Three Minutes Inside A Book Blogger’s Head

I’d gone through an apple, two yogurts, and a handful of pretzels (I think better when I snack) and still I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon Bookish Temptations.  It could have been from any number of avenues.  You know how it is, we’re hanging around Twitter, watching the tweets, something catches our eye, we follow it, which leads us down another vein then to another.  But I do remember the blog post that originally caught my attention, and that was Sexy Sentence Saturday.  I started following Bookish Temptations and looked forward to the day of the week when Bookish posted Book Blogger Confessions, which gave great insight into the workings of this particular book blogger’s mind.

This led me to some reverse thinking.  As authors, we’re constantly looking for avenues through which we can pitch our novels and ways to get noticed.  The book bloggers and reviewers are tremendously helpful in that regard.  We all look to them to help us get the word out.  They rock at what they do:  Reading, reviewing, blogging their thoughts, interviewing us to get inside our head.

But… Have you ever wondered what goes on inside theirs?

This week I decided to turn the tables.  Tamie, from Bookish Temptations, has graciously allowed me to put her in the hot seat and to answer a few of my own questions.  So grab your favorite beverage and enjoy.

Thanks for being here, Tamie.  To start off, what inspired you to start blogging in the first place?

An opportunity presented itself and it sounded both interesting and fun. I’ve been a bookaholic as long as I can remember, and I liked the idea of having a forum to share my passion with others.

Do you remember what your very first blog was about?

I reviewed the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. I was so nervous the day it published I thought I might throw up or pass out…Seriously.

That’s a huge series to review the first time out, Tamie.  I loved that series.  I’d like to see that review of yours!  Perhaps you can send me a link?  Okay, sorry for the diversion… So, now you have a “team.”  Who are they and what are their special areas of interest?

Debb is the first person I asked to join Bookish. I’d left the blog I started with to begin my own, and after about a month I realized that Bookish needed something. I knew that Debb was an expert where FanFic is concerned, and that a lot of peeps read a lot of it.  So I asked her and happily she said yes.  She then added Annie and together they became a super team on Fridays.

Next I asked Morgan to do a guest post, and I loved it so much I asked him to join us permanently.  He agreed to a once a month deal.  He’s an author and gives great tips during his Wordslinger posts.  He has a fabulous sense of humor too, which is what drew me to his writing in the 1st place.

Gina and Elena came next and at about the same time.  I knew both of them were avid readers, and I was looking for 2 very specific things…more reviews on BT, and quite frankly…I needed a break from posting every day. They’re both excellent reviewers and sounding boards.

Our newest team member is Katiebird.  Debb needed to take some time off, and Katiebird has guest hosted FanFic Friday in the past, so I was thrilled when she said yes.  We’ve also discovered that we’re very alike in a lot of ways…kindred spirits if you will.

Having a team is a great approach!  It definitely keeps the posts diverse.  Do you get a lot of review requests?  If so, which camp makes up the greatest percentage – indies or trads?

It seems to come in waves… a few a week and them BAM! A whole bunch at once. Right now there’s a fairly long waiting list, so I’m really limiting the yeses.  Most of it is indie at the moment.

This next question will help me as well as other authors, I’m sure.  Is there a “protocol” on your site that requesting authors should follow but sometimes don’t?

Yes… anytime an author or publisher/publicist requests a review from a book blog they need to be prepared to furnish a copy of the book. Most know this and offer to do so, but every once in a while a request comes in without mention of a book being provided. In my reply I always let them know what formats we accept and I remind them of our ratings policy. If the book doesn’t rate a 3 or above it won’t be reviewed.

Of all of the books you read, what genres do you prefer?

My personal favorites are Romance, Erotica, Paranormal, and Historical. I also enjoy Mystery/Suspense…just not as much as I used to.

There’s always something going on at Bookish Temptations. Do you find it difficult to find a balance between your extensive blogging and your personal life?

Hmmm… While I do spend a huge amount of time every day doing something in conjunction with the blog I really enjoy it, and let’s face it… I’m not being forced to do it… it’s a choice. I went on a 10 day vacation to Canada in April and I kept in touch every day, but I didn’t spend hours on it, and it didn’t interfere with the fabulous time I had. So for now at least I’m ok with the balance…or lack thereof.

Your blogging is so diverse.  What is your favorite topic to blog about?

O…that’s a tough one. I really love trying to find unique ways to spotlight my favorite authors and their book(s) for example: when I asked several authors to contribute a character Valentine during V-day week, or when I did the Gabriel’s Inferno tour.  I’m doing a fun one again this Wednesday with Gabriel’s Rapture which will be published before this is, and the Sexy Sentence Saturday.  Also, I love writing the Observations posts…they’re usually based on something personal, but I try to bring in something literary based as well.  My favorite meme is the Book Blogger Confessions every other week.  Yeah…that was way more than one

On the topic of author availability, how important is that to a blogger?

