Let's Discuss: Blogging Habits...& Reminiscing

 

So I'm wondering from my fellow bloggers out here, how often do you write up your blog posts? Do you write posts in advance or are you more of a blogger who writes a post that day and posts it when it's done?

Blogging Habits...& Reminiscing!

I'll admit, I blog in advance! I still like participating in a slew of weekly memes. I've just always liked to have some sort of daily content. Although Saturdays are a free for all. There may be a post, there may not be! Who knows! But for the most part, not really, unless I stayed up late Friday night to finish a book and then post my review for sometime on Saturday! Lol.

But the weekly memes I've participated in over the years have changed a little bit here and there. Usually it's just passing the torch to someone else to be the "blog host" for it. I've done maybe around 3 different kinds of posts for Fridays. Usually when a blogger is ready to retire they may or may not pass the meme to someone else to host, other times it fizzles out and I have to find a new one, yet similar.

Anyone remember Follow Fridays from Parajunkee? She'd host a different blogger as a sort of "get to know the blogger" type thing and then there was usually a question/prompt of some kind to talk about. Much like the Book Blogger Hop I participate in now, just without the blogger feature.

Then there was Waiting on Wednesday which kind of shifted into Can't Wait Wednesday. Top Ten Tuesday was originally at The Broke and The Bookish before moving over to That Artsy Reader Girl.

I feel like someone else used to host the Teaser Tuesday, a Miz B I think? I've been blogging a long time folks! Lol. Then of course, the "Sunday Haul" post has evolved around with few different bloggers as well. I'm not sure if Reading Reality still hosts it or not, when I was last checking in 2023 or maybe even 2022 I wasn't seeing as many posts anymore.

But back on track! I do a slew of weekly memes for content on my blog! And I tend to write these posts ahead of time! I'll admit, it started that I would write them the week before and have them all scheduled out. I would and still do, write them up on Friday nights, because I'm definitely a homebody. So Friday night has always been blog writing night. 

But on occasion, things would come up, sometimes they were planned so I would blog ahead the weekend before and write TWO weeks of posts ahead of time. Then a vacation might pop up so I would write ahead again, maybe a signing followed a vacation on a Friday night and then I had rare plans for that Saturday too! So somehow I found myself blogging way, way ahead!

Currently as it stands, I have the rest of March memes scheduled and all of April and I just wrote up the first week of May too! Of course, Tuesday posts usually contain a teaser from my current read, so these I always save for Friday night to write before the coming Tuesday. Those are the only ones that aren't already written. But I will say that I do look ahead to the Top Ten Tuesday prompts and will write out my 10 or however many picks I choose! I keep a notebook at my desk where I occasionally jot random things down during research or when I want to do some math longhand style or jotting a number or two down. You know, scratch pad writing!

But I also keep a planner up to date with my memes also written out for Wednesday and Thursday picks! That way I'm not constantly checking my Goodreads pages for things. I also keep track of all the different shop sales in my planner too! So basically I have "rough" drafts through all of June! Which reminds me I need to start looking for a new planner as I am on the "academic planner" track. I still need to do "rough" drafts of my Top Ten Tuesday posts for May and June. I usually will write those out a month at a time so I don't overwhelm myself! Those can take some time! Lol. But when it's time to sit down and write them all up in post format, they are a breeze since I did all the work ahead of time!

I can't remember when I started being so detailed about all this! I know in the early days, I'd write my teaser that Tuesday at whatever time of day I found a good line to use! Lol. I might have wrote the Wednesday post ahead of time. And I can't remember if the Follow Friday prompts were posted ahead of time or not. Been blogging since 2009 remember? So much to remember because so much has come and gone!

I do feel like I've got my game down pretty tight here! Even if I somehow "fail" to write my blog posts on Friday night for however many weeks ahead I am, I end up writing twice as many the next week. Yeah, I'm that bad sometimes. Lol. But I suppose if I was doggone sick or tired I'd let it go. I might have a time or two, but then somewhere along the lines I wrote two weeks ahead again!

But needless to say, I'm a planner! I like knowing that I have content ready to go. Of course with some of my Can't Wait Wednesday posts I get "in trouble" (with myself really) when a book's release date changes! In fact, I think there's one I need to take out because of said release change and there's finally a cover to go with it now too. I think I had another pick to go with it, so I'll just delete the book with no cover or description.

