2018 Blog Challenge Sign Up Post

Okay, so I've thought long and hard about what challenges to sign up for in 2018.  I've decided on four.  All ones I've done in the past.  I have some ideas on how to be more successful on them as well.  So watch for my goals with each one.  I'm going to start with the ones I actually completed last year.

What I like most about this challenge hosted by Nicole at  Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon at  It Starts at Midnight, is that it keeps me from just doing promos or reviews.  It gives me a chance to talk about things I might not have anyone in my "real" life to talk about. And I always like to get fun gifs to go along with them.  My goal last year was 4 discussion posts.  I'm going to stick with that number, which makes me a Discussion Dabbler according to the sign up site that I've linked the button to.

I'm not going to list off the series I intend to finish this year, just because I don't want to limit myself, and I haven't had the chance to sit down and write them all down.  Of course there are a few from the past year that I still didn't complete, but I will try those.  This one is hosted by Sandy at Somewhere Only We Know and Holly at Words Fueled by Love.  You can click the button above to sign up.  I'm only signing up for level 2 this year, which is 5-10, and my goal is 6. 

I always like this challenge, hosted by Michelle at Because Reading is Better than Real Life and Laura at Trips Down Imagination Road.  Even though I don't always quite make my exact goals, it often leads me to find other ways in which I can improve my reading, blogging, or writing.  And so that is why I am signing up again.  If you like the sound of it, click on the button above and go to that site to sign up.  Here are my three goals for the year:

1.  Complete one of my WIP romance stories.  Preferably one by the end of January to enter a contest, but just one of them during the year works for me.

2.  Read the books suggested by friends.  For example, a friend at work has challenged me to read one DC comic and one Marvel comic, and see which I actually prefer, based on the comics and not just the movies.  I've also had other books recommended, such as a Kurt Vonnegut book, and I bought it, but have yet to read it.  So those are my three books I plan to read for sure this year as recommended.

3.  Cut back on tours.  I am scheduled, way over scheduled.  It cuts into writing time, and commenting on other blogs, as well as doing any extra work on my own blog.  I asked for a book on HTML for Christmas, since I want to learn how to do some of the coding myself.  So I  need more time to work on that.

So, I kind of failed miserably at this challenge last year, and I think it was because I named off what books they would be. This year, I am not going to name them ahead of time, just note them as being for this challenge as I pull them off the TBR shelves.  Once again I'm sticking with the lowest level, the Pike's Peak level - 12 books off my TBR pile.  I'm making it of course that they have to have been purchased in 2017 or earlier.  This is hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block, and you can sign up by clicking on the link in this paragraph.

2017 Challenges Announcement Post

Well, tomorrow a new year starts.  And everyone is hoping for 2017 to be better than 2016 seemed to be.  I haven't quite figured up how I've done on all my 2016 challenges yet, I figure I'll do that tomorrow. I do know that I will not be hosting any challenges next year, probably not even my usual September is for Sequels.  But today I want to share the different challenges I plan to participate in for the coming year for sure.

The Blogger Shame challenge is a cheeky way to admit our guilt...and go about fixing it. Tackling those review books that have slipped through the cracks over the years. Any review book over 4 months past due is game!  This is hosted by Herding Cats and Burning Soup.  I am going to try to work on the books that I downloaded to Kindle from Netgalley, because they don't expire, and that way by participating in this, I will also help my Netgalley score!  There will be two check-ins for this challenge: 

Mid Year Check In: First week of June

Wrap Up Post: Last week of December

• My goal is 4 books for 2017:  Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray, Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff, The Giant by Lex Thomas, Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

This challenge is to help get us discussing books and book blogging, so talk about whatever you want as long as it’s relevant to book blogging. Discussions can be book related or book blogging related (or generally blogging related—no discussions about things that are completely off-topic like travel or fashion, etc). Discussions can also be about you personally if it’s a get-to-know-you type post.  This one is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.  I tried this one last year, but didn't quite reach my goal,  so I'm going to set it a little lower this year.

