Category: Let’s Discuss

Feb 13

Bookworm Confession: Swag Isn’t My Thing. Let’s Discuss. (Plus a Giveaway)

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Current Giveaways, Let's Discuss 79

You go to a conference or book event, and there’s swag all around you, as far as the eye can see … bookmarks, lip balm, buttons, magnets, tote bags, notebooks, posters, chapter samplers, and more. Sometimes you see something utterly creative that you never even imagined could be made into swag! This sounds fantastic, unless you’re like me and you really just don’t like swag all that much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for a pretty bookmark just like the rest of you. But usually when I get home from an event or big conference, I end up thinking, What am I going to DO with all this stuff? I’ve made a vow that I’m going to be better about turning things down. But a lot of times these things were shoved at me with exuberance and I felt guilty when I said no thank you. The look on… Read more »

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Jan 25

Why I Love the Book Blog Discussion Challenge (Even When I Fail)

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss 35

Here’s a sad fact: I didn’t make my goal for the Discussion Challenge in 2018. This wouldn’t be so bad, except it’s my challenge (along with Shannon, of course). How do I fail my own challenge? There’s a teensy part of me that worried about this. A nagging little compartment of my brain that said, “You shouldn’t be hosting a discussion challenge if you’re not going to be the ultimate book discusser. Maybe you just don’t have much to say anymore.” But don’t worry, I told my brain to just shut up already. And it listened (mostly). Because I LOVE the Discussion Challenge! (Even when I personally fail.) And here’s why: The Discussion Challenge is a community. Honestly, I can’t even begin to tell you the number of bloggers I’ve connected to because of this challenge. And I feel like I’m truly getting to know bloggers through their discussions. These types of… Read more »

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Jan 08

Things I Learned About Fairy Tales By Reading the Grimm’s Versions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss 52 ★★★★★

I have a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that I’ve owned for as long as I can remember, possibly even since birth. It was published in 1973, a year before I was born, and it seems like the type of book my eccentric dad or one of his eccentric friends would have thought was really funny to gift to a baby due to all the cannibalism and cutting off of body parts, etc. Anyway, I’m fairly certain I read the whole thing as a child, but apparently it didn’t scar me for life because I didn’t remember much except for the fact that they were sort of bloody and brutal. Since I’m currently plotting a fairy tale retelling (The Selfish Giant), I decided to go back and read some other original fairy tales to get more of a flavor of those stories. Thus, I picked up my copy of Grimm’s Fairy… Read more »

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Jan 02

2018 End of Year Book Survey (& Year in Graphs!)

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss, Monthly Recap 46

This is a (very) modified version of Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner’s annual End of Year Book Survey. I’ve taken out quite a few questions and added some of my own, along with graphs (because everyone knows that pretty graphs make the world a better place). 2018 Reading Stats Number Of Books You Read: 153 Fun Pie Graphs: I thought it might be interesting to look at my reading in pie charts since I kept a spreadsheet this year and have really good stats. The first stat I compiled was how many books I read each month. As you can see, I read a lot more during the second half of the year. There are probably a few reasons for this. First off, I was still teaching at the homeschool co-op until May and then I really jumped headfirst into revising my MG manuscript. I sent it off on submission… Read more »

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Dec 18

My (Everlasting) Quest to Catch Up on Review Books. Let’s Discuss.

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss 44

I know I’m not alone when I say I’m behind on books I have for review. Sometimes it’s because my eyes were bigger than my … eyes? (Yeah, that metaphor doesn’t work for books the way it works for food.) Or sometimes it’s because a book that I really wanted to read somehow lost its luster along the way and I wasn’t excited about it anymore. For whatever reason, not every book I have for review has gotten read. But recently I’ve been making a concerted effort to read some of those older review titles that have been waiting for me. Some strategies I’ve used lately to catch up on those review books: Sign up for blog tours. Nowadays, when I sign up for a blog tour, it’s almost always for a book I already have for review. So, why bother signing up for a tour, you ask? Because then… Read more »

