Somedays it's intimidating out there...

I find it staggering ... simply staggering... the number of wonderful women writers on the web. (I was going to say 'female' but my favourite feminist on the planet says that We Are Women! not 'females')

The writing is there to be discovered on the web. So many wonderful writers that I might never have heard of if it weren't for the interwebs.

First, there's Dooce. Heather Armstrong. First woman blogger I know whose blog became a verb. If you got fired for blogging about work... you were dooced. She does this thing where she blogs each month of her daughter's life. She's up to 51 months and this last month was one of the best posts ever because it wasn't just to her daughter today... it was to her daughter in 12 years or so when she's on the internet, reading what her mom wrote about her.

Then there's Kira at Kiwords. I can honestly tell you that Kira has made me a better mom. I've never read anyone who could write so beautifully about the simplist things... soon I was looking at things differently. Small things became magnified. Raising my kids because more of an adventure than a task. Sometimes she comes up with lines like "Raphael is completely enthralled with his cup, and wore it most of the day on Saturday. It protected his young squishy boyness during a particularly brutal game of Wii baseball, and also kept him safe during multiple thunks with his own delighted knuckles." That made me smile so hard my son saw me and said "mommy, what is that face you are making!?" I do smile, really, just not normally that crazily.

And Mir, who is, like, the bloggy queen in my books. So many times I've laughed out loud at something she's said, even when it's as short as "I. Lost. My. Shit." which caused me to make another laughy face ... except I was at work and someone passed by and said "UH, what are you laughing at?" and I couldn't really tell them because, um, hello web surfer at work....

No list would be complete without Joshilyn who - I think - invented The Mental Illness Number along with the term Best Beloveds (which is how I sometimes want to address my team at work, 'cept it's not really appropriate for the work setting!) But I love how she makes me feel ... the same, and yet, sane.

And there are new ones that I'm finding all the time. Motherhood Uncensored, Edgy Mama, Mommy Needs Coffee and Attack of the Redneck Mommy. And so many more ... I mean, just look at my links over there on the right ------------>

So who is your favourite female woman blogger and why?