After eight years of doing this, I thought I might be able to put together a response to the special Bloggiesta request for our “best blogging advice.” For me, it all comes down to this credo: Then again, you have to have a few rules in place in order to know when and whether to break them, right? With that in mind, I offer you my top five blogging guidelines: 3 R’s: Read, Research, Reflect. […]
I’d like to say a hearty “thank you!” to everyone who stopped by to comment on my Sunday-on-Monday Blogiversary post! I have no idea whether there are another eight years left in this thing…but then again, I had no idea when I started that there would be eight years of this thing to begin with, let alone that they’d be such fulfilling ones. I know that now, of course, but I’m taking it one year at […]
I started this blog eight years ago today: March 16, 2007. I’ve been at it longer than any job I’ve ever had, except for my current one. Sometimes I think one of the reasons I haven’t seriously looked for other employment for a while –something closer to home, at least–is the outlets and opportunities this blog has given me. They are sources of creativity, expression, and satisfaction I don’t need to look for in my […]
I warned you on Tuesday that I was blogging about blogging this week. I’ve had a few other thoughts about “trends in blogging” since that post went up–some are in the comment thread there, and some are coming at you now. Some long-time book bloggers made a deliberate choice, early on, to limit their content to book-related posts because they didn’t want their blogs to be too personal or revealing. Some blogged anonymously or under […]
The turn of the year is a time for introspection, reflection, and resolution for many of us, and it extends to our blogs. There’s been some great discussion about that lately–and a bit of angst. Let’s get the angst out of the way first, with a little reminder to #bloghonest, from April The Steadfast Reader. (In that spirit, all material quoted in this post is attributed and linked to the original source.) The whole thing […]
I was at a big convention-type gathering this past weekend…and it wasn’t San Diego Comic-Con. I attended my third BlogHer Conference, after a three-year absence. I’m doing a Storified recap of the experience, in the tradition of my BEA Highlight Reel, but I’m breaking it into two blog posts so it won’t take up quite as much space in your eyeballs, or your feed readers. (Part 1 posted yesterday.) BlogHer14, The Personal Highlight Reel Recapping my third (and probably last) […]
I was at a big convention-type gathering this past weekend…and it wasn’t San Diego Comic-Con. I attended my third BlogHer Conference, after a three-year absence. I’m doing a Storified recap of the experience, in the tradition of my BEA Highlight Reel, but I’m breaking it into two blog posts so it won’t take up quite as much space in your eyeballs, or in your feed readers. BlogHer14, The Personal Highlight Reel Recapping my third (and […]
When I started thinking about Jenna‘s latest BlogHer #Selfiebration question, “What Does Your Blogging Family Tree Look Like?”, I was stumped. I’ve been blogging for nearly seven and a half years, and the paths I once shared with many bloggers have diverged, or dead-ended for one reason or another, along the way. Then I realized that one thing about having blogged for so long is that at one time or another, I’ve probably mentioned some of those who helped […]
I’ve talked about how “Creativity, Connection, and Confidence” are three reasons why I (still) blog. A new post/prompt for BlogHer’s Selfiebration comes at that from a slightly different angle: “How would your life look now if you hadn’t started blogging?” One thing that makes it hard to answer “what might have been” questions is that there’s a chicken-and-egg aspect to them: would you miss the things you think you’d miss if you’d never known them in the first place? There are so many […]
This post was adapted from an e-mail I sent to the planners of the BEA Bloggers Conference in response to their request for feedback on the 2014 event and considerations in planning for 2015. I wanted to share it here so we could talk about what you think, too. Another place you can share what you think about book-blogger gatherings–and help to plan one!–is the Facebook group Book Blog UnCon 2015, which was recently formed […]
I’m going “beyond the borders” a bit and deviating from the 2014 Armchair BEA agenda by revisiting a post that was part of the very first Armchair BEA in 2010. I’ve edited and updated a little, but for the most part, I feel the same way now as I did then. Writing what you want to read, in your own voice The session titled “Engaging Your Readers: Take Your Writing to the Next Level” at […]
It’s Day One of the fifth annual observance of Armchair BEA! This virtual companion to Book Expo America is getting the jump on the real thing this year, but that gives us all a little more time to hang out and get to know each other. Here are my answers to five of this year’s Introduction questions. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did […]