• My goal is to do 4 discussion posts throughout the year, which makes me working towards the Discussion Dabbler level of 1-10

This challenge is hosted by Somewhere Only We Know and Words Fueled by Love and is for all of you series readers who are scared to death of that last book in the series. You anxiously await it. You stalk it. You get your hands on it as soon as possible. But then…you put off reading it for fear that it might not be everything you thought it would be. Or, maybe you just have a backlog of series started and you need to finish that last book.   I fall into the last group, I just never seem to get to the last one at times.  Partly because of all the new books coming out.

• I plan to do level 3 and get 12 done.  Here are the series I'm hoping to finish:  The Taking by Kimberly Derting, Covenant series by JLA, The Last Star (5th Wave series) by Rick Yancey, The Crown (The Selection series) by Kiera Cass, The Black Key (The Lone City series) by Amy Ewing, Untamed (Splintered series) by AG Howard, Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse series) by Charlaine Harris, Eternally Yours (Immortal Beloved series) by Cate Tiernan, Fire and Ash (Rot and Ruin series) by Jonathan Maberry, Rogue (Croak series) by Gina Damico, Third Strike (The Slayer Chronicles) by Heather Brewer, Reborn (Altered series) by Jennifer Rush, and Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine's series) by Ransom Riggs

This challenge that is hosted by My Reader's Block ties in well with the fact that I have a whole 5 shelf bookcase that is full of TBR books. And not just nice even rows of books on each shelf, but books piled in until there is no room to set anymore books on the shelves.  I have over 300 physical books, last time I counted, waiting for me to read.  Books I've won, from past BEAs, books I HAD to buy when they came out, or books I found for a great deal at either Half Price Bookstores or Dollar Tree stores.  I've decided to start out with the lowest level and if I do more, I do more.  Some of these will be for another challenge too.

• Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s:  Here are my proposed 12 books:  The Countdown by Kimberly Derting, The Crown by Kiera Cass, Untamed by AG Howard, Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris, Eternally Yours by Cate Tiernan, Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry, Rogue by Gina Damico, Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova, Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes, Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray, Tease by Sophie Jordan, and Maplecroft by Cherie Priest

If I can get more read than those 12, I definitely will.  

I participated in this challenge last year.  Hosted by Because Reading and Trips Down Imagination Road, it is a challenge where you can set different types of goals, blogging, writing, reading, and even personal.  This year I've chosen blogging and writing goals.

1. Blogging:   Label all post titles to whether it is an ARC, e-book, or an audiobook.  Comment on at least 7 different blogs a week - which includes answering all my own blog comments every day instead of letting them add up.  Get an image created to show the number of stars I give a book.  I have an idea, just need an artist to do it for me.  Had my sister in mind, but I suspect that is no longer an option after a falling out we had in November, not that I had any idea when/if she might ever get to it anyway. 
2. Writing:  Finish my NaNoWriMo story from several years ago,  Digging Up Love, and see if I can also finish this past year's NaNo, Fault Lines.   Write a short story every week according to a challenge my writing partner and I have thought about doing.  Set up at least one hour a week that is dedicated to writing every week.

I will set up a Goodreads goal as soon as the website opens it up for the 2017 goals, and I plan to set it at 250 books for the year.

Whew!  Those are all my challenges for 2017.  While you're here, today is the last day to enter my Let's Get 2016 Over With Giveaway Part 4.  But come back on Sunday for a new giveaway, Book of Choice, sponsored by FLYLeF.

Discussion Post: Copy, Paste, Repeat - Or How Many Places Do You Post Your Reviews?

I'm a bit late this month with my 4th discussion post, as I just got too busy to get it done.  Wow, this summer is not slowing down from the school year!  Anyway, the 2016 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. My first one was all about if teens are really as dumb as we think, and will expect what happens in books to be real life.  My second one was about giving ratings in your reviews.  My third one was about reviewing different age levels of books on the same blog.  You can go read my thoughts and then share what you think on those three HERE, HERE, and HERE.  This month I want to find out just where everyone posts their reviews.

I've always done on my blog for sure.  For awhile I would post the reviews on Goodreads and then use the html from that to put the review over on my blog too.  For the most part I do my full reviews still here on my blog.  But sometimes an author, especially the independently published ones, ask for you to also post your review on other sites like Amazon or Goodreads.  When they ask me to, I always do.  Of course since I work for Barnes and Noble, I then go post the review there as well, because I feel like I have to.  I just do.

