Sunshine Blogger Award 2026

Posted byJennifer NealPosted ininterview, personalTags:, , ,



Full disclosure: I’ve heard of this award. I’ve known bloggers who’ve won it. (I think.) But I never really paid attention to what it is exactly. That being said, I’m going to do my best to participate especially since I’ve been nominated.

Thank you so much, Michael, for putting me in the rounds.

So here goes, as there are some rules:

Here’s the participation rules:

  1. Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog
  2. Thank the person who nominated you
  3. Provide a link to your nominator’s blog
  4. Answer your nominator’s questions
  5. Nominate up to eleven bloggers
  6. Ask your nominees eleven questions
  7. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blogs

Alright, that’s simple enough. So here’s my response to Michael’s questions:

1. What is a weird thought that lives rent-free in your head?

There are a million weird thoughts in my head at all times but I’ll choose one for the sake of the question: If there really are a billion parallel me’s running around somewhere in different parallel timelines, & we all somehow ended up at a party together how many of the me’s would be super annoyed by the playlist?

2. What is a completely normal thing that secretly gives you the ick?

What, pray tell, is this ick that you speak of? I don’t have secret dislikes. I can’t stand eggs & mayo. Icky. I’m pretty open about things I can’t stand so I honestly can’t think of anything that secretly gives me this ick feeling.

3. What is a skill you’d like to learn?

I really would love to learn how to play guitar. I attempted in the past but my tiny little fingers & neuropathy made it extremely difficult. I can barely remember the three chords I got pretty decent at. But perhaps I can really work at it once I replace the popped string on my acoustic.

4. What is something you’re weirdly good at or goodly weird at?

Hmm, you’re stumping me here, for real, with these questions. Weirdly good at having dreams that are prophetic a lot of the times. Goodly weird at editing interviews? People tend to go off on tangents. (I do!) So I find it very easily to edit them accordingly so everything goes where it’s supposed to & presents like a more linear conversation.

5. Do you think our dreams have hidden meanings?

Wow. I swear I didn’t look at this question before answering the previous one. Yes, I do. Often times those meanings are not so hidden. I think you’re going to assign whatever meaning you want to as a dreamer. I don’t buy the “they’re just dreams!” argument. Interpretation of dreams shouldn’t be so “by the book” in my opinion either. Studying the “universal symbols” that the so-called experts have written about is a good foundation, sure. But different things are symbols for different people. Write them down. Notice your patterns. Trust your intution. (We all have intuition.) In my culture, if you’re stumped on the meaning of a dream, ask an elder for help.

6. If you could live in any time period, when do you think you might fit in better than you fit now? Or feel better about?

I wish I were like 22 in 1994. I’d probably be an award winning film director or something. I’d probably be cancelled by now. I just wish I was born slightly earlier than I was. Also, being 22 in 1953 would’ve been alright too. I don’t know if I’d feel better, but I feel I’d fit in these time periods.

7. What is your super-secret super power that no one suspects you have?

Now WHY would I give that kind of power away????

8. Cook me a meal. What am I being served?

Cook your own damn meal! Nothing! You’re being served nothing! Just kidding. I have a mini slow cooker now & I really like this fiesta chicken stuff I make. So I’d make some of that & you can either put it on tortilla chips or I’ll roll it up into a burrito for you. Maybe we can get ambitious & make tacos out of it too. It’s a pretty versatile dish.

9. What is the strangest thing you’ve ever done?

Dude, I dunno. I’m very strange. (That’s what they tell me anyway!) Ok, here’s a story: Once I was hanging with some friends at their new apartment. We were sitting outside chilling & suddenly I stared off into space & said very quietly. “There is a dead body in a brown car in that lake & it’s been there a little over a decade.” Random. No idea why I said it. “What are you talking about?” my friends asked. “No idea,” I answered. Didn’t dwell on it at all. About a month later I get a phone call from my friend. “Dude! They pulled a brown car out of the lake today with a body in it! People are saying it’s been there awhile!” More time passed. Dental records revealed that it was under that water approximately 12 years. I have absolutely no explanation for why I have a proclivity for this kind of thing, but it’s not the only story I have like that. So yeah. Strange.

