This is my 3rd year blogging about books! I, unfortunately, won’t be doing anything special since I hurt my back on Sunday and have been conserving my energy to be able to survive work. However, I do have plans to get back to a fuller blog schedule. I miss writing reviews, “Tuesday’s Tunes”, “Wednesday’s Words”, and “Friday’s Fairytales.” I also want to get back to posting “Thursday’s Things” at least monthly.
Here’s to another year!
Category: Announcements
I’m Back!…Sort of…
I just wanted to post this quick message that my laptop is mostly back in working order. The Boyfriend and I also moved into our new apartment, and most of the boxes have been unpacked. My new home isn’t perfect yet, and neither is my laptop. So while I’ll begin posting my Monday Minutes and #FitReaders posts again soon, I’m not ready to get back into the full swing of things quite yet. Besides finding new homes for the random objects I’ve been taking out of the few remaining boxes, and downloading and installing the kajillion updates for my laptop, I’m also dealing with a bit of a stomach bug. Either that or there was something wrong with last night’s dinner. Regardless, I’m taking it easy.
Technical Difficulties
If you follow me on Twitter, you may already know that I had to take my laptop to the shop to hopefully get fixed. It’s still in the shop. The Boyfriend gave me his old desktop computer, but it doesn’t have a wireless card and my “office” isn’t near enough to connect directly. That leaves me with my phone, but it’s beyond a pain in the rear to write blog posts on my phone, and I can just forget about adding graphics. Because of all that, I wasn’t able to do my #FitReaders check-in today, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to blog again. My laptop may not be fixable. So, until further notice, I’m on a blogging break, but please rest assured that I will be back! I’ve been going through withdrawals and I miss all of you since not having my laptop also means not being able to do much socializing, commenting, or blog reading the way I want to be able to do. Again, I will be back as soon as possible! TTFN!
Super Rad Announcement
I GOT A JOB!!!
Due to this, I’ve been celebrating with the Boyfriend and texting back and forth with friends and loved ones instead of writing today’s book review. I got the call first thing in the morning yesterday after I got home from my part-time job. My head has been somewhere in the clouds since I got that phone call, and my shoulders are back where they’re supposed to be, so I can only assume that they were anchoring my head while connected to my ears for the past month and a half of job hunting.
Anyway, my life is no longer on a semi-hold, and starting in two weeks I’ll be earning a higher salary than I was expecting to be offered right out of college, even with my work experience. I’ll also be doing something that I’ll (hopefully) enjoy, and the benefits are excellent. I’ve been doing a happy dance and randomly jumping up and down while simultaneously freaking the cat out with my exuberant behavior. I don’t think he knows what to do around me right now.
Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten that tomorrow is Harry Potter Book Night! I’ll be spending the day making sure that’s all in order, and everything is ready to go by 5 pm CST tomorrow 🙂 Until then…
College: I’m Done
Do you remember last year around this time? Those of you who have been reading my blog since back then know all too well my stress and anxiety about completing my degree. Guess what?! I took my last Final Exam today, and I went to school in my pajamas. Why? I graduate on Saturday, and so today was probably the last time I’ll be able to go out in public in my Cookie Monster pajama pants without it being completely inappropriate.
I’m still stressed out. I’m still anxious. But I’m done, and so I also have a sense of overwhelming elation. Perhaps it’s because I got about three hours of sleep last night and I’ve been up since 5 am, but I feel like laughing and crying and hugging random people all at the same time. I also feel like taking a nap. Several naps.
So, you might not hear from me until Sunday when I post whatever pics turn out decently enough from my commencement ceremony. Until then, thank you for joining me during this part of my life, and sticking with me even when I cut back on blogging. I should be able to get back to a more normal volume of posting next week.
Annoucement: Recent Changes!
This has been in the works for a couple months, but I finally went and bought a new domain, FortifiedByBooks.com. While my old domain (TheReadingWench.com) is still active, and will still get you to the blog for awhile, please update your bookmarks.
