Announcement: We’re Taking A Break

Hi guys! You may have noticed that there has been a severe lack of anything going on over here lately. We had a total of 4 posts in March and that really sucks. Unfortunately, between school and work and thesis stuff and wedding planning something’s gotta give, and that thing is our beloved blog.

Not only are we not writing, I’m barely reading either. My poor brain has no power left by the time I’m done all that other stuff to process the pretty words on the pages. I’ve been reading the second Outlander book for 2 weeks now! It’s ridiculous! 

Anyway, I’m finished with uni (forever, yay!) on May 8th (not that I’m counting or anything…) and so hopefully sometime around then we can actually start blogging again! And reading! 

In summary: we’re not dead. We still love you. We’ll be back (eventually!). Until then, happy reading! 

L xoxo 

The Speculative Fiction Challenge: April Link Up

This is where you can link up your reviews, discussions and other Speculative Fiction type links. You must have already signed up as a participant in the 2012 Speculative Fiction Challenge to add your links and have your books counted towards your challenge goal. You can sign up until November 31st.

Feel free to add posts other than reviews (discussions, author guest posts or interviews and the like), we want to see what you’ve been up to! 

Bloggiesta! Mini Challenge: How to put Social Media Icons on Your Sidebar

Social media is one of the best, easiest and funnest ways to promote your blog and those awesome posts you spend so much time writing. But why go through all that effort creating those accounts, and using them, if no one knows they exist? Our bloggiesta mini challenge for you is: 

Put your social media links in your sidebar!

Here’s how:

1) Go search and hunt down some social media icons that you love. It’s better if they match in some way and look good on your blog. You want them to be nice and clear so people can spot them easily. I found the ones for this tutorial {here}.

2) Save the images to your computer and upload them to where ever you normally upload your blog pictures. I use Picassa because it’s connected to my gmail. 

3) Go to your blog settings and create a new widget for the html. You want this to be high up enough so people with small screens can see it without scrolling down, so make it one of the first widgets in your sidebar.

4) Add the html (this is for 3 buttons but you can copy/paste for more):

<p><a href=”YOUR LINK”><img src=”YOUR IMAGE LINK” ALT=”TEXT THAT SHOWS IF IMAGE DOESN’T LOAD” TITLE=”HOVER TEXT”></a>

<a href=”YOUR LINK”><img src=”YOUR IMAGE LINK” ALT=”TEXT THAT SHOWS IF IMAGE DOESN’T LOAD” TITLE=”HOVER TEXT”></a>

<a href=”YOUR LINK”><img src=”YOUR IMAGE LINK” ALT=”TEXT THAT SHOWS IF IMAGE DOESN’T LOAD” TITLE=”HOVER TEXT”></a></p>

Change the bits in capitals to your links. So mine says:

<a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/adventuresoftwopointoh”><img src=”https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-saXpJI9hd7Y/TuzYNrVFbzI/AAAAAAAABAU/EAprpmNGHwM/h120/rssflag.png” ALT=”Feedburner” TITLE=”Subscribe via Feedburner”></a>

Your image link is the DIRECT link to your social media image. You can find this by right clicking the image and choosing “Copy image URL”.

5) Make sure the icons are centered and all grouped together. If you want to have a set of icons, say 4, then just repeat the same code, replacing the capitals with the correct links. 

This is what you should end up with: 

Clicking on these images takes you straight to some of my favorite ways to share posts. It’s a great idea to give your readers a couple of different ways to follow you (RSS, Facebook and Twitter would be the basics for me) to make sure everyone who wants to, has access to your fountain of awesome.

I hope this helped! Happy Bloggiesta-ing! Lisa xxoxo

P.S. - If you need more help than this, this is the best post I’ve found explaining each individual step. Good luck!

Book Bloggers & Publishers Online Conference

Last year I randomly stumbled across an event that turned out to be the best idea ever: The Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference.

Our blog was only 5 months old and I learnt SO much from this online event. The legal stuff, how to talk to big fancy (scary) publishers, how to make your blog so much better, it’s all here.

There are forums to help you answer any possible question and days of panels on specific topics including:

• NetGalley and Bloggers
• Legal Issues Facing Bloggers
• Blog Tours
• What Authors and Publishers Look for in Reviews
• Standing Out From the Crowd
• Review Guidelines

Speakers this year are from Random House Publishing, Penguin (Editor), NetGalley, Wana Consulting, Samhain Publishing, Bloomsbury Publishing, Dreamspinner Press and Book Country.

The conference runs March 7-11 (Wednesday through Sunday) and you can find even more information and register on this website. It’s $45 and you get books!

Hope to see you there! L xoxo

Me, Earl and the Dying Girl: Jesse Andrews

Greg Gaines has been purposely spending his life on the edges of high school, dipping in and out of each and every social group. When his mother declares that he must spend time with a dying girl, Rachel, Greg is highly unimpressed. But as their friendship grows, Greg and his best friend Earl try to make her days suck less with one of their (not so) famous films.

This is a great book. Simple, honest and not trying to be anything it’s not. Even though there is a young girl with cancer, the story isn’t overwhelmingly sad. You know what’s coming and Greg, Earl and Rachel respond like teenagers, not like some fictionalized characters where the focus becomes some grand life lesson.

The absolute best part of this book was Earl, Greg’s best friend and possibly the most random person ever. I found myself looking forward to every scene Earl was in. He was the perfect, straight forward contrast to Greg’s occasional moroseness. The writing style is clear cut, full of humor and had me laughing out loud, not something you’d generally expect from a book about teen cancer. The teenagers are teenagers, bad language, self-absorbed and all.

Books that stay true to their characters personalities are always the best. Highly recommend to those looking for something a little out of the ordinary or for something easy, funny and interesting to pick up.

L xoxo 

The Speculative Fiction Challenge: March Link Up

This is where you can link up your reviews, discussions and other Speculative Fiction type links. You must have already signed up as a participant in the 2012 Speculative Fiction Challenge to add your links and have your books counted towards your challenge goal. You can sign up until November 31st.

Each month we will select one or two books to be highlighted as our challenge recommendations to give you guys some ideas! 

Feel free to add posts other than reviews (discussions, author guest posts or interviews and the like), we want to see what you’ve been up to!