10. Has anyone ever dared you lick a pole in the middle of winter? Would you? If you did, what happened?

Nope. We all saw that movie. No one even dared to dare anyone to.

11. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

187. Approximately.

That was more difficult than I thought it would be.

Ok, this is even more difficult. I don’t want to nominate eleven people. I’m only going to nominate one. I’m going to nominate Dominic Alapat for his amazing poetry and for all the support he shows me and others here on WordPress.

Ok, this is probably going to be even harder, but here are the 11 questions for you, Dominic. This whole thing is like a mission, seriously, & it’s yours if you choose to accept it. 😀

  1. What is a band or musical artist who has impacted your life?
  2. What do you feel is your biggest inspiration for writing?
  3. If you knew it was your last day on Earth, what’s the one meal you would like to eat?
  4. If you had to describe yourself as an animal, which one would you choose?
  5. Where were you on the night of May 11, 2015?
  6. Which book are you currently reading?
  7. What’s one thing about WordPress that annoys you? (And please don’t say this questionnaire! haha)
  8. What is your favorite season?
  9. If you could travel back in time and visit your teenage self, what is one piece of wisdom you’d like to offer them?
  10. Who let the dogs out?
  11. What’s the best dream you’ve ever had?

Alrighty! This is interesting. I want to know how a “winner” is decided. Are we all winners? Is the prize the WordPress friends we’ve made along the way?

Thanks again, Michael. This took me all day with a long break in between. Haha

Published by Jennifer Neal

Poet in Michigan.

30 thoughts on “Sunshine Blogger Award 2026”

    1. Are you kidding?! I dunno why I picked it. Random. For real. And since my nominee declined, if you want to answer the questions, go for it! Not because of a desperate need to know where you were May 11, 2015, but just because someone should answer these questions, right? I mean …I worked so hard… 🙂

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      3. 1. What is a band or musical artist who has impacted your life?

        If I’m being honest, this question is basically why my blog exists. Too many bands have shaped my life in too many ways. I’m probably too obsessed with rock music. It’s unbecoming of a man of my age.

        But if I had to pick one, and not default to the obvious answer, I’d say Joan Jett.

        She was one of the first heavy rock acts I ever heard. I loved the style immediately, but more than that, she quietly rewired my idea of what rock and roll could be. Not through speeches, just by doing it.

        Girls were just as good at making it as boys. Simple as that.

        I don’t know how many heavy metal feminists are out there, but I’d wager there are more than people think. It’s baked into the music whether anyone labels it or not.

        So yeah, Joan Jett. For making rock feel like an even playing field in an era when it absolutely wasn’t.

        ⸻

        2. What do you feel is your biggest inspiration for writing?

        I started the blog because my main hobby used to be talking about music in the pub with friends. That was the joy of it.

        Now I’m older, married, and trying not to accidentally become an alcoholic, I don’t do that as much. So the blog became the place where those conversations still happen.

        That part isn’t really about writing. It’s about needing the outlet.

        The writing came alongside it. I squeezed out a couple of novels before the blog drifted into something more fiction-based. Now it’s a hybrid. Half review, half story.

        The real inspiration probably starts with language. An English teacher once told me I was gifted, at a time when I didn’t have the patience to try. That sticks.

        I tried screenwriting at film school, but the formatting and rigidity killed it for me. I didn’t even have a computer, which didn’t help.

        Later, when I wrote my first book-length piece, it was just about wanting something to exist that didn’t exist yet.

        With Rock and Roll Valhalla, I was reacting to things like Daisy Jones & The Six and This Is Pop, stories that, to me, get rock culture slightly wrong. I figured enough time had passed since the 90s to treat it as a period piece and have a go at getting it right.

