Word Nerd Army Award for Knightly Potential

New Rules

On Monday 5th October, the next knight of the month - if one qualifies - will be announced.

Above is a new award. It is the Word Nerd Army Award for Knightly Potential. Sounds rude but isn't.

This is your opportunity to nominate people you think have made a contribution to the cause of words. Maybe they run a writing group or blog or maybe they're an awesome librarian or teacher or maybe they're a writer or simply just passionate about books. You can even nominate yourself! The Award of Knightly Potential shows that a person has been nominated to go forward into the next tournament to choose the Word Nerd Knight of the Month.

How to Nominate Someone

To nominate someone, simply present them with the above award - which shows that you think they have knightly potential - and pass on the following rules.

Rules of the Award/Nomination

Here are the rules a person must follow to display the award and qualify for consideration for the big award - Knight of the Month:

If you are nominated to be the next Word Nerd Knight of the Month, you can put the above award on your blog/site once you have completed the following tasks. The award shows that you are deemed by one of your peers to have the potential to be a Knight of the Month. It is your invitation to the Word Nerd Knight of the Month Tournament.

1. Follow http://wordnerdarmy.blogspot.com/. You need to follow this blog to be entitled to display the award and be considered as a potential Word Nerd Knight.


2. Put up a post on your own blog/site thanking the person who gave you the award and writing about one of the 11 Word Nerd Army issues that you feel passionate about. Go to the first post - http://tinyurl.com/11issues - to see these issues in more detail and the short URLs for each of them. Write about an issue on your blog and link back here at the end of your post.


3. Come to this post and leave a message in the comment section saying who nominated you and leaving a link to your blog post about the issue you chose to write about. You can also say in your comment why you think you would make a great Knight of the Month.


4. Nominate 3 more potential Knights of the Month by sending them the award, passing on these rules and linking to this post. Once you have completed 1-4 you have qualified as a potential Knight of the Month as you have shown dedication to words and respect for fellow word lovers - all qualities that make for a great Word Nerd Knight.


5. Put up your award! Link back to this blog or link to the post in which you wrote about the issue in your own blog. Wait to see if you win the big prize!

If you win, I will contact you and present you with Sir Word Nerd, Knight of the Word Nerd Army, which you display on your site/blog for as long as you are a follower of this blog.

Good luck!

Rebecca

Issue 9 & Issue 10 Emergency. Rally Troops for Action in UK!

We have a BIG problem. Huge supporter of the Word Nerd Army cause and stupendous writing genius, Jamie Ford, is being kept out of the UK. This has been a cause of some personal anguish since I had to beg someone to send me his book from America many months ago but now an official distress signal has gone out and I think it is time for the Word Nerd Army to go into action. http://tinyurl.com/rw-jf-uk

How can Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - the BEST novel I have read in years - be on best-seller lists around the world (including the New York Times best-seller list) and STILL not available in the UK? I don't fear for Mr Ford - he's doing great business - but I fear terribly for UK publishers and book retailers. They can't miss out on this in a recession. It's madness. Hotel is flying off shelves around the world and our book industry is missing out. Not only is our book industry missing out but our readers are too. I can't express enough how deeply moving and profoundly well handled this book is.

UK Publishers! Listen up! What do you want to know about this book? I am not in the pay of Mr Ford and am entirely objective. I should be badgering you to take on my books not his, however, I am not only a writer but also a reader and this book is AMAZING and needs to be enjoyed by other readers. It will sell its socks off for you. If you're confused about how to market it, put it on a shelf where you'd put something like 'Mister Pip' or 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' NOT in 'American History', and expect it to do better than either of these because the writing is amazing. In fact, forget that bit of shelving advice and put it on a big stand at the front because the artwork on the cover is delicious and people with no idea what it is will pick it up for that reason alone.


Whichever UK publisher snaps this up is going to be laughing all the way to the government-owned bank. Start bidding for it now and hope no other UK publisher has suddenly jumped on the clue train. Leave it much longer and you will be in a big bidding war.

US publishers, readers etc, please leave comments here and/or on Jamie's site to tell UK publishers what they are missing out on. Before long we will be the last country in the world without this amazing book on our shelves and it's...well it's embarrassing. Please help.

Could You Be the Next Word Nerd Knight of the Month'?

At the foot of the right hand column you may have noticed a knight. That is the 'Word Nerd Knight' and is awarded to the 'Knight of the Month'. Most months there will be just the one knight but for the first month, the title was awarded to two brave chaps: Paul Carroll and Dan Holloway.

