Armchair BEA: Day Five Discussion -- Ask the Experts

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aBEA discussion today: Ask the Experts

So today is the last day of aBEA, and I am very sad to see it go. I have made some great new blogging friends and really appreciate all of the people that have visited my blog this week.

Today I am supposed to ask the blogger veterans questions, so here they are:

1. What makes you follow a blog? What keeps you coming back?
2. What types of giveaways do you like to see and enter?
3. What are your favorite things to see on a blog?
4. Any suggestions or tips for my blog are welcome!

Feel free to link me back to your tips or questions 

 I want to thank everyone again for popping over to my blog, I hope we continue to chat :)

<3 Steph aka Gorelenore

Armchair BEA: Day Four Discussion -- Beyond the Blog

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aBEA Discussion Today: Beyond your Blog

Today the discussion is about "opportunities for you beyond getting free, advance copies of new books? Has it helped you get offers to write or review elsewhere (maybe even for pay)? Have you gotten invites to special events or places you might not have been to otherwise?" To read other people answers chick here.

As I expressed yesterday, I have only been blogging for a few months so I really haven't had many opportunities to go 'beyond' it.  I do get free copies of books, which is wonderful in and of itself but I am working to do other things...very slowly though.

I currently am a part of Amazon Affiliates, but that only makes money if people click and buy through there...so I don't really make money from it. I added it to see how it might work. I though about starting Google Adsense, but honestly it scares me a little. While I think advertising is great, I also want to be able to have a little more control about the ads, I also don't think I get enough traffic for them yet.

As for writing reviews elsewhere, I have not been asked, but I also have a lot on my plate as it is. I work two jobs and blog and with that blogging is a lot of reading :).

I think that as my blog grows I will become more open to new things. So until then, I am just taking it slow, hopefully connections will be made.

Hope everyone is having a great time with aBEA, sad to see it ending soon. Thanks to everyone for great posts, conversations, and love.

<3 Steph aka Gorelenore

ArmchairBEA -- Day Three Discussion: Networking...In Real Life

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 For aBEA discussion today: Networking...In Real Life

So, today's task is to talk about networking and the blogging community. The prompt was "we want you to share your positive experiences of using your blog to get involved in your community.  This can involve partnerships with the local literary scene, attending author events and signings, or getting together with bloggers in your area.  We want to hear it all!"

Since I have only been blogging since February, I really don't have a lot to share today.  I have been to a few book signings and events A LONG time ago when I worked at a bookstore, and they were great. I met a lot of interesting authors, but a lot were academic writers because it was a college bookstore.

Blogging now, has become my creative outlet. I used to do photography, charcoal drawings, and art in general..but kind of fell out of it, so I took up blogging.  I am starting to become better friends with the blogging community via Twitter and RandomBuzzers online. Even my Goodreads friend list has grown. 

I love the people that share my passion for reading, they are interesting and strange (in a good way) just like me :D

<3 to all you awesome bloggers!

-Steph aka Gorelenore

Armchair BEA -- Day Two Discussion: Best of 2012

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For aBEA discussion today: Faves of 2012 

Here are mine...

Read this year and Loved!

 

Anticipating

Reunited, June 12,2012

Splintered, January 2013?

Carnival of Souls, September 4, 2012

Out Already and Can't Wait to Read Soon

Armchair BEA -- Day Two: Giveaway!

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The list of sponsors over at Armchair BEA is incredible and now there is another list of individually hosted giveaways from the awesome bloggers joining in. Go check them out and enter this one :)

I am giving away a signed Small Medium at Large Bookmark, a signed Elemental Bookmark, and an Elemental tattoo to 3 winners.

The Rules:

Contest is open to the US

You must be 13 years or older to win. 

Contest ends on June 9th.

Winner will be emailed and have 48 hours to respond.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Armchair BEA: Introductions First!

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Hello wonderful Readers and Armchair BEA...ers... :)

Since I couldn't go to BEA I was really sad :(... THEN I found all these awesome bloggers and Armchair BEA. So today we start with introductions, here is a little bit about me...
  

• Please tell us a little about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? 
• Hello, my name is Stephanie aka Gorelenore on Twitter and the blog, and I have been blogging since the end of January 2012, so only a few months. I got into it because my husband said that I needed a hobby and it should involve books because I read ALL THE TIME. So I started my blog and everything just kind of snowballed from there. 
• What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?
•  Right now I am reading Lost inTime by Melissa de la Cruz and Rapture by Lauren Kate. I am also listening to Fated by Alyson Noel on audiobook on the way to and from work (Also hosting an audiobook giveaway). I am not really sure what the best I have read so far this year is, there have been so many really good ones; I really liked The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda (review here) and The Immortal Rules by Julie Kawaga (review here).
• Tell us one non-book related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you. 
• Um, well, I am not sure how many people actually read my About Me page, so I guess it would be that I am a teacher. I got my Master’s in Humanities with a specialization in Art History in 2010 and immediately got a job at the local community college teaching Survey of Western Culture. I love it! And it seems that my students really like me. I am pretty young so a lot of them are my age or a little older. 
• Where do you see your blog in 5 years? 
• Hopefully, still going strong. I hope to form more relationships with other bloggers, authors, and publishers for more giveaways and interviews. I think that this type of blogging really involves the community as a whole and I would love to become imbedded in it more. 
• Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?
•  Not really. I have always really enjoyed reading Young Adult works, they are easy reads, especially when you are getting your graduate degree and need something softer. I have to say that what is has done is improved my reading. I am reading a lot more, and faster then I thought I ever could.

Thanks for visiting!!! 

<3 Gorelenore