J is for Julia Dweck

I discovered Julia Dweck when she gifted me an ecopy of her children's book, Caarina the Cooking Fairy a while back. Since then, I have had to read the book to my six year old daughter, Bug, at LEAST once a week. I have also bought each of her ebooks as soon as they are released. The books have fantastic illustrations from great artists, and Julia is a rockstar in my house. Bug and I love her so much, hence my sharing her with you.

About Julia Dweck

Julia writes children’s stories for digital and traditional publication. Her stories span the spectrum of humor, fantasy, and edutainment in rhyme and in prose. Julia’s background in elementary education affords her the opportunity to be in touch with what children want to read about and what makes them giggle. Julia collaborates with some of the leading artists in the world of children’s literature. Julia is also a designer of educational adjuncts for children’s literature, and has worked with such notable publishing houses as Penguin Young Readers.

Find Julia Online
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Giveaway

If you are able to receive an Amazon ebook, I invite you to enter to win a copy of your choice of book by Julia Dweck. (Find them here.)
Ends at 12:01am EST on April 19th
a Rafflecopter giveaway
While you're here, you should enter my GIVEAWAY that has special entries for both A to Z Participants and BP followers!

I is for I WILL Catch Up

I AM ONLY A DAY BEHIND!


While you're here, you should enter my GIVEAWAY that has special entries for both A to Z Participants and BP followers!

H is for Hopping

Blog Hops
One of my favorite things about blogging, and partially what made me realize that I could do it myself was the blog hops. Admittedly, the ones I participate in the most are giveaway hops because those are what I did the most before starting my own book blog. Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer is a hop rockstar and has contributed so much to the book blogging world. I don't even think I'd have come as far as I have if not for her. I don't know Kathy very well, but I admire her completely.

I've discovered other hop organizers since Kathy - namely O'Dell at Book Twirps and Dani at Refracted Light Reviews, whose New Release Giveaway Hop I participate in every month. These folks really have given me more of an opportunity to share my love of reading and books with a larger audience, and I am so grateful.

If you're a book blogger and have never participated in one of these hops, I highly recommend it. You can scroll down my right sidebar to see which upcoming hops will fit your blog and interests. You won't regret it.

G is for Giveaways

I've missed out on celebrating quite a few milestones for Bibliophilia, Please with everyone, so I'm going to make the most of the A to Z Challenge by inviting those of you who are not regular visitors to join in the festivities.

So, would you like to know what we're celebrating?

My blogoversary was at the end of December. I've been a book blogger for a whole year! Yes, I know I'm not a very good one, but I love what I do, especially interacting with my readers and other bloggers. I really should spend a lot more time with you guys.

I hit a thousand followers a week or month ago. This was a milestone that I never thought that I would see! I don't interact as much as I should with people, so it is a bit of a shock that someone would choose to subscribe to my blog. But a thousand someones? *faints* I wish I could scoop every follower up into an enormous hug right now.

This milestone is the one that blew my mind - one hundred thousand page views. 100,000 PAGE VIEWS! What. The. Hell. My mind is blown. I hit that two weeks ago, and I've had nearly eight thousand more since that. It's crazy.

In order to show my appreciation to you guys, as well as celebrate how terrible I'm doing with the A to Z Challenge, I am hosting a giveaway. It will be international, and there will be easy entries for those who don't want to follow. However, there will be quite a few different entries for those of you lovely folks who DO follow the blog. This is my way of saying thank you.

What You Can Win

F is for Falling Behind

I had even more personal stuff come up over the weekend. *sigh* But I have things to make up for it! Stay tuned!

E is for Eh

I'm having a pretty icky night with my medication, so I'm a bit blurry as to what to write about. You know... Eh. (Okay, maybe it should be "meh", but it's my post and I do what I want.) So you may be wondering why I'm taking medicine. Well, I would wonder if one of you said it. I'm a nosy human.

I was in a wreck back in December 2011, and I hurt my neck and shoulder. My shoulder has been bothering me quite a bit lately, so I went back to the doctor about it. For whatever reason, there were never any x-rays taken of my shoulder during my emergency room visit. I had assumed there had been, but I also had a concussion. My memories for that day and the following week or three are questionable. Anywho, we've found out that I have a strained rotator cuff among other things. I get to meet with an orthopedic specialist later this month to see where we're going to go with this.

