The Book Lantern: Blog Discussion discussion

How about for our first posts (each) we do a sort of introduction thing? We can include anything about ourselves, and our interests in books, certain topics, etc. Know what I mean?

Mel wrote: "How about for our first posts (each) we do a sort of introduction thing? We can include anything about ourselves, and our interests in books, certain topics, etc. Know what I mean?"

Good idea. I'll start.

I'm American, as you all know. I've pretty much been to every state in the US. With all that traveling I've had a lot of time to read. And I'm a senior in High School.

I read mostly YA. My favorite genre is Sci-Fi, but I'm hard pressed to find good Sci-Fi that I haven't read a million times.

I also like fantasy and contemporary. I like romance too, but only really, really good romance, otherwise I don't bother. I don't read commercial fiction, bodice rippers, or detective/cop/mysteries. And I really don't like Christian lit or historical romances.

Fav book of the moment is probably still Catcher in the Rye. I pretty much hate Glee, and Avatar used to be my favorite tv show before the finale. I'm also big on manga and anime. And I play guitar and trumpet.

And I'm writing a contemporary YA novel right now involving a band geek, unrequited love, and an overbearing mother. so far I have 26k.

Is that the type of stuff you meant Mel?

Yep, that's exactly what I meant.

Wow,very interesting Cory. God bless America! The best country ever.

Forgot to add, I lived in Egypt six months too. Right before the revolution stuff. It makes you appreciate conveniences like wi-fi. Internet sucked over there.

Huh, I'm confused. *head scratching* Are we supposed to do the introducing here or on the blog?
Also, with reference to the blog, we are cross-posting review on GR and the blog, right? Are we following any particular format/style of posting or are we just using the GR blog application?

UUURGH MINE DIDN'T SAVE FOR SOME REASON!!

Now I have to start again.

My full first name is Melanie. But please, oh please, call me Mel. I was born in Germany but moved to Australia when I was eight. I recently graduated from High school and am going to University next year. In the meantime I'm looking for a job and planning my vampire novel, which I started planning to attempt to bring back some proper vampires.

I love movies, books, old and new video games and anime. I'm a lesbian, an atheist, and I love Yoshi. I fucking adore Yoshi. I also draw realism and anime, and I can also draw my own characters, which is useful as fuck. I play piano by ear, and I don't know squat about notes or the names of the keys.

I pretty much grew up with The legend of Zelda, which was what inspired me to create stories when I was little. And now I'm writing them. Yay. I only write Adult fiction. Trust me when I say my stuff is a wee bit mature for YA. Just trust me.

Vinaya wrote: "Huh, I'm confused. *head scratching* Are we supposed to do the introducing here or on the blog?
Also, with reference to the blog, we are cross-posting review on GR and the blog, right? Are we follo..."

Uuuhhh... well I guess we can do both?

We can cross post Vinaya. Just about all professional reviewers do it. And I think Mel had a really good idea about writing bios. We can put them up here and edit them to put on the blog.

Just try to refrain from pictures in your GR reviews if you're also posting them on the blog unless they're really necessary.

Hi Mel, nice to meet you! Okay, my turn!

I'm from India, I've spent pretty much my entire life here, except for a couple of years in the UK. I studied law, but I've been a serial career changer for a while now.

I sing with a jazz band, and I teach salsa and cha cha. I'm a movie freak. I don't limit myself in the genres I read, although for the last couple of years I've been predominantly reading YA. But my first love is, and always will be fantasy. I grew up with Tolkien and Lloyd Alexander and C.S. Lewis, so it's kind of stuck with me, I guess!

I am in the middle of rewrites for a contemporary romance, which will hopefully be published within the next year or so. Assuming I ever get the rewrites done, which I am being lazy about. I'm also new to reviewing, having written my first review about two months ago, but I think it's the beginning of a lifelong affair! :)

Is the blog actually up and running yet?

I'm terrible at intros so I apologise. I'm Ceilidh/Kayleigh, I'm 20 and in my 3rd year of Celtic/English lit studies at university in Edinburgh. I'm a native Scot, obnoxious accent and all.

I've been obsessed with reading for pretty much all my life and the Harry Potter books were what spurned me on to writing my own stories. I'll read almost anything and have a love of YA as well as Shakespeare, gothic lit and LGBT theatre. I've been reviewing YA since last July when I started the Sparkle Project and am 22000 words into my YA novel. I also love movies, politics and debating. Oh, how I love debating!

Nope, not yet. I think Lucy has Sundays, I'll PM her and ask her if she wants to inaugurate the blog! Otherwise, I have Mondays, I'll cross-post my Bumped review tomorrow.

Unless we want to start with non-review stuff and move on to reviews next week?

Mel wrote: "UUURGH MINE DIDN'T SAVE FOR SOME REASON!!

Now I have to start again.

My full first name is Melanie. But please, oh please, call me Mel. I was born in Germany but moved to Australia when I was..."

And you are totally my goodreads crush. *Blush*

My name is Lucy. I live on Staten Island, one of the boroughs of NYC. I've pretty much always lived in New York. I have, however, done a fair bit of traveling although I've never lived in any of those countries. I live with my sister who is my polar opposite in a lot of ways. I'm an accountant. My sister is the one who got a BA in English and creative writing, but she doesn't do a lot of reading that's not directly related to her masters. I chased her around with a copy of The Hunger Games and I didn't get her to read it, but I'm sure when the movie comes out she'll snag it off my shelf then.

