Category: Site Announcements
Posting for 20four12
Have you ever had a bad teacher? I certainly have. My little school inexplicably attracted some of the worst (and best) in the country. My grade 9 year I dubbed the Year of the Four Math Teachers. Yes, we had four math teachers in one year.
But I have certainly never had the problem Susan Simmons does in Bruce Coville’s novel! My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville. Go on and check it out! And while you’re there, check out the 20four12 blog. Caleb blogs about adult fiction certainly a lot more than I do and there’s something there for everyone.
Reader Suggestion Week
I love reviewing books and ranting about books, but The Mad Reviewer would not be possible without you guys, my amazing readers. Although I do my own thing most of the time, I love hearing from you about how I could improve the site. Do you want to see more rants? Do you want me to review a particular genre more often or do you think there’s a certain series I should check out? Is there any way I could improve the site layout or make navigation easier?
Well, you’ll all have a chance to have your say! Because this week, from Sunday, September 16 until Sunday, September 23, you’ll be able to ask me about something or suggest something new or something that needs to be improved upon. Of course, I welcome suggestions at all times, but a ‘Reader Suggestion Week’ makes things more official.
If you have any suggestions or questions about the site, you can comment below and I’ll respond to your question as well as I can.
My First 20four12 Guest Post
Today I’m posting over at 20four12 and this time I’m reviewing a zombie book that isn’t really a zombie book. What to know what I mean? Go on over and check out Autumn by David Moody. You won’t regret it, I can promise you that.
Introducing my New Guest Poster: Caleb Flanagan of 20four12
Caleb Flanagan of 20four12 has been a regular commenter here on The Mad Reviewer for many months and we’ve had some very interesting conversations. Naturally, we have developed a professional relationship and when he wanted to expand into guest posting, he contacted me first (which was very flattering). Although I resigned at We Heart Reading on Wednesday, I am still very much interested in guest posting. So why did I resign? I wasn’t getting any content in return.
The reason I love guest posting with The Streetlight Reader is that we do exchanges: she writes one review for me, I write one for her. At We Heart Reading, I would post every week for no content in return and significantly less traffic. However, the way Caleb and I have worked things out will give us each regular content. I will be posting for him every other Friday and he will be posting for me every other Friday. My first post for him will be today, the 7th and his first post for me will be on the 14th. And we’ll take things from there.
Since Caleb did an amazing post introducing me to his readers, I might as well introduce him. Here’s a section from his about page:
My name is Caleb Flanagan. I’m a former English major at Brigham Young University who now works as a Front-End Web Developer for a marketing firm in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am married to an amazing woman by the name of Holly, and I’m lucky enough to be the father of two totally awesome kids, my son, Jack, and my daughter, Lucy.
20four12 is a blog that focuses on books and how I perceive them as a whole as well as the more nebulous topics behind being an avid reader. My personal reading taste leans quite heavily to the science fiction, fantasy, and dystopian genres. However, I have been known to cross over into just about any genre if I think the book has an interesting concept behind it. Lately I’ve been discovering that I quite enjoy the characters and plots that can be found in YA fiction, something I never really thought I would be all that interested in. It’s always great to discover new things with books.
Occasionally you might find posts here that deal with topics other than books, but I promise that if you do, they will always be interesting!
Other interests that I spend time on include following sports news quite voraciously, watching movies (especially in the theater), and a little bit of online gaming when time and mood permits.
So if you haven’t already checked out 20four12, you should now! Caleb does some amazing in-depth posts about books chapter-by-chapter as well as reviews, articles on gaming, movies, etc. He caters to a more adult audience, but I know for a fact that many teens will love the books he reviews.
Farewell to We Heart Reading
As you probably don’t know, last Wednesday was my last day posting over at We Heart Reading. I know my ‘resignation’ is pretty sudden and you’re probably all asking yourselves why did I quit, but I’m going to keep things brief:
1. I want to focus on my own blog more.
2. In September I’ve taken on a lot of projects, most notably my collaboration with Mark of The Masquerade Crew on his first anthology. My role as developmental (content) editor will take up a lot of my time and the fact is that guest posting regularly takes a lot more time than just posting on my blog. Both Mark and I are hoping that there will be more anthologies in the future, so to put it bluntly: editing pays and guest posting doesn’t. I am human and would like to make a little extra money, so I feel that my energy is better spent on paying work than on We Heart Reading.
3. It wasn’t meeting my expectations. I’m a perfectionist and when things don’t turn out, I often lose interest in them. This is no one’s fault but my own. We Heart Reading hasn’t turned out nearly as well as I thought it would; it was just not a good fit for a control freak like myself. However, for non-control freak book reviewers I would highly recommend joining it. It’s a great place to build a community of book reviewers and fellow book lovers.
Even though I’m saying ‘addio’ to We Heart Reading, that doesn’t mean I’m saying farewell to guest posting in general. It’s just that I will be guest posting less frequently, as in once every two weeks. But more on that later.
For now, just know that I will no longer be posting at We Heart Reading, but I will still do everything I can to help the site out. It was a great place to meet fellow book reviewers and book lovers and I’m going to miss it.