But I always wonder if it is too repetitive to just copy and paste the exact same review straight from my blog.  Should I just post part of it and link back to my blog to drive the traffic back here?  I often do that on Goodreads. But I don't think I can do that on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  Plus, my blog reviews don't have really creative titles, but on Amazon it seems like you want your review title to be catchy so you get people to read the review.  And since on my blog my review almost always contains my own little personal synopsis of the story, do I need to do that on Amazon?  Or should I just put only the opinion parts of my review?

 

Since I've been reading so many more indie authors as free e-books lately, I feel like I need to make sure I not only review on my blog, but back on Amazon too.  But I don't always get it done, because so many of my reviews are scheduled in advance now that I am a bit behind on reviews.

So, my discussion today is really because I need your input and opinions on what you do, and how important you feel this topic is.  Please, please chime in below and help me figure this out!

April End of Month Wrap Up Post

So I've been good about the Sunday Posts again this month, however not as great with my challenges I think.  But let's do a recap.

I signed up for this challenge last month, and if you click on the image above you can see my sign up post.  My goal was to do about one a month, and so far I'm on top of that with my April post:  It's In The Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings On My Blog.  I even have already come up with a discussion topic for May!  It's fun to talk about these things, and then see what others think, as well as going and reading other blog's discussion posts.

Of course my next challenge I'm going to talk about is the one that I'm hosting.  If you click on the image above, you can go see my sign up post, and you can still sign up yourself!  Not only that, but those of you who have been participating already, or start in May, can go HERE, and add in links to your reviews for this challenge, and enter another giveaway!  I have surpassed my goal of 4 new series, and have reached to 6 new series. And I don't think I'm done!  Most of these are also authors that are new to me, and I am going to get to meet them in September at the NOLA Story Con.   Here are my posts that meet this challenge from April:

• Losing It by Cora Carmack
• On Dublin Street by Samantha Young
• Calendar Girl Vol. 1 by Audrey Carlan
• Rule (Marked Men #1) by Jay Crownover
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

 

You can see my original sign up post HERE, and see how many I've signed up for again this year. I'm not doing as well with this challenge as others, I need to get caught up on this, maybe this summer.  

• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh - This book has been sitting on my TBR shelf since last year at this same time!  It was one of them that was on my list in the sign up post though, so that is good.

 

My feedback ratio is still at 70%, and I've requested a few more unfortunately, but at least I'm keeping at 70% and  not dropping.  I've reached my goal number of 10 feedback for the year, but still working on the ratio.  You can see my original sign up post for this HERE.   

• Elementals 2:  The Blood of the Hydra by Michelle Madow (7 days left on Giveaway)
• Flawed by Cecilia Ahern
• Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey (3 days left on Giveaway)

 

Okay, so we'll go through these one by one, and HERE is the original post of my resolutions.   

• I'm doing better with the not downloading a ton of e-galleys.  Still making note of them in my blog planner, and only going back and downloading them when it gets closer to time and I know I'm going to read them, unless of course it is one I know I have to read.
• I posted every single day this past month.  One thing that is nice though, is that I did have some weeks where I was able to post for almost the whole week ahead of time, so I wasn't as stressed about it.  
• But, because of the end of the school year getting busier, and probably all the posting I was doing, I don't feel like I got as much commenting done as I wanted.  
• Still doing my monthly wrap up post, as you can see with this post!  
• I have beat my goal of 2 reviews a week, with doing at least 3 each week!  Yay me!
• Personal goals:  No money saved, but I borrowed the money I needed from my mom to get my air conditioner fixed, so I'll just be paying her back over the summer, and it will be nice to not have to sweat in my house when the summer temps really get here!  My new walking goal is to walk twice a week, and I've done that so far this month!  This goal will be met in May, hopefully, and then my reward is to maybe upgrade to the new Alta Fitbit.  

 

You can see my original sign up post for this challenge HERE.   And I'll just say I've not done any this month.  So far I've only done one this year.  I've really got to get a move on this!  I have The Raven King sitting on my shelf to read, I think I'm having trouble picking it up knowing that it will mean the end!

