Awards big and small

I am so flattered: the wonderful Sue Guiney has given me a Kreativ Blogger award - which comes with a sting as I have to list 7 things I love, and if you think I'm going to tell the whole truth about my lusts and obsessions, you've got another think coming!!

Here are some things I love which I don't mind confessing, though:

1. My partner, John (soppy, moi?)

2. My kids (mumsy, moi?)

3. Finishing a piece of writing and thinking it's OK (self-satisfied, moi?)

4. Being with actors, which I have been this week, and who are some of the most open, generous, stimulating and witty people in the world, even though those who don't know think they're just show-offs.

5. Walking in Snowdon.

6. New shoes (or rather, charity-shop shoes in outrageous impractical styles I'd never buy new) (Fetish, moi?)

7. Cabbage. Yum.

And now I have to make this award to 7 creative bloggers I love. I know that many of my favourite bloggers have already received this award, but here are some who may not have, though I could well be wrong: Charles Lambert, Caroline Smailes, Keeper of the Snails, The Volatile Rune, Barbara's Bleeugh!, The Richard Madeley Appreciation Society, Maitresse.

And a fabulous piece of news. The longlist has been announced for the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award: a stunning 57 collections are on it and thus receive the international publicity which this award was set up to provide for a form which generally gets little attention. And alongside authors such as Ali Smith and Kazuo Ishiguro, there are eight Salt authors :

Tania Hershman, The White Road

Sue Hubbard, Rothko’s Red

Alex Keegan, Ballistics

Charles Lambert, The Scent of Cinnamon

André Mangeot, A Little Javanese

John Saul, As Rivers Flow

Mark Illis, Tender

Robert Graham, The Only Living Boy