Weekend Reading Round-up

I did a big gift wrapping last night, visited with an out-of-state relative at lunch time, and baked cookies and made candy this afternoon. I am so ready to browse.

Earlier this week, I heard on Facebook about Book Blogging 101: Is Originality Gone?, published at Parajunkee. It's all about the giveaways seen at so many book blogs, as well as "press release" type material that doesn't appear to be original work from the blogger. Interesting stuff, interesting comments. We had an interesting discussion about this post on the Kidlitosphere listserv.

Here's something else interesting that I just discovered: One day later, Parajunkee carried a post called  Welcome to the Giveaway Social, and it lists 50 giveaways at blogs. Aren't giveaways one of the things  that Book Blogging 101,  was describing as unoriginal the day before? Well, anyway, if you're interested in trying to find some free stuff, there's 50 chances for you.

Here's something else I found at Parajunkee that I think is interesting: This is another Book Blogging 101 post, from 2010, called Book Blogs vs. Mommy Blogs. I stumbled upon a link to this post and followed it because I visited a couple of localish Mommy Blogs a few months ago, looking for places that might be interested in linking to the Connecticut Children's Lit Calendar. I'd heard things in the past about how writers ought to "get in" with the Mommy Bloggers, and I thought blogs that focused on families might be interested in reading, visiting with authors who make appearances in their areas. Well, I was quite amazed to see that the blogs I found appeared to be small businesses and not all that family focused. I have no objection to the business aspect. I just wasn't expecting it. And I wasn't expecting it, because of the label "Mommy Blogger."

Is that a derogatory term, by the way? Is it an attempt to belittle these businesses because they're run by women?

Parajunkee doesn't address that question, but its post does discuss differences between book bloggers and Mommy Blogs. Wish I'd seen it earlier.

Also, why is Mommy Blog capped, but book blog isn't?

Enough about Parajunkee for one week.

Carmela Martino has a post up at Teaching Authors on Building a Writing Portfolio. I'm interested in  writing portfolios because I write different types of things. I've also been a little surprised by the number of people I've met over the years who just decide they're going to write a book without having done any other kind of writing. Okay, some people manage to do it. Nonetheless, it seems an awful lot like walking up to a stage door on Broadway when you haven't put in any time acquiring other acting experience.

Ms. Yingling writes about graphic novel editions of City of Ember and A Wrinkle in Time.