        If I’m honest, the deeper reason is probably that I love music but can’t play an instrument. I’m completely musically inept. So this is the way in.

        I don’t really think of myself as a writer. I just like playing with words.

        And that’s the key thing. Playing.

        It’s fun.

        ⸻

        3. If you knew it was your last day on Earth, what’s the one meal you would like to eat?

        I’m not even sure I’d be that hungry, but if it’s a perfect, consequence-free day, then honestly:

        A really good cheese and pickle sandwich.

        Thick-cut farmhouse granary bread. Proper butter. Big wedges of mature English cheddar. Sweet pickle with small chunks, spread properly.

        You don’t toast it, but you warm the bread just enough so the butter melts into the cheese and mingles with the pickle.

        Cut it slightly on the wonk so you get the pointy corners.

        On the side, ridge-cut sea salt crisps. Maybe some cress. Thin slices of tomato and cucumber.

        A pint of London Pride, pulled properly.

        Taken out to a pub garden in the Chiltern Hills, looking over the Ridgeway.

        You eat it at the pace it deserves. Not rushed, not picked at.

        And you just sit there, knowing you’ve got the best of everything right in front of you.

        With a cocker spaniel at your feet, clearing up the crumbs.

        ⸻

        4. If you had to describe yourself as an animal, which one would you choose?

        We live near Whipsnade Zoo, and they had a sun bear there called Colombo.

        Big, slightly scruffy, slow-moving, with a pale crest on his chest. A solitary animal, just ambling around his enclosure, inspecting things, turning them over, seeing what might fall out.

        Every now and then he’d climb up onto this wooden platform, sprawl out, scratch his arse, and look out over the hills.

        Not in a hurry. Not needing anything more than what was there.

        I’m not saying I am a sun bear.

        But I understood that guy completely.

        ⸻

        5. Where were you on the night of May 11, 2015?

        I remember exactly where I was, because it was one of the most heartbreaking days in our relationship.

        At that point, my wife and I had been together about a decade and a half.

        We’d sold our house and put everything into a ten-year plan. A rented farm in the Chiltern Hills. Old equine hospital site. Stables, a small house, twelve acres.

        We built something there.

        Paddocks, repaired stables, a dog daycare for commuters heading into London. Twenty or thirty dogs a day, running as a pack.

        It worked. It really worked.

        Three years in, a compulsory purchase order came through for High Speed 2. The land was taken, and with it, everything we’d built.

        The investment was gone. The business closed. My wife lost her work. We lost the horses, the routine, the community.

        We lost the dream.

        I kept working, longer hours, more travel, just to keep us afloat as we moved from one rental to another.

        May 11th was the day we left.

        And I know that because there’s a photo of it.

        The last thing we did was unscrew the sign from the gatepost. There’s a picture of me doing it, timestamped on my phone. One of those digital breadcrumbs.

        I’ve had an iPhone long enough now that it scrolls all the way back to those years. Moving in. Building it. Living it. And then that photo. Taking the sign down.

        We put it in the shed.

        The shed later burned down.

        So that date is fixed.

        On the night of May 11, 2015, we were in transit.

        Having lost the business, the home, the horses, the friends.

        And the dream.

        ⸻

        6. Which book are you currently reading?

        I’ve just finished Even the Good Girls Will Cry by Melissa Auf der Maur.

        She played bass for Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins, and the book charts her way through the 90s.

        What’s strange is how symbiotic it feels.

        It opens at Reading Festival 1994. I was there. I remember that set. I also remember developing a fairly immediate crush on Melissa.

        It closes a chapter at Glastonbury 1999.

        I was there too.

        So there are moments where she describes the weather, the mood, the bands, and I’m thinking, yes, that’s exactly how it was.

        It’s a terrific book.

        I’m also halfway through Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, which is currently missing somewhere in the house.

