Snooping Around Sunday - Blog Lovin'

It's been a while since I've been able to take a chance to catch all of you up on the blogs I follow, so what better time to do it than over V-Day weekend? :) I follow a hefty list of wonderful blogs, primarily book review blogs but with some author blogs and randomly great blogs mixed in.

Booksane starts us off by talking about a challenge to re-read some favorite books, to rediscover them (and I'm sure just to simply enjoy them, as that is something I myself do often!).

J.A. Konrath shares a guest post by Joshua Guess, plus shares insights on publishing your stories. It's a great read from two respected authors about how to find your confidence and where to turn to get your stories turned into books. Seriously, you should read their post - it boosted my resolve to try to get more stories written, even if for right now they languish in the world of self-publishing and don't make me any money - because some day they might, and I'll be glad I worked so hard to self publish.

My feminist self was happy to see that The Page Sage had a whole lovely post on feminist literature this Valentine's Day weekend! Her adorable little graphic had some great recommendations - and since I'm a reader of pretty much all genres, I will be adding all of the books to my massive "To Read" list!

As you may have noticed, I recently had a guest blog post by author Elisabeth Elo. Anne R. Allen wrote a brilliant post about how to drum up publicity for your book by guest blogging, and brings up the debate that argues that guest blogging is dead. I used to guest blog, and got paid to do it (via Fiverr, so it's not like I made good money at it) - but I haven't had the time. However, I think she offers some very good points for those of you who are interested!

Noblemania talked about a school visit in which the staff joined in the spirit of his books by dressing like super heroes! This of course made me reminisce about my latest visit to the New Orleans Comic Con, where I got to meet Alan Tudyk, who was one of my favorite Firefly/Serenity characters of all time and definitely a "hero" in my book (although his other Joss Whedon character, Alpha, was decidedly NOT a hero).

It felt like YA Booklover was looking into my mind on her latest post about feeling not-so-bloggy lately. I, too, have struggled to keep up with this blog all while fighting the professional jealousy of seeing so many other bloggers pull off amazing feats with tons of followers in what seems like an effortless manner. But I keep trying to remind myself that 1) My readers DO care whether or not I continue to share my reviews, and 2) It's probably not an effortless thing, but something that requires other bloggers to spend a lot more time on their blogs, possibly because they are less employed than my hectic "day job and then running my travel business" life.

Last but not least, I dug through my reading list of blogs to find the only review I've been waiting on - a review of Cress! Yes, I have already read the first two books of the series - and yes, I plan on purchasing Cress - but I always love to see how other bloggers feel about series that I love. Both Tynga's Reviews and Hidden in Pages did excellent reviews of Cress and left my fingers itching to get my hands on a copy... well, that is, as soon as my wallet isn't empty... ;)