"Stop the planet, I want to get off!"

 This is me

 No, really. You want to take someone, keep them running around for ten hours a day, studying and writing for five, and then attempting to sleep for six..(that doesn't make 24 but give me a break), when in reality they only get about two or three good hours of sleep on a good night. Do that, and you get me these last two months.

 I hate to complain about having bad days, weeks, but especially months. But May and June were just that. There were nice bits. Beaches, reading, book shopping...tiny bits of relaxing between the running around and almost falling over from lack of sleep.

 Basically, I'm kind of done with life right now and I refuse to let my summer pass like the spring. 

 Summer is too short and fabulous and I MUST do summer things. Dig in the sand, swim, mountain bike, pet wild bears...sit outside in the evening in my little garden.

 I just need a long holiday. I plan to start it in July. All I have to do in July is play with little kids and go and get my eyes checked. I can handle that. No more tests, no more applications - I am praying - no more rushing across town for interviews. Just me, my insane pets, sunshine, and good books. (BECAUSE STEFAN BUCHMANN'S NEWEST BOOK IS MINE AND IT IS GOOD!)

 I am not going to just vanish from the blogging world. But I do need to relax. At the moment I am a coil of on edge nerves and am more jittery than a cat. I need to find a way to start sleeping, to get some time to myself, to unwind, and to stop stressing about all the things which were piled up on my head. I plan to do just that this week. Thanks to my best friend I have good books to read now, pretty chimes to listen to, and just snug little homely things which make me feel I'm not just staying in my flat over the winter.

 Because of how hard life hit, among other things, I got behind on a special blog award tour I am taking part in. I am sharing with you all the lovely and fun information and hope you will like joining in! It is going to be a ton of fun, and it is all about Tolkien, so even better.

 Welcome to the first ever Silmarillion Awards!

The Silmarillion Awards have been created by DJ Edwardson and Jenelle Schmidt as a way to honor J.R.R. Tolkien as the Father of Modern Fantasy, open up a discussion about some of our other favorite fantasy works, and to have a ton of fun this summer.

When we started thinking about creating a sort of “Fantasy Oscars,” we found it difficult to fathom any award that wouldn’t be won by a character or item from The Lord of the Rings... so, to make things a bit more interesting, we decided to call them “The Silmarillion Awards” and have characters from LOTR and The Hobbit present the awards as examples of the ultimate standard for each award. Hopefully that will even the playing field a bit.

Joining our team are eight other bloggers and authors who will each be hosting one of these awards, called Silmarils, on their blogs towards the end of July.

But before we get there, we need YOUR help! Starting today, June 20th and proceeding through July 1st, the nomination period for each award will be open. Please visit the participating bloggers (found in the list below), read the descriptions of the awards and make your nominations!

Nominate characters in the comments of each blog post. If someone has already nominated the character you would have nominated, you may either second that nomination, open a new nomination, or do both. We will be picking the 5 characters with the most “seconds” for the final voting period that will take place between July 4th - 13th, so you may also “third,” “fourth,” “fifth,” etc any nominations you particularly like.

Fine print:

1. Please do not nominate anything from one of your OWN books!
2. You may nominate a character AND second, third, fourth a character... but please only vote once. You can nominate and/or second as many characters as you would like in each award (i.e. You cannot nominate a character and then also second that same character)
3. Please share about the Silmarillion Awards on social media to spread the excitement far and wide across Middle Earth. Use the hashtag: #silmawards2016 wherever possible!
4. Don’t nominate a Tolkien character for the awards, as the characters presenting the awards are already the standard for each award
5. Don’t stress if a character you nominate doesn’t win this year. We are hoping to make this an annual tradition, and these awards are LIFETIME AWARDS, meaning that they cannot be won by the same character more than once!

Official Schedule:

Phase 1 - June 20-July 1: Award nominations open

Phase 2 - July 4: the final nominees will be announced and voting will open and last through July 14th

Phase 3 - July 16-28: Presentation of the awards, 1 per day, each award will be hosted on a different blog each day

Phase 4 - Celebration! July 29th was the official publication date of the Lord of the Rings back in 1954. We invite you all to celebrate with us the 62nd birthday of this masterpiece of Fantasy Fiction. Congratulate the winners, take and post a photo of yourselves with LOTR paraphernalia, write a blog post about your favorite LOTR moment, scene, character, quote, or memory... get creative and have fun!

List of Participating Blogs:

DJ Edwardson Hosting the Best Friend Silmaril

Jenelle Schmidt Hosting the Most Heart Wrenching Death Scene Silmaril

Deborah O’Carroll Hosting the Strangest Character Silmaril

Abbey Hosting the Most Nefarious Villain Silmaril

JL Mbewe Hosting the Best Redemption Story Silmaril

Tracey Hosting the Riddling and Poetry Silmaril

Jack Lewis Baillot Hosting the Best Fantasy Mount Silmaril

Madeline J. Rose Hosting the Most Epic Hero Silmaril

Zachary Totah Hosting the Wisest Counsellor Silmaril

Rawls E. Fantasy Hosting the Best Fantasy Weapon Silmaril

 And now for me. I have with me Eomer....YES! Horse Master. Nephew of King Theoden, brother to Eowyn. He stayed for tea...be envious. He will be presenting the award for Best Fantasy Mount. 

 *Stands up, peers at the microphone, frowns, clears throat, removes helmet, looks fabulous.*

The Best Fantasy Mount Silmaril should go to a creature who is loyal, steadfast, noble, and fleet of foot or wing. This steed should be something special and play an important role in his or her story. 

Let the voting begin!!