Today, I have 3 different things to post about. They are all different, so bear with me. 
I’m going to be all over the map!
First, some very exciting news.
I was awarded the Liebster Blog Award! A huge thank you to Carrie Fancett Pagels with her blog Overcoming Through Time for this award. Carrie’s blog focuses on interviews and reviews of historical fiction. She is most passionate about America during the Colonial years. She can also be found at Colonial Quills.
The Liebster is awarded to bloggers with less than 200 followers. It is an opportunity to shine the light on great blogs and their authors in an effort to build readership.
Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
2. Give the Liebster Blog Award to five bloggers and let them know in a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. Have blogging fun!
And now, for the new winners of the Liebster Blog Award:
- Lynnette Eason – Infinite Suspense: A blog about Lynette Eason, writing and books
- Jessica R. Patch – romantic suspense, overflowing hope
- Katie McCurdy – Legacy of a writer: The thoughts and ponderings of an aspiring teenage writer
- Susan Tuttle – Steps
- Michelle Massaro – Michelle’s Adventures in Writing
Second, I hate to ask this, but…
(yeah, you heard that “but” coming, didn’t you?) can I ask you to follow me either on this blog or on my facebook page? And if you like what you usually see here, will you mention it to your friends?
Last week, I learned through Mary Connealy on Seekers that a huge part of being a successful author is to build a readership and fan base before you are published. This has always sounded impossible to me. In this article, You may not know it but you’re marketing, she asked us to google our names to see how many hits pop up.
Mine was embarrassingly low. The only advantage on my hits that I could see was that because of my unusual name and spelling, they were all me. Several of us had to sort through the chaff to find ourselves.
This feels very awkward – googling your name, that is. Have you ever done it? If you haven’t, go ahead and do it now. How many hits did you get? What was the first thing that popped up?
I’m at 18,500 hits with my twitter page being the very first thing to pop up.
Third, let’s talk about brain power!
Jessica Patch wrote a really interesting post last Friday about how we think in different ways. It’s a quick 20 question test that measures whether you are more right or left brained.
Here’s my results.
Auditory : 47%
Visual : 52%
Left : 47%
Right : 52%
If you click on the little link it will clarify your results for you.
Sheri, you are one of those rare individuals who are perfectly “balanced” in both your hemispheric tendencies and your sensory learning preferences. However, there is both good news and bad news.
Of course there is, isn’t there always?
A problem with hemispheric balance is that you will tend to feel more conflict than someone who has a clearly established dominance. At times the conflict will be between what you feel and what you think but will also involve how you attack problems and how you perceive information. Details which will seem important to the right hemis- phere will be discounted by the left and vice versa, which can present a hindrance to learning efficiently.
I’m at war with myself and I have a learning disability. Tell me about it! Ha!
In the same vein, you may have a problem with organization. You might organize your time and/or space only to feel the need to reorganize five to ten weeks later.
I told my husband this part and he laughed and laughed. Again, very true.
On the positive side, you bring resources to problem-solving that others may not have. You can perceive the “big picture” and the essential details simultaneously and maintain the cognitive perspective required. You possess sufficient verbal skills to translate your intuition into a form which can be understood by others while still being able to access ideas and concepts which do not lend themselves to language.
This would be why I can never answer people when they ask me if I’m “big picture or details”. I’m both!
Your balanced nature might lead you to second-guess yourself in artistic endeavors, losing some of the fluidity, spontaneity and creativity that otherwise would be yours.
Interesting…
With your balanced sensory styles, you process data alternately, at times visually and other times auditorially. This usage of separate memories may cause you to require more time to integrate information or re-access it. When presented with situations which force purely visual or purely auditory learning, increased anxiety is likely and your learning efficiency will decrease.
There they go with learning disabilities again…
Your greatest benefit is that you can succeed in multiple fields due to the great plasticity and flexibility you possess.
Okay, I shared mine, how about you?
