Armchair BEA Blogger Interview

Hello! I had the great opportunity to interview Abigail at The Story Factory Reading Zone - head over to her blog to check out her reviews, memes and more.


Let's get on with the interview:

1. When and why did you start blogging?

In February 2006 I was an avid Queen fan, looking to air my views on a range of issues. I decided to follow the example of my hero Brian May and set up a blog. This latest for a while, I eventually became too busy and had to give up my blogging. 4 years later, in February 2010, I saw a post about blogs on BookCrossing. It reminded me of that earlier blog and the enjoyment I had using it. Since my main interest was now reading, I realised that having a book blog would give me somewhere to post and share my reviews with others. I never realised the extent of the community that I would become a part of.

2. What author would you do anything to meet?

I'm not really fanatical about authors themselves, I'm much more interesting in the actual writing and the words they create. Having said that, I'd love to meet Terry Pratchett. I love his Discworld books and have a collection of them displayed in my room. I am lucky enough to have already met Jasper Fforde, my most favourite author, at a book-signing a few months ago - I was surprised to find that I had trouble chatting with him despite having thought it would be easy.

3. Do you have any new exciting plans for the blog?

I'm hoping to increase the number of giveaways, initially mostly UK but expanding to international as money allows. I'd love to do some author interviews and features, so if you're an author or blogger who'd like to be featured please do let me know.

4. Have you had any ups and downs in your blogging?

The most exciting moments of my blogging are always when I hear from my readers, whether sharing their own related posts, agreeing or disagreeing with me. In contrast, my 'down' moments have been the two ocassions so far when I've run competitions and got no responses - I'm hoping that these will decrease in number as my blog gets better known.

5. Has there been an experience while doing this blog that stands out to you?

Doing the Dewey Readathon was an amazing experience. I surprised myself by managing to stay up reading for almost the whole thing. I also enjoyed connecting with the other participants and winning a prize or two.

6. Do you have any tips or lessons learned from other bloggers?

The most important things I have learnt are: to make sure you network, to try to spend regular time on your blog, and how to create google forms.


Thank you so much for the answers Abigail, it was great to hear about another book blogger's experiences!