What's In the Snow? Scavenger Hunt Event Wrap Up!

NOTE: I HAVE MOVED TO FLY TO FICTION

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I know, I know. We're long past that now. Sorry. But anyway! This wonderful event has sadly come to an end, at least for this year.

We had wonderful posts about holiday traditions, awesome winter-y books and food and crafts, and some fun stories. We had a bunch of really cool authors involved, and several bloggers got to feature authors, interview them, and ask them some seasonal questions (some of which were really creative!). I really hope you can find time to stop by each blogger's post at some point if you haven't. Everyone involved has been so great, and they all deserve a huge round of applause for all of their hard work and especially for their patience. (The schedule with updated links is below.)

We also had some really cool prizes up for grabs. Some winners have been notified (I promise I'll forward your information to the proper people ASAP), BUT there are still a bunch of giveaways going on! I'll embed the Rafflecopters below, so don't miss out!

And before we part, I just want to give a huge shout-out to four people/groups of people for making this the event that it is!

1) Bloggers--This event literally would not exist without your support, willingness to help, patience, dedication, and passion. This event has helped me meet so many wonderful bloggers, and it's been lovely to work with all of you. I look up to many of your blogs, and I wish you and your blogs continued success. If Cal and I put this together again next year, I sure hope you'll at least think about participating. Thank you!

2) Authors--Thank you for your kindness, patience, help and time. Before this event, I was always a little bit scared of emailing and talking to authors, but now I realize just how kind everyone is, whether they were participating or not. Thank you for making this event even better, and thank you for donating so many awesome prizes. It was so fun to read all the interviews and posts you were involved with. I hope that some of us can work together again next time/some other time!

3) Donors--You guys rock my socks. Thank you for donating a prize, no matter how large or small. Cal and I truly appreciate it.

4) Last but definitely not least, Cal--I am so glad that this event brought us together. I now have a new awesome friend. It's been so great to work with you on this little project of ours. Thank you for always being so patient with me, and thank you for handling things when I couldn't. This event would have been no where as big or awesome as it turned out to be if it weren't for you. Thanks for spreading the word and getting all of your blogging friends involved. Thank you for tolerating my email spam and forwarding messages. Thank you for just being such an amazing co-host and above all, friend. I really hope we can either do this next year or work on something similar sometime. Much love!

Now, without further ado, here's all the supplementary stuff!

Schedule:

December

15th--Read Books and Live Green; Reviews Abound (Intro Posts ONLY)

16th--The NerdHerd Reads; Musings of a Blogder

17th--The YA Book Butterfly

19th--Fiction Is the New Reality

20th--Book Loving Hippo; My Nook, Books, and More

21st--The Sarcastic Palm Tree

22nd--Icy Cold Reads

23rd--Reading Is My Treasure

27th--Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews

28th--Friction to Fiction

29th--In Italics

30th--My Nook, Books, and More

January

1st--Reviews Abound

2nd--The Lovely Grace

3rd--Lost In Ever After

4th--Just Another Teen Reading

5th--Forever Literary

6th--The Book Aviary

9th--The Bibliophilic Nerds

10th--Beauty and the Bookshelf

11th--The Bibliophilic Nerds

12th--Book Loving Hippo

13th--Read Books and Live Green

14th--Christiney Reads

15th--Reviews Abound; Read Books and Live Green (Wrap Up Posts ONLY)

Giveaways:

Rules:

Must be 13+ or have parent permission

Winners have 48 hours to respond to email or another winner will be chosen

Prizes are distributed on a first come, first serve basis

Mail items are US ONLY; eBooks are INT

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: There may also be some giveaways still running on certain blogs that Cal and I did not set up.

Again, thank you to everyone: participants, bloggers, authors, and Cal!

New Beginnings

Hey-o! Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2014 is better for you than 2013 was, and I hope your holidays were lovely. :)

But moving right along, I have so BIG news. It's pretty exciting, really, even though most of you probably already know it.

I am moving have moved to another blog URL/another blog.

