Happy Blogoversary . . . to me!

365 days

329 posts

123 reviews

362 followers (give or take)

1129 comments
29,628 page views (and counting)

 =

1 very happy blogger!

I just wanted to take a moment to offer up a HUGE thanks to everyone who has been a part of making my blogging efforts a success. Thanks to the authors who have so generously donated their time and their books; to the readers who remind me every day why I put so much effort into this; and to my fellow bloggers, who have continued to inspire and educate me with their reads.

When I started this blog a year ago today with a review of Raquel Reyes' Goddess: Memoir of a Transsexual, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no plan, no goal, no grand scheme of what I wanted to accomplish. All I knew was that I wanted to share my love of books, and to maybe expand the libraries of those who stopped by and add a little diversity to their shelves. The only thing I knew at the time was that I didn't want to be pigeon-holed into a single niche or genre, but share whatever I happened to be reading at the time. Much to my surprise (and delight), Raquel herself reached out to to share her thoughts on my review, and a bookslut was well-and-truly confirmed. :)

I vividly remember taking part in my first book blogger hop, and thinking what a brilliant idea it was for bringing bloggers together, and for helping to kickstart a following. I'll be forever grateful to Danielle from Romance Book Junkies for returning the blog hop love and being the first person to leave a comment on my blog. Similarly, I'm not sure anything has excited me quite as much as the first comment on one of my reviews (Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff), courtesy of Shelby from Shelby Morgan Summers. Getting some comment love out of the blog hop was one thing - that is the point, after all - but getting a comment on one of my reviews was incredibly rewarding in that it assured me people weren't just hopping through, but taking time to read.

As for my first Waiting on Wednesday post, it could not have gone better! I took the opportunity to gush about Darcy Abriel's upcoming slice of erotic science fiction Silver: Humanotica, Book 1, which was a book that had me excited on so many levels. Imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning to an email from Darcy, thanking me for helping to spread the word, and offering me a free copy to review. I am very pleased to say that the first ARC offered to me not only fulfilled all my expectations and delighted me beyond reason, but turned out to be one of my favourite books of the year. If you missed it, you can check out my review here.

Book tours were something I thought were interesting, but never pursued because I couldn't imagine anybody being interested in associating themselves with my little haven of quirky diversity. I must have been doing something right, though, because I was invited to join the Virtual Book Tour Cafe earlier this year, giving me my first taste of touring, with an invitation to Pump Up Your Book coming about a month later. I'm pleased to say this week brings another first - my first stop on the Bewitching Book Tours to help promote Fezariu's Epiphany by David M. Brown. There's a giveaway associated with David's post as well, so check it out here - who knows, maybe you can add 'winner' to your list of firsts!

There are so many other firsts that I remember, and which I will treasure always. The big numbers are nice (I never imagined I would hit 100 followers, much less be in sight of 400), but they're only possible because of the little numbers . . . because of those firsts that get things started. Thanks again to everybody for a fantastic first year, and here's to many many many more!

♥