Yes, that’s still me —> see new profile picture <— The old one was, well, old.
This week, I’ve joined a wacky blog hop adventure sponsored by Crazy for Books, and if you’re a book blogger visiting you know just what I mean:
So far on the hop, I’ve visited:
Emily’s Reading Room (YA fiction)
Imagination in Focus (MG/YA fiction)
Dawn Hullender’s Southern Musings (YA fiction)
Super Reader Girl’s Book Reviews (YA fiction)
Voracious YAppetite (YA fiction)
Tina Says (YA/MG fiction)
Science Fiction and Fantasy Chat (SF/F)
Librarys Cat Book List (KidLit)
A Blog About Nothing (MG/YA fiction)
Ramblings of a Librarian Assistant (Children’s fiction)
I’m looking forward to checking back in the days/weeks ahead!
As I hopped around, I realized that we all had something in common, beyond the obvious book blogging theme. Although we were teachers and librarians, parents, newlyweds, and younglings, we were all writers. Some of us wear that title openly, crafting novels and other stories, but make no mistake: if you blog 500 words every day for a year, you have written 130,000 words, more than most first novels. The craft of writing a serialized string of non-fiction blog posts is certainly different from crafting fiction, but not as much as you might suppose. Each blog post tells a story, even if it is only the story of one blogger’s experience of reading a book. The sum total of our blog posts weave a picture of a person, or at least one aspect of that blogger’s life.
We are all writers, and I’m glad to join you on our respective writerly paths. 🙂
I agree, blogging is definitely writing. It's almost unique in its premise, that post complete in thought and story in its small amount of words, written several times a week, yet each linked in the blogger's theme. It's a great community!
@Joanne I've been toying with flash fiction lately, and have realized that I've essentially been writing narrative flash non-fiction every day for the last 6 mos! And making friends while doing it. Awesome. 🙂
You are so right Susan! Thanks for the lovely mention. It's wonderful to be in a media circle where others understand your daily dilemmas.
I look forward to blogging with you!
@Dawn I can't imagine what it used to be like, writing in solitude. Thank Heavens for the internet! 🙂
Thanks for mentioning me! And thanks for visiting! I've been lackadaisical in getting around to commenting on blogs lately (for reasons I'm sure you understand) so I'm doing my best to catch up. Your blog looks great, by the way!
Thank you, Susan – for the mention and for helping us all to see ourselves for the writers we are! I hadn't really looked at it like that. 🙂 It's so fun getting to know other bookworms/writers! I hope all goes well with your coming query!
@Amy My blogging has bursts of enthusiasm, and dry bleak valleys of no-commenting. Sigh. Totes understand, my friend.
@Em Thanks! I'm getting kinda pumped for the query process. I know, strange.
Thanks Susan! 😀
Love the new pic!!! And now I'm off to check out some of those links….
That's a good point! I never thought of it that way. You know, I don't always find writing these posts to be as easy as I expected it to be. I frequently worry that I'm not communicating exactly what I'm thinking through my words, and I take my reviews more seriously than I probably should. But writing posts everyday is great practice for aspiring novelists (as a lot of bloggers are), and also great brain exercise! Thanks for the mention! 🙂
Thanks for the mention! I have actually noticed that quite a few book bloggers are also aspiring authors, though I have never really thought of myself as a writer, but I like the idea.
@Amelia My pleasure.
@Beth Thanks! My father in law is a genius with the camera, because it definitely doesn't like me.
@Kris Writing is nowhere near as easy as it seems – and you don't know that until you try it!
@Simcha I think if you love books, you often want to at least give a go at writing one. Web 2.0 also has redefined "writing" in many ways – but I think it is all positive: people writing, reading, building community. All good.
I've seen this book hop posted before. It sounds like a fun idea! 🙂
@Shannon I think they do it every Friday, or some such thing.
Ha, yeah, you threw me off w/ the new name/pic… it's like a whole different person 🙂
I promise I'm still me. This is why I need a dog picture. At least no one will ever expect you to change! 🙂