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Kathryn Mayer • Writing Out Loud

I write stuff down. writer • humorist • activist

You can’t win if you don’t play: I won something

April 27, 2017 by Kate Mayer 21 Comments

Check me out: I’ve been a woman with a mission, checking goals off my to-do list, entering contests, submitting stories, doing what needs to be done as a writer with bills to pay, people to see, and places to go.

I send away, then check things off my list like it’s Taquitos and toilet paper at Costco, vowing to throw spaghetti at the walls until something of mine sticks.

It stuck.

Apparently, I have a voice.

Kathryn Mayer is a BlogHer17 Voice of the YearActually, a Voice of the Year. VOTY. Me. This girl right here.

I am a BlogHer 2017 Voices of the Year Honoree for an essay about my college kid leaving her stuffed animals behind.

Really.

Kate Mayer VOTY 2017This is a really big deal, this Voices of the Year (VOTY) Honoree thingy, and I’m thrilled, humbled, and honored, after emailing the contact to make sure it was for real.

My essay, When Your College Baby Leaves Her Lovey Behind, was published at Grown & Flown, and I’m forever grateful (but sure am missing VOTY traffic to my own blog and Facebook page).

The honorees are headed to the BlogHer17 conference in Orlando, and I have to do the math to see if I’ll attend. We’ll see.

But wait, there’s more.

Several of my essays were won acknowledgement by the Connecticut Press Club with first (MIL Gift Giving) and second places (My First Love Met the Man I Married) for on-line features stories, but wait, there’s more.

Kathryn Mayer wins CT Press Club Award

My blog, Kathryn Mayer • Writing Out Loud, this one you’re reading right now, won 1st place for Best Personal Blog in the state of Connecticut. This one. Mine.

CT Press Club

First Place, Best Personal Blog

 KathrynMayer.com • Writing Out Loud

Doesn’t happen if I don’t send it in. Nothing will ever happen if I don’t do something to make things happen. Nothing sitting on my desktop in a folder, or scrawled in composite notebooks teetering on the nightstand, will ever get printed anywhere. Never.

None of my ideas or essays will win any awards or be considered for bigger audiences if they sit dormant in my mind so all I can do is keep checking things off the list, and let the spaghetti fall where it may.

Thanks for listening. And reading. And sharing. And cheering, both on-line on Facebook, and on line in the grocery store.

Let me buy you a beer or a coffee sometime to say thanks, would that be okay?


How the green grass grows: kids chores make for good growing
When a topic is too political to talk about and why you should anyways

Comments

  1. Lisa Labella says

    April 27, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    I knew it would happen!! CONGRATULATIONS, so very proud of you!!!

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 28, 2017 at 9:18 am

      Thanks, hoping to celebrate at the Diner soon!

      Reply
  2. Gabi Coatsworh says

    April 27, 2017 at 9:51 pm

    So much spaghetti sticking to the walls! Congratulations- you worked your ass off for this, and I love to see your talent recognized. Yippee!

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 28, 2017 at 9:18 am

      much in thanks to you and Writers Rendezvous my friend. Holding our feet to the fire! xo

      Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 28, 2017 at 9:18 am

      much in thanks to you and Writers Rendezvous my friend. Holding our feet to the fire! xo

      Reply
  3. Robin K says

    April 27, 2017 at 11:58 pm

    Having coffee with you? OMG yes.

    So happy and excited for you, Kate. Dewey was a long time ago but woman, I knew it then.

    You rock thanks for hucking spagetti at us. Al dente is definitely not your style. Yay!

    So grateful that writing your ass off is one of the ways that you do life. BIG.

    xo

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 28, 2017 at 9:17 am

      xo smooches

      Reply
  4. Carol ("Mimi") says

    April 28, 2017 at 3:55 pm

    Yaayyy!! Congratulations!

    Reply
  5. Ann says

    April 28, 2017 at 4:07 pm

    Congratulations! Off to share some of your words!

    Reply
  6. Bonnie K. Aldinger says

    April 28, 2017 at 4:11 pm

    Congratulations, and I love the doll story! I still have some of my old stuffed animals!

    Reply
  7. Marquita Herald says

    April 29, 2017 at 3:00 am

    My first visit to your blog, but I’m a writer so I totally get your excitement. Congratulations on your achievements and keep at it!

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 29, 2017 at 10:16 pm

      welcome, and thank you!

      Reply
  8. Keith Stewart says

    April 29, 2017 at 12:41 pm

    Congratulations! Well deserved!

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 29, 2017 at 10:16 pm

      thanks funny guy!

      Reply
  9. Risa says

    April 29, 2017 at 2:13 pm

    And to think I ate cake next to greatness at Erma! Well-deserved success, lady. Bask in the afterglow. Actually, this is a timely message to all of us writers, so thanks!

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 29, 2017 at 10:15 pm

      No doubt your light spilled over! Set your alarm for December for EBWW 2018 tix!

      Reply
  10. Summer Price says

    April 29, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    That is awesome, congratulations. It is always nice when hard work is rewarded!

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      April 29, 2017 at 10:14 pm

      thx friend!

      Reply
  11. Kathy Radigan says

    April 30, 2017 at 5:51 am

    Awesome!!!! So well deserved!!!

    Reply
    • Kate Mayer says

      May 1, 2017 at 3:49 pm

      thx friend!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Career advice for writers and bloggers that should be ignored says:
    February 6, 2019 at 9:57 pm

    […] attended a writing conference a few years back and chatted it up with a blogger I met on the bus. After the initial: Got a blog? […]

    Reply

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About Kathryn Mayer

Kathryn Mayer

An irreverent storyteller with a foul mouth and big heart, Kathryn Mayer (aka Kathy and/or Kate) is a writer, humorist, and (former) activist writing out loud with humor and grace about little life moments with big ripples, including the space between parenting and aging parents, social issues, angsty reflections of midlife, and, sigh, gun humpers. Still. Sometimes a big deal, sometimes not Mayer is a national award-winning columnist, according to the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, and her essays have been recognized as Voice of … Read More Here...

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