My writing is done for pleasure. I write on a forum set role-playing game. I have read a lot of books on writing that I haven't logged into my goodreads account because I guess I never really thought of them as the same as reading my fiction books. I do like the forum writing, the intense development of a few characters, and interacting with other amateur writers is a lot of fun.

I learned to read in pre-school, sitting in my mother's lap while she studied. When she realized I was absorbing it she took me to the library, where I proceeded to tear through every children's book and moved up to YA when I was nine, although it didn't exist the way it does now. Basically I graduated from Goosebumps to Fear Street. I remember finding the first Princess Diaries book and dragging it home for my sister who was still in mourning for Princess Diana. I read it ages later, but yeah, I think that's the first contemporary YA series I ever came across.

I think I started reading a lot of YA in 2009. Some people take it as emotional immaturity or my way of ensuring I never see a sex scene, which just isn't the case, but how do you argue with someone who reads three books a year about why you prefer one genre over another. I'm also guilty of reading a lot of fandomwank. I read through the Cassandra Clare thing after an RPing friend of mine threw the first two books. My favorite YA novelist has to be Sarah Rees Brennan. Least favorite. God the list is too long.

Fear Street, good days.

And yes, the blog is running. You can post non-review related stuff if you want.

It seems like all of us are working on books, so if we ever become a popular blog, maybe we could post excerpts of our work or something.

I will create a bio page on the blog and post these on their if you guys don't mind. If anyone wants a picture up their too, PM it to me.

Also, Lucy, I don't have your email address. Apparently, it doesn't need to be Gmail.

You can hit me up on tinylittlefractures@verizon.net then. I swear to god it's a song title, not a teeny thing

What's the blog URL?

http://thebooklantern.blogspot.com/

Lucy just sent me an email that I think makes a lot of sense, so I'm copying it here:

We can aim to launch next Sunday and give ourselves a week to prepare what would be our first review on there? I think the first post should be a sort of mission statement, like a discussion of the pitfalls a lot of YA authors fall in because it will make it clear where are reviews are coming from.

Yeah, that would be great. Start it with a bang!

Sounds alright to me. Who wants to write the mission statement?

Yup, that's what I was going to suggest. If we all write our own pieces on our review ethos, why and how we review and what appeals to us/disturbs us, then I could collate it, and pass it around for approval and we could put it up.

Should we PM them to you, or create a new thread for that?

Let's create a thread, so that everyone knows what went in and what got edited, etc...

Hi. My real name is Meredith and I am a native New Yorker (the state but I am also currently living in NYC). I’m a bit of a geek. I can debate the physics of comic book super heroes for hours and when I’m not reading enjoy watching shows like Buffy, Supernatural and of course Fringe. Amazon is a name my boyfriend gave me when we first met since I’m about 6” tall (shout out to all my tall girls….woooooohohooo). And no, I do not play basketball or volleyball or any other sports (you cannot believe how many times I’m asked that). I enjoy dancing and singing but I have not performed in a long time. I am currently launching my own natural beauty line, Marabou, out of my home while working full time as a TV analyst. I’m a little busy lately but it beats being idle.

I’m not an aspiring writer but I love to read. I didn’t really consider myself an avid reader until I began Harry Potter, right around the time when the series was coming to an end. I read the entire series in 2 months and that’s how it all started. I’ll read almost any kind of fiction that sparks my interests but I do admit that I have genre binges a few times. The YA binge was after Harry Potter, then chic-lit and now I’m on a PNR/UF binge. I’m happy that this group will help mix things up a bit.

I’m not a blogger, Tweeter or Facebooker (is that a word?)but I find since I joined GR at the end of last year I can’t stay away. Since none of my friends or family share my obsession with books, I find it nice to have a forum to share my thoughts and ideas on my latest reads. Being that blogging is new to me I’m sure there will be a learning curve so please bear with me

@Duchess: Hehehe! Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

@Everyooooone: These intros are looking great. And the idea for our first blog post is great. I reckon we should do it in a new thread and do a sort of brainstorm of things to write then get into it more, if that makes sense. Because let's face it, there shall be a lot.

Isis wrote: "Hello, I'm Isis, which isn't my real name but I'm a pretty private person so it's all I'll give away. I'm in my 20s, actually not from Canada as my profile says, but from the states (GR was doing s..."

I don't know the point of twitter either.

Nice intro btw. And I respect the privacy thing.

I don't know the point of Twitter either. Lol you and me are a unique breed of teenagers, Cory.

Unique indeed.

Hey everyone! My name is Lisa and I'm from New York, and have lived here all of my life. I'm a complete and utter bibliophile and cannot for the life of me tell you how many I have read throughout my life. I recently applied to go back to school for nursing, and majored in English secondary education orginally. I love books that have to do with the supernatural, urban fantasy in particular. I really don't like romance in my books, and when it comes to shipping I normally don't support the ones in canon.

My reviews tend to be brutally honest, and I don't try to be nice about them. I'm highly critical of YA books lately because of my discomfort with the portrayal of romance, relationships, sexuality, and gender roles.

My favorite book series are Harry Potter and The Dark Tower books. I also really like research and history, and feel they play an important part in literature (it's all about context, you know?). I love to write as well, especially fanfiction. There are a few mangas/animes that I like as well, but I'm nowhere near an expert.

Yay, another HP fan.

Oh, Midnight Kiss, can you send me your email so I can add you to the blog authors.

Welcome Lisa!

Okay, we've been too quiet on the blog front! When are we launching? I am creating a new thread:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

Please see, add input and let's get rolling! :)