Well, that didn’t work for me.
A while back, I put forward a proposal to convert this blog into some sort of shared memory blog. I worked to develop the idea, and I even wrote two blog posts.
That’s right. Two whole posts. Since December.
Woohoo. Big whoop. I guess that idea didn’t even take off with me.
So, that’s out.
Therefore, I’m bringing back a format that works for me: book talk, book reviews, author guests and writer talk. And I’ll work in my two shared memory posts as occasional retro posts, which I have been known to do from time to time.
Since I want this blog to be distinct from the rest of my site, I should give it a name. I don’t focus on debuts anymore, so anything goes. Here’s some possibilities:
- The Broken Bookspine – way back when, in 1996, during the early, early days of the Internet, I wrote a few pages about my favorite books. It wasn’t a blog, because I was using straight HTML and blogs weren’t thought of back then. It did have a tiny following, and someone asked permission to reprint part of one of my “posts”, where it still persists here. But the original site existed before the Wayback Machine started caching pages, so it is gone forever.
- Tia’s Bookshelf – Simple and direct.
- Elsewhen BookTalk – Takes off on the anywhere but here, anywhen but now thing, plus I’ve been using Elsewhen as my location in Twitter. Also, “reviews” isn’t in the name to prevent an expectation of a significant number of book reviews.
I think I like the last one. How about you?
It’ll take me a couple of weeks to get this going. I’m going to start by arranging for some author guests. I will narrow down the genres from what I used to cover to my most fav genres, which are:
- Fantasy
- Science Fiction
- Historical
I am deliberately keeping these broad. There will be certain subgenres I will gravitate toward. Although I occasionally enjoy mystery, romance and Christian, those genres will not be the focus of this blog. Narrow worked best for me, and narrow is what I am going back to.
Before I get started, I’ll also clean up my post tags so I can use them usefully. Right now, they are a mess. And it will be a big job cleaning them up. I may also import in my Fantasy Debut posts, but that will be a Phase II task, postlaunch. Very post.
Wish me luck. I know I’ve run a lot of ideas by you guys, only to get busy and let them fall by the wayside. I’ll try to not let it happen again. Thanks for sticking with me!
I certainly wish you good luck. I’ve missed seeing more of you. If this works, wonderful! {WARM SMILE}
About the name, the first one makes me wince inwardly. I mended books for the university library as a volunteer for several years, and broken spines were tough. I remember a few clean breaks, but most involved failing glue. That usually meant a time-consuming enough mend, they’d rather ship it off to the library bindery on O’ahu than have me mend it in-house. Even volunteer time is worth more than to spend that much time on one book. {lop-sided smile, wink}
Anyway, like the second and third names better. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Thanks, Anne! Well, I can’t be making readers wince–although I was referring to the state of my paperbacks, not hardcovers. Just from being well-used, yanno.
I’ve practically decided on the third name. Practically.
Thanks, Tia. I suspected you were thinking of paperbacks. I was, too.
In my volunteering days, if the book was bound with strings, even if those were thin enough to look like thread, I could replace any failing glue without rebinding the book. If, on the other hand, the book was bound by glue alone, anything I could do would take so much time, we just sent it to the bindery. The majority of hardcovers and extremely few paperbacks were bound with strings. Practically all paperbacks and a small but notable minority of hardcovers were glue-only bindings. {smile}
I know that books can get their backs broken just from being read. I’ve broken quite a few bindings myself as I read. That’s why Dad and I tell each other that the “perfect” in “perfect binding” — the name of the most common all-glue binding — shows that the binding is history, just like any action in the “perfect tense.” {wry chuckle lop-sided Smile, wink}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Luck! (Good, of course.) 😉 Elsewhen as a title makes sense for the reasons you mentioned. (Though I suspect spell-check will hate you forever.) There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you’re comfortable writing. I’ve always enjoyed your book talk a lot. It gives room for thought and discussion.
Spell-check can be tamed. Thanks!
I like the simple middle one, but I’m a bit on the simple side myself 🙂 Yay for new beginnings!
And hopefully it works out this time! 🙂
Your Fantasy Debut blog was so successful. I never missed it. Whatever you decide, I hope it works for you. As for names, I’m with Deborah. I like Tia’s Bookshelf or even BookTalk.
Thanks, Maria. Fantasy Debut was a lot of fun; I think I bit off more than I could chew with the Debuts and Reviews focus. This new blog will go back to a narrow niche.