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Dec 12

Briggs Book Tag

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss, Tags 18

I saw this over at It Starts at Midnight about a month ago (and a couple other places as well) and thought it would be a fun tag to try. The tag originated at Jaded Reader. In case you’re not familiar with it, here’s some info on Myers Briggs (and the test, if you want to try it out yourself). I’ve taken this test a few times in the past, and I always come out very borderline between INFP and ENFP. This time was no exception, though I think when I was younger I skewed more toward Extrovert and nowadays I lean toward Introvert, and I actually think that’s pretty accurate. Anyway, I’m going with INFP. (Click the image to see it at its source: PersonalityCentral.com.) And now… let’s move on to the tag! INTROVERT: (I) You can be outgoing, but need to recharge with some calming solitude, Where is your… Read more »

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Dec 04

Are You An Email Hoarder? Let’s Discuss

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss 45

My husband just changed some administrative stuff on our email accounts to make things work more smoothly, and he noticed that I had over 10GB of email saved. He gently suggested that I might want to delete one or two (thousand) things. I wasn’t surprised. Especially when I considered the fact that I really don’t ever delete anything. I went and checked out my Feed Your Fiction Addiction email, which I assumed—correctly—was one of the main culprits. And here’s what I found: Hundreds of giveaway notifications—both from me and to me. I mean, these are really important to save for years, right? What if I one day I need to know which blog I won that one random book from in 2013? Or what if I want to count the number of times Danielle Hammelef has won a giveaway on my blog? (It’s a lot—she’s an awesome giveaway participator.) What… Read more »

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Nov 22

Fun with SPAM! #5

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss, Spam 50

Something sad has happened lately: I haven’t been getting much Spam. At first I was sort of baffled, but then I realized it’s because, due to the new(ish) GDPR regulations, I added the checkbox about my privacy policy to my comments section. I’ve gone from having hundreds of messages in my Spam folder to only a few! For most people, this would be good news, but for me it means I haven’t been able to write a Spam post in a while because it’s taken me a lot longer to build up a supply of “high-quality” Spam comments. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being a blogger! Anyway… It’s time for a new installment of Fun with SPAM, where we peek into the abyss of the Spam folder to find a few gems and imagine … what if I were really going to reply to these random crazy comments? Take a look at… Read more »

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Oct 19

Things I Didn’t Know About Publishing (And Things I Know I Still Don’t Know) Let’s Discuss

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss, Writing Tips 41

When I started writing, I wasn’t really doing it with the hope or expectation of getting published. I honestly felt like I was starting too “late.” I mean, when I was younger, I had dreams of being a writer. I took novel writing classes and did workshops and tried (and failed) to be disciplined and actually write. Then life happened and kids happened, and the dream sort of got away from me… But I still wanted to write, so I signed up for NaNoWriMo and I did just that. I wrote a book. (Actually, to be clear, I first signed up for NaNo and wrote 50,000 words of a book that wasn’t going anywhere—someday I might plot that one out better and try again. THEN, the next year, I wrote a book.) For over a year, I did nothing with that book. I wrote it, but I had no idea how… Read more »

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Sep 07

Book Box Subscriptions. Yay or Nay? Let’s Discuss.

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Let's Discuss 76

I’ve only tried a few book box subscriptions, but determined that they’re not for me. There are a few reasons for this: I’m disappointed when I get books I already have. The first book box that I ever got was a Page Habit box, and I LOVE the idea behind this box! It includes an annotated book. What could be better right. When I got my first box, I was so excited. I opened the box … and it was a book I’d already read. Not even just a book I’d already read, but one I was only meh about (it wasn’t bad, but not fantastic either, and not a book I was interested in reading again.). My excitement deflated. I’m not all that excited about swag. I know this might make me like a bookish heretic, but I’m generally not crazy about swag. I do love pins and buttons, and I don’t mind bookmarks,… Read more »

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