I don’t have an official credit for this image, but whomever created it, thank you! I love vintage typewriters!!

Wow. I’m so humbled to say that I was nominated for another award. I was nominated for the Bloggers Recognition Award by gettingthroughanxiety. She has an amazing blog – One that I can relate to on a personal level.

Thank you!

The Rules:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Write a post to show your award.
• Attach the award to the post.
• Give a brief story on how your blog started.
• Give a piece of advice or two to new bloggers.
• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
• Comment on each blog and let them know you nominated them and provide a link to the award post you created.

A Brief Story on How Hot Shot Headlines Started:

This blog started, in part, with Dr. Bill Stuart, affectionately known as Dr. B. I took his Computer-Mediated Communications class at Longwood University in the spring of 2010. One of our assignments was to create a blog, on any topic we wished, and do regular posts throughout the semester. Admittedly, I wasn’t too fond of the class – It felt like I was learning a lot of the same information that I had been taught for the last three years as a Communication Studies, Mass Media major.

Oh, how young and stupid (a.k.a., absolutely wrong) I was.

My blog was called “The Best Entertainment You’ve Never Seen!” and I structured it around the Greenwood Library’s selection of DVDs. I picked movies that I figured most of my classmates and friends had never seen, watched them, and then wrote synopses of them. I started to enjoy the assignment about halfway through the class. Along the way, I realized that I was growing fond of Dr. B. and his teaching methods.

By the end of that semester, I knew I wanted to keep blogging, but start something that was truly my own. It took a couple of tries before I arrived here, but I’m grateful for that process.

Sadly, Dr. B. passed away from a heart attack just a few weeks into the fall semester of 2012. He was just 44 years old. It had been more than a year since I had graduated, but the entire COMMunity was devastated.

I have to give credit to him, for giving that assignment, which opened my eyes to blogging. I realized that blogging was a great platform for my writing, especially if I wanted to become a published novelist at some point.

So, here’s to you, Dr. B. Thank you for inspiring me!

In addition, writing is one of my biggest therapies. I’ve enjoyed writing since the age of 10, and I’m thrilled that I have this platform available to me to do so. When I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) last summer, I knew this blog was one of the best medicines for me. It’s been a wonderful outlet.

My Advice to New Bloggers:

• As others have said, blogging is about writing what’s important to you, the writer. Your blog is a platform for you to express yourself. Listen to your heart.
• It doesn’t matter how often you write or post. Don’t put pressure on yourself to write every day. Don’t set a schedule, if you don’t want to. Everyone is different.
• If you want people to read your blog, it’s important to share it. I’ve gotten so much feedback just by sharing my blog posts to my personal Facebook page. It makes a huge difference!

My 15 Nominees:

1. Virginia Ashley Photography
2. Earth Pilgrim
3. Ordinary Adventures
4. David Snape and Friends
5. Nerdy Book Club
6. Just Wunderlust
7. Sincerely Reine
8. Toulouse and Tonic
9. Becky Due – Author
10. The Melodramatic Confessions of Carla Louise
11. Simply Marquessa
12. The Daily Kickstand
13. Brilliance Within
14. Freckled Italian
15. BeautyBeyondBones

All of these nominees are amazing in their own way. Two of these writers are women that I know personally – Virginia Ashley and Freckled Italian. The rest are those who have followed my blog, liked a post, or commented on a post. Thank you to all of you for your support in my blogging journey!

And, thanks again to gettingthroughanxiety for the nomination!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