Yup, that's right! My motto thus far has been, "New Year, New Blog." It's quite exciting, as I mentioned. I'm doing this for a couple of reasons, despite how hard it sort of makes my (blogging) life. ;) All in all, I wanted a fresh new start, and I'm able to get that now. It's been a lot of work, but I'm really happy with it. If you go, you'll see that it looks fairly similar to this blog now, but I'm telling you, there will be differences. 

I think this is the right decision for me, and I just want to thank you all for sticking with me. My 6 month blogoversary is coming up soon, but I'm celebrating it there. The last post here will likely be the wrap up post for the What's In The Snow? event.

If you have any questions, concerns, thoughts, suggestions, etc, please comment below and let me know!

Before I go, don't think I forgot to announce the new blog name/URL.

My new blog name is: Fly to Fiction

Click here to be taken to the new blog.

Welcome to the What's In The Snow? Scavenger Hunt!

Hi everyone! I'm really happy to announce the start of the What's in the Snow? event that I'm co-hosting with Read Books and Live Green (Cal)! We've been working on this for a few months now, as you may or may not have seen on Twitter. It's both of our first time hosting an event, and while it was a lot of work (and weren't exactly the best hosts at times), we're really excited to kick off this event!

So I suppose I should start by telling you guys what this is all about. Basically, from today (December 15th) til January 15th, different bloggers will be posting winter-related posts. Many of these include some kind of author interaction. We have some great interviews coming up, as well as some awesome giveaways. Other bloggers are posting about various topics relating to winter and the holiday season. The schedule will be posted below, so please check out all the posts the wonderful bloggers involved are planning!

On to the fun part: giveaways! As I stated above, many of the blog posts will have some form of giveaway, whether they be bookish swag, books, ARCs, or gift cards. Most of these have been donated by the wonderful authors involved, so I want to thank them for not only participating and answering interview questions but also for donating some really awesome prizes. Every 2 weeks, there will be a big giveaway (so there will be 2). You can find the Rafflecopter for those right here. There will be multiple winners, and the prizes are first come, first serve. (The Rafflecopter can be found at the end of this post.)

Now, I also need to explain the situation with our clues. Each blogger has a different clue for their post(s). This clue will be included in their post somewhere. Where it is located in the post is up to the blogger's discretion. The answers to these clues are extra entries into the grand giveaways (so it's split half and half). You don't have to enter in all the answers, but it'll give you more entries. It's up to you! (This may be confusing, so if there are any questions, just ask in the comments!)

Without further ado, here's the schedule! Be sure to check back every day (I will change the links as the posts are put up, so this brings you to the exact post) and see which clue and post is up! (NOTE: No posts will be posted on Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Year's Eve.) (Also note that I am changing my blog name and URL in the new year! The event will still be hosted here though!)

December

15th--Read Books and Live Green; Reviews Abound (Intro Posts ONLY)
16th--The NerdHerd Reads; Musings of a Blogder
17th--The YA Book Butterfly
19th--BooksForBirds; Fiction Is the New Reality
20th--Book Loving Hippo; My Nook, Books, and More
21st--The Sarcastic Palm Tree
22nd--Icy Cold Reads
23rd--Reading Is My Treasure
27th--Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews
28th--Friction to Fiction
29th--In Italics
30th--My Nook, Books, and More

January
1st--Reviews Abound
2nd--The Lovely Grace
3rd--Lost In Ever After
4th--Just Another Teen Reading
5th--Forever Literary
6th--The Book Aviary
7th--The Bibliophilic Nerds
8th--The Bibliophilic Nerds
9th--The Bibliophilic Nerds
10th--The Bibliophilic Nerds; Beauty and the Bookshelf
11th--The Bibliophilic Nerds
12th--Book Loving Hippo
13th--Read Books and Live Green
14th--Christiney Reads
15th--Reviews Abound; Read Books and Live Green (Wrap Up Posts ONLY)

GIVEAWAY

Rules:

Must be 13+ or have parent permission

Winners have 48 hours to respond to email or another winner will be chosen

Prizes are distributed on a first come, first serve basis

Mail items are US ONLY; eBooks are INT

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here are the buttons if you'd like to use them!