So yeah, wow. Didn't plan on writing THAT much, but then I started reminiscing and I just kept writing! Lol. So the gist of all that was to ask DO YOU WRITE YOUR BLOG POSTS IN ADVANCE?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

 

Last Week I Read:

A Touch of Chaos by Scarlett St. Clair (4 stars)

 

 

Currently Reading:

Bewitched and Betrothed by Juliet Blackwell

 

 

What I Plan to Read Next:

Synchronized Sorcery by Juliet Blackwell 

Other Posts of Interest:

Let's Discuss: My Kindle & Me
Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays
Let's Discuss: Does Hype Kill Your Enjoyment?
Can't Wait Wednesday
Books from the Backlog #75
Book Blogger Hop #298
Stacking the Shelves--One Book & A Rant About the Mail

Stacking the Shelves--One Book & A Rant About the Mail

 

Stacking the Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! The meme is now hosted by Reading Reality.

 

Well it was another week! Already counting down the days until Tuesday which will be my last author signing for the foreseeable future! Sadly, no authors I read are scheduled to come here anytime soon. So after a whirlwind of 3 months with 2-3 author signings each, I'm finally entering a month with nothing going on! There's still hope for May I suppose. I did see Stephanie Garber was going to be doing another signing in CA in April, but alas, those plane tickets were still over $500 for a roundtrip! Then I have to add in a hotel stay and Uber trips galore in CA and then there's still meals...even if I bring some protein bars and just eat out once which I could totally do, we're still looking at probably $1,000 for a 2 day trip! I just can't justify it. If the flight were cheaper yes, I'd totally try doing it! Maybe even longer but it's just too pricey. The Gateway to the West is no longer the travel hub it used to be when I was wayyy younger and not able to actually go anywhere! Lol.

The week was a dull one as I pretty much went the whole week without getting anything! But then I remembered a book I forgot to preorder so I used my gift card to buy it at B&N Saturday. My preorder that I was told shipped Sunday night has NOT even been picked up by the carrier! ALL week it just sat there and I'm fully convinced it's lost. But it probably won't be declared LOST until later this week. I tried reaching out to Customer Service on Twitter like I usually do, but I guess they don't work weekends? I can't remember. I'll likely try again Monday morning because I am FRANTIC! What sucks is that they just try sending me another one in the same super slow manner that they always do. You'd think they could try expediting it but members don't get fast free shipping, they just get the slowest one possible for free. What I HATE is that they always pass St. Louis to go to Kansas City UPS sorting center to then be given to USPS to then go the Sorting Center of No Return and sit for another 2-5 days before ever getting to my local PO. It's INSANE! 99% of my B&N preorders come from NJ and ALWAYS take this route. My last one oddly came from the Chicago area which was highly unusual, but then of course for 2-3 days there was no movement but then the book was delivered on Thursday instead of the usual Friday.

I basically have bad luck when it comes to B&N shipping me my books. I'm like seriously wondering if the books are driven from NJ to KC or if there's a plane involved? Because I'm like why do you pass St. Louis with my order to go 4 hours in the wrong direction to send it back to STL? It's not the first time they've done this. One time it literally came to my PO before going to Iowa! Then they sent it back and then the PO finally delivered it to me. I mean I do get human error, but why must it always be my books that suffer! Take a clothing order on a roundabout trip for days on end! I won't care! Just give me my books!! *sobs*

So yes, with great sadness I did not get the book I was SUPER excited about and would've loved to start reading as I did finish my current read of the week on Friday and since my books usually arrive on Fridays it would've been perfect timing. But alas, my book is missing. I just have to wait some more days before B&N agrees with me and starts the process all over again.

So here's the book I went out and bought myself:

The Revenant Games by Margie Fuston--so wish I could've gone to the signing in CA with Margie & Stephanie! That would've been amazing! But flights are horrendously expensive!

And that's it for me! Sorry for the ranting above! I was in distress all week and crying nearly every day seeing ZERO updates from B&N! What did you get this week? Did you have better luck with your mail deliveries?

Also, should I count this as a discussion post? I hate doing rants...but I do find it very therapeutic to do them here! Lol. So, sorry if you actually do read through my ranting! I don't have many people in real life that I can just rant endlessly to. Most of my family already think I have too many books and don't need to order more. So yeah...can't really talk to them about book mail woes!

Review--A Touch of Chaos by Scarlett St. Clair

 

The World Will Burn

Persephone, Goddess of Spring, never guessed a chance encounter with Hades, God of the Underworld, would change her life forever—but he did.

A fight for humanity and battles between gods, it's a world Persephone never thought she would see. To end the chaos, she must draw upon her darkness and embrace who she's become—Goddess, Wife, Queen of the Underworld.

Once, Persephone made bargains to save those she loves, now she will go to war for them.

 

 

 

 

I finally finished Scarlett St. Clair's A Touch of Chaos that brings a conclusion to the Hades and Persephone series and what a whirlwind of s series it has been! This was such a fun take on the Greek gods, as most retellings I've read don't always have that modernity to them. Sometimes they do, but then it takes it up to a true modernity level! This series is definitely modern, but it's like the gods and goddesses are still the ones I imagined from my myth reading days!

