MotherReader

While Bloggiesta may not have solved all my bloggy problems, the weekend did get me on the right track. I only ended up spending fourteen hours on the challenge, which was less than I had hoped for. However, I did accomplish most of my goals.

I did finish my comments for the Comment Challenge, where I’ve been visiting the blogs of the participants. I made notes on my library books and returned them. I finished the notes on the Cybils picture books and have them packed and ready to send out. I went through my MotherReader email and deleted loads of emails. The ones that remain aren’t all that scary to deal with either. I looked at five of the mini-challenges, but I think I only officially participated in two.

I wish I could have done more, but I realized that I don’t like too much time spent on the “working” aspect of the blog. And when it’s something I feel like I have to do, then it becomes work. But in tackling the projects this weekend, I thought of some better strategies for doing the working aspects, so hopefully I can carry through on that.

Thanks to Natasha at Maw Books for organizing the event. See you next year!

Checking in with a Bloggiesta update. With about six hours of work yesterday, I did finish my notes
on the library books and returned them. Of course, I ended up picking up six more titles that I had on hold or grabbed from the new bookshelf, so in a way that goal ended up as a bit of a wash. But that’s a problem for later. I’m halfway through my comments for the Comment Challenge, and I started making my way through the sad, sad case that is my MotherReader email. I’ve looked at four of the mini-challenges where I reviewed info on Mr. Linky, read about things bloggers shouldn’t do, got tips about email control, and learned about making buttons and banners.

Today I’m working on the notes for Cybils picture books that I owe a reader. I have a lot more work to do in my email. I also have a few notes of things I need to change on my blog, and have a acquired a few more as I’ve been working. Other than that, I’ll be looking at the other four mini-challenges and the review of the past mini-challenges. Maybe I’ll turn some of the notes into actual reviews. It could happen.

It’s still not too late to participate. No, really! Head over to Maw Books and give yourself over to improving your blog and connecting to your community. Plus, prizes!

Starting today — like now — I’ll be participating in Bloggiesta, a book blogging party to focus on the work of maintaining a blog. It’s amazing to me, but I actually have a free weekend to dedicate to the task. I keep waiting for someone to remind me of Something Very Important that I have forgotten, but I guess I’ll roll with it.

My plan is to finish my comments for the Comment Challenge. I’ve been visiting the participants and need to get to about half of the blogs. I need to make notes and/or reviews for a few library books, so that I can return them. I have a few Cybils picture books that I owe a reader, and I need to make any notes I haven’t done on those and pack them up. I plan to go through my MotherReader email which I haven’t been attending to properly. I also have a few notes of things I need to change on my blog, so I need to actually you know, do them. Other than that, I’ll be looking at the mini-challenges and the past mini-challenges. They have always been helpful and inspiring — whether teaching me something new, reminding me of a lost lesson, or giving me an energy boost.

If you haven’t signed up to participate, it’s not too late. Head over to Maw Books and give yourself over to improving your blog and connecting to your community. Plus, prizes!

I’m so glad that I held the Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge asking you to stretch your comfort zone. So many brave entries! I’m proud of all of you for taking chances and shaking things up. I picked one winner at random, who will receive a couple of books, courtesy of the supplies of Book Blogger Convention, and that winner is... Vicki from Reading at the Beach! Congratulations!

While I’m happy to offer a prize, I’m most excited that I was able to pose a challenge that made all participants winners. I loved reading your comments of the many ways you all pushed yourselves. It was inspirational. Here are some of the things that you’re doing:

• Starting a new feature/challenge/poll/contest
  
• Emailing authors for interviews/guest posts
  
• Emailing publishers for review copies
  
• Asking bloggers to do guest posts
  
• Connecting to local bookstores
  
• Agreeing to do guest posts
  
• Mixing up a set style
  
• Posting reviews on Amazon
  
• Writing a negative review
  
• Sharing something personal
  
• Taking a controversial stand
  
• Facing the hard jobs of blogging
  
• Promoting, marketing, and reaching out
  

Wow! Great job, everyone! I love the way that everyone who approached this challenge did so in a way that tackled their own soft spots. For me, my bravery was in what I did not do. After two extremely intense days that wiped out my time, energy, and emotional reserves, I decided not to participate in Bloggiesta on Sunday, as I had planned. Usually, I would worry about neglecting my blog or letting someone down or whether it was appropriate to run a challenge — and then personally bail on the event. And, to be fair, I remained a bit worried about those things. But for me, this weekend, the brave thing was to take care of myself on Sunday — even if it provided a sort of ironic twist to the very challenge I was proposing.

Thanks to everyone who played along. I hope this push to be brave carries over in your blogging for a long time to come. Blog on!

I hadn’t intended to do a mini-Challenge for Bloggiesta, because I was swamped with Girl Scout stuff this week. It’s the end of the year and we need to wrap up the accounting and bridge over to a new level and reflect on the year and all that jazz. And as I reflected, it came to me in this real moment of clarity that my personal philosophy in running a troop is to stretch our comfort zones within a safe and supportive environment. Because it’s in that space where we grow as people — in testing our limits, trying new things, and taking the opportunity to be brave.

And it hit me that bloggers can sometimes use that push too. It’s so easy to go along, talking nicely about books or people or recipes or kids. And that’s not a bad thing. But are you stretching? Are you growing? Are you taking chances? Are you being brave?

Your mini-challenge is to be brave. Write a post that takes a stand. Allow yourself a negative review, not for snark value but to be honest. Reveal something personal about yourself. Start the online challenge or contest or project you were afraid to put out there. Try something totally new.

You don’t even have to post it yet to enter for prizes in the mini-challenge. I’ll take your word for it that you’ve drafted something; I won’t even hold you to posting it. I just want you to get that feeling of writing something that scares you a little bit. Let me know in the comments when you feel that you’ve met that challenge, and I’ll pick a winner (or winners) at random and send a couple of books as prizes. Plus a spy pen!

I’m still recovering from the 48 Hour Book Challenge, with emails to write, packages to prepare, and books to clean off of my living room floor. I seem to have attacked the challenge with the organization of a teen getting ready for a big date — tossing books like T-shirts all over the room in search of the right one. I did well, in that I hit a run of eight great books. Amazing! But now I have to put everything back in order. Wah.

I do have a post up at PBS Booklights on books about bedtime. They aren’t the newest titles, and maybe not my absolute, all-time favorites, but some strong choices. Head over and add your suggestions to the comments.

This weekend I’ll be spending some time on Bloggiesta — writing up reviews (yes, of all those 48HBC books) and posts and presentations. If you need some time for blog housekeeping, head over to Maw Books to sign up.

Branding has come up again as a blogosphere topic. I saw it first with Maureen Johnson’s post — excuse me, manifesto — and I can just hear her whisper of “I am not a brand.” Important reading. Chasing Ray is taking up the topic, and wondering about the idea of blogger and author branding — like we can all be labeled like breakfast cereals. I’ll say that there are aspects of branding that are easy and helpful. My blog name, commenting name, and Twitter name are all MotherReader. No one has to think too hard about who I am in any of those places. But where I start to push back — or at least would ask us all to step back and think — is when I see that it is to publishers’ advantage that we be nicely, neatly branded. It certainly makes it easier for them to promote authors and to evaluate bloggers. And I’m not saying that it’s an absolute wrong. But is it good for the bloggers?

Okay, so I did good work for Bloggiesta, but not excellent work. I’m also not sure I’m done yet, but it seemed like an update was in order.

How sad is it that my note for the first hour simply says “reviews” and I have no recollection of what reviews I was doing?

My second hour I spend cleaning up my blogroll a bit. I removed some blogs that aren’t posting and added a few that I never got around to adding. I don’t know if anyone looks at blogrolls anymore, but I’m not ready to part with mine. It doesn’t have everything I follow on my blogreader, so I updated that too. It was actually in pretty good shape, though I suspect the Comment Challenge will see me adding blogs back to it.