<divalign="center">
<a href="http://reviewsabound.blogspot.com/2013/12/welcome-to-whats-in-snow-
scavenger-hunt.html" title="What's in the Snow?"><img src="http://i1345.photobucket.com/albums/p673/FlytotheSky55/df9057a6-ee29-41d6-a6fd-a1eb14a41865_zpse5d719e3.jpg" alt="What's in the Snow?" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

<divalign="center">
<a href="http://reviewsabound.blogspot.com/2013/12/welcome-to-whats-in-snow-
scavenger-hunt.html" title="What's in the Snow?"><img src="http://i1345.photobucket.com/albums/p673/FlytotheSky55/fabc8578-8992-46f8-a44b-cd1a8f0ef1d6_zpsce7c4af7.jpg" alt="What's in the Snow?" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

<divalign="center">
<a href="http://reviewsabound.blogspot.com/2013/12/welcome-to-whats-in-snow-
scavenger-hunt.html" title="What's in the Snow?"><img src="http://i1345.photobucket.com/albums/p673/FlytotheSky55/ca8b2306-93ea-4258-a9aa-fb1169607522_zpsf6ffb931.jpg" alt="What's in the Snow?" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

THANK YOUS:
A huge thank you goes out to the authors involved, most of who have both donated their time to answer interview questions despite busy schedules, as well as some awesome prizes. As an extra thank you, I've put their Twitters as a giveaway entry for whichever Rafflecopter they're on. We couldn't have such a great event without the awesome authors we have involved.
Secondly, a MASSIVE thank you goes out to all the bloggers that have joined the event. This would be nothing, literally, without you guys. Thank you for taking a chance on not one, but TWO, newbie bloggers that figured out this event. Thanks for all your patience and support and excitement. This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for all of you.
Thirdly, a special shout-out to Klaudia (@ObservantGirl_) for being the one to basically get this idea rolling. Cal and I could never have come up with something this awesome without you, so thank you, thank you, thank you!
Next, a huge shoutout to Arial and Emz for making the awesome banners and buttons we have for this event. They're all lovely, and they're much more creative than anything I could have made in Photoshop. Thanks a ton, you guys!
Last but not least, I must thank Cal a hundred thousand times. This event would be nothing if it weren't for Cal. Thank you, Cal, for being the best co-host I could ask for. Thanks for taking a chance on another newbie that just wanted to put on a big event such as this one. I'm so glad we've gotten to become friends, and I'm so glad that sheer coincidence made this happen! Thanks for always giving me such great suggestions and ideas on how to make this thing happen. Thanks for always being so willing to email people or work on something last minute. And I really need to thank you for getting so many bloggers involved! Most of the bloggers here said they only heard about this through your Twitter! So thank you! I hope we can do this again, or at least something similar, and if not, at least I know I have one more blogger friend!

That being said, I hope you all enjoy this event, and we hope to make this an annual event (if we're successful!). Happy Holidays!

I'm Back!!!

Hello everyone! I'm back!

So the past few weeks have been really busy for me, but then again, what week isn't? So I'm not going to do a post to wrap up November because I've barely posted anything. But I did participate in NaNoWriMo! It was awesome, albeit stressful, and I finished with a word count of 50,800. The most exciting part of it was not actually winning though! It was the fact that I actually wrote it all the way to the end (okay, I skipped a part and just added an epilogue, but I'll revise all of that later). IT'S THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER FINISHED A NOVEL (even though it's a WIP)!

As you can tell, I'm incredibly proud of this accomplishment, and I plan to somewhat revise and edit this story for once. It's tough because it's not really a priority right now and just because I think it sucks so much, but you know, whatever. I figured out where I really wanted my story to go, and I realized that I wasn't going to write in a romance and that that's okay. But I am continuing on with this, both for myself and for school.

The bad thing is that after reading a couple of books (not much, but still a lot considering how much work I've had), I'm now in a slight reading slump. I just finished Prodigy, and I have an ARC of Champion. I tried to start it and just couldn't get into it, no matter how much I wanted to. So I picked up Crown of Midnight again, which I started a while back. I also could not get into the reading, even though I really enjoy the book so far. I also have a couple of books I have to review this month, and I can't get into them either. I feel so stuck, and it's such a horrible feeling because it's not like I don't want to read the books because I do! Who knows...hopefully this will go away soon!

