It’s time for the 2012 AngelFire Awards!  This award goes to the finest in thoughtful, literate blogging over the past year based on my purely subjective opinion:).  Winners must display a high quality of skill in the writing craft.  Additional selection criterion:

– Consistently high levels of creativity, imagination and ingenuity, including new twists on familiar subjects.

– Insightful posts that go beyond pedestrian, predictable re-hashes of tired topics.

– Frequency of guest authors/contributors.

– Originality.  Are posts fresh, vital, intriguing?  Do they compel you to “turn the page”?  Do they fire the imagination and urge readers to keep reading, thinking, questioning, exploring or consider another perspective?

– Blogs with a significant number of posts evidencing a biblical worldview rise to the top.

– Spelling and punctuation count.  If you can’t differentiate between “you’re” and “your” and “its” and “it’s,” don’t expect your blog to be among the finalists.

– Egocentric, online diary-type blogs are exempt.  AngelFire Awards are limited to blogs that speak to something bigger than the author.

And the winners are (in no particular order):

* Sandy’s Ramblings – Cozy, insightful stories and anecdotes from Sandy Keith, a well-published writer of more than 30 years.

*  The Writing Life – Terry Whalin offers readers an inside look at the publishing industry as an editor and a writer.

* The Writer’s Friend – help and advice for both the beginning and advanced writer from freelance writer, editor and proofreader Donna Goodrich.

* Easy Writer – Kathy Macias communicates God’s vision with creativity and passion (Hab. 2:2)  through her books, devotionals and speaking ministry.  Also promotes other authors.

* Dickens and Christianity – Not a blog per se, but this site by author Rev. Cheryl Kincaid devoted largely to Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is intriguing and thought-provoking.

Do you have any favorites to add to the list?  If you’d like to nominate your blog or someone else’s for consideration next time, let me know with a response in the Reply section below.