I’m also in the process of changing the design of my blog, and updating my various social media accounts, but my logo (as seen above) is staying the same. I will also be providing the same kind of content you’ve come to expect from me. This is still primarily a Fantasy genre blog since my reading tastes have yet to change.
Why am I making these changes? There is a Romance author who has been mistakenly tagging me as the reviewer of some of her books. That has led to a flood of other Romance authors sending me review requests without checking to see that I am not, in fact, a Romance reviewer, I’m not the blogger they all seem to be confusing me with, and they’re not even reading my review policy. While I have no problem with her, her blog, or the Romance genre, in general, I’m tired of being associated with all of that, and I’m sick of the spam. To me, it’s not about who owns the domain. It’s about my blog’s image and my image as a book reviewer.
I’m Back!
I got back home from New Orleans last night. Have you ever needed to recover from a vacation?
That’s how I feel right now, and that’s why there was no Monday’s Minutes post yesterday. However, I didn’t want to leave you hanging until I get back into the swing of “normal” life again, so below is what you’ve got to look forward to throughout this month.
- #FitReaders Check-Ins will continue as usual starting today.
- The Joy Luck Club Read-Along – the first recap will be posted this Saturday, and the sign up is still open!
- Uprooted review – I finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik last week before I left for New Orleans.
- Thursday’s Things #9
- The Vampire tour of New Orleans – As I mentioned in my Packing for New Orleans post, the Boyfriend and I came up with our own tour of New Orleans based on Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. While we didn’t get to see every place, we saw enough for me to write a whole post about it.
- My long weekend in the French Quarter – I’ll share the food we ate, the stuff we bought, and the non-vampire related places we visited or came across in our wanderings. It may end up being a two-parter, and it will definitely contain tips that will save you a lot of stress and money.
- The Never-Ending Anne Rice Reading Challenge
- Tuesday’s Tunes, Wednesday’s Words, Friday’s Fairy Tales – I’ve got a ton of great ideas so I’ll get these features written and posted throughout the rest of the month.
- RIP X – Vampires, Ravens, and Chthulu, oh my! I’ll be posting my RIP X related reviews.
- Harry Potter Discussion and Link Up – I’ll be posting the discussion post for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the 30th. You could be featured, so be sure to get your HP related posts linked up before then!
Blogiversary Survey!
As promised in my Sunday’s Sundries post, I’ve created a Survey. I’d greatly appreciate it if all of you could take a couple minutes to answer the survey questions. Thank you in advance! I’m looking forward to making this the best book blog it can be. 🙂
On a side note, I wanted to let all of you know what my current blog schedule is:
- Monday’s Minutes – Weekly
- Tuesday’s Tunes – Monthly
- Wednesday’s Words – Monthly
- Thursday’s Things – Monthly
- Friday’s Fairy Tales – Monthly
- Saturday’s Sit Down – Whenever I have author interviews. I’m thinking about changing this to add blogger guest posts, so if you’re interested in doing a guest post, send me a message through the Contact The Reading Wench page with your idea!
- Sunday’s Sundries – Whenever I have something to write that doesn’t fit into one of the other features.
- #FitReaders Check-Ins – Weekly, usually on Tuesdays.
- On the “off” days throughout the month, except Sundays, I’ll post reviews. Sunday’s Sundries will be suspended during read-alongs.
Announcements!
Now that I’ve got a little bit more time on my hands, I’ve decided that I’m going to add a few features to this blog:
What I’m Reading Monday – I will detail what I’ve finished reading, what I’m currently reading, any DNF books, as well as my total pages read for the previous week, and the total number of books I’ve read for the year.
Wordy Wednesday – I will list the words, and their definitions, that I didn’t know from books I’m reading that week.
Thursday’s Quotables – This will be my favorite quotes from the books I’m currently reading.
In addition to these, I will also be adding a Reviews page which will list every book that I review, in alphabetical order, that isn’t a book on my Classics Club list. Each book on the list will be a link to that review. Also on the Reviews page will be information regarding review requests, but I haven’t quite figured out all the details for that yet.