As we know, when A Touch of Malice ended, things were in chaos! Lol. No pun intended! Hades was Theseus' prisoner in the labyrinth and Persephone was about to face the wrath of the unleashed Titans in the Underworld. You can't get more chaotic than that!

The book truly did not disappoint with the action! I positively loved that about this one! Persephone's mission is to rescue Hades and Hades mission is to get back to Persephone. Of course, defeating Theseus will have to be taken care of as well, as that is the big mission at large! And that is going to take a might fete for sure, more power and ammunition than Hades and Persephone have at the ready even!

Meanwhile, we do get to have Theseus' depraved point of view as well! I love getting the villain's point of view, even if it only further incites my dislike of them! Theseus is definitely a depraved villain, one you just want to see die! The things he does to others...it's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure! I do appreciate that St. Clair gave another proper disclaimer as to some trigger causing scenes within the book. She notes what those triggers are and in what chapters. So that was a nice heads up to prepare myself for.

Theseus plans to get Cronos to join his side of the war between him and the gods. Of course, he does plan on betraying Cronos further down the line because as we know, Theseus is only faithful to himself. I truly wished I could've seen this character truly suffer! I mean, that's how great St. Clair's writing is. You viscerally hate the villain and want to see him die a truly painful and slow death!

With over 500 pages and the hero and heroine separated for the first 1/3 of the novel, you would think things would move at a slower pace, but they really don't. The three parts of the novel do tend to lean towards acts in a play. Each part comes to a relative conclusion before moving onto the next one to continue the larger story arc and they all flow together seamlessly. In this one, we get Persephone, Hades, Theseus, and Dionysus' points of view, so we pretty much cover all the borders at play here.

I did find myself deeply involved with Dionysus and Ariadne's story the most! Yes, this is the Hades and Persephone series, but I couldn't help but enjoy seeing their story develop. St. Clair hints at who her next "feature couple" will be, I can only hope that these two are still on her list for future books as well!

There was a great deal of romance in this one, and yes, you're probably thinking it's a romance book, so yeah. It has to be there! Lol. And it is! Probably a bit more than this "light on the romance" romance reader would like, but what can you do! While I may not always be for the more intense romantic interludes I do still enjoy the romance between Hades and Persephone. I can't remember which version of the original myth I read about these two was, but I did feel like I was always wondering if the love was true on both sides, and honestly, I thought Eros' love arrows were involved, so yeah, it might not have been true love. But don't quote me on that, as it's been soooo very long since I read those myths and my book is sadly in storage somewhere!

The ending was great! I truly loved where all the pieces landed and how loose ends were tied up. Of course, I am now wondering about one tiny detail...minuscule in the grand scheme of things but yeah...definitely wondering about that now. While I was satisfied with the ending, I did feel like some of the end battle scenes were a bit rushed. I mean, I was expecting a grand final battle, and truthfully it came off a little anticlimactic to me. Just like poof, happy ending! It is a little more detailed than that, but I expected a wee bit more to be honest. Then there was still quite a few pages to read after the victory so I was left wondering a little. True, we just wrap up with Hades and Persephone and I can't help but want to know what Dionysus and Ariadne did as the last time we saw them it was just after the victory and I'm like wait, don't leave them yet, where are they going and what are they going to do?

So yes, I was left with a few mild disappointments and a few unanswered questions, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment too much. St. Clair makes it clear that she is not done with this world just yet, even though Hades and Persephone's chapter has come to its conclusion. It will be interesting to see what all she does next and I will be looking forward to the next tale!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars

Book Blogger Hop #298

 

This meme is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addict!

 

 

 

This week's question is: Do you remember your first library visit? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

 

 

 

MY ANSWER: Sadly, I do not. I know we had a local one that was maybe 10 minutes or so from where we lived and I visited somewhat frequently. The early years had me using my school's library where I would check out some of the same books over and over as they were favorites! Lol. I remember checking out a book of fairy tales endlessly. There was another book about haunted houses that I loved (I had to have been like 7 or 8...so yes, my paranormal obsession started fairly early in some ways! lol). I can still picture the layout of my elementary school library and what sections I always made a beeline to. My middle school library I remember was on the top floor, it was like a hidden oasis as the whole school was one level and yet the library had its own secret (not really!) staircase in one corner. By that time I was using my allowance to buy books at Borders and ask for gift cards for every birthday! Lol. Not much has changed since then. Except for you know, Borders being gone. *sniffs

But as to my first ever visit to a library, sadly I cannot remember that.