{"id":978,"date":"2019-03-11T19:55:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T19:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/?p=978"},"modified":"2019-03-11T19:55:42","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T19:55:42","slug":"an-ant-in-an-army-of-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/11\/an-ant-in-an-army-of-ants\/","title":{"rendered":"An ant in an army of ants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not easy to stand out and get noticed unless you are willing to rob a bank and get caught on the surveillance camera. Then you can become an overnight sensation. If you&#8217;re looking for a slightly more positive way to be recognized, it takes \u00a0talent, perseverance and perhaps a bit of luck. As a writer, I do not choose my topic or slant my story with the intention of being recognized by the masses or winning a prize. I simply want to engage readers (especially the reluctant ones) in a fun experience of story. However, I have to admit that when one of my books receives special recognition from the book industry, I stand a little straighter and feel like my career is the best one in the world!\u00a0There&#8217;s a lot of competition for book awards so I was especially shocked when my first book, Henry you&#8217;re late AGAIN! earned a first place award for humor ahead of a book written by famous comedian, Jeff Foxworthy. Go figure.<\/p>\n<p>Today I opened my email to 42 unread emails. I was nearly done when I opened the one that said\u00a0<em><strong>Claire&#8217;s Hair<\/strong><\/em> has been named a finalist for the Foreword Review Children&#8217;s Picture Book of the Year Award! Over 2200 entries. I would love to be named the winner (stay tuned for that announcement in June!) but for now, I&#8217;m very happy with the honor of being recognized among so many worthy writers.\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-979 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/INDIES-in-it-to-win-it-300x151.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/INDIES-in-it-to-win-it-300x151.png 300w, https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/INDIES-in-it-to-win-it.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not easy to stand out and get noticed unless you are willing to rob a bank and get caught on the surveillance camera. Then you can become an overnight sensation. If you&#8217;re looking for a slightly more positive way to be recognized, it takes \u00a0talent, perseverance and perhaps a bit of luck. As a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":980,"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marybleckwehl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}