Anyway, I hope you've all been well! I want to remind you of the What's In the Snow? event that's coming up. You can find info on that if you click the picture in my sidebar. I still have to send out emails and fix everything, but I'm really excited! It's been a lot of work, but it's also been really fun, and Cal is an awesome co-host!

Lastly, here's just a quick list of what will likely be up on the blog sometime soon (you know, if life doesn't get in the way again, especially since I'm prepping for an MUN conference again):

Reviews: Throne of Glass, Altered, Shadow and Bone, Legend, Prodigy, Catching Fire movie, My Yellow Umbrella (Children's book; request), possibly NCIS/NCIS:LA/Elementary (not sure! I might just make a post about my general thoughts of recent episodes), Almost Human (may not be a formal review but rather a thoughts post)
Other: Event Recap of Fierce Reads signing at Books of Wonder, discussion post about the 50th Anniversary Ep for Doctor Who, Liebster Award, return of features (HUGE STS/SS post if I remember what books I have/have not already made a vid for; Music Monday, etc)

Also! Many changes will be coming in 2014, including the fact that I'll be moving over to a different URL. Almost all my pages are the same, but I was never that fond of this URL, and it was meant to be temporary, so I found one that I like a lot better. I will probably start posting there on New Year's, but all the event posts will still be on here for convenience.

And lastly, I just want to thank everyone that slowly comes back on here. I know I had a long hiatus, and I'm so sorry about that! I know you all understand, so thank you for that! I appreciate all of your help and encouragement, especially those of you on Twitter. I know that since I was on Twitter, it almost didn't seem like I had stopped posting though I did. You all rock, and I'll try to put up a giveaway once I move over to the new blog. :)

EDIT: I'm also aware that there's an issue with the comments thing for my posts and that you can't seem to see the comment link. If you'd like to comment, please just click on the title of the post, so that it'll bring you to the post page. I'm not going to bother to fix the comment issue because I'm focusing on my new blog. HOWEVER, it may factor into the giveaways for the WITS? event, so!

Announcement: What's In the Snow? Scavenger Hunt!

Hey everyone! So I am STILL on hiatus--I know, I'm sorry--but I wanted to make a long overdue announcement.

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already know that I'm hosting a scavenger hunt (similar to YASH) event along with Cal @ Read Books and Live Green. She actually posted about this event, but there's some updated information.

So here's the basic breakdown:

• Month of December (Mid) and January
• Winter themed but not exclusive
• Will have mini giveaways on individual blogs (some), as well as a bigger giveaway every 2 weeks or so (this depends on the number of donations we receive)
• We have some authors on board, and they are willing to post, guest post, be interviewed, etc.
• You can basically pick any topic you'd like, preferably winter-related in SOME way
• First come, first serve
• Just email either Cal or I to get it approved
• Official name is now: What's In the Snow? Scavenger Hunt (or something like that)
• There will be a clue in each post (one per blogger since some will have multiple posts), which will be included in random places in the post at the discretion of the blogger
• There will be a crossword puzzle at the end (hopefully) and each clue from each blog will correspond to a different word. The answers become part of your entry into our grand prize rafflecopter

If you're a blogger and you're interested in signing up, we still have room! 

If you'd be willing to donate some prizes (swag, books, gift cards, or otherwise--does not have to relate to your post or to the theme, though that's encouraged), PLEASE do!

If you're an author and you're interested in participating in some way (we could discuss this further), we still have lots of room.

We would prefer if people that are donating or have swag or books to give away could send it to the winner directly rather than through either Cal and I. If that's an issue, just let one of us know.

And please, continue to spread the word! Although sign-ups for bloggers close within the next day or two, we'd be willing to allow bloggers to join later on (especially if you already have a set idea) as long as we're given enough notice in advance.

If you have any more questions or would like to sign up or contact us, my email is reviewsabound(at)yahoo(dot)com. Cal's email is readbooksandlivegreen(at)gmail(dot)com.

And if you think I've left out any info, please just give me a head's up! I'm tired, and this is way overdue.