        The ice-nine situation remains unresolved.

        ⸻

        7. What’s one thing about WordPress that annoys you?

        The page layout.

        It used to be great. I could build clean, attractive pages that pulled a theme together properly.

        Now I’m cutting and pasting, wrestling images into place, nudging blocks around like furniture in the dark, and it still looks slightly broken.

        If you’re doing anything beyond text and links, it’s a nightmare.

        I’ll keep the second thing to myself.

        ⸻

        8. What is your favorite season?

        Right now.

        Spring in the UK.

        Once the clocks change, everything shifts. I drive to work at 5 a.m. into the sunrise, and come home to enough daylight to actually live a bit.

        Lawn, dogs, a bit of time outside.

        Summer used to be my answer. Pub gardens, long afternoons.

        Now it’s brutal. Too hot, especially working in industrial buildings with no air con.

        Spring feels like balance.

        Autumn’s a bit melancholy. Winter’s my wife’s favourite, which makes sense because she’d happily live in snow.

        I just like that moment when you realise you don’t need a jacket.

        ⸻

        9. If you could travel back in time and visit your teenage self, what is one piece of wisdom you’d like to offer them?

        We’d probably just put an album on and have a beer.

        We’re still the same person.

        I could say things about breaking up with Girls, or when friends die, but I don’t think that would change anything.

        So honestly:

        Look after your knees.

        Go to the gym. It does become cool eventually.

        Because the big stuff, you have to live through anyway.

        If there’s one thing:

        Trying to be cool is a complete waste of time.

        Just do what you love.

        ⸻

        10. Who let the dogs out?

        Joe.

        It’s always Joe.

        I love him like a son, but his inability to shut a gate is astonishing.

        You can tell him directly. He’ll say “yeah, okay,” and then wander off, gate flapping behind him.

        Joe, I love you, mate. Shut the fucking gate.

        We’ve all got our faults. Mine’s phone numbers. His sister never answers the phone.

        Joe loses keys and leaves doors open.

        It’s mankind’s oldest invention. How has he not mastered it?

        He’s training to be a lawyer.

        He still can’t shut a door.

        ⸻

        11. What’s the best dream you’ve ever had?

        Dreams come up a lot in these kinds of questions, and I don’t usually put much stock in them. But there is one that’s always stuck with me.

        It was years ago, back when I was working in the pub I later wrote about in Rock and Roll Valhalla. We used to call them “superhero mornings.” Those rare starts to the day where everything just clicks.

        You step out the front door, say hello to someone, and they smile back. You cross the road and a dog’s ball rolls right up to your feet. You pick it up, throw it back, job done. A woman with a pram needs a hand up the curb, you’re there at exactly the right moment. You turn the corner and stop a kid from running into the road. He looks up and says, “Gee, thanks, mister.”

        Everything just lands. One thing after another. Like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

        I had that walk in a dream. All of it. Right up to arriving at work, about to unlock the pub.

        And then there’s a tapping noise.

        I wake up. Still in bed.

        There’s someone at the window, throwing little stones to get my attention. A mate of mine. He needs a favour. This is mid-90s, so of course I’ve got a ridiculous Batmobile-shaped bottle of bubble bath on the windowsill. It’s been leaking, and when I open the window, bubbles spill out and drift down into the morning air.

        He looks up and says, “I had a dream about bubbles.”

        And I suddenly remember mine.

        He needs to grab something he left at the house, so I let him in, then head off to work.

        And I’m not making this up. The moment I step out onto the street, a dog’s ball rolls straight to my feet.

        I pick it up. Throw it back. The dog catches it.

        And then there’s the woman with the pram.

        At that point I stop dead, because I know. I’ve already lived this exact ten-minute stretch. Every step of it. The same light, the same timing, the same tiny acts.

        The rest of the dream doesn’t come true. No kid running into the road. No perfect sequence of moments. Just an ordinary walk after that.

