Blog Archives
Dear Wannabe Guest Bloggers (and other news!)
I love you all. I really do. But here’s the thing: I don’t actually know most of you. So here’s the deal.
Until now, I haven’t set up any guidelines for guest post submissions. I liked the open-door philosophy: if you write it, I will take it! But I’m receiving a lot of prefab propositions that all sound eerily alike and don’t lead back to a blogger. Instead, it’s always someone who just wants to advertise a commercial website. Which is fine. But that’s not why I do this.
I want to support the blogging community. So to guest post for me, you have to have your own blog. It doesn’t have to be about writing, or reading, or anything specific. It can be about rutabagas. In fact, your guest post can even be about rutabagas- if you’re very clever and you somehow make it relevant.
This also helps to ensure that I’m receiving original content. If I know where you live, so to speak, I can trust you more. If I can trust you, then I can ask my readers to trust you, and ultimately this trust upholds the integrity of my site.
Sound fair? I think it does.
Otherwise, my guidelines remain the same. Include a bio and a photo and a good, original post (recycled or new- doesn’t matter), and I will let you hang out at this blog as often as you like. I’ll even give you content in return, if you want it.
In other news!
The talented Connor at Cities of the Mind- Freelance Writing recently reviewed this blog. You can read the review and his other reviews HERE. This is definitely a good place to get overviews on potentially awesome blogs. And who doesn’t want an introduction to that? Connor’s reviews are concise, informative, and accurate. It’s like going blog shopping with a blog expert. I doubt he’d claim to be an expert, though, but then that’s part of the reason we like him, right?
Also, speaking of guest blogging, I’m the guest this week at the Gritty Blog. Some of my regular readers might recognize this post about Believability in Fiction. It’s a good one, I think, and it was a fun one to write.
And speaking of GCP, I’d like to give a shout-out to some of our writers. Check out:
Jodi McClure’s blog, “The Swing”
Cynthia Ravinski’s author site
I’d also like to note that I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing Will Kosh’s book, Little Winged One: The First Book of Guardians. There are other books on my “to-review” digital stack, too, I know- I haven’t forgotten you… One I should probably mention is Liz Schulte’s Secrets: Guardian Trilogy Book One (what’s with all the guardian stuff, I wonder?) Out of the five authors that participated in the Blog Tour de Force, she was the only one who emailed me about a review. And I’m not including the prefab mass email requests. But honestly, these authors all gave their books away for free; of course they all deserve reviews. Secrets just got bumped up the list because I appreciate the personable approach.
One other thing. My son turned ONE YEAR OLD yesterday. Where did this year go?! My little monkey is growing up. He’s not even technically a baby any longer- he’s a toddler. I have a toddler. What?!
December is Impossible
How do people find time to do anything in December?
I’m sorry to all of you who are waiting on me for something or another: book reviews, beta reading, and social get-togethers. This is my official apology, and it applies to all of November, December, and… quite possibly, January.
November was busy. I was balancing a few too many things. Then there was my husband’s birthday and Thanksgiving— the first one at our house. I was also really diving into my role as editor for Grit City Publications, or at least trying to. I talked to a LOT of writers last month. It was NaNoWriMo, after all. So I pushed my own projects off ’til December.
December, as it turns out, is ridiculous. There’s the holidays, of course— a feat much larger to those of us with huge, complicated families. And there’s work to be done, just like every other month (although one of my clients pushed my deadline up a whole month out of nowhere.) And a baby to care for— of which I’m eternally grateful. Then there’s my husband who works 10 hour shifts 7 days a week to complete his jobs before the weather turns to winter for good. And did I mention the holidays?…
Anyway, I’m looking forward to a few things: Practice Cake by Dalya Moon, The Willing by C.S. Splitter, This Devil’s Dice by Jackson Spence, Get Unstuck! For Freelancers by Linda Formichelli, The Rise of Majick by Jay Taylor, A Sane Woman by Anthony Lee Collins, and some others.
I’ve also been in a huge zombie apocalypse mood ever since addicting myself to the AMC show, The Walking Dead. (I know, when do I have time for TV, you ask? When the baby keeps me up all night and I can’t concentrate on work or reading, that’s when.) I was already a fan of the graphic novels, you see, so this addiction only required a small leap of faith. I was rewarded. The show is freaking awesome.
On that note, I’m looking forward to the suggestions for zombie apocalypse books I received from my tweeps yesterday: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, and some shorts by R.L. Schaeffer. And I’m reading World War Z, finally, which was a gift I received from a fellow zombie fan several years ago.
So reviews are upcoming. That’s the point. Just be patient with me. I have zero time-management skills.
Lastly, a special shout-out to all of my rockin’ guest bloggers. Thank you for keeping my blog alive when I can’t give it the attention it deserves.
