It’s my distinct pleaure to be one of many that you will see announce that the second annual Nerds Heart YA tournament for under represented young adult literature is now officially in the works.  On behalf of the awesome organizing committee — Jodie (Book Gazing), Trish (Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin?), Amy (My Friend Amy) and myself — I’d like to express how excited we are to be taking over the reigns from the tournament’s wonderful birth mother Renay of YA Fabulous! fame.  As many of you may (or may not) know, Renay was unable to move forward with planning and organization of the tournament this year so she asked for volunteers to take over in her stead.

Now you’re stuck with us!

This year Nerds Heart YA is hoping to go bigger than ever!  For the 2010 tournament we have loads of great stuff planned for everyone to enjoy and hope to build on the amazing foundation Renay built.  In particular, we’re adding in an extra bracket, meaning we’ll get to showcase 32 books. Further, the central focus of the tournament will be diversity. We’ll be seeking to build dynamic long and short lists of books that represent one of a series of relatively under publicized categories.

Specifically, the lists will consist of books that:

• Were published in 2009
• Have received minimum press on blogs
• Feature characters, or are penned by authors, who fall within the following categories:
  • Person(s) of Color (POC)
  • GLBT
  • Disability/Mental Illness
  • Religious Lifestyle
  • Lower Socioeconomic Status

Nerds Heart YA has always tried to involve those in the blogging world who love young adult literature. In 2010 you will be able to get involved by nominating titles or applying to judge a bracket once the shortlist is created.  In the coming weeks The Nerds Heart YA blog will be updated to provide more information regarding time lines, nomination and judging criteria as well as other fun stuff.   We will need your help! 

For now, keep an eye out and make Nerds Heart YA 2010 all that it can be!  Follow our handy dandy communication devices: Nerds Heart YA Twitter, Facebook Page, and subscribe to the RSS feed of the Nerds Heart YA Blog for continuous updates and content.

I’m so super excited to announce that the first annual Book Blogger Convention is open for business!

Being held on Friday, May 28th, 2010 participants are welcome to join us in New York City for a great day of food, fun and education.

We have a blog set up publicizing all the details we have set forth at this time.  Subscribe to it or check back regularly as it will be continuously updated as new information becomes available.

For your pleasure here are some of the most important general details:

• Date: Friday, May 28, 2010
• Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (registration and breakfast starts at 7:30 if desired)
• Location: NYC Seminar & Conference Center, NYC
• Price: $90 (early bird registration fee if paid by 2/14), $115 thereafter
• What’s Included: light continental breakfast, keynote speaker (TBD), 5 learning sessions, lunch and best of all networking with cool people

At this time we are diligently working towards crafting informative learning sessions with a dynamic and diverse roster of presenters.  Sessions will center around the following topics — professionalism/ethics, marketing, author/blogger relationships, building community, and writing/building content.  Each will be scheduled with both the new and veteran blogger in mind.

I’m not going to go into every minute detail here but rather encourage you to visit the Book Blogger Convention Blog where you can not only Register for the convention but be kept apprised of all the most important information pertaining to the event.  As mentioned earlier it will be updated regularly as new details become available.

I’d like to take the opportunity to encourage anyone and everyone — bloggers, authors, activists, publishing industry types to join in and register. The convention is open to all who may be interested in how technology (specifically blogging) plays a role in the bookish arena.  Outside of the awesome benefit of learning together, for me, the best part about this convention will be the opportunity to meet and connect with others who are interested in, passionate about, and enjoy books and blogging as much as I do.

It’s that time of year again.  From Friday to Sunday of this weekend Natasha from Maw Books Blog is holding the second round of Bloggiesta!

Say hi to Pedro everyone!

<<waves>>

In case my excitement didn’t clue you in, this is an awesome event!  You know, one where gobs of bloggers get together to work on those long needed and sometimes procrastinated tasks.  The kind of awesome event that provides a time for us to focus on things like book reviews, rainy day posts, feed reader and category/tag clean up plus all sorts of other improvement type stuff.

I had such fun the first time around it never crossed my mind not to participate for round two.  So here I am writing up my kick-off post!  I’m a little late to the game but hey better that than not at all right?

So, last time I created a great big list of all the things I wanted to do.  This time I’m going to fly by the seat of my pants and be a bit more vague.  I do have loads of book reviews to write, I have multiple blogs to design graphics and write posts for, and I’d like to finally get my book review archive started at the very least.

As you can see I’ve got plenty to keep me occupado for the fabulousness!  I’ll be updating this post throughout the weekend to show my progress so feel free to check back in and see how I’m doing.

So at the end of this post I’ll be kicking off my weekend long Bloggiesta.

Ready….Set….Go

—-

Update #1 – Saturday 8pm(ish)

• 1 guest post formatted and uploaded to publish at appropriate time
• 1 book review written and posted
• 75% of emails read and answered

Update #2 – Sunday 9pm(ish)

• Finished reading and answering emails
• Worked on theme graphics, postings, pages, forms and other elements of blog for YA based project
• Worked on various elements of blogger convention logistics and blog

That’s all she wrote for Bloggiesta numero dos.  It’s been productive to be sure!

While many people are out freezing their patoots off getting the once in a lifetime experience watching the ball drop in Times Square, getting their drink on in some random bar, or being otherwise jovially festive I’ll be ringing in 2010 in a much more reserved way.  Thanks to two different fantabulous initiatives being hosted by Kristen of Bookworming in the 21st Century I’ll be curling up with a good book when the clock strikes twelve and a new decade is ushered in.

I’ll start by Reading Into the New Year — taking the opportunity to do what we book bloggers love to do most.  Stick our nose in a book.  Only this time I’ll be doing so as the year moves from 2009 to 2010.  Doesn’t matter if I start the minute before the chimes start ringing as long as I’m reading on that 12 marks the spot.

Then for the remainder of the weekend I’ll be participating in the New Year Read-a-Thon — starting at 5pm on December 31st and running through 10 pm on January 3rd I’m encouraged to read as much or as little as I want.  It’s a set your own goal type of situation where you don’t necessarily have to read a certain number of hours in a row or even in a day.  Just do what you want when you want.  So my goal will be to read at least 24 hours out of the three days with the hope that I’ll be able to do even more if possible.

I’ll update this post intermittently through the weekend to keep you all appraised of my status.  Because it will have already run through my feed any changes I make won’t be reflected in any reader so if you’re interested feel free to mark this post and check in.

This looks like an absolutely great and fitting way to ring in the new year so if you’re interested I encourage any and all to join me!

Saturday, January 2
Read Justine Larbalestier’s Liar
Started Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak

**peeks in sheepishly**

I’m a horrible gift receiver.  My Book Blogger Holiday Swap present arrived just prior to my move and I’ve been unable to announce it’s awesomeness until now.  I could make all sorts of excuses like, the books were packed away (which they were until I got to that box today) or that I got busy with said move and then the holidays (which is also quite true) but that just diminishes the value of the wonderful gift I was lucky to get and the fabulous blogger that sent it.

So I beg Martha from Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf to forgive me for my tardiness.  I am super grateful for the fantabulous gift she sent me!

Thank you Martha! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I hope that you had a wonderful holiday and please know that I am excited and grateful for the gift you sent.