The Book Lantern: Blog Discussion discussion

I've just collated stuff to do from various other posts and put them here so that it's easier to see what needs to be done!
1. Blog layout and intoductions: I think Cory is handling this one; just working out the design for the blog and collating all our introductions from the thread, unless we're supposed to do that ourselves for our blogger profiles? I'm not sure, let us know, Cory. Also, I'm thinking our blogroll mention regulars i.e. the people who are contributing at least one post a week, versus the non-regulars, who are only occasional contributors.
2. Mission statement/joint post: We need to get together and write a mission statement of sorts; why we started this blog, what our aim is, what we'd like to see on the blog, and in the industry, our particular likes/dislikes with regard to the YA trends. I'm in charge of collating this, so if you guys can get your bits ready and post it up here, I will collate it accordingly and we can put it up as our very first post.
3. Date/Timetable: We need to set a date from when we are going to start off. Ceilidh and Jillian also suggested that we make a rough timetable of sorts so that we don't have too many reviews back-to-back, followed by too many opinion pieces back-to-back. Sort of spread the whole thing out. So depending on which date we start, we can ask everyone to lay out their ideas for the week and sort of create a timetable. Who wants to handle this?
4. March read: According to the poll, Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney is our group read for the month. Also we need to figure out how to do the reviews for the group read - collate into one, or everybody post whenever they're done and tag it the same or something else? Who wants to co-ordinate on this?

Okay, that's all I can think of for now, if I'm missing anything, let me know! :)

I have only one problem with the read for the month thing. I have no money for books right now. I'm currently quite broke. But if anyone can find (free) ebooks of our books of the months I would be grateful if you sent them to me.

Okay, I ordered Dark Mirror. Maybe we can set a due date for the reviews. I'm a little annoyed that the ebook costs ten cents more than the paperback. *gnashes teeth in corner* I ordered the paperback because with my membership to Barnes and Nobles shipping is free. Might as well. Mel, I'll look around when I get off work tonight... this one book might be ill-gotten if you're okay with that.

I'll aim to have my post on Disappearing Parent Syndrome done on Friday so I can post it here or message it to Vinaya for some critiquing. I'm willing to contribute to the manifesto. Maybe we can do it as something very basic like each one of us creating a line a bit like this

We admit we like paranormal romance.
We admit we don't like paranormal romance with an abusive edge.
We admit we like "issue" novels.
We admit we don't like when "issue" novels cover the same ground repeatedly.
We admit we like when authors try something new.
We admit we don't always like what they come up with.
We admit to being seduced by covers.
We admit we don't like when the cover is the best part.

Lik a few dozen things like that. I think a conclusive manifesto with more depth would take one writer a fair bit of time and a willingness to deal with a lot of feedback. Maybe we can do the like/don't like thing first and a more indepth manifesto later.

I plan on plan on putting all the introductions onto the About Us page. Also, I'm going to add links to the sidebar and work on the footer.

I don't think we need an in depth mission statement, but I'm working on my bit. Lucy's idea is looking quite appealing though.

And I think Monday is the best day to launch.

Ooh Lucy, that list is great already!

Vinaya wrote: "March read: According to the poll, Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney is our group read for the month. Also we need to figure out how to do the reviews for the group read - collate into one, or everybody post whenever they're done and tag it the same or something else? Who wants to co-ordinate on this?"

Also, I'm thinking that finding a copy of this book might be difficult for our money-less reviewers and our overseas reviewers. Finding free e-books for new releases is difficult unless they're mega popular books. Maybe we should pick our first pick should be something easy to get on netpubs like
Shine?

Also, for the group reviews we should create a thread for these reviews to go on for each book. Then I'll make a blog post out of it.

I think we should have a rough timetable for reviews and such. If there are seven or eight of us, how about having 3/4 reviews a week with the rest of the blog postd dedicated to discussion, debate, issues, etc? Those that review one week don't do so the next week and vice versa.

We should have a post on GR where everyone states what books they're reviewing so we don't have too much overlap. If more than one person want to review the same book we could put them together in one post or have each reviewer tackle something different about the book.