        But for that one stretch, it felt like the world had briefly lined itself up to match something that had already happened inside my head.

        I didn’t stop talking about it when I got to work.

        Still haven’t, really.

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      4. Steve, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these. And especially for sharing that tough part of your life story involving the random date my brain came up with.

        I feel so similarly about music. I’m very happy to be writing about it again and covering my local scene. I used to write for some local print mags and cover music when I lived in Tampa and it’s so much better doing it on my own now. I can’t play anything either, even though I’ve attempted a few instruments, but ever since I was a little child I have been obsessed with music. And nah, I don’t think anyone’s too old for rock n roll.

        Thanks again!

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      5. I think all writers are frustrated musicians and vice versa. It was fun answering your questions. I’m sure I fart on too much about me but it’s the engine of all of us writers to turn that into stories

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  3. Okay, so I have frequently recurring dreams, some of them nightmares. And I was tired of them, so I started telling myself every night as I got into bed that I was going to have calm and pleasant dreams. That stuff really works! I still have surrealist dreams with some scary or heavy stuff, but now it’s all in a softer, cartoonish style. It’s like YouTube for children in my head now. I’ve never told anyone this, but I think it’s safe to say it to you 🙂 That was so much fun to read. Jennifer. You have a great sense of humour!

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  5. Thanks for playing the game. We all win by getting to know each other better and playing an SEO game. 😉

    Great answers Jenn. I learned some new things about you.

    I actually watched some kid in kindergarten or first grade fall for the “lick the pole” trick back in the mid-70s. I was like… dude…. that doesn’t seem smart. Turns out he was never known for being all that smart the whole time I knew him. He did all kinds of really dumb things.

    Being in your early twenties in 1994 was a great time by my recollection. I wouldn’t mind a rerun of it.

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      1. I recall (and my memory might be flawed) the time between 1988 and 1993 being one of the best times of my life. 1994-1997 wasn’t even too bad if you cut out my relationship problems from the memories.

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  7. To play along with Jenn, I’ll answer her questions:

    What is a band or musical artist who has impacted your life?
    Several have in a significant way: Joy Division, The Cure (pre-1988), The Replacements. I could go on, but those are probably the most influential. Lyrically, The Mission U.K. had an influence on some of my writing.

    What do you feel is your biggest inspiration for writing?
    It’s changed over the years, but my current serialized “sepulchral”/gothic western, I am leaning into my 80s gothic music, Sergio Leone and old European folklore.

    If you knew it was your last day on Earth, what’s the one meal you would like to eat?
    You know, I might go ahead and go the simple cheese, bread and fruit platter with wine (yes, I’m sober, but it is my last day on Earth).

    If you had to describe yourself as an animal, which one would you choose?
    Umm…

    Where were you on the night of May 11, 2015?
    On a Monday night? Probably in my bedroom listening to “Pornography” by the Cure on repeat or scribbling depressed verse in my sketchbook converted to poetry journal. Or both.

    Which book are you currently reading?
    A book on Ba Duan Jin (qigong) to better my technique.

    What’s one thing about WordPress that annoys you? (And please don’t say this questionnaire! haha)
    That no one has developed a good plugin (or official support) for long fiction. There is plenty of support for storefronts and other tools I don’t use, but a next/last chapter and TOC block is not really supported.

    What is your favorite season?
    Autumn. Especially October.

    If you could travel back in time and visit your teenage self, what is one piece of wisdom you’d like to offer them?
    Be true to yourself before changing to please another person. They are likely temporary, whereas you will always have to live with you.

    Who let the dogs out?
    Woof?

    What’s the best dream you’ve ever had?
    There were ravens, there was fog. The hilltop was Queen Anne. She drifted across the street with jet black hair and dressed in black jeans and tank top. The ravens gathered around her as she crouched and looked at me before she winked. Then there was only fog and the hilltop. No disappearing; just there one moment and not there the next.

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