Usually pain medication doesn't make me a complete goober, but I'm taking sinus medication on top of it all. It's made me a bit silly. I'll be better when all of the tree sex (pollen) gets out of the air, but until then I'll be a bit more scattered than usual. So please excuse me and/or enjoy the show.

D is for Diana Paz's Timespell

I was able to read and review Timespell by Diana Paz before its release earlier this week, and I was impressed. I think Diana Paz is an author to watch, so I'm sharing Timespell with you today for the letter "D". (I'm not getting paid for this post or anything.) There is also a giveaway at the end of the post for you to enter to win your own copy.



Title: Timespell
Author: Diana Paz
Publisher: Rhemalda Publishing
Release Date: April 1, 2013

In TIMESPELL, the brash and impulsive Julia must team up with her sweet and straight-laced best friend, Angie, and the malicious and power-hungry Kaitlyn in order to keep the witch-like powers of her inheritance. But these powers come at a cost. The girls are bound to serve the Fates, and their first mission sends them back in time to Marie Antoinette’s Paris and eventually, into the chaos and war of the French Revolution.




Excerpt:

With a flick of her wrist, Angie lit the candelabras lining the wall. She shouldn’t have gone this far into the backstage labyrinth of the opera house without Kaitlyn and Julia. Listening to them fight, hearing the loathing in Kaitlyn’s words, made up her mind. She had decided to slip away on her own. And now she couldn’t go back. Not when she sensed the magic drawing her forward. Its pull was irresistible.

She turned a corner, lifting her hand to release a shimmer of light. It trailed to where the hall opened up to reveal a stage. She had circled the entire opera house.

C is for Clerk

I had trouble thinking of something that started with a "C" at midnight, so I'm just throwing this out for you guys. Last June, right when I was starting to hit my stride with the blog, I took a third job as the clerk for the small town I live in. I already managed the library in the next town over and worked at the one here (and still do at both), so taking another job really cut into my time for blogging.

In order to keep my blog alive, I gave up my painting and the time I spent interacting with my readers and other bloggers. (I still return visits, even if I don't always comment on posts.) I never did it much anyways as I know I'm awkward and say strange things, and I'm very intimidated by those who have been blogging longer than me, but now I barely do it at all. I think my blog would be a lot stronger and the experience richer if I was able to visit and socialize with all the bloggers and readers. However, the only time I have left is what I spend sleeping, eating, and with my daughter, and those aren't going anywhere.

Hopefully, I will have the extra time to spend on the social aspect of blogging again in the future. Until then, I hope you enjoy reading my posts and forgive my silence.

B is for Bibliophilia

bibliophilia — a love for books, especially for first or fine editions. (The Free Dictionary)
There is no better word that truly describes my condition. I won't say that I suffer from it because I enjoy my books and love each of them passionately. (My family members may suffer from it, but it is because they don't UNDERSTAND.) I started collecting books when I was a very small child because I would reread stories hundreds of times. Once I loved what was in those pages, I started to pay attention to old and strange books. When I was probably eight or nine, I managed to finagle two century-old books from a great aunt. The older or neater they were, the more I wanted them. My collection is flowing off of my shelves, even after weeding through the books that are falling apart and have no real value.

One of the prizes of my collection is a first edition of Mario Puzo's The Godfather. I couldn't tell you how long I've had it, but it wasn't until about six months ago that I realized what I had. It was on my shelf for my older books, and I was weeding them out. The Godfather wasn't going to make the cut because I don't really read that kind of book, and I needed room for my signed copies. Something told me to look inside and see when it was published. Let's just say that I almost had a heart attack when I read "1969". There's no dust jacket, but it's in great condition. I don't know the value of it except for the personal one in that it's something I enjoy having close at hand.

There is nothing like finding a treasure in your own collection, and it makes me feel like maybe I have a better eye than I thought when it comes to book collecting. I don't have anything that I specifically pursue, but I know my dream book will be anything signed by Stephen King. I think I could happily do without ever owning another book.

A is for Awkward

Once again, I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge this month. I am a survivor from 2012, and I enjoyed it immensely. As this is the first post in the challenge, it will also offer links to the next posts as they become available. (I'll have link for B on April 2nd, C on April 3rd, and so on.)


