Let me say, first off, that I don't give awards.

Not that I'm adverse to the idea of awards. Quite the contrary, I think they're cool and wonderful, and I look forward to the day I recieve my first one! (No, that's not intended as a not-so-subtle hint.) I just don't give them, for several reasons. First and foremost, I'd have to come up with an award graphic. If you've looked at *any* of my somewhat personal pages, you know graphics ain't my thang. So, there's problem numero uno. Secondly, to be perfectly honest, I'm a teensy bit intimidated by the quality of the pages to which I would give an award. Giving an award to those amazing pages, in my own web-neurotic way, would draw their attention to my pages, and then they would probably look at them and find all sorts of flaws, mistakes, and general boo-boos. Or, even worse, they could simply hate them, for whatever reasons.

My poor web-self-esteem couldn't take the rejection.

(Let me explain something really quickly, before my mother sees this and worries about me having issues she doesn't know about. I am fairly self-confident in "real life." I've even slowly come to improve my self-image problem -- how I see my physical self, not my capabilities. When it comes to web-design, however, I'm pretty neurotic, especially with all the amazingly talented people out there who maintain amazing personal and professional sites. That's why I make the distinction between my web issues versus any real life issues. 'Kay? Or did I lose you somewhere in my somewhat disjointed attempt to explain a rather fuzzy issue?)

Anyway, the point is, as I said earlier, I don't give awards. However, there are web sites out there that I simply had to find some way to honor, other than respecting copyright issues and such. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, please visit my web rights page.) So I came up with my idea of a tributes page.

A tribute is a bit more than just an award would be. First of all, it has to be a page that I feel like I have at least some rapport with the creator/creatrix of the page. Second, and much more importantly, the page and/or the relationship has to inspire me to write a story, which is what the tribute is, and inspire me so much that I actually do write a story. (Believe me, that second part is the real kicker.)

So these tributes are sort of my who's who of the web. There won't be many, trust me. And they aren't arranged in order of importance or anything. If someone gets a tribute story, you can believe they're pretty important to my evolution as a web-person. It's just, well, some stories end up writing themselves more than others do. (If any of you who happen to be reading this do any creative writing, you probably know what I mean.)

Without any further ramblings from me, let me present you with the tributees:

• Linda of Novel Art
• Moyra of Moyra's Web Jewels

At the moment, I'm still polishing the stories, but they should be up and ready to read within a week or so. Stay tuned!

Many, many thanks to Morya for the use of her set. To use one of her sets yourself, please visit Moyra's Web Jewels and read her terms of use. Do not take the background from this page, please. It can be found in the Web Jewels Mine.