Again, I have to apologize for missing things yesterday but SaskTel is having some serious internet problems way up north where I live.  Even as I’m typing this it’s cutting in and out!  So if I don’t get to your comments right away I apologize and I’ll try my best to get to them when the internet is on.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking that I haven’t had a poll for a while.  I like using polls to feel out my readership and see what you guys think I’ve been doing well, what I haven’t and how I can improve/keep things fresh.  The first poll will be about something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of days: new articles.  Here are the series titles and the explanations:

Forgotten Figures: In which every month or so I write a biography on an awesome historical figure that has been largely forgotten by the majority of people today.  It’s not very book-related but it’s about people I would love to see in fiction. (ex. Aurelian, the Pharaoh Ahmose, the empress Eudoxia)

Writing Pitfalls: I’ve done this article before and I want to know if you guys want me to continue. It’s essentially me examining where authors go wrong in writing novels and how they can fix it.

Book Blogging 101: A series of articles in which I write advice for people who are new to book blogging or are thinking of book blogging. I hope that it could help existing bloggers too. (Sample titles would be Gathering a Readership, Getting Started, ARC FAQs)

The fourth option is to keep going with some of my previous articles dissecting books, like The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome and its far less popular sequel, The Hunger Games and the Third Servile War. It won’t be a series as such but I would continue examining other popular books that contain allusions and such.

So here’s your poll for that:

If you have the time, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these particular article series pitches.  Do any sound like something you’d read on a regular basis?  Why or why not?  Do you have an idea for an article or series?

Feel free to give me some criticism too.  I wouldn’t be a reviewer if I couldn’t take criticism as well as I dish it out.

[Update 30/12/14: 14 out of 20 slots are now full.  If you’re thinking of getting your submission in, hurry or you might miss out until mid-2015!]

So for the first time since I closed my review requests almost two years ago, I’m reopening them for an extremely limited period of time.  I will probably be closing them down again by the end of the week (or once I’ve accepted 15-20 requests), so if you’re thinking of submitting you better do it today.

I’m not one to beat around the bush, so keep reading for my guidelines of what to submit, how to submit and some general caveats.

WHAT I ACCEPT

Here are the genres of books I accept:

• YA
• Middle Grade (limited)
• Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction
• Fantasy
• Contemporary/realistic fiction
• Historical Fiction
• Horror (limited)
• Any combination of the above or other hybrid novels; if in doubt, send in the request anyway

Here are the genres of books I do not accept under any circumstances:

• Erotica.  What you like to write may not necessarily be what I like to read.
• Poetry.
• Shameless slasher fiction.  I don’t need violence for violence’s sake.
• Children’s books.  That genre hasn’t applied to me for several years and I don’t have children.

Continue reading →

Here in my corner of northern Saskatchewan I’m pretty remote.  I’m at least two and a half hours away from where any famous person would want to have any sort of event and am four hours away from the nearest city where there’s actually a significant population. Therefore I don’t get the normal things other book bloggers do, like local author/publisher events.  That doesn’t really bother me except that I feel like I’m missing out on something.  However, I did meet an author from Alberta at a blueberry festival/farmer’s market at the end of August so I actually got to talk shop with someone.  It was quite nice for a change, actually.

What I’m wondering is this: If you’re a blogger in a larger city centre, do you make an effort to reach out to local authors?  Do you go to a lot of author and/or publisher events?  Why or why not?  Conversely, if you’re an author, do you try to reach out to local bloggers?

I’m not one for much suspense, so I’ll just say outright that it was comment #6, belonging to Tammy Sparks who won.  Thank you so much to everyone who entered!  I really enjoyed reading your thoughtful entries.

Tammy, I won’t be able to contact you today because first I work and then I have to go to a wedding (groan) but we’ll be in touch on Sunday.  If you could contact me through the Contact page on my blog we can work out the details first thing tomorrow morning (or afternoon, depending on how late I stay at said wedding).