top ten things that make my blogging life easier

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we all get to exercise our OCD tendencies and come up with bookish lists.  If you’d like to play along, check out this post.

This week’s list is about the ‘tools of the trade’ that make my life as a book blogger stress-free and fun.  If you’re into the blogging scene, you’ll recognize the majority of these as necessities or ‘givens.’  If you don’t blog, I encourage you to check out these resources anyway – they’re great tools for the serious reader as well as the hobbyist blogger.  Anything that introduces you to more books is a good thing, right?!

Top Ten Things That Make My Blogging Life Easier

1. Goodreads – This is THE social network for readers.  It’s a database where you can keep track of the books you’ve read, write reviews, give star ratings, and interact with your favorite authors (if that’s your jam).  I get great recommendations from fellow readers every time I log in.

2. Bloggiesta – Hosted biannually, this is a blogger ‘work party,’ where an entire weekend is devoted to updating whatever needs updating on your blog, and also learning new tricks of the trade.  I learned basic HTML coding from participating in Bloggiesta!

3. Weekly memes – Events like Top Ten Tuesday (this post!) and Waiting on Wednesday are great ways to find new blogs to read and fellow readers with the same taste.  TTT is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and WoW is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

4. Arlington County Libraries and King County Library System – Libraries.  They remain a favorite method of mine for accessing new and not-so-new releases.  Arlington County is my current location, and they’ve got a good selection of YA in print and digital formats.  KCLS is ‘back home,’ and I still peruse their digital collection on a weekly basis.

5. Twitter – My preferred social network, and a great way to discover the latest news in the publishing world.  I follow agents, editors, authors, bloggers, and more.  What’s noteworthy?  You’ll find people talking about it on Twitter.

6. Blank journal/notebook – I like to write most of my reviews longhand before I type them up.  I find that this allows me to edit, deliberate over word choice, and make sure my conclusions are sound before I hit the ‘publish’ button.  Because the internet doesn’t forget.  And you can still cross things out in a notebook!

7. Kindle, OverDrive, iBooks and Blio – I don’t have an e-reader, so I rely on these reading apps for iPhone.  They offer digital access to galleys, library books and ebook purchases, free of charge.  And then I can read happily on my phone during my commute!

8. NetGalley access to digital ARCs – Speaking of galleys (not-quite-final books that are circulated to selected reviewers and influencers before publication to create hype), I use NetGalley to request early reading rights from publishers.  I don’t use this service as much as I once did, but a couple of times a season I’ll peruse the site and get stars in my eyes from all the books on offer.  If you review books, or are a librarian, bookseller or educator, you too can sign up!

9. Edelweiss & Shelf Awareness emails – Edelweiss is a service that, like NetGalley, offers digital access to ARCs.  But my favorite part of Edelweiss?  Their weekly Monday emails with publishing catalogue updates.  I do a lot of new title discovery on Monday afternoons (thanks, guys!).  Shelf Awareness’ daily emails are essential for anyone interested in the publishing  industry.  If you like books, you should sign up for Shelf Awareness.

10. Book Expo America – This yearly conference is basically book heaven.  I go to meet up with fellow bloggers, make contacts among publishing professionals, and see what’s new and awesome in book world.  While not necessary to maintaining a successful blog, BEA is a great help and a lot of fun besides.

Do you use any of these tools or resources? Which one is your favorite?

demon’s fall

It has been ages, but you might remember that I’m taking part in the Horns and Halos Reading Challenge hosted by Aimee of my fluttering heart. I went fairly angel-happy at the start of the year. Then my interest tapered off, and I went the route of straight fantasy, zombies, and all that other stuff (fairy tales, anyone?). I am determined to finish strong, so when I had the chance to request a copy of Karalynn Lee’s Demon’s Fall from the NetGalley catalog, I took it.

When Kenan, an incubus, finds a caged angel for sale in the Hellsgate marketplace, he sees her as a challenge. Certain that his skills in seduction will work as well on a heavenly creature as they do on mortal women, he buys Jahel, intent on having her soul as a novelty in his collection.

Knowing he must gain Jahel's trust, Kenan treats her more as his guest than as his slave. When she reveals what brought her to the mouth of Hell in the first place – retrieving the soul of a young girl she was guarding – he even offers to help her complete her mission.

Though he has promised Jahel freedom, Kenan soon realizes she has captured his heart. And as their passion for one another grows, they find themselves caught in a struggle between Heaven and Hell, one that will lead them to the very edge of the apocalypse...

Just in case you didn’t catch it in the summary, this is a ROMANCE NOVEL. Adult-level reading. Very scandalous. Well, a story about an angel and a demon falling in love was going to be scandalous anyway…but let’s times that factor by about a hundred for the ess-eee-ex, okay? Okay. If you’re not into it, no worries. But the story’s good. Serious.

