As a reader who loves romance of all genres, I am addicted to the many awesome book blogs I found on the internet. When I started to publish my own books, I sent my work to bloggers and began to correspond with them. I found that they are not only crazy about books, but also invest a considerable amount of love, time and effort to keep their blogs going (most of them without any financial gain). They read and review books, publish interviews, author spotlights and giveaways and are very helpful when it comes to bringing writers and readers closer together. Readers love to hear something personal about their favorite authors, and we writers enjoy nothing more than comments from book lovers who enjoyed our work.
This is why I decided to start a new feature: The Favorite Blogger of the Month. We read so much about authors, I think it's about time that we also learn something about the bloggers. Starting this month, I'll interview the people who are responsible (in a good way ;-)) for some of the best and most informative blogs out there. Many of them will also be a part of the first Indie Romance Convention 2013, so I hope they'll tell us a bit about their plans for this event (I am very happy to be one of the attending authors). My Favorite Blogger of September is my friend Laurie Garrison, owner of Bitten by Paranormal Romance. Welcome to my blog, Laurie!
Please tell us about yourself and your blog.
I have a wonderful husband, one daughter, three cats, two dogs, three rabbits and a host of all kinds of birds and squirrels I feed in my back yard. I love baking and trying new recipes. I’m an animal lover that won’t buy any products tested on animals. I also love playing video games. The Sims PC games are my favorite but I love Need for Speed, so I love getting on my Ps3 and playing race games with all of my friends.
I started reading
again after Twilight came out. It wasn’t long before I hit authors
like Sherrilyn Kenyon and J.R Ward. After that I started up a blog
just to keep my reviews. My blog is a modest compared to a lot of
others but I want to keep the paranormal romance first and far most,
so that the PNR authors have a place to show themselves.
Which genres do you read in private?
What are your most favorite books of all time?
Anything I read is wide open so everyone can see. My top favorites are, Pleasures of the Night by Nina Bangs, Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Grave Sins by Jenna MacLanie, Thief Anitra by Lynn McLeod, Blackmailed by Annmarie McKenna and Wickedest Witch by Eve Langlais
Anything I read is wide open so everyone can see. My top favorites are, Pleasures of the Night by Nina Bangs, Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Grave Sins by Jenna MacLanie, Thief Anitra by Lynn McLeod, Blackmailed by Annmarie McKenna and Wickedest Witch by Eve Langlais
With all those books being offered to
you, you surely must be a bit picky about what you read. What
intrigues you most in a story? Are you influenced by a good blurb or
cover?
ROFL. I wish I could be picky the sad fact is I take what the reviewers won’t take, or if I don’t have enough reviewers I’ll take almost anything. Reason is I hate to have an author miss out on being featured on my blog, even if I don’t like the book because I know someone will. The surprising fact is, I end up likening a lot of them, but if I would have read the blurb or any reviews beforehand I would have passed the book up. Sometimes I think people can be too picky and miss out on something wonderful because it’s hard to give you the whole take on a book in just a few words in a blurb.
ROFL. I wish I could be picky the sad fact is I take what the reviewers won’t take, or if I don’t have enough reviewers I’ll take almost anything. Reason is I hate to have an author miss out on being featured on my blog, even if I don’t like the book because I know someone will. The surprising fact is, I end up likening a lot of them, but if I would have read the blurb or any reviews beforehand I would have passed the book up. Sometimes I think people can be too picky and miss out on something wonderful because it’s hard to give you the whole take on a book in just a few words in a blurb.
What intrigues me
the most is how the romance is carried out! I am a sucker for a
couple that can come together against all odds, fall in love and have
a HEA. It’s amazing but some authors can’t do this they, either
focus more on the story or action and lose focus on the romance.
No, covers and
blurbs doesn’t influence me one bit. I do like some covers better
than others but I have never bought a book just for a cover.
How on earth do you find the time to
manage such a busy blog besides your job and family life?
Let’s just say
some things goes undone LOL. I have been lucky over the last month
though because I have had an inflow of some wonderful reviewers that
are enjoying reviewing, so I getting a bit of free time, yay me!! But
I it’s just a little, I still don’t have enough to play my video
games. I think my Ps3 friends things I dropped off the face of the
earth, as a matter of fact, one even messaged me asking if I did.
LOL.
Be honest: Is it easy or difficult
dealing with us writers? I know that we can be an unorganized,
sensitive lot sometimes. (You don't need to tell names …)
Over the last
four years, I have only had to deal with two authors. One was fine
after I took off her review. The other well that was a different
story she pissed me off so bad that I wrote a post on my blog about
it. Yea, no one calls my reviewer the devil and gets by with it, even
if she was referring to all reviewers being the devil. But the thing
was that woman was all over all of the blogs causing problems. Other
than that all of my authors are wonderful, they’ll work with me in
any way that I need them. Heck some will even come up with a post for
me at the last minute. So, I feel very fortunate to have my great
list of authors that comes to my blog all the time.
You will be hosting the first Indie
Romance Convention next year! Please tell us how this awesome idea
originated, what you expect from the event and how readers can
attend.
How it originated
is rather a long story because this is something that I had been
toying with for years. My thing was I didn’t think I could pull the
authors, so I kept pushing it back until this year. I did write a
long post on the Indie Romance Convention blog about how I came about
the idea so everyone is more than welcome to read it.
The 2013
convention is going to be on a small scale because I want to get a
feel of what these authors needs are. Yes, I have and will always say
Indie authors are different and they need to have their needs met. I
am someone who is going to meet those needs and make this an event
every year where they feel comfortable to come get the help they need
and spread the help and be able to meet their readers in a different
level that they never could before.
The registration
opens on October 1, 2012 which is now less than a month away. All
readers have to do is go to the blog and click on register and go
from there. But this will be changing in the coming months because we
will be moving soon to indieromanceconvention.com. As soon as the
designer is done, things will be moved but the blog will stay up and
if you plan on attending please join the blog because this will be a
good way to learn about authors you don’t know.
Just for fun - some quickies:
Favorite movie: Weekend
at Bernie’s 1 and 2
Favorite TV series: Big
Bang Theory and Once Upon a Time
Favorite singer/band: Stephen
Tyler/ Areosmith
Most beautiful male celebrity:
I always liked the guy that played Aries on Xena, Kevin Smith, his
accident was very unfortunate.
Sexiest fictional hero ever: Devereux,
from The Vampire Shrink by Linda Hilburn
Best fictional villain ever: I
can’t recall the name of the villain but I remember the book he was
crazy. Deadly Heat by Cynthia Eden, I have never run across a villain
like him.
Best fictional heroine ever:
Cin Craven from Wages of Sin by Jenna Maclaine. Her hero Michel would
be my second pick of the sexiest fictional.
Your secret beauty tip: This
is so not my department LOL.
Your secret favorite cooking/baking
recipe: (full recipe or maybe online link)
I have so many,
it’s would be hard to choose. So I’ll just pick the one I am
stuck on baking at this time, even my daughter loves this.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cinnamon-bread-recipe
This bread is
really good hot and it’s great using it the next morning as French
toast.
