That's it, give me your time-turners. I'm confiscating every single one. Then I'm going to use all of them at once and create a hole in the space-time continuum, and then we can all float in the vortex blogging our brains into oblivion. Because that is clearly the only logical solution to this problem.
Blog Updates:
I mentioned last week my comment replies were getting marked as spam. I’ve decided to just use the plugin and cross my fingers that people check their spam folders. Maybe the problem will eventually sort itself out because I don’t know how to fix it.
Real Life Updates:
So… the wind last Sunday morning got under the part of my window that lifts away from the frame when you open it and BENT the corner. As if I needed another reason to hate wind (my hair reaches my lower back, people—WIND IS NOT MY FRIEND). Now my room has chilly outside air getting in (ok it’s not like it’s snowing here, but that’s why I used the word chilly instead of something more extreme) until someone gets out here to fix it, which is also disrupting my schedule and making me stressed, so I just feel like griping about it -_-
I’ve also just been stressed in general with other personal things, so it’s been really hard to concentrate. Sorry that I maybe haven’t been the best blogger buddy lately! I haven’t been getting around to other blogs as much as I’d like. But thank you all for being awesome, especially with my discussion posts! I was worried they’d be flops.
Books I Finished:
I got an eARC of Shearwater Part 1, but I will probably just write a mini review on GR and Amazon and wait for both parts before posting a full review on the blog, but I did enjoy it and look forward to continuing. You might still be able to get your own free copy here, and you can enter his giveaway contest for mermaid swag here. Mud I got from Netgalley, and I was excited because I’m very into less common supernatural creatures right now, and it was about a golem! That review won’t be posted until later in February, but I enjoyed it too. The vampire one was hilarious and oddly adorable (it will make more sense in my review), so I’ve already started Book 2. I’ve really been doing well with books so far this year!
Song of the Week:
“Anna Sun” by Walk the Moon – TBH I haven’t really listened to much music the past couple weeks. But I just like this song, and the dance move at 2:06 never fails to crack me up. You won’t be disappointed 😛
In Case You Missed It:
Cover Characteristics: Book Covers featuring the Moon
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Random Books on My TBR
Discussion: How Do You Decide What to Read?
Book Review: A Frozen Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick
Book Review: The Heartless City by Andrea Berthot (THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!!!)
The Sunday Post Link-Up:
Once again, I’m linking up to The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Book Reviewer 🙂
Don’t stress too much on the blogging front Kristen. I have to remind myself sometimes that it’s not a job and I’m doing it for pleasure. I know that if I start finding it a hassle I’ll quit and I don’t want that.
Some weeks I post more than others. I’m not working much at the moment and it’s interesting that – when I did work 5 days a week and worked long hours – I somehow used to manage to post 5-6 days. Whereas now I have more time I post less.
I do most of my blog reading in chunks. I use Feedly and have a stack of blogs saved in there and go through them when new posts appear. Some I click through to comment on and others I just read.
Don’t stress too much!
I mean, I do enjoy it, but even things you enjoy can be stressful, you know? It’s just that, I’m not blogging a certain amount because I feel like I NEED to. It’s more like, I have so many things I want to say and I have to say them all and there just aren’t enough weeks if I spread it out lol.
I think it kinda makes sense though that you posted more when you worked more. I feel like the more you have going on in life, the better you get at time management and the more you get done. At least that’s what I’ve noticed in my own life.
Thanks for advice! I won’t stress too much 🙂
I don’t blog unless I’m in the mood (and try to keep a few posts ahead to cope with that!) but if you’re not feeling it don’t push yourself! It should be fun!
I have an audiobook of Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle that I’m part way through, though I really need to get back into reading them!
Have a good week!
It is still fun, but I do like to post ahead when I have time so that I won’t feel stressed when I’m busier 🙂
You should get back to it! I enjoyed it, though I don’t know how the audiobook version is. You have a good week too!
Blogging is a time thing, no doubt. I think we should all get paid to blog and this could be our job. Yeah that’s happening! 🙂 All I can say it has to be fun- if it gets to be work or I feel like I HAVE to do it, I probably wouldn’t. 🙂 But I enjoy it so it works. I hear ya though- my Twitter and Goodreads suffer because I just haven’t made time for ’em. Gotta work on that.
Shearwater has an amazing cover, I seem to be drawn to covers like that with water and/ or some creature in it. 🙂
Right? If I could paid to just read books and write blog posts… It is still fun though. It’s definitely something I WANT to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s never stressful. All my social media is suffering though. My Twitter is hopeless, my instagram hardly gets checked, and even Pinterest, the one I used to use the most, hardly gets used anymore. Oh well, I enjoy the actual blogging more.