Kenan is a demon with a lot of allure. Jahel is a caged angel. They meet in a marketplace in Hellsgate, which is just what it sounds like – a city on the edge of the gate of Hell. Kenan has his own reasons for buying Jahel, but the main plot follows their adventures trying to fulfill Jahel’s quest. And that quest…is surprisingly familiar. Throw in a little bit of the fairy tale of Snow White, some of the Biblical apocalypse, and you have our story. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s a mash-up that works.

Of course, the focus of the novella is the romantic relationship between the two protagonists. Four words: steamy, and too quick. I’m all for the reforming bad boys cliché, but Demon’s Fall moved at a pretty fast clip in that department. I would have appreciated a little more development, a couple more pages in that section. I wasn’t disappointed, but it was a little thought in the back of my head while I read.

Bonus: the secondary characters and setting. This story worked for me mostly because of the wonderful description of Hellsgate, the funny and endearing secondary characters, and how the protagonists interacted with both. Some of the supporting characters provided crucial moments of hilarity in conversation, or made me randomly smile. So that was a huge plus. I can also tell that I love a fantasy setting when I find myself hoping that there will be more books set in that ‘world.’ I’ll say it: I want more!

Recommended for: fans of steamy romance, angels, demons, unconventional fantasy mash-ups, and original world-building. Again, an advisory: adult-level reading.

I read an e-galley of this book courtesy of Carina Press and NetGalley. Demon’s Fall releases on October 25, 2010.

the sleeping beauty

Mercedes Lackey is a ubiquitous fantasy writer. Chances are if you’ve ever stepped into the fantasy and science fiction section of the bookstore, you’ve seen one of her titles. And not only is she prolific, she’s incredibly good. There’s something for almost every taste. My favorite series (well, one of them) is her Elemental Masters series, which re-imagines fairy tales in an alternative, magic-laden Edwardian England.

In the past several years Lackey has published another fairy-tale-type series, set in a new fantasy universe. These stories combine generous doses of romance and happy endings with imaginative world-building. They include: The Fairy Godmother, One Good Knight, Fortune’s Fool, The Snow Queen and now The Sleeping Beauty.

The hallmarks of the 500 Kingdoms books (as they are called) are humor, inventive plotlines that alter fairy tale stories and take them in new directions, clever heroines, and sweet romances. In my book that combination equals a satisfying read.

With signs and The Tradition (a magical force that places people in fairy tale stories) pointing to an all-out war set to break out among the kingdoms, Rosamund, the king's daughter, is "playing dead" as two princes show up at the palace intent on waking her with a kiss. But, as the two of them start to fight it out, Rosa's godmother cuts them all short and takes charge.

Now, with two princes competing for the hand of Sleeping Beauty-one of them, the one with roving hands (Prince Leopold) probably "should" be her prince, while the other (Prince Siegfried) doesn't seem to belong here at all - more complications occur. The king dies and the neighbors start looking at Rosa's kingdom.

But with the palace filling with young and old princes intent on winning Rosamund's love, invading the kingdom and putting those young men in peril would mean incurring the wrath of thirty other countries! With a volatile situation in the making, will anyone get a happily-ever-after?

After I’ve read a summary, I often ask myself a couple of questions. What’s the deal with this book? Do I need to read the others in the series to ‘get’ it? What makes it worth my time? Let me try to answer. If you’ve read the other books in this series, you’ll like The Sleeping Beauty (but you don’t have to read them to understand). If you read fairy tales for adults (or even teens), you’ll like it too. If you prefer your stories fairly clean and a touch humorous, you’ll also fall for it. In other words, it’s what you expect. And that’s not a bad thing.

For Lackey's novels in general, this is ‘romance lite.’ Though she reworks several familiar tales to bring something quirky and new to the table, the result ends up feeling a bit formulaic. Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it. I did. It’s a tribute to how much I expect from the 500 Kingdoms novels, and from Mercedes Lackey – I anticipate first-class entertainment. She so enchanted me with previous stories that I felt a bit let down when I could see just how the story would end after I finished the first twenty pages. I guess I expect twists and mysterious endings these days…

I’m a demanding nitwit, I know. After all, I enjoyed the reading and I will still re-read The Sleeping Beauty and also eagerly await the next installment in the series (Lackey is that fantastic). What does it boil down to? I heartily recommend this book to anyone with a natural bent towards happily-ever-afters. In fact, it qualifies as a PERFECT summer beach read, especially for the fantasy-inclined. There! I’ve found its niche. And I can’t wait to place a finished copy in my beach bag!

The Sleeping Beauty releases on July 1, 2010.

I read an e-galley of this book courtesy of Harlequin Luna and NetGalley. It also counts for both Once Upon a Time challenges.