My third hour I spent on some of the mini-challenges. I checked my copyright info, corrected post labels, added to my cheat sheet, and dumped dead links. Then I took a break for dinner and Lost episodes with the family. (We ended with the one where Sayid shoots Ben. Remember watching that and just going nuts?)

Last night I spent two hours on updating member links at KidLitosphere Central. Twenty minutes of that was beating myself up for neglecting it for so long. I also spent an hour clearing my Google Reader, though I did star a fair number of posts to go back to when I have more time. (Isn’t fooling yourself like that a hoot?)

I had high hopes for today, but so far I’ve only given two hours to Bloggiesta — one for typing reviews that I had scribbled in a notebook and one for cleaning up blog-related emails. With only eight hours so far, I’m hoping to come back tonight — after more Lost.

Edited to Add: I was able to do some blog reading, commenting, and email culling for two hours tonight. So my total time is ten hours, with five mini-challenges, twenty comments, and some new ideas in my head. I really loved having Bloggiesta in January, especially when it was too cold to want to leave the house anyway.

In other news, the Comment Challenge is rockin’ with the crossover of the Bloggiesta and the promotion by the KidLit/YA book bloggers. So, thanks!!!

Hello, fellow Bloggiesters! For my Bloggiesta mini-challenge, join Comment Challenge 2010, leave your first ten comments on blogs new to you, and comment here to say that’s you’ve completed those two tasks to enter for Bloggiesta prizes. Of course, I hope you’ll keep commenting for twenty-one days.

So that I don’t clutter my page with a separate update, this post is also my own beginning Bloggiesta post, starting at 11:00 a.m. EST and hoping to get some great blogging housekeeping done. (As opposed to my actual housekeeping, which is shameful.)

Today at Booklights I’m sharing three of the Cybils Fiction Picture Book finalists. At least one of these will be on the Caldecott list — mark my words.

Tomorrow begins Comment Challenge 2010. Look to the FAQs for all the info, and join us in our community venture.

This weekend is Bloggiesta, hosted by Maw Books. It’s a chance to spend some time improving your blog, catching up on your reviews, and taming your Google Reader.

Next week is National Delurking Week, so plan on coming out of the woodwork and making yourself known.

Of course, we’re continuing with Freeze Your Tail Off Month, brought to the United States straight from the Arctic. Lay your bets now that the cold front will be used to dispute global warming.

Edited to add the text from Booklights.
For the past few months, I've been working as a Cybils panelist to find the best picture books that combine literary value with a kid-friendly appeal. On January 1, 2010 Fiction Picture Book finalists were revealed - along with the finalists from all of the Cybils categories. Looking at the upcoming Caldecott awards, I'm starting my focus on all of the Cybils winners with the ones more likely - in my opinion - also bring home Caldecott silver or gold.
The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney Gorgeous. Jerry Pinkney has to win the Caldecott for this stunning book. Has to. The wordless book - unless you count the owl sounds and mouse squeaks - allows the reader to fill in the Aesop's fable of the mighty lion who releases a mouse, to find that the tiny creature comes back another day to save him. But by making the story wordless, it removes the arrogance of the lion and the meekness of the mouse, allowing a greater depth of interpretation. This spectacular book breathes new life to an old tale. And I must mention again, gorgeous.
All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee The Lion & the Mouse is likely to find company on the Caldecott list with this enchanting book. The poetic text is simple, taking a multicultural family through a day that focuses on their connection with each other, with friends and neighbors, and the world around them. The sentiment is lovely and is made more so by the detailed illustrations and breathtaking panoramas. This title encourages repeat readings to expand on the stories contained in the pictures, and the beauty contained in the message.
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown Don't rule out this title for the Caldecott list, with it's amazing artwork that takes a dark, smoggy urban area to a green, bright lushness. In the story, Liam discovers a little bit of greenery in a gray, bleak city and decides to care for it. He nurtures the struggling plants into a thriving, growing garden which creeps into the city and transforms the buildings and people. If the book is about the value of nature and the environment, it is also about the possibilities in each of us to affect change for the better.

