Fall is a busy time of year with school starting and with a number of other  blogging events going on, but we wanted to give everyone some  time to focus on those small tasks that fall by the wayside during busy times.  Bloggiesta is the perfect event to check off those to-do lists and also get  inspiration going into the wintry months! It’s also a great opportunity to  connect with other bloggers you may have not met before or haven’t talked to in  awhile. We’d love to have anyone interested to join in the fun!

I love to blog, but everyone who has a blog knows how time-consuming it can be.  I struggle to read, post and visit my other bloggy friends and I don’t have time to work on the basics of blog upkeep.  Two and half years ago I participated in my one and only Bloggiesta and accomplished and learned so much.  I think that year the biggest thing I learned and accomplished was how to back-up my blog.  Of course, this was BG (Before Gage) so I will not have as much time this go around, but I plan to join in as much as I can. My blog layout needs a little TLC and I can at least manage a mini-challenge or two.

It’s the weekend of September 28-30th, so hop on over to There’s a Book to sign up.  Your blog will thank you for it!

The end has come.  The end of my first Bloggiesta.  I want to thank Natasha at Maw Books for hosting this fun event.  I won’t even blame her for headache that I have had for a few hours.  I put in 20.5 hours.  Very little changed in what you see, but lots of important stuff got done. 

Let’s start with today.  I spent most of today working on the future book review posts of the 50 books you all chose for me to read.  They all have links and quotes and  a book photo.  Seriously, that took me about 5 hours.  It was during this time that my headache started.  But, here I am, still typing.

Still with me?  I received Beth Hoffman’s interview answers today and they’ll be posted on Friday.  Even better?  She’s agreed to give away 2 hardcover copies of Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt!!  Sorry, getting off track.

I did complete one mini-challenge by backing up my blog.  For those of you interested in this, here’s the post.  I completed many reviews, lots of organization, author interview stuff (questions, requests), blogroll, category clean-up (well, I started…), pages, links, posts, emails, additions to Reader (sadly I never got to the weeding out part), and I’m sure many other things my mind can’t remember right now.

I would certainly participate again, but I would probably focus on more of the mini-challenges.  I know  there was lots of good information there that I just didn’t take the time to do.  I plan on going back and maybe working on them later.  I didn’t get around to visiting anyone else and I feel only a little bit bad about that.  I decided when I signed up that that wasn’t a priority and I didn’t make it one.  Maybe next time.

I do have one more thing to do before I go to bed later.  I don’t know why the Google button on my sidebar doesn’t add me when someone tries.  I reinstalled it, but I don’t think anything has changed.  Any ideas?

Natasha over at Maw Books is hosting the second Bloggiesta and this is my first year participating.  I had no idea what I was agreeing to at the beginning 😉  My low goal was 18 hours and right now I’m at 13.5 so I think I can do it.

Here’s what I accomplished yesterday- reorganized/deleted/edited pages at top of site, added missing book links, started working on my Categories in the sidebar, wrote a post for next week, sent Beth Hoffman and Karen White interview questions, sent 4 more authors interview requests (I got a yes from Shirley Tallman overnight :)), and participated in one mini-challenge by backing up my blog.

Feeling productive and ready to go.  I am behind in visiting everyone else’s blogs, but you’ll see me coming round and commenting later.

Amazingly I logged in 7.5 hours yesterday.  And while I did accomplish some things I can’t believe how much more there is to do!  I did write 2 posts for next week, printed out some posts, cleared out my blog email (well, okay, got it down to 50!), changed my blogroll to 25 book bloggers and will change it every month or so, added newish commenters to my Google Reader, cleaned out my blog notebook (I can’t believe how many ideas and notes on post its or slips of paper in there!), worked on interview questions and quiz ideas, and took pictures of the next few months of free books. 

I do feel like I’m getting more organized.  Now I need to spend a little more time with my blog 🙂  Ole!

Natasha at Maw Books is hosting this weekend of planning, editing, developing, reviewing, and organizing our blogs.  This is my first time participating, so we’ll see how much time I have.  It runs from 8-8 today, tomorrow, and Sunday and I’d like to aim for 18-24 hours.  Not sure how often I’ll be posting , but maybe you’ll see a few changes when you visit.

My to do list so far…work on my sidebar and with that my blogroll, work on my author interviews (I have two authors waiting for questions :))  Choose my free books through June and get the posts done, resize some old photos, double-check my books read list, move 2009 challenges to a post, take a look at the rating of books, brainstorm quizzes…I think I’ll stop there so I can get busy.

Why not join us for a few hours?  There are mini-challenges and prizes!