BLOGFEST 2009

Becca Fitzpatrick, Holly Black, Lisa McMann, Jessica Verday, Sara Rees Brennan, and many more.
http://www.simonlittlegreen.com/blogfest/authors/

Interview with Kristi aka The Storey Siren

As most of you book blogger's will know, Krisi has upped the sticks on book blogs across the world.  Her amazing insights and witty comments, make her one of my personal favourites.  Yeah, she updates her blog frequently with awesome reviews.  She even started In My Mailbox, which nearly every blogger everywhere now uses.  In celebration of BBAW, Kristi did an interview with us, about why she started blogging and what she loves about it the most.  She has even give us a linky to a review she did for Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, one of my all time favourite books.  A big thank you to Kristi for taking the time to answer these questions

When did you first start your blog and what made you decide to do it?

I first started blogging in December of 2008. This was before I really "knew" what book blogging really was. I was the type of person that read a book a day. Honestly, I would hit up the library every week and get 5-7 books. I had a personal blog where I'd mention what I thought about a book when I was finished. But it was never intended to be a "book blog" I think I was looking up an authors MySpace page when I discovered an actual book blog, one that posted reviews only and had some author interviews. Since my life isn't all that interesting, I decided to switch gears and do a book related blog only. It eventually evolved into a review blog.

What to you love the most and least about being a book blogger?

Getting books is always awesome, but actually the thing that I love the most is meeting people who are as crazy as me. I love reading, but it's lonely when you don't have anyone to share that passion with. My mom is a reader too, but we have really different genre preferences. But it's great to have someone to talk books with that are insanely and probably certifiably as crazy about reading as you are. I've been fortunate enough to meet some book bloggers in real life and even though you don't know these people "personally" you already have this instant connection. It's like being apart from your best friend and meeting up with them again, you just flow right into conversation! I love it!

Have any books you have read recently inspired you?

Not really one in particular that I can think of right now. For me, I think all books inspire me in one way or another. Even if it's just to be more mindful of myself.

Do you have any advice to other aspiring bloggers out there?

I did some blog advice posts on the blog, if you want to check those out. This is a fairly recent post I did with all the blog tips post: http://www.thestorysiren.com/2009/09/blogging-tipsadviceetiquette.html

One piece of advice I always like to give is do it because it's fun. If you aren't having fun, it's not worth doing.

What is your favourite type of book?

Young adult fantasy is probably my favorite type of book. Sometimes real life is boring, I like to read about something out of the ordinary. A new place to escape to. Books are like a cheap vacation!

What is your favourite book and why?

I have to many books that I love to pick one favorite!

You can find her review of Shiver right here:-

http://www.thestorysiren.com/2009/07/shiver-by-maggie-stiefvater.html

What got Becca Fitzpatrick to start writing?

Since I'm eagerly awaiting my ARC for Hush, Hush, I had to post this. I love finding out what got authors to start writing.

What made you start writing?
By the time I got to college, I’d long since forgotten my dream of becoming a writer, and I majored in health and zoology (I wanted to be a marine biologist or a spy). A few years after graduation, my husband registered me for an online writing class for my twenty-fourth birthday. He’d debated between the writing class and Japanese cooking lessons, but on a whim went with the writing class. Fate, I tell you! It was in that class that I started writing what would eventually become HUSH, HUSH.
WoW, what a great hubby!

http://www.simonlittlegreen.com/blogfest/2009/09/21/becca-fitzpatrick-author-of-hush-hush/

L.J. Smith - What Made You Start Writing?

Simon & Schuster's Blogfest 2009 has posted an entry from one of my favorite authors, L.J. Smith. Smith is probably most well known for her series The Vampire Diaries which has recently made the leap from the printed page to the tv screen. I always love to hear from authors; it inspires me to keep trucking with my story.

Check out L.J.'s response here!

Great interview with Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, authors of Beautiful Creatures.

We are so excited about this book. Cassandra recommended this book, Beautiful Creatures to us on chat. BC will be our December book of the month, and once two of us are done reading it, we will be posting our reviews **spoiler free**. We'd like to thank Kami and Margaret's UK publisher's for sending us copies of the ARC.
Here's a great interview with both Kami and Margaret.

What inspired you to set your novel in a small town outside of Charleston?

Kami: We wanted to set the story in a place where we believe magic can still happen - a place where people believe in the extraordinary and one that’s extraordinary itself. For us, that could only be the South.

Margie: We both love Charleston, with its beautiful old churches and perfectly preserved houses and overgrown graveyards. And the plantations along the Ashley River were the inspiration for Ravenwood, our own haunted mansion. Although I have to say, we learned about chiggers the hard way!

http://ccplteenunderground.blogspot.com/search/label/Author%20Interviews