Friday, April 22, 2011

Happy Gay Friday & A New Challenge, Book notes, Fan Letter Blog Crawl and more


I’ve got a few things to share this week, so to give this post the suggestion of some sort of structure I’m going to use numbers. We’ll see where we end. I hope you stay with me. ;) Here we go:

1.
First, have you heard of the incredible anti-gay actions of Facebook? FB proved their intolerance by deleting complete accounts of people who had pictures of same sex kisses on their pages. I first heard about this from m/m author RJ Scott on twitter who told me she didn't even get a warning. Her account got deleted just like that. Since then, I've heard about more accounts from m/m authors that got banned. RJ Scott is trying to rebuild her account with the use of tumblr, her yummie account can be found at www.rjscott.tumblr.com.

2.
Hey, and I'm on tumblr too since a few days. :) I'm just starting to figure things out about reblogging, liking and posting things... But if you want you can find me at www.rarelydustyrandomness.tumblr.com.

3.
Me joining tumblr is another result of the review block that I wrote about in my last post. About that, I'm following the advice a few of you gave me, or at least I'm trying to. It's true that I need to remember why I started blogging about books in the first place, one and a half year ago. Simple as it sounds, it was just the joy that writing/talking about books gives me. Nothing else.
I think that taking a short break every now and then, as someone dear suggested, isn't a bad idea for me at all. Preferably, I take those mini-breaks in the future when I have written a few reviews in advance so nobody will notice. ;) But since that's not the case now, my little blog will just have to do without them for a short period. Instead I'll be posting about books in a different way. Perhaps I'll try Chris' reviewette form. :)

4.
To keep myself from fidgeting about what books to pick up next, I've made an A to Z list of book titles from my TBR that I'm going to read in alphabetical order. Lily came up with the idea of an A to Z challenge over a month ago and others, like Tam and Jenre, are doing it too. I thought I might give it a try as well to get me out of the reading slump I'm in. Every letter on my list has at least 2 titles to go with it, but sometimes even up to 6. I don't know if I'm going to read just one title of each letter or more than one before I skip to the next letter. I'll just see how it goes. And in the meantime I'll keep reading my requested review copies too, in-between the A-Z books, and write those reviews eventually as well. So, wish me luck with finding back my reading mojo. :)

5.
One of the books I'm definitely going to read for the letter B is Blood and Roses by Aislinn Kerry.
Jenre read it for her challenge and Tam pointed it out to me on twitter because it's set in Amsterdam. It's so rare that an m/m romance takes place in my own country that I did a little happy dance about this find! Thanks girls! :)


6.
Another book that's on the list but had escaped my attention somehow is Make Me by Jessica Lee. It's released in March and is the short sequel to Bloodlines that I read and reviewed here a little while ago. I'm really curious about the continuing story of Mason and Evin, because I enjoyed their story very much.

7.
Kassa’s planning another Fan Letter Blog Crawl which involves bloggers writing fan letters to their favorite authors. It was a great success last year and if you want to join this year go over to her place to tell her.

8.
Here in the Netherlands we’re having a long Easter weekend, from Friday until Monday, and we’re having beautiful, sunny and warm weather! :) Hubs and I are going to enjoy hanging around the house, sitting in the garden, trying to memorize it all, because it might be our last spring/summer in this house. Because… we put it up for sale today! We don’t necessarily want to move but if we can sell it we’re going to move to The Big City, if not we’re happy to stay here. So, we’ll see what happens…

Happy Gay Friday (or should I say Easter Egg Hunt) everyone!
~

19 comments:

  1. Good luck with your challenge. Amazingly now I'm having trouble finding books that start with N of all things. Seems I've read many of them. C however I have TONS.

    I am off until Tuesday and trying to spring clean my house but I keep getting side-tracked. :-) Hope you get some chocolate on the weekend.

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  2. @Tam: Lol, N is one of the easiest letters for me. But I haven't read as many books as you have, Tam. And my TBR is HUGE. ;)
    Here are my selected N titles for inspiration maybe...

    Natural Instincts by SJ Frost
    No Fear by SJ Frost
    Nine Tenths of the Law by LA Witt
    Nowhere Ranch by Heidi Cullinan
    No Apologies by Tibby Armstrong

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  3. HAPPY EASTER :D

    I hope I get some kindereggs tomorrow ;)

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  4. Um. How high are your hopes for Make Me? Revise them down an order of magnitude... or more. :(

    Yay for reviewettes! :D

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  5. @Blodeuedd: Happy Easter and good luck with finding the eggs, hon! :)

    @Chris: That bad, huh? And they were so good in the first book... :(
    I probably suck at reviewettes, needing way to many words for whatever I write, lol!

