Armchair BEA Day 3: Expanding Blogging Horizons & Novellas/Short Stories

Hey guys! Welcome to day three of Armchair BEA! BEA (Book Expo America) is a huge event featuring books, authors, agents, publishers and is basically a Bacchanalia for booklovers. Alas, it is in NYC and I’m on the West Coast so I will not be in attendance. But fear not! Because the lovely people at Armchair BEA have a great week planned for those of us who won’t be at the convention, and I’m participating!

Expanding Blogging Horizons

I’m at a bit of a loss with this topic, but I’ll give it a try! I’ve only been blogging for about eight months, and for me starting my blog was expanding my horizons. If you’ve read my previous posts, you know I hail from the deviantART lit community. I’m a writer, and that community really helped me hone my skills. But everyone kept telling me that a writer needs a blog. It’s a must. I resisted.

Then, totally by accident, I saw a link on deviantART to a giveaway hop. Free books? I thought. Cool. So I clicked the link and my life changed.

Here was an entire world of bloggers reviewing, fangirling, giving away and just plain celebrating books. I’ve always loved reading, and Holly Black’s Tithe series showed me that there is SO MUCH more to YA than what people might think. I’d gotten so into deviantART that my reading of physical books had fallen off a bit. So I started lurking, following blogs, entering giveaways, updating my Goodreads with reviews, and rethinking my aversion to having a blog.

After about a year of studying other blogs, I launched Rose Shadow Ink. Since then, I’ve tried to learn the ropes, and basically gain the industry knowledge that authors can benefit from. But I don’t have a blog because I feel like I have to. I have a blog because I love books, and I love interacting with book lovers. And I love sharing that love.

Novellas/Short Stories

I used to be a novel snob. I still prefer them. Honestly I even shy aways from standalones sometimes – when an author creates a world I love living in, characters I love spending time with, I want to live there forever. Spin-off series are a huge win with me. And since novellas have become so popular, we as readers have been treated to even more immersion in our favorite fictional worlds. As a proud print snob, I find them slightly annoying because I’m forced to read on a computer or my smartphone (the horror!) in order to further my understanding of the story, but as it seems publishers have finally started releasing them in print too, I’m a happy girl.

But despite all this, I still have an appreciation for short stories. I don’t fall in love with the characters or world the way I do with series, but I do fall in love with the sentences themselves, with the themes explored. An excellent example of this is my favorite short story, There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury. The chilling images it created in my mind have never left me. I strongly suggest you read it if you haven’t. You can listen to it read out loud by Leonard Nimoy below:

or read it here:

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

I’d also like to share my second-favorite short story. I dearly hope she publishes it one day, because it deserves it, but for now it’s free to read on deviantART. I know you’re probably hopping to all of the participating blogs right now and don’t have time, but maybe bookmark these two and come back later? You won’t regret it.

My Sara by scarletbird

If anyone survives the world’s ending, I only want them to hear the truth. I know, if there is any history after this is over, she will not be remembered fondly. I cannot blame them. They didn’t know her as I did. 

(read the rest)

Hmm. I really seem to like my short stories with a healthy dose of sci-fi and destruction. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Thanks so much for reading and please feel free to comment!