Tag: retrospective

#BEABloggerCon: Rights and Wrongs and Missed Opportunities
June 19, 2012 'riting

#BEABloggerCon: Rights and Wrongs and Missed Opportunities

I signed up for the bloggers-convention portion of Book Expo America 2012 insanely early–months in advance, even before it officially became the BEA Bloggers Conference–but I waffled for weeks over whether I’d actually attend. The Book Blogger Conventions in 2010 and 2011 were volunteer projects developed and planned by book bloggers. Purchase of the event by Reed Exhibitions/BEA early in 2012 held the potential for a more professionally-produced event, but the plans and programming announcements […]

#LifeAfterBEA: Featured Highlights of #ArmchairBEA 2012
June 12, 2012 randomness

#LifeAfterBEA: Featured Highlights of #ArmchairBEA 2012

I’ve finished the photo editing from my trip to New York City for Book Expo America 2012 and the BEA Bloggers Conference, but haven’t put all of my thoughts and reactions into words yet, so while I’m working on pulling that together I wanted to highlight some of last week’s words from Armchair BEA Central.  The third year of Armchair BEA–the first as an official partner of BEA, which allowed us to offer on-site reports […]

Question Time! The Final Chapter (and the Giveaway Winners!)
April 5, 2012 randomness

Question Time! The Final Chapter (and the Giveaway Winners!)

I really appreciate all the questions people submitted with entries to my Blogiversary Giveaway, because you’ve helped me put together three blog posts within the past week! The first one was random, while the second was more blogging-specific; we’re wrapping up today with more random. And speaking of the giveaway, the winners are announced at the end of this post. SWG (Savvy Working Gal) couldn’t hold herself to just one question: What non-fiction book do […]

Question Time! Part Two: The Blogging Life
April 4, 2012 randomness

Question Time! Part Two: The Blogging Life

I offered a bonus entry in my Blogiversary Giveaway to anyone who asked me a question (I will be announcing the winners tomorrow!). Last week I took on a variety of queries; this post primarily but not exclusively includes the ones specific to the blogging life. Sheila from Book Journey asks: “5 years… what things have changed since you started blogging?  Community?  Your own style of posting?” My reflections on the five-year milestone are the long-winded answer […]

Question Time–Now With Answers! (Part One)
March 28, 2012 randomness

Question Time–Now With Answers! (Part One)

I’m offering a bonus entry in my Blogiversary Giveaway to anyone who asks me a question (and you can still enter until this Saturday, if you haven’t already!). Since several people took me up on that, I thought I’d answer some of the questions today. Others will be addressed next week, so stay tuned. Several of the questions I’ve received specifically addressed blogging, so I’m going to field all of those in their own post. […]

This Veteran Reflects on a Milestone Blogiversary
March 15, 2012 'riting

This Veteran Reflects on a Milestone Blogiversary

This is published post #1668, dated March 15, 2012. Post #1 was published on March 16, 2007. That averages out to .91 posts per day over five years. Five years of blogging! Who saw THAT coming? Five years ago, it certainly wasn’t me. And sometimes I still feel like a newbie who’s playing catch-up, and will always be a few steps behind no matter what; the online world changes so fast. On the other hand, […]

Sunday Salon: Kicking off 2012 by looking back at 2011
January 8, 2012 reading

Sunday Salon: Kicking off 2012 by looking back at 2011

It’s usually both fun and challenging to come up with my annual Books of the Year list, and 2011 was no exception. It might have been easier if I’d read more books that weren’t very good, but that was not the case; the overall level of my reading last year was pretty high.  Having said that, my year-end picks aren’t necessarily the books that I rated the very highest–they’re the ones that have stuck with […]

2011 in Review, The Reading (part 2)–Books of the Year
January 5, 2012 reading

2011 in Review, The Reading (part 2)–Books of the Year

Books of the Year Since I did rate so many of the books I read in 2011 at the higher end of the scale, it was especially challenging to choose the standouts. My “Books of the Year” selections are not strictly the highest-rated reads, however, although none received less than a 4/5 rating. They’re also the books that have stayed with me best, and have continued to come up in conversation. Since my nonfiction reads […]

2011 in Review: The ‘Riting and the Randomness
January 4, 2012 'riting, randomness

2011 in Review: The ‘Riting and the Randomness

The books of 2011 got two posts this year, but everything else on the blog goes into this great big link-a-palooza. Let’s start with more numbers! (All stats via Google Analytics unless otherwise stated) But first, speaking of stats…in case you missed them, I posted 2011 book stats yesterday. The 2011 “Books of the Year” post will be up tomorrow! By The Numbers: 5 Stats Total visitors in 2011: 15,400 Unique visitors in 2011: 9,860 […]

2011 in Review–The Reading (part 1): The Numbers, and The Also-Rans
January 3, 2012 reading

2011 in Review–The Reading (part 1): The Numbers, and The Also-Rans

By the Numbers Summing up my 2011 reading experiences starts with some bookkeeping in the number-crunching sense.Total books read: 54Fiction: 33 Adult: 30 YA/Children’s: 3 2010 was the first year in which I read enough YA to make note of it. I probably don’t need to separate it out for 2011, but the precedent is set now. Since YA books tend to be faster reads and they’re taking up more room in TBR Purgatory these […]

BEA/BBC Aftermath: Connections to Conference-goers Seen in the Wild
June 7, 2011 'riting

BEA/BBC Aftermath: Connections to Conference-goers Seen in the Wild

This is the second of my three-part reflection on conference comparisons. Yesterday I talked about conversations; today I’m thinking about some of the “accessories” conferences acquire… * Some people come for the swag, and you see them carrying around lots of stuff. There’s been some pretty impressive swag spotted around BlogHer conferences. Some comes from BlogHer sponsor brands, but rumor has it that the really choice stuff turns up at the offsite, invitation-only events that […]

BEA/BBC Aftermath: Connections to conversations outside the official agenda
June 6, 2011 'riting

BEA/BBC Aftermath: Connections to conversations outside the official agenda

I’ve said it before; I like to look for the connections. On the day I moderated the “Blogging for a Niche Market” panel at the 2011 Book Blogger Convention, I contributed a guest post to Armchair BEA talking about the opposite of niche – the concerns and interests bloggers share regardless of the specific content of their blogs. Despite the fact that it’s being held just down the 5 Freeway in San Diego this year, […]