I think to have a really great book blog you need to have some good relationships with the authors you feature.  So far I’ve been incredibly lucky in that respect.  (Crosses fingers and toes having said that).

What is your take on the move from trad published to indie published and the overall quality of novels that are put out?

Since most of what I read comes from indie authors/publishers I would say it’s terrific.  Just because an author doesn’t have a “powerhouse’ publishing company behind them doesn’t mean they aren’t amazingly gifted writers.  I’ve seen some peeps complain about horrible editing and lots of errors in indie books, but I just haven’t found that to be true for the most part.  Are there some?  Of course, but I’ve seen books put out by the “big boys” that had them as well.  I have seen that more with self-published authors, but most of the time it isn’t so bad that I just want to throw the book away.  Yes, it can be distracting, but maybe I have a higher tolerance for it than others do.

Do you have a reading preference between trad and indie?

For me… I’m really liking all the indie books I’ve read in the past year. I like trying to bring attention to authors that others might overlook, and in all honesty they’ve been some of the best written and have become personal favorites…so I’m quite happy to be an indie girl.

~ ~ ~

I’m thrilled to hear you say that, Tamie, but then again, I’m a bit biased on the indie movement.

Thanks again, Tamie for stopping by and putting on a different hat for awhile. It’s good to know what goes on inside a book blogger’s mind.

Bookish Temptations is one of the many great book bloggers out there and they have so much to say, and then some!  So swing by Tamie’s blog or hook up with her and her crew on Twitter.  You’ll be glad you did.

Sex Sells, But Should Young Adults Buy Into It?

It’s everywhere we look – In magazines, television, movies, books, bedrooms, back seats of cars…you the idea.  There’s no escaping it.  I don’t care how “good” we claim to be, we’ll look.  We’re curious about the body, what it looks like (more importantly, what other bodies look like).  Let’s admit it and move on – naked bodies or scantily clad bodies – are a complete turn on.  We shamelessly flock to online sites en masse and hoot our approval.  For the males, they have the Hooter Girls, the Jaegermeister models, and a long list of others scantily clad women toting tools, beer bottles, and motorcycles.

Us women love, love, love it!  We create it!  Look at what CJ West is doing for the cause!  (By the way, comment on his challenge post and you could win a $500  Amazon gift certificate – but the biggest prize is to get CJ shirtless!)om 1953…

What about brain candy?  Look at the success of Fifty Shades of Grey.  Sex, sex, and more sex.  And the public is eating it up!  Then there’s Gabriel’s Inferno and the eagerly anticipated The Winemaker’s Dinner (available July 31, 2012).  It’s all about the seduction that makes us squirm (in the very pleasurable sense of the word).

Which brings me to my original topic.  How young is too young for readers to be exposed to sex in literature?  Where should we draw the line?  Should we draw the line?

I’m not advocating it one way or another, because that is a purely personal opinion for authors and the parents of young readers to deal with.  What I have observed, though, is the fact that these young adults are getting younger and are already well-schooled about the ins and outs (yes, pun intended) of sex, the very same stuff some of us try to keep out of their hands.

Let’s face it.  The act of sex is primal.  Used for procreation or not, there is, at various levels, arousal.  None of us are immune to it.

In my day job as a medical transcriptionist, I’ve lost count of how many reports I’ve typed regarding 14-year-olds who go to the emergency room due to complications from their pregnancy.  As much as I’m against babies having babies, the reality is that they know all about sex and keeping it out of books probably isn’t going to stop them from doing the wild thing.  In fact, they’ll see it, read it, and do it if they want.

A friend of mine understands that mentality, and even though her son is only 14 years old, he has a girlfriend, so she keeps a stack of Trojans within his reach.  Just in case.

When I was in seventh grade, there was a couple who spent every lunch, every recess playing throat hockey and copping feels.  Sheesh.  If they did that in public, one could only guess what they did in private.

I’ve been told by a few teens that they’ve read my novel, Again, which has a few choice sex scenes ranging from sweetly intimate to raw. (My guess is that they actually skimmed the book for the “best parts” and ignored the rest.) And they seemed rather proud of themselves for having read it.  I totally cringe at the thought, but then I remind myself of the time when I was 12 or 13 and the stuff I got my hands on. *shrugs*  Whaddya gonna do?