I think I'm going to get some writing done this summer, I may even add a goal for that next month, as a summer type of goal.  I've got another story idea, plus a picture book that I want to finish and submit!  I also have my NaNoWriMo from several years ago that I'm posting on Wattpad that I'd like to get finished this year as well, if you want to check it out so far, go HERE.  I've decided that I kind of need a "me" vacation, where I go away from home, so not a staycation, but I also have no dogs and no family and no big plans.  I used to go to a library conference every year in April, and that was always nice to be at a resort, and have the evenings to myself to write, or just be alone with no stress.  I have a friend who has a cabin in Colorado, and she's offered to let me borrow it. So I just have to plan when I'd like to use it and see about getting it set up with her.  

My April was pretty busy.  How was your April?

March End of the Month Challenge Wrap-Up

Well, this month I got my Sunday Posts done, but I don't know if I did that well on my other Challenges.  I also joined a new challenge, the 2016 Discussion Challenge.  I got one post this month, Fiction is Fiction, and as my goal is 1-12 posts, I'd say I've already completed the minimum for that.  Also just by doing this post, I'm keeping up on this goal of doing end of the month posts.  And I'm 5 books ahead on my Goodreads goal, so I'm doing well this month!  So let's check out all my challenge results for the month.

Starting with the new challenge I'm hosting this year.  Unfortunately I didn't really do much towards what I'd planned.  If I change the guidelines like I've said I would, for people to even just try new to them authors, then I can say I got more done this month.  Really, there is only one that fits the original series guidelines HERE.

• Taking Chances by Molly McAdams
• If I count a new author towards this, then I have finally read a book by Wendy Higgins, and love it, The Great Hunt. 

I only got one book again this month, but that's okay since my goal is 11-20, as you can see on my sign up post HERE.  But the one that I did do was on my original sign up list.  I just finished it today, won't have the review up for a week or so though, so I'll link it to the Goodreads info.

•  Broken Trust by Michelle Sodaro

This month I gave feedback on five books, bringing my Feedback ratio up to 70%.  My goal was to try to get back up the 80% ratio, or at least get a total of 10 done for the year, as I listed on the original post HERE.   So I am at least at 7 of the 10.  Three of the books I actually read, and the other two are ones that I couldn't finish, so I went ahead and left that as the feedback.  Here are the 5 books:

• Firstlife by Gena Showalter
• Stone Field by Christy Lenzi
• Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan
• Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell
• Hot Pterodactyl  Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn

Well, let's go through what I did this month, you can check out the original post HERE. 

• I'm still doing really well with not downloading tons of e-galleys.  It helps to just write them down in my calendar, and then I don't go to download them until it is closer to the time of publishing/when I'll be reading them.  I'm also trying to make sure I read the Netgalley ones first if I can, so I can work on the challenge I talked about above.
• I still ended up posting almost every day again.  But I am trying hard to not sign up for tours unless they are books I know I'm going to read and really want to promote.  However I did skip one Sunday post, because I had several other things I wanted to post instead.
• Still doing my best to comment on other blogs.  
• Again, using this post monthly to keep up with my challenges.
• I've had two reviews every week this month, although only one so far this week.  I'm planning another tomorrow!
• Personal goals:  Still no money saved, but I have finally decided on what I'm going to do with my air conditioner.  I met my going to the gym and walking once a week goal, and got my reward of a tattoo, which you can see a picture of HERE.  I set a new goal of going to the gym and walking twice a week until the end of May, when summer break starts from school.  I think my reward for that will be buying a new pair of Nike tennis shoes for walking at the Nike Outlet store when my family goes to Branson over Memorial Day weekend for our annual trip.

I didn't really get anything for this goal this past month.  Unless the Maybe series by Colleen Hoover isn't going to have any more than the two books it already has.  And I kind of feel like it is, since there haven't been any more since 2014. 

For April this year, I'm not participating in the A to Z Challenge for a change.  It doesn't go with my goal of posting less.  I'm also really starting to feel like writing again.  I've decided that I am going to go back and finish the NaNo story from several years ago, but re-write it as a New Adult instead of just a straight contemporary romance.  Not sure when I'll find the time to write.  I'll probably just wait till this summer. 

So, how did your March go?