And Shearwater does have a nice cover!
Your blog is beautiful!! I love it! And you take so much time with your graphics!
Yes, I used to feel the stress and pressure you’re feeling but just keep reminding yourself that it’s YOUR BLOG! There’s no rules for book blogging! Everyone will give you advice but who cares!! Post three days a week, take a week off a month, whatever!!!
Kimba at Caffeinated is a freak of nature if you’re trying to copy her like I always tried 😀 She has posts blogged-ahead for months so that’s how she does it.
You’re awesome and your blog is so pretty!! No pressure or you’ll burn out!! Rachel at Fiktshun is good blogger to follow b/c she’s been doing this forever and she’s always feeling pressure and she deals well!!
Thank you!!! It’s not even so much that I feel like I HAVE to do anything, it’s that I just WANT to do so much lol. I have all these things I want to say and share and post and comment and not enough time in the week! I manage to get a week or two ahead sometimes, but months is never happening lol.
Thank you so much for the compliments, it makes me happy that you think my blog is pretty 😀
Yes blogging takes a lot of time. I think I spent 2-3 hours every day on my blog and almost the whole day on sunday (when I try to do some extra commenting and schedule tweets for my posts for the next week). My secret is that I do more blogging work, mostly writing new blog posts, in slow weeks for my business, so that when i have a busy week I can do less blogging.
I also try to be a week or two ahead with reviews and even more when it comes to Lola’s Ramblings, Lola’s Kitchen and Lola’s Advice, so that I don’t stress as much about those. But even then some weeks I feel the pressure, I think it’s normal. Oh and do what you can, it’s okay to not reply to every comment or not visit others for a few days. Or not posts as often as normal in a week.
I hate it when people have to come and fix something in my house, I dislike having strangers in my house. I also have long hair like that, my solution is to wear it in a braid, helps against the wind ;). I hope your window can get fixed soon, it sounds chilly.
I also got Shearwater, but haven’t read it yet. I hope I can read it soon, so we can talk about it. I do like the fact that Mud is about golems, you don’t hear about those often. Have a great week! I think I missed your discussion post this week, so I’ll stop by that one later.
Yeah, that’s exactly it—it’s fun, but it’s time consuming. I do try to get ahead when I have extra time, so that helps. My problem is that I don’t feel pressure from other people, I feel it from myself because I WANT to do all these thing. Thanks for the advice 🙂
I hate having strangers in my place too, especially my bedroom. That’s one of the reasons it’s stressing me out. But hurrah for the long hair club 😛
I think you’ll like Shearwater. I sent the author my feedback to help him out, and he was great about it, so I’d be willing to read more of his stuff in the future. And yeah, I’d only read about golems as random baddies to get past in a couple other books, never a main character, so I really liked that!
I’ve read Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle, but when I did so the book wasn’t finished. I was upset that it wasn’t marked as a serial and I never got back to finish it. But I do know what you mean by hilarious and adorable. 😀
I was also getting overwhelmed by blogging and decided to change my schedule. I no longer post every day. I changed to M-W-F one week, T-TH-S the next week and a Sunday post each week. There may be the odd post here and there (espeically when Monster Porn Monday falls in a T-TH-S week lol), but I’m really loving this new schedule. 🙂
They’re not even a couple, but they’re still the most perfect ever!!! Lol. I would be upset if I started reading something and didn’t know it was a serial too though. I’m someone who’ll read an entire series in 3 days, so having one book spread out over months is just not something I can stand.
I’m glad you found a schedule that works for you 🙂 I suppose I’m still trying to figure out what works for me.
I felt the same way when I first started blogging, everyone has a different way of doing things, so don’t worry, Just do what you want to do when you want to do it.what I really would like is if people would actually READ what I post- a few do, some just act like they do! Ugh. I hope you have a good week!!
Thanks 🙂 I mean, it is what I want to do, I really don’t base anything in my life around what other people think I should lol, but I’m trying to work out some sort of schedule or organization that works best for me. It seems like memes are the posts in which people sometimes just act like they’ve read your post in order to get comments back, which is frustrating, but it’s just nice knowing there are some people out there who do actually care what we have to say. You have a good week too!