With the whole Father’s Day thing I wasn’t able to put as much time into Bloggiesta as I had hoped. Well, that and the trip to Ross and the stop at Petco where I had to hold a kitten up for adoption (no, I didn’t bring it home). And of course the sheets needed changing and the newspapers needed recycling and The Colbert Report needed watching.

I didn’t keep good track of my time, but I think I’ve spent about four hours on the computer today. I don’t feel that I accomplished much for that amount of time. I deleted some bad links from my blogroll. I read some posts I’d been meaning to give a more concentrated look. I deleted a lot of emails. In the month of May, I must not have deleted anything except spam.

The best thing I did was add some of the parenting blogs and general interest blogs to my Google Reader. Originally, I had wanted to keep my reader for book blogs, figuring I’d use my blogroll to visit the others occasionally. Instead I found that I haven’t been to them at all. As I was checking out the links, I found myself laughing and realized how much I’d missed the humor and variety they lent to my blog diet.

I also had a lot of time on the computer getting used to the trackpad. It’s kind of driving me crazy now, but Bill swears I’ll learn to love it. I’m pretty enamored of my laptop in general, so I’m sure we’ll be fine together after we pass the getting-to-know-you stage.

I’ll end my Bloggiesta participation with ten hours and some light blogkeeping completed. I participated in eight of the mini-challenges — which were all excellent. The challenges were helpful in giving me some focus, because this weekend I wasn’t up for thinking through the things I needed to do. I know that the idea came from catching up on reviews after the 48 Hour Book Challenge, but I guess I’d rather do this kind of blog upkeep in the dreary winter months rather than the first days of summer. Overall though, a good opportunity to get some things done.

I’ve spend six hours on Bloggiesta, much of it on mini-challenges that were offered by various blogs.

I cleaned up my Google Reader a bit by using the “trends” tab to find and remove inactive blogs. Then I added a couple of new blogs through looking at random blogs participating in Bloggiesta. (I tried the Lost numbers first to select my blogging visits — 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.) I checked up on my Google Alerts, though I’m finding that they are not catching my blog mentions and I don’t know why. I added my blog to various directories, and I secured a blog buddy. (It’s you!) I learned about anchor text at GalleySmith (see, that was using anchor text correctly my making the link the blog name). I read some blogging tips articles at Problogger, including a great one on increasing blog traffic from SEOmoz. I also used website grader to run a report on MotherReader and to make some changes to improve my marketing by search engine. This was my favorite tip, given by Bookish Ruth.

I’m sorry, but I ran out of steam to provide all the links to the many bloggers providing the mini-challenges, but they are all listed at Maw Books. If you are looking for concrete tasks to improve your blog, check them out.

Tomorrow I’ll work on typing in some reviews. Maybe I’ll even play around a bit with templates and such. You know, typical Father’s Day activities.

I’m getting a late start on Bloggiesta, but for good reason — I was waiting for Bill to set up my new laptop! It’s a nice little MacBook Pro with plenty of kick in a tidy space. However, I’m such a creature of habit that I know it will take me some time to get used to this baby. The typing feels different. The trackpad is very different for someone as mouse-dependent as me. Adjusting to working literally on my lap is crazy — even if it means I can sit on the couch by the open window smelling the rain-soaked air.

I said different, not bad.

In any case, even though I have a million things that I should be doing, I thought that by spending time with Sonny the laptop, we could get to know each other better. Laundry can wait — even if it means I’ll be wearing the grannypants undies tomorrow.

Since plan is part of the PEDRO mascot acronym, I’ll come up with a partial plan now. I have a bunch of handwritten notes/reviews that I need to get into a usable format. I have some email cleaning to do at the MotherReader email. I also have a lot of email cleaning to do at the Yahoo account that includes kidlit stuff. That’s all I can handle thinking about now.

Happy Bloggiesta, everyone!