I’m not going to tell you if I wrote any sex into my next Young Adult novel, Souled, or not, because that would be a total spoiler, but suffice it to say, I kept it as real as possible.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Is there a line you draw as a reader or writer?  What are your beliefs?

It’s All In The Mind’s Eye

“The world only exists in your eyes – your conception of it. You can make it as big or as small as you want to.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Great words from a great writer, but the question is, how does a writer create a pathway from our eyes to the minds of the readers of novels?  Fortunately, archived records and the Internet can bring history of centuries ago into an author’s hands, allowing us to recreate a world long gone, in order to give the reader some sort of anchor as they turn the pages of our novels.  With a little imagination and fantastic writing skills, many authors transport us back to a time none of us have experienced first hand (at least not in this lifetime).

If the setting of the novel is in the present, we have access to maps, photos, and transportation to get to wherever the story takes place so that we may get a first-hand accounting of the sights and smells of the area.  Though some novel settings are loosely based on a certain locale, the authors are still able to give the reader the same flavor as if that particular imaginary city actually existed.  And those novels that are grounded in an actual place?  That could be a lot of fun for the readers as well.  Just ask Tamie from Bookish Temptations.  She recently toured Toronto in search of the offices, restaurants, museums, and streets that Sylvain Reynard fleshed out in Gabriel’s Inferno.  In reading her blog, you can feel her excitement as she was able to “be” where the characters were.  What a cool connection, right?

In my upcoming novel, Souled, the characters are firmly rooted in Sandpoint, a small town in North Idaho.  Because I am very familiar with the area, I was able to write from first-hand experience.  I’ve posted on my website and on Pinterest, pictures of where some of the scenes take place, so when the novel is released (weeks away), the readers who cannot actually visit the area, can at least “see” where it is that the characters live.

EFX bowling alley

Zero Point (stone shop)

In the case of futuristic or high fantasy, a writer can create an entirely new world, or they can do what Angela Peart has done for her soon-to-be-released novel.  (By the way, she filled me in on the details of her story, and…yeah.  This one is going to rock our socks off.).  So, rather than me trying to explain her method of creating setting, I’m going to let Angela do the talking because you just need to experience it.

Take it away, Angela!

“The story of my upcoming Young Adult paranormal novel, Greed (this is a “working title”), takes place in Seattle—the city that I have been calling home for many years now. But because the plot contains elements of high fantasy, some of the scenes happen in imaginary places. I will introduce those amazing places in another post. Today I want to share with you a very special spot from my novel. It is Queen Anne Academy of the Arts and Sciences in the Seattle’s picturesque district of Queen Anne. No, the school does not exist in reality, but the area is 100% real.

The Seattle skyline viewed from Queen Anne – photo by National Geographic

All except one of my teenage characters attend this prestigious private school. The Georgian architecture building and the surrounding grounds are not based on any real location. Only my imagination and the knowledge that I have obtained, studying interior design at the Art Institute of Seattle, are responsible for the creation of this intriguing place.

I am not ready to reveal my characters’ names just yet. There will be a special blog post in the near future, where you will learn more about them. For now I am simply “coding” them as X, Y, and Z. I know, not very creative, but try to overlook that and only concentrate on the descriptions of my dream high school.

Here are two excerpts from my novel. Enjoy!”

1.      He looked up at the ceiling, his eyes tracing the acanthus leaf castings clustered in the corners and along the sides. An enormous antique chandelier hung down by thick chains. A ring, covered in intricate patterns, encircled a massive hand-painted globe. The pale colors of the land and surrounding oceans looked subdued like on an antique map. Twenty-four sweeping, rounded arms reached out from the metal ring and curved up and out, ending in elongated candle-shaped electric lights. The sphere rotated lazily, as if imitating the real Earth. X gazed at it, transfixed, wishing it was dark outside and the whole thing would light up like it always did in the evenings.

2.      He shook his head, smiling to himself, and then walked toward the massive double front door. The door was two stories high, set between two flat columns protruding from the walls on both, interior and exterior, sides. A semi-circular intricately-carved arch encased the top of the door.

Y opened the door and stepped outside. He shaded his eyes with his hand and, squinting, looked at the cloudless sky. The door closed with a dull thud behind him, as he started down the wide stone stairs. Strings of green ivy clung to the solid-stone balustrade on both sides of the steps. The stone was aged, its natural color richly variegated. Two huge urns flanked the staircase, their color scheme identical to the balusters.

So, can you see it?  Can you feel it?  Thanks, Angela, for a sneak peek into your novel and giving us a great example of how an author’s mind works.

How do you feel about settings in the novels you read?  Do you like detailed descriptions or minimally-there descriptions?  Everyone’s preferences are different, but then again that is why we have so many types of authors and novels!