I have an ebook of Dark Mirror if anyone wants it. Ill-gotten, but I'm consoling myself with the fact that I've also bought the paperback, only since it'll reach me in 30 days, it is useless for these purposes. :)

Ceilidh, I think instead of collating reviews, whoever calls dibs on a book gets to review it for the blog. Nothing stopping the rest of us from reviewing it on GR or our personal blogs, right?

Also if we're starting on Monday, that's mine. Would you like me to start with a review or post? My options are a review of Hereafter, or a post on stand-alones in YA fantasy. You guys can pick which you would like as the first post! ;)

Vinaya wrote: "I have an ebook of Dark Mirror if anyone wants it. Ill-gotten, but I'm consoling myself with the fact that I've also bought the paperback, only since it'll reach me in 30 days, it is useless for th..."

Please send it to me.

And I vote on the post for stand-alones in YA fantasy.

If possible, I would also like the e-book of Dark Mirror. Sadly my book money right now needs to go to stuff on language legislation and modernist theatre. I'd like to see your first post on YA fantasy as well. Your kickass blogging would be a great way to kickstart the Lantern to life.

Cory, you'll have to PM me your email ID. Ceilidh, I've sent you the book! :)

I really like that this isn't just about book reviews, but sort of all encompassing for the genre.

I recently wrote a post on my LJ account on Alexandra Adornetto's blog (a mean response mind you). Should I put it up on the blog?

Mel: How mean is it? As long as the snark is backed up by strong reason and argument, I'd love to see it on the blog. Adornetto's ignorance can never be debunked too much.

It's as mean as I always am with negative reviews. And don't worry, I always back up my snark, otherwise my snark is... well useless and just makes me look like a prick with no reason to be one.

Why don't you post a link here so we can read it and decide? Even if you decide against posting it, I'd want to read that, lol! :)

http://x-the-duck.livejournal.com/143...

I'll probably do some editing if you guys are alright with me posting it on our blog (it was written a while ago, so I might add, change or detract some things).

Mel wrote: "http://x-the-duck.livejournal.com/143...

I'll probably do some editing if you guys are alright with me posting it on our blog (it was written a while ago, so I might add, change or detract som..."

I like the new theme you're using. Now I'll go and read the post.

If you cut the personal insults directed towards Adornetto, I think you've got a really strong feminist piece. We need to take back the F word and stop people from thinking it's so dirty. I'd love to see it on the blog.

I swear more than a little in some of my goodreads reviews, but if we're going to keep The Book Lantern profanity free you should edit out the 'bitch.' I think you can discuss what she said without making it that personal. It's really good and I agree that she's out of her fucking mind, but we don't want the YAMafia holding up the Book Lantern as a mean girls blog. (Although by all means if everyone else is pro-extra-snark I'll go with the majority.)

No, I agree completely. Also, it's in our rules: no author bashing. :) There's no need for overt profanity when we can dig the knife so much deeper with subtler taunts. I think, Mel, that you should respond at a level that's personal to you, without bringing Adornetto's personality into it. It's a great piece, and, as Ceilidh says, we need to take the F word back, and this is a great way to do it. And it has all the more impact because you're teenage girl yourself. Go kill her with class! :)

Yessir! And thank you for reading it =] Uhm... when can I post it on the blog?

What's your day? Oh, we need to sort this out as well!

I'm Saturday. I think we already did sort out the days.

The days are on one of the other posts.

I completely agree. Just cut back on the personal insults. Myself, I don't swear that much in my reviews, but it works for yours.

I wouldn't mind us being known as the mean girls blog. Now that would be fun.

What's our launch day officially?

Yeah, I know, I meant the timetable for the week. :) Okay, shall we start on Sunday with our collective piece on what does and does not constitute good a YA paranormal? Then Monday is moi, but since we already have a non-review piece, I'll review hereafter. Tuesday is our day of rest, unless Amazon80 is posting. We need to ask Jillian what she's doing for Wed, Ceilidh, for thu, Cory for Fri, and I guess you can put up the Adornetto post for saturday!Which means at least one more person needs to do a review.

