I interview a lot of authors, we all do. And it is really a lot of fun. But who is it behind those interviews? You!!! So now I want to interview you! I plan on running this post every Thursday - but will probably end it in February after all previously scheduled posts. There are some occasions I will post a day early or late, if I already have too many posts on a given date, or a holiday. I have another weekly feature in mind to replace it with, while running these Blogger Interviews on a part time basis.
This week I have Melissa from Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf!
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Hey Melissa! How’s it
going?
Things are great LizJ Thanks so much for
having me on Fictional Candy & Happy New Year!!
Can you tell the readers a little something about your
website, Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf?
My site is a very eclectic blog
as the name would indicate. I read
everything from Childrens to Adult
- Classics to Paranormal, Chick
Lit to Literary Fiction, etc. The only
thing you won’t see on the blog are horror or erotica because those genres just
aren’t for me. What I post reflects the wide range that I read and you’ll find
a little bit of everything there including reviews, guest posts, interviews and
giveaways!
How did you get into book blogging?
I somehow stumbled upon some
book blogs after I started a personal blog in January of 2011 and I realized
that there was this whole wonderful community out there sharing a love of
books. For about six months I visited
and commented on other blogs while working on my personal blog…but by the
middle of the year I knew that I wanted to be more active in the book blogging
community so Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf was born and my personal blog sadly
fell by the wayside.
What would you say your favorite part of book blogging is?
The best part of book blogging
is definitely meeting and getting to know so many of the great people that
participate in this community!
I see you have a reading challenge for the new year, Witches
and Witchcraft. Obviously, its about
witches. Is there anything else you can
tell us? ( how do we join, is it new, is
it hard to host a challenge?)
I started this challenge at the
end of 2011 because I was looking for challenges to join and saw so many out
there (Paranormal, Vampire etc. ) but none that were Witch/Witchcraft/Magick specific...so
I started my own. In 2012 we had over 250 participants linking up over 265
reviews. I comment on every sign up post
and read and comment on every review...so it did end up being a lot more work
than I anticipated…but I love it!!
For anyone interested in
joining…it’s a very low commitment challenge (the minimum is only one book) and
though reviewing isn’t required there is a giveaway for those that link up
reviews. You can read
more about it and sign up here.
What kind of advice would you give to someone just starting
out in the book blogging world?
I would definitely recommend two
things….
- Get
organized before you start..i.e. know what type of blog you want to have,
what type of content, etc. and do your research before leaping in.
- Do not accept too many review copies. You want to make sure to leave yourself time to read “for fun.” (I didn’t understand that reading for review wasn’t “for fun” until I was knee deep in review books!) NetGalley…is the worst culprit here. I made the mistake when I started of assuming that I would not be approved for most of the titles I requested and I requested way too many…for books that I had only a marginal interest in…and then almost all of them were approved! (omg, I can't agree enough with this, as my backlog of request will attest to!)
If you were a superhero, what would your name be, and what
is your power?
I’d be the Dishwasher Lady. My husband
always complains that he puts a glass, dish etc. on the counter, turns around
to get something from the refrigerator, turns back and the item is GONE! I’ve already put it in the dishwasher in an
attempt to keep the kitchen clean!
(And now I totally need you to come to my house!)
If you could take a vacation anywhere in the world for free,
where would you go?
I so want to visit Ireland! My husband and I are hoping to take a belated
Honeymoon this year and Ireland is tops on our list. (Morocco would be my second
choice…yes…everything about me is rather eclectic!)
How about a little this or that?
Summer or Winter? Autumn? LOL To
be honest I love all the seasons…I couldn’t live anywhere there wasn’t variety!
Chocolate or sour? Oh I’m bad…I
like both!
Vampire bite or Werewolf bite? VampireJ
Mansion or cabin? Cabin…as long
as it had indoor plumbing!
If you could be a character in any book, which character
would you be?
This is such a tough one! I don’t know that I can narrow it down to a
specific character…or that I’d want to…they always face such tough challenges
that make the books interesting but would be hard to face in real life. I’d definitely want to be a witch though!
Do you have any other book blogs that you’d like to give
shout outs to, and recommend to us?
Goodness…there are so many
wonderful blogs that I’ve discovered over the past two years, it’s hard to
narrow it down, but a few of my favorites are:
Thanks, Melissa, for chatting with me today!!
Thanks so much for having me,
LizJ