Rather than have a namby-pamby 'here is my handkerchief' Lady and a kick-butt-charging-into-literary-battle Knight, there is just the one character. As all Word Nerds kick butt (as evidenced in every LitChat bunfight I have observed) and in the spirit of honouring the masculine and feminine within all writers, the Word Nerd Knight carries flowers and is addressed as 'Sir Knight'. Anyone can become 'Knight of the Month' but the title will only be handed out when there is a suitable recipient.

Why are you only 'Knight' for a month? It seemed appropriate, given the way the Word Nerd Army was founded. I am only 'Ms Twitter UK' for a month but I can always claim to have been holder of the title. The same is true for valiant Knights of the Word Nerd Army. It's yours for a month BUT 'Sir Knight' - The Word Nerd Knight - can guard your web site or blog for as long as you are a follower of this blog. You'll only lose the right to display it if you are banned from this blog for acts of extreme badness. When your month has passed you can consider yourself to have been 'Word Nerd Knight of Month The Firste/Seconde' or whatever if you like.

Who Is Word Nerd Knight for Next Month?

That's still up for grabs. I will make my choice at the end of the first week in September so you have a little over two weeks to convince me. I will make my decision based on:

• Blogs you post about the 11 issues (you must link to this blog and mention the issue that inspired you in your blog post)


• If you cut and paste the issue as your title, it's more likely to fly up google - points will be awarded for that - remember too that each issue has a memorable URL e.g. http://tinyurl.com/wordnerd-1


• Tweeting up of Word Nerd Army etc (e.g. the Word Nerd article on Booktrust's blog - http://news1.rebeccawoodhead.com/


• General behaviour befitting a Word Nerd Knight.

When you've done something knightly, put it in the comments section of this post. Points will be awarded for comments in the spirit of promoting the issues of the Word Nerd Army and points will be taken away for blatant self-promotion. Good luck!

Once again, if you want to be able to insist on being called 'Sir' for a month - might be a unique experience if you're female - this is your chance. Let the tournament commence..... NOW!

Word Nerd Army On Parade - Your Chance to Take a Bow

This is your chance to be heard. Look through the 11 issues we all came up with. Tweet/blog/email all your Word Nerd chums - every single one of the mad group of book lovers that voted for me - and let 'the world' know how you feel. This is my last guest blog for Booktrust. It is a great gig and this particular blog is about you. It is about how my bid to be Ms Twitter became less about platform building and more about what 'word nerds' as a whole were telling me.

If 'the pen is mightier than the pin-up' was a slogan that meant anything to you, if you helped to construct this list of issues, or if any of these issues matter to you then you have bragging rights. Your voice needs to be heard. Please comment on the Booktrust site and under this post. Please put this information up on your blogs and tweet it up. This is the biggest publicity for the Word Nerd Army so far and it won't be up long so let's make the most of it. Now's your chance to tell your story and take a bow for your part in the campaign.

You earned it :)

Word Nerd Army News - Booktrust (1)

The first of two posts I wrote for Booktrust went up today. The next post - which is about the Word Nerd Army - goes up mid-week. Exciting stuff! Please link to it from your blogs.

http://news1.rebeccawoodhead.com/

Thanks

Rebecca

Word Nerd behind Word Nerd Army
Ms Twitter UK

Calling all Word Nerds!

Welcome to the BlogWhen I was running for Ms Twitter UK under the slogan 'the pen is mightier than the pin-up', I gave my word that I would use the publicity if I won to bring attention to a number of issues. Setting up this blog is my attempt to keep my word. The more people who blog about these issues and/or tweet them up, the more visibility they will have. It is only a small contribution but hopefully it will help.

Looking forward to hearing about your ideas. Make yourself at home. Please respect copyright - especially of the lovely pictures my husband drew for the blog. If you quote me, please link back.

Thank you.

Rebecca Woodhead

Word Nerd & Ms Twitter UK
http://rebeccawoodhead.com/

Issue 11 - Could we build more libraries and fewer prisons?

11/ A large number of people in UK prisons (around 3 in 5 according to one prison librarian) have reading problems or dyslexia. There needs to be research into the connection between difficulties with literacy and eventual crime to help people before they resort to crime. Access to good help with reading and communication difficulties needs to be a priority. Wouldn't it be great if by addressing this issue, we could build more libraries and fewer prisons?

• Do you have any experience of this?


• Do you know of good research about this?


• How do you feel about this?


• How can 'Word Nerds' help on a local/National/International scale


• How can we use the internet to help?


• What do we know that could help governments to deal with this issue?