I'm not sure we want to be known as mean girls, actually. I'd rather be like Phoebe, with a reputation for critical, honest reviews. I think being too snarky is as bad for one's reputation as a reviewer as being too nice. Both of those seem to imply that you won't deviate from the party line.

I think if we let the snark overpower the review itself and our points then it gives people more leverage to call us mean girls and the so called blogger bullies Peterfreund mentioned. The balance is important. I love snark, I use it frequently, but we need to let the review speak loudest.

Cory wrote: "I wouldn't mind us being known as the mean girls blog. Now that w..."

That would be soooo fetch.

And when do we have to finish the book of the month?

I agree, but if the books is like Hush, Hush or Blood and Chocolate I'm going to rip it apart regardless. With no author slander of course.

I wish there were more books I loved. Then I could write more positive reviews. But yes, critical not snarky is the way to go.

Mel wrote: "And when do we have to finish the book of the month?"

I'm going to read it next week. Or maybe on Sunday.

I'm going to be as honest as I always am, but I will promise to lay off the author slander.
... sometimes.
I promise I'll be good. I'll be nice................

Gah but it's so hard when it's someone like Fitzpatrick or Meyer or even Stiefvater. But I'll tryyyyy my ever so hardest. But I will curse them in my head.

I'll start reading it soon, since I managed to find the e-book last night. Yay! But by when do we have to finish it? Oh God, I still have to finish Fallen.

but...

IDON'TWANNAREADITANYMOREOHGODPLEASESOMEONEBURNIT.

Fallen sucks. Just watch the Melinda Pendulum vid and she'll tell you all you need to know about it. Still, if you plan on writing an awesome review, push ahead.

I love her video on Fallen.

To be honest I don't think my review is going to be long enough to be as awesome as my Crescendo review for example. Why? The book is so DRY, and NOTHING happens!!!

Okay, I have all the regulars' contribution on YA paranormal. Shall we post it today? Also, I want to write a post on teenagers writing for tomorrow, if that's okay? It's sitting in my head like a stone and wants to get out!

Post away! Go forth and spread the word!!! =D

Post it. Deliver them from their wickedness.

Posted! http://thebooklantern.blogspot.com/20...

*high-five, everyone! Jillian, what's your planned post for Wednesday?

YESSSS it looks awesome!

Well my first blog post will be the Adornetto issue, but I eventually want to write one based on a comment I saw about Ceilidh on Holly Black's LJ, which states 'Bashing a book written by a woman for women is not feminist'. And I want to name the blog post: 'Women can be anti-feminist'.

Someone on twitter told me they were having trouble trying to comment on the blog. I know nothing about technology in any form so I don't know if this is just a one off problem or something bigger.

As for future blogging, I will at some point be doing a post on childrens and YA books from my native Scotland and by Scottish writers. But my first post will be on why Mattie Ross from True Grit by Charles Portis is my new fictional feminist hero.

Ceilidh wrote: "Someone on twitter told me they were having trouble trying to comment on the blog. I know nothing about technology in any form so I don't know if this is just a one off problem or something bigger...."

My sister is having trouble commenting too. I checked the settings though, and commenting is enabled. I'll look into it further.

Comments are fixed. It was a conflict error.

Wow, we're live and it's ace!

One of the things I wanted to mention for the PNR post but didn't was the lack of diversity in the genre. It's very very white and very very straight, unless you count the token minorities and gays, e.g. the token gay friend in Marked who isn't really a man because he's gay. *rage* How about for another one of our group posts we tackle this and try to find PNR YA where PoCs and LGBTs are central characters and not just cardboard cut outs? If we don't want to do this as a group post I'll happily do it on my day.

It's all yours! Group posts are difficult to co-ordinate, I think we'll only do them on the monthly group reads, and if something really big comes up! Besides, it sounds like a topic you'd handle beautifully, so I'd rather read than write about it!

I was actually planning to do something on that myself, maybe we could collab on it? I've been reading a lot of multicultural/LGBT YA and I a few words to say on it.