May News (About Me, My Books, My Goals)

What’s New?

After some time away from blogging, I returned around April. It’s taken me some time to get my site updated, but I am now feeling much more settled and getting into the spirit of reading and blogging once more.

I’ve finally got a 2017 Book Reviews page up and running! Yay! Didn’t realise it was missing until recently…

From Blogger to WordPress

I also changed over from Blogger to WordPress. It was the biggest decision of my life lol (well, kind of, blogging life) as it meant I lost all my followers and stats that I had worked so hard to get. So now I look like a newbie again… frustrating, but I am glad I made the move. WordPress has such an intuitive, clean and fresh user interface.  I’m really enjoying it here. It’s really beginning to feel like it’s home.

NetGalley

I also re-joined NetGalley. I’ve been a member since 2010, but never requested any books. Hahaha! I’m actually very lucky and get a lot of physical books sent to me, so I never really bothered with NetGalley. That’s until I discovered the NetGalley challenge (below), and thought “my stats look horrific for such a longstanding member, I’m sure I could read a few more ebooks… ” It’s amazing how tempting increased stats and badges can be!

Instagram

I finally joined Instagram (more about this and my “A Book A Day” below).

New Pages

There’s still work to do on the site, but I’ve added these new pages so far:

1. Contact Page
2. What’s on your Desk, Wednesday? Free author (or blogger) promo sign up form, where I feature a desk and a writing routine of a fellow blogger. Anyone with a desk really – or a place they write/blog.  This is the “how it all began” page.
3. Another “Free Author” Spotlight Feature, celebrating Indie authors. This is the form to send your book details to me for free promo. I’ve been very busy collating this information and preparing posts, but with everything going on at once I’m yet to promote – this should happen in July. If not before. Well that’s my goal.

New Follow Me Links

1. My Amazon Review Profile Link
2. My GoodReads Profile Link
3. My YouTube (OhSassyOne) Link
4. My Twitter Profile Link
5. My Flickr Photos Link
6. My LinkedIn Link
7. My Sassy Google+ Link
8. My AR Google+ Link
9. My AR Facebook Link (Not my Sassy profile, that got hacked!)

New Book Challenges

I’ve (only recently) joined lots of 2017 Challenges, with the aim of continuing a full year on each next year. I mean, I’m going to read tonnes of books anyway, I may as well add what I read to various challenges!

These took a while to set up.

1. The Main 2017 Challenge Page, still needs work
2. The 2017 GoodReads Richard and Judy Book Club Challenge Page (I’m hosting). Current read is The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, is you wish to join us! Started 1st June.
3. The 2017 British Books Challenge – hosted by the lovely Chelle found HERE
4. The 2017 NetGalley Challenge – hosted by the bookish Bookish Things and More.
5. The 2017 Audio Book Challenge – hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Book Reviewer. Sign up here.
6. The 2017 Romance Reads GoodReads Challenge.
7. The Summer 2017 Comment Challenge for June.

Book Stats

I’m going to work on a better way to share my book stats, but for now here is my link again. All books read so far… up to May 2017.

Plus, here is a look at my 2017 First Quarter Review Roundup. Next month the Second Quarter round up is due.  I’ve already read more books in May than any other month, this year.

Next up, I thought this would be a fun way to introduce myself to those who do not know me, and that’s probably quite a few of you!

Things you may not know about me

1. Alternative-Read.com have their own book! I edited a book with author and publisher Clayton Bye, promoting “our” authors. The little darlings. myBook.to/ARBook. (A universal link). Really cheap – 99p/equivalent elsewhere (last time I checked).
2. We have an Anthology Facebook page.
3. I designed the book cover and the matching banner  – below.
4. I have a black Labrador, 6 fish 3 rats. Oh, and 1 son, and a husband. In that order lol.
5. I’m a fancy rat lover! I have a “Just for fun” rat diary for my spoilt little babies. This can be found here . (I’ve let it slip a little, as I’ve concentrated on this blog, so now I am more settled here,  I will update it in June. The loss of my (secretly favourite) Twinkie, was oddly upsetting… (If you’re not a fan of rats you’ll never understand that LOL) .
6. Anything else? Just ask!

Goals

1. To finish updating and designing this blog (this could be ongoing, so next month I will be more specific). I’m hoping to have a column of books added to the right. Instead of three columns of blog posts, I would like to reduce that to two, and have a third column to promote all the books I’ve read in a sidebar. I’ll aim for this by end of June 2017. Please excuse the mess in between.
2. To write out a full list of all the physical books and ebooks I have promised to read – a full bucket list – kept in one place.
3. To make sure I keep up with my new blog commenting challenge during the month of June. I’m really looking forward to getting to know Molly!
4. To keep up with the Friday56 and Book Beginnings book blogging chat – every Friday! (I only missed one, since I joined).  Which reminds me, I must write that post!
5. I want to continue to read as much as I can and post three reviews a week, if possible. For the month of June that’s my target.
6. I also want to continue my #ABookADay posts. I recently joined Instagram. But my phone was playing up, so taking photos and posting them to Instagram (and then this blog) just wasn’t working out. I’ve since deleted a lot of apps and it seems to be working now. All I need to do now is to find out where I left off and continue.  It wasn’t always a book a day, but pretty close.
7. For fun, I’d like to update my Rat Diaries. You haven’t met my new furry reviewers yet! Actually, they were being filmed a fair bit on Instagram…
8. I also realised I missed my Monday Movie Book Trailer Swap post, since it was a Bank Holiday and everyone was home… So I vow to keep up better with those Monday posts.
9. Finally, I need to promote my “What’s on your desk, Wednesday?” author and book blogger feature better – they’re really fun! Here’s a great example of one featured author’s post!  Then there’s this one… “What’s on your boat, Wednesday?” to name many I have featured in the past! What’s on YOUR desk, Wednesday? <–The “HOW TO”

Right, I’m off now to get some (well, deserved – after this humongous post) reading done… Plus, I’ve finished Fever, and can’t wait to share that review with you!

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