UPDATED x3: The one in which I beg shamelessly

All in all, it's been a rotten few days. I don't tend to blog about my rotten days, even though there have been plenty of them stacking up.

And then something great happened - I've been nominated in the Best Writer category at the MAD Blog Awards. Isn't that, like, the best category? If you're a writer, I mean. I'm incredibly chuffed to be nominated in this category. Feels like I've won already.

Except I haven't won, far from it. The way it works is - the people with the most nominations get through to the final 5 or so. Then those finalists get voted on and the one with the most votes is, as they no longer say at the Oscars, The Winner.

So essentially, there are two levels of begging involved:

1 - I humbly beg of you to nominate me

And then, if enough people do that (and frankly, I'm not counting my chickens), if I made it to the finals,

2. A combination of begging and outright threats will then follow as I shamelessly chase votes. This is also known as the 'Vote for me or I will steal your puppy' phase. But to be honest, I don't think it's going to come to that. There are masses of good writers in there. I really don't think I'll be hanging with the final 5.

So this is where it gets a bit tricky - there are potentially two stages of hustling for votes, so uber-potential for pissing people off bigstyle. And it's not like I've got a lot of friends to spare, I need to hang on to the ones I've got. Is it worth making myself a social pariah for?

On the other hand, I've been writing this crap for 5 years, surely that deserves something?

Aaaanyway, here's the deal: Please nominate me for Best Blog Writer in the MAD Blog Awards. Like, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

You can nominate by clicking on this link and filling in the form. It's very quick, couple of minutes tops.

There are about 20 categories but you don't have to vote in them all. Just put http://joannemallon.typepad.com/joanne_the_coach/ in the Best Blog Writer category. You will have to nominate for Blog of the Year so just stick in one of your faves. I'm not gunning for that one. I know my limits.

And why should you nominate me for best blog writer? Here are a few of my favourite posts:

How to piss off a parent blogger - should be subtitled how to get lots of hits as this has turned out to be the most popular post so far.

No I am not Jedward's mum, OK?
The one where I went to the Mumsnet awards and it all went a bit wrong
How to get through The Smurf Movie without wanting to kill yourself - does what it says on the tin.
The one where we reviewed chocolate play doh and utterly brought down the tone by making a turd
The world's worst competition - in which I win the award for Only Blog To Give Away a Foot Grater
The one where I met all the dads from Take That. Yes that really happened.
The one where I met Jedward. Alas so did that.

UPDATE: 7th April 2012

I am really chuffed to report that I have also been nominated in the MAD Blog of the Year category. Me and about 50 billion others, that is. Fabulous as this news is, if I'm being honest I don't think I have a fart in hell's chance at this category. Still, it's great to sit along side so many ace blogs so good luck to everyone who's been nominated.

UPDATE: 14th April 2012

More noms! Thank you so much to who ever has been nominating, it means such a lot. I am particularly delighted for my daughter as our joint blog www.Eljae.com has been put forward for Most Innovative Blog. I have also now been nominated in the Most Helpful Blogger category, which is surprising given how grumpy I usually am, but very welcome nonetheless.

UPDATE: 16th April 2012

Just noticed my name in the Best Family Life and Family Fun categories, so that's something to bear in mind next time I'm screaming at the kids. It's the final week of the awards nominations, and whilst I still have no honest expectation of making it to the next stage, it's certainly been a blast so far. Must go for a lie down now...