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  6. Yeah. It was disappointing. :( Check out my reviewette on GRs! :D

    I have the worst time writing long reviews, so... work your strengths? That said, I could NEVER manage Val's six-sentence plot summaries. Wow.

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  7. @Chris: Oh yep, that sounds bad, lol!
    Val's 6-word plot summaries have me in awe too! :)

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  8. Hi, Janna! Ha, ha! The six-word plot summaries are fun to do. My favorite is the one I did for KZ Snow's book, Fugly: Conceited hotties regret pissing off wizard.

    As for your news, moving to the big city? Wow! That would be Amsterdam, right? Very exciting! I've never been there, but would like to visit someday. :)

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  9. @Val: The Fugly one is a good one! They might be fun to do, but they would make me break out a sweat I think. ;) Six words is not much.

    The big city could also be Utrecht, which is a bit smaller than Amsterdam but does have the beautiful canals as well (they're even more beautiful). Hubs works there but Amsterdam is also an option because the cities are only a half hour apart from each other.
    You should definitely visit Amsterdam some day, Val! You'll love it. When/if we're living there by then, you're very welcome to stay with us! :)

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  10. Have a fabulous Easter weekend, hon!

    Hugs!

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  11. You're right -- six words isn't much. Some of mine are better than others. ;)

    Your moving plans sound ideal ... you're happy where you are, but you could also enjoy living in either Amsterdam or Utrecht.

    And this, "You should definitely visit Amsterdam some day, Val! You'll love it. When/if we're living there by then, you're very welcome to stay with us! :)

    Bless your heart! I didn't mean to be "fishing" for an invitation, ha, ha! But, what a generous offer! For sure, if I manage to do it, I'd love to arrange a meeting wherever you are and take you out for coffee! :)

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  12. I hope you have fun doing the A-Z Reading Challenge.

    With so much going on in my life I rarely ever get on my Tumblr. It easily pulls me in and before I know it I've spend a ton of time just looking/drooling at all the pics. ;)

    Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

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  13. Ooohh - I'll have to go over and check out your tumblr!

    Good luck with selling your house; sounds like you have a good attitude about it.

    Just finished reading No Apologies right before I logged on tonight - I enjoyed it but I keep changing my mind about the rating :)

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  14. Oh yay! You're doing the challenge too. Hope it helps with the book slump. It certainly help revitalise my flagging enthusiasm for the TBR pile :).

    Hope you enjoy Blood and Roses!

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  15. Seriously? What is wrong with FaceBook! Damn!

    Good idea about the challenge! And good luck! It's hard to find the good books these days to read!

    Happy easter!!

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  16. @Eyre: Thanks you too, sweetie! :D

    @Val: Haha, I know you weren't fishing for an invitation, Val. If I thought you were I wouldn't have offered. ;) I'd love to meet you! :)

    @Lily: I'm already having fun with the A-Z Reading Challenge. I've read two A books so far. :) I'm doing it a bit different but I need to be able to choose one book or the other from the list I made. Freedom within the restriction of that list works best for me. :)
    Ah, yup I can see how tumblr might become another time consuming thing that starts to get neglected by me after a while... ;D
    Have a wonderful Easter weekend too, Lily!

    @Patti: Thanks for the good luck wishes. :)
    I noticed No Apologies in you sidebar when I visited your blog the other day and I'm curious about your thoughts (and final rating). I look forward to your review!

    @Jenre: Yep, you all got me infected with the challenge-virus. ;D It already was much fun to go through the TBR pile to select the books for on my list. So far, it's working, because I'm reading again (without wasting much time picking a book).
    I look forward to reading Blood and Roses! :)

    @Lis: Yeah, shocking isn't it? I'm glad I don't have a FB page/profile because I'm sure it would've happened to me too...
    I agree, it's hard to find the good books these days, but that's because there are so many books and it's so darn difficult to pick just one book every time! Lol!
    Happy Easter weekend to you too! =)

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  17. Happy belated Gay Friday, Janna!

    I'm late posting, but I was by to visit on Friday. Got distracted by your tumblr, though. Very nice tumblr, btw ;)

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  18. All the best with the challenge and the house sale. And... Facdebook has been deleting complete accounts of people who had pictures of same sex kisses on their pages? I....GRRRRRRRRRR!

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  19. @Ava: Thanks, Ava. Glad you like the Tumblr! :D

    @orannia: It's unbelievable, isn't it? And thank you for the good luck wishes. :)

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