So here it is, the fifteenth day of December and I still don’t have the newsletter up. *hangs head in shame* I wish I could say I’ve been working on it, but between the holidays and the plague invading my house, time has just not been my friend. Due to this, there won’t be any news posts in December – I’m just too behind on too many things (both on LE and IRL) that I need to scrap one item in order to keep a little sanity. I will be posting the newsletter in the next day or so and will be compiling all the December news for the next one – so it will appear, eventually.
Have you been checking out the Black Friday posts? There are 32 authors visiting LE for the event and 23 have already made an appearance (many with contests). There are some fabulous stories, so you should definitely check them out.
To end out of the year, the girls and I have been hijacking the rant to showcase all the fabulous novels we would recommend. Casey will be wrapping it up this week, but you can still see what Courtney, Natassia, Nicole, Nikki and Jackie have all recommended.
I’m attempting to wipe the slate clean for 2013 and get a fresh start on a lot of things, so I’ll be posting A LOT of reviews between now and the new year. I typically like to keep it to one review per day, but with 40+ pending, it might be a few more than that to get caught up. The girls have been keeping me busy with getting a lot of reviews written, so be prepared for some great (and not so great) reads coming at you. Plus, with the new layout, I’m able to keep more reviews up on the front page, so if the girls keep this pace up, I may start posting more on a daily basis even after the new year.
The girls and I have been working in the background, coming up with a couple new features that’ll begin in 2013, and I can’t wait to share them with everyone. One feature that I can talk about now is the new Escaping Reality Book Club. I’m attempting to start a local monthly book club, but I’ve had enough interest from those not in my area that I decided to make it an online book club as well. The beautiful part about Escaping Reality (in my opinion) is we’ll be focusing on the first novel of various steampunk, science fiction, fantasy and paranormal series only and we’ll be focusing on a different genre each month. Even better, we’ll be using the Google+ Hangouts to get together once a month to discuss the novel of choice. For those unfamiliar with Google Hangouts, it’s basically a chat room using web cameras. You don’t have to use a web camera to participate, but you have the option. So you’ll be able to see me mak a fool of myself, talking about books, on the web once a month. The first discussion will be featuring City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, the first novel in her Mortal Instruments series and being released a feature film in March 2013.
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing — not even a smear of blood — to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .
I think that’s pretty much it on the status updates right now. I am updating the advertising policy (for those interested) and I’ll be posting a bunch of New Release Dates this week as well as all the December releases on Monday. I’m hoping to get completely caught up by Christmas, but something tells me that’ll be a tall order. Especially since that’s only 10 days away, but here’s hoping.