Take the test here and come back and share. How accurate was your test?
I am afraid to take the test, Sheri! But congrats on The Liebster Award and many blessings! It is so great having you in The MidAtlantic Zone.
Thanks, Carrie!
Well I took the test and found the results interesting. Below are my results.
Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 61%
Visual : 38%
Left : 57%
Right : 42%
jess, you are mildly left-hemisphere dominant while showing a slight preference for auditory processing. This overall combination seems to indicate a well-working blend of logic and judgment and organization, with sufficient intuition, perception and creativity to balance that dominance.
You will at times experience conflict between how you feel and what you think which will generally be resolved in favor of what you think. You will find yourself interested in the practical applications of whatever material you have learned or whatever situation you face and will retain the ability to refine whatever knowledge you possess or aspects of whatever position you are in.
By and large, you will orient yourself toward intellectual activities and structure. Though not rigid, you will schedule yourself, plan, and focus on routine and continuity of operations, rather than on changes and disruptions
When changes or disruptions occur, you are likely to consider first how to ensure that such disruptions do The same balance is reflected in your sensory preference. You will tend to be reflective and measured in your interaction style. For the most part, you will be considered objective without being cold and goal-oriented while retaining the capacity to listen to others.
Preferentially you learn by listening and maintaining significant internal dialogues with yourself. Nevertheless, you have sufficient visualization capabilities to benefit from using graphs, charts, doodles, or even body movement to enhance your comprehension and memory.
To the extent that you are even implicitly aware of your hemispheric dominance and sensory style, you will feel most comfortable in those arenas which emphasize verbal skills and logic. Teaching, law, and science are those that stand out among the professions, along with technical sales and management.
That’s really cool, Jess. Is it accurate?
Ya know I’m kinda up in the air about it. I have always considered myself as being more of a visual person. And sometimes I have to read things thru a few times before I “get It”. I would NEVER consider going into Law, but I have always enjoiyed sharing what I have learned with others. So overall I found it some what accurate and very enlighten. I have always liked taking these type of “test”. I remember one time listening to a type A, type B etc. personality profile and thinking to myself “Wow, I have multiply personalities! lol
I got the exact same results as you did, Jess L, and thought the same thing too. I am not an auditory person. I can’t help my kids with their math problems if they are asking me a question from the other side of the room, I have to look at the paper. I cannot spell well aloud, I have to write the word out. And I cannot think with noise. But other than that, the rest was pretty accurate for me! Especially the part about internal dialogue. I am always chattering away inside my brain to the point it’s annoying, lol. I analyze everything to death, make lots of lists even though my house is covered in piles of unorganized papers. It was an interesting test. =)
Sheri, thank you so much for the Liebster award! =)
What do they say? Great minds think alike.
I guess you are the two with the great minds!! lol!
After two completely hectic, crazy days, how nice to come home to this:) Thanks so much Sheri for sharing with me…and I LOVE your site. I’ll try and pass on the award and keep linking too. I agree, it’s hard and almost awkward to build your “platform”, but you’re a natural. You do it with grace:)
You are very welcome, Susan. I think it’s more of a tag than an award, because I googled and couldn’t find any information on it, but still it’s fun!
Awesome! On your brain test. I can’t believe I missed coming by this day. Thanks for the award, I’m linking back to you on Friday!
I’ve googled my name and I pop up all over the page. I have no idea about hits or what it all means. Cuz, I’m me and you know what that means! lol
lol
Yeah and I’m me with the learning disability…good thing I was homeschooled!!
Thanks for the award! I plan on posting it tomorrow, if nothing changes.
And I already follow you! I searched for myself on Google too and, besides a lady by the name of Kathrine McCurdy who has the url katiemccurdy.com, I’m kinda near the top. Kinda, lol!
That’s awesome!
I hope you got more hits than I did. Bummer that Katiemccurdy.com is already taken.
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