Just Ruminating– Rob is good people and his mind is a fascinating place.  He is deeply human, has a great sense of humor about himself and life and is a comforting presence in the virtual ether.  He just gets it.

Thank you, Jasper and the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective for taking me into fold and giving me an opportunity to bask in your brilliance

I am honored by this award and your continued faith in me

Christine Ray

Brave and Reckless