I am often surprised at the questions people ask me about Bookish Temptations, book blogging in general, and um…about me.  Today I am going to share some of those questions and my answers. Some are funny, some are serious, and some?!?

Q- Is it hard to run a blog?

A- Well that depends. In general, if you want to have a successful blog  you have to be willing to invest a lot of time and effort.  I think you also need to be very passionate about whatever it is you choose to blog about. More specifically, if you choose to run a book blog you’ll need to read a lot, and be willing to interact with publishers, authors, marketing assistants, other book bloggers, and most important of all your readers. When you hear a blogger say it’s a 2nd job, we’re not kidding. We don’t get paid for it.  It’s a labor of love. It makes things much easier if you have partners. I’m very lucky in that I have a great team here.

Personally, I think you need a good teacher/mentor at least when you’re first starting out, and it sure helps if someone can help you design it as well. I’m fortunate that I have both in one friend *coughJAGcough*  I still don’t have everything mastered, but I’m getting better. I don’t do wonky nearly as often as I used to, and I know what a #jump is.  ;)

Q- Do you get free stuff?

A- I can only speak for myself  here,  and I can honestly say that the only thing I get free is ARC’s, eARC’s, and book DL’s for the express purpose of reviewing, and/or participating in a blog tour. That’s it. Again, I can only speak for myself, but if I love a book even when I’ve been given it free in some form I will also purchase a copy. Why? Because I want the author to get compensation. It’s very important to me personally to  support  my authors in any way I can. I also like to have all the different  editions it comes in, so that means I buy the Kindle, paperback, and if available the hardback. That’s just me tho.

Q- Are you married?

A- I have no idea why this would be of interest to anyone, but the answer is no. Not for awhile and I’m not looking for any marriage proposals. I do however love a bit of flirting  ;)

Q- Your blog is different from a lot of other book blogs I visit, why?

A- I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an accusation, but the answer is simple. I made a conscious decision to run Bookish Temptations differently than most book blogs are. Altho my primary goal is to promote books, reading, and writers,  I wanted to talk to the people that come to visit on a more personal level. Most of my posts are written as if I’m talking directly to someone(s) because I feel like I am. I want to have a relationship with my readers. I reply to the majority of the comments that are left as well. I want you to be engaged with me. I also want you to have a good time here. Reviews are important but I like to do lots of other kinds of posts as well.

Q- Why do you use bad grammer/spelling? Did you fail English?

A- Surprisingly, I got very good grades in English. I will make a  confession to you tho… I once had a teacher tell me that I treated commas like they were BFF’s and I should use them more  like a casual aquaintance. Clearly, I have disregarded that advice and I use commas way too often and incorrectly. Srsly tho,  I do spell just fine most of the time, and when I don’t it’s usually on purpose…for fun. I’m sure it makes some people cringe… As far as the rest of my grammer skills go…well I’m not above admitting that my colon/semi colon, apostrophe useage, and sentence structure isn’t flawless, but hey…give a gurl a break and overlook it ok?

Q- Have you ever met an author in real life?

A- Yes. A few months ago I got to meet Myra McEntire who is the author of Hourglass. She’s funny, and nice, and even more gorgeous in person. I also met Beth Revis and Victoria Schwab and all were delightful.

Q- What authors would you most like to meet and why?

A- Hmm…I could write a whole post on this, but I’ll  be brief…

1) Sylvain Reynard- Well, he’s smart,  funny, and very well mannered,  but I bet he knows how to have a good time too. Plus he likes poetry.

2) E L James- British accent… check.  However, once I got over that I think we’d just have a gigglefest.

3) Debra Anastasia- Let’s just say I have a feeling the 2 of us together would require bail money to be available.

4) C L Parker- Anybody who signs stuff with FLYAS has got to be awesome in all kinds of ways, and we both live in the South.

All of the above are people I’d actually like to visit a bookstore with, grab a cup of coffee/tea, and browse and discuss books with. Or, have a sit down dinner and drinks with and just shoot the proverbial breeze. I’m really quite adept at making intelligent conversation, sprinkled with fun and silliness.  Of course it’d also be great to have a one on one conversation with each about their respective book(s). I have so many questions of my own I’d love to ask. Are there more authors I’d like to meet that aren’t on this list? O of course there are. I’ll save them til next time.

Q- Are you writing a book? Have you secretly written a book? Do you write FF?

A- Have you been talking to my mother? No, No, and No.  As much as I might wish I had the gift…I don’t.

1) I can’t write dialogue. I’ve tried. I suck at it.

2) Even if I could write dialogue I’ve never had an idea that was novel or even novella sustaining. I might be good for a short story as long as the dialogue was nearly nonexistent.

3) There isn’t anything  nonfiction I feel proficient, or enuff excitement for to attempt telling other people about it. O… except maybe travel…O wait…I don’t do it enuff to write about it. History maybe…I do have a thing for all kinds of history and it was another area I excelled at in school.

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