Blogging is very time consuming! I struggle finding a balance, and I’ve been at it for over year. I have an idea in my head of how much time and when I would like to blog, but trying to follow that schedule is harder than it is to come up with the schedule. Plus, there is just so much I want to do for the blog but there just isn’t enough time. I think we just have to remind ourselves this is supposed to be fun, and if we miss some posts most people won’t even notice. Our readers will still be there when we DO have time to post. The holidays were terrible for me on the blogging front, I’m just getting around to trying to catch up.
Yeah, it’s not that it’s hard, it’s just time consuming. Exactly what you said, there’s so much I want to do, there just isn’t enough time. Or enough days in the week. Following schedules are always so much easier said than done though lol. Thanks for the advice, and good luck catching up on everything 🙂
I could use a time-turner myself. LOL It’s a constant struggle, finding a balance. I think what works for me is acknowledging I cannot do it it all and be okay with that. I blog when I can, I don’t worry when I can’t post, and I take breaks when I feel the need. I also don’t pay attention to my stats.
I hope you are feeling better soon. I’ve been feeling out of sorts lately too. I hope this week will be better for us both!
But I don’t want to not be able to do it all! Lol that’s what my problem is. Thanks, it might be a while before I sort out my non-blogging problems, but I did manage to take a bit of a stress break today and actually focus on a book I liked 🙂 You feel better too!
I have moments when I’ll stress, but I’ve come up with a system that seems to work well ]for me. Now, I don’t have much in the way of stress. Taking breaks for a day or so helps, too! Now I’m ahead in my blogging thanks to winter break, and I plan to maintain the cushion. Helps take any pressure off. Besides, since this isn’t my paying job, I feel crazy whenever I stress about it.
Yeah, I like getting ahead on blogging—it gives me a chance to take a break some days and does make me less stressed. Lol, I think it’s totally normal to get stressed about the things you love doing even if you’re not getting paid, so long as it’s not TOO much stress. I guess I’ll figure out a system that works for me eventually, but it still baffles me how other busy people do it!
I AGREE. I NEED MORE TIME IN MY DAY. Also I think those who have timeturners should, um, share??? I mean, where is the fairness if THEY’RE NOT SHARING. *collapses* I’m like so behind on comments at the moment and I have like zlich posts written up in drafts because I’ve been editing. xD Gah. I’m gonna take a nap and ignore responsibility. <– Grand life plan. (Oh and books?!? Like balance books AND writing AND blogging…it's insane sometimes! 😛 But I just read a glorious book which totally distracted me from my blog for ages. XD No regrets.)
What?! I think you are one of the people with a time turner! *Gives you the side eye* Seriously though, you read like 300 books, write like 300 more, write blog posts, respond to a million comments AND visit other blogs… you’re like my time management hero lol. But never regret being distracted by glorious books! Good call on that 😀
I feel with you being a bad blogger buddy at times, sometimes real-life takes away all of your attention! I hope your window gets fixed soon, thankfully temperatures are pretty mild right now (at least I think they are).
As for blogging pressure, I think it just takes time to evaluate what works for you. I’ve been pretty MIA on some twitter chats, because I just can’t be EVERYWHERE in the blogosphere, ya know. You’ll find your balance, I promise!
Thanks. I think they actually forgot about me and my window though -_- So I will have to contact them again. But yeah, I think the minor cold front we’ve had here is going away at least.
Twitter will never be for me. I try, but I just don’t get it lol. Thank you though! I think I am starting to get the hang of things a bit, and things do seem to get less time-consuming the more you do them because you start to get a flow/routine going.
I have a full time job, a part time job, a husband, two little kids, and I sit on the board and volunteered for a nonprofit. No wonder my novel moves so slow LOL.
So, yup, being there! I used to post every day of the week until I got a second job and then couldn’t post for weeks. Now I think I found a way to keep doing it but only once a week.
My suggestion is to don’t kill yourself trying to keep a consistent schedule of posts. If you skip a Tuesdays tops or a cover characteristics once in a while nothing would happen and you’d be happier. Take a break each week from one feature.
I don’t want you to burn out! Your blog is fantastic so I hope you find you happy place too because I very much. enjoying reading your posts. 🙂
Sorry to hear you still haven’t fixed the spam issue. 🙁
Aww thank you for the compliments 😀 I don’t think I’ll burn out because, even with the stress, all the reading and blogging is what makes me happy amidst all the other crap going on in my life, but you’re right, I have to not stress myself if I skip a post sometimes. I’m just a perfectionist, so I can’t help it lol.
But wow, seriously, I don’t blame you for your novel being slow-going! I don’t have kids, so I can’t even imagine doing that on top of everything else. Glad you found something that seems to be working for your blog 🙂