If you are new to Bibliophilia, Please, you may be asking where the awkward comes in to this post. If you happen to be anyone who knows me the slightest bit, you will know that I am awkward. Very awkward. You will feel awkward while communicating with me at times. Am I a psychopath? No, I just don't take social cues very well because I live in LaLa-Land. And people terrify me. For real.

Another reason this is awkward because I'm pantsing the posts this year. I always mean to write these ahead of time, but something always seems to come up. I'm having some health and family issues right now (nothing to worry about - I'm fine), so I'm behind on ALL THE THINGS, this included.

A is also for Arlee Bird today. He started the Blogging A to Z Challenge, and he blogs over at Tossing It Out. Thank you so much, Arlee, for all of your hard work on BA2Z!

The Challenge Continues

B is for Bibliophilia
C is for Clerk

Blogging from A to Z Challenge Reflections

I know I'm a little late with the wrap-up post (it was supposed to go up on the 7th), but I think it fairly represents what happened last month.

I was late. I was scrambling. But I made it in the end.

I learned a lot from needing to have a blog post up every day, with only minimal days off. Instead of incorporating the letters into my normal posts, I made something special for each day. I usually wrote the posts the day or night before, but I did manage to schedule posts a few times. I'm terrible about getting things done ahead of time, and I thrive under the pressure of a deadline. I had each day's theme mapped out, but I "pantsed" it for the most part. It was random, off the top of my head, and a lot of fun.

I used a lot of lolcats during the challenge. That started with the Erotica post because I had absolutely no idea how to get around talking about the genre and keep it PG13 at most. Erotica does make me giggle (I even say that in my review policy), so I wanted my thoughts on it to get you to perhaps crack a smile. The lolcats continued because I would be scrambling to get a post ready, and they are just one Google search away from an awesome post. Here's one for you that I never managed to use (Geeky Daddy will appreciate this one):

Z is for Zombie

I'm still new to this genre, but I bet if you head over to The Aussie Zombie, I bet that she has a fairly extensive post on the subject. (She's also a participant in the Blogging A to Z Challenge.)

There are only two books that came to mind when I tried to recall anything in the genre.

Alright, alright, I know A Touch Mortal isn't really a zombie novel. You guys should know by now that I'm just a Leah Clifford fan-girl, and I can't resist the urge to talk about her books. Anyways, it's more fun to say the main characters are zombies and angels, versus them being Siders and angels. Don't you agree?

You shouldn't disagree with me - I can haz zombie kittehs on you!

My A to Z Master List

Y is for Young Adult (YA)

This is such a fun genre because it's not really a genre if you think about it. Hell, it's not even an audience because there are people who are OBVIOUSLY NOT (sorry!) young adults who read these novels. I mean, I am, but I know some of you are old. Okay, fine. I'm older than "young adult", too. The point is - the authors of these books are a lot more creative and take a lot more chances than some other genres. Plus, the plots move a lot faster, for the most part, and you're not required to participate in the Thought Olympics to understand what's going on in the book.

What I'm going to show you is some of the variety in the young adult genre, plus some new releases. I'm going to warn you now that my "variety" is not going to include contemporary because I don't really read those, and I don't know what's good. Also, these are collages of the pictures that I already had on my computer. :-P

X is for X-traneous

Irrelevant? Yep, that has me written all over it.

The post is late. I've had a shitty week. I'm drunk right now. But I dansssssssssssssssssss!

My A to Z Master List

W is for Werewolves

There aren't very many werewolf books that I have read and enjoyed. At least, nothing that I can think of right off the top of my head. Here are the books with werewolves as major characters that I have enjoyed:

My A to Z Master List

V is for Vampire

Let's just do the funny today, since I'm still fairly behind on All The Things. Here is some of my favorite Vampire nonsense:

U is for Urban Fantasy

Pay no attention to how late this is - just read these books. This is one of my favorite genres, and these are some of my favorite books. You know that I wouldn't steer you wrong, kitten. ;-)

 

Oh, don't try clicking on the covers. I didn't bother with trying to make the pictures into links. I am struggling with a case of the dumb today. :-/

My A to Z Master List