I'm A Binge Commenter Now *hangs head*

So. I'm just going to accept and admit it...

I'm a binge commenter.

Reader-ish Things That Make Me See RED!

This Month's Blog All About It prompt is RED. And yall. I'm gonna tell you some reader-ish things that make me see RED! Okay, maybe not red. But they do annoy me. lol

Bookish Things That Need To Die A Fiery Fucking Death

A couple weeks back I shared the Bookish things I'd LOVE to see more of in 2017.

Now?
The bookish things I wish would DIE A FIERY DEATH!
Die. A. Fiery. Death.
And, yes, I'm gonna rant, yall. Sorry. (but not really lol)

What You See...

So this week I had two growly reviews go up on the blog.

Like...Anna was in full on #RantyAnna mode. I won't lie. They had me in a right ol' fit. lol

And a couple of the ladies were all oh no! you've had a really bad go lately or I hope your next book is awesome!

Thoughts from a Reader-Girl: Were books better back in the day?

As I set aside my 4th half finished book this week I started thinking about the quality of books these days and it got me wondering and has me ramblings as well it seems. lol

Are romance books--as a whole--worse than they used to be even a few years ago?

For me the answer, I think, is yes.

Randomly Random: Unruly Body Parts

So I was laying in bed (yeah, the start of so many randomly randoms lol) and found myself untucking my earlobes for like the millionth time because my blasted unruly earlobes kind of tilt forward and when I lay down they like to tuck themselves and it drives me absolutely bonkers.
I'm seriously all... Get your shit together, earlobes! Get your shit together!

Anyways. So I'm laying there in the middle of the night feeling growly over earlobes. And it got me thinking about unruly body parts in general...

Thoughts from a Reader Girl: OMG the pages will just NOT read themselves!

It's one of those weeks. Last week I was a reading machine! I couldn't get through books fast enough and managed to tuck in 6 books. Woo! Go me! Seriously. It was amazing!

This week.

Blogger-reader-girl hell.

The pages just will NOT read themselves.

Word from the Herd-- Trying again after a dud...

Okay so today's Word from the Herd isn't so much a rant but just a rambling. 

I'm reading a book tonight by one of my favorite authors. I've had the book for like 3 months now and I've been avoiding it. Which is silly. I love her books. I have for years. 

But the last one I read was a massive dud for me.

Stahp It. Seriously. Stop Freaking Out. --- Amazon & Hide Sensitive Items

I love our community but we do tend to panic.And when we panic...we panic hard. And so a new feature. Stahp It!

Every few months we have another OMG Amazon or FB or whoever is out to get us!!!! viral sort of post hit our community.

I'm gonna tackle those and try to stop the panic.

This time? Amazon's feature of hiding sensitive items from your personal profile.

This is NOT a big deal, folks.

Randomly Random: Why Can't Fat & Sassy Be A Thing?!! *flails*

So. It's been a month since I got a Fitbit. And I've learned a few things.

I hate exercise. Now. This really wasn't in question pre-Fitbit. But it has been confirmed.

Word from the Herd: Time and Place, People! Yall need to pull up them drawers!

Filthy nekkid play time! They did NOT mean that literally!

Dude. Yall. Seriously.

Times you should NOT drop trou and go at it like monkeys...

---

Word from the Herd--Everyone's a Best Seller! *glances around*

Everyone's a Best Selling Author!!

Okay. So I know that's not exactly true.

But some days it feels like every single author I pick up is a best seller of some sort.

What got me thinking about it was a blitz post about a box set I saw on a friend's blog. There were a crazy ton of authors in it (15-20is) and looking down the list pretty much every single one of them had a best selling author (of some sort) attached to their name. I'd not heard of a single one of them. That can totally happen but it got me wondering and looking around and thinking about the topic and if the label meant anything to me as a reader anymore.

Does it mean the same thing it used to mean?

For me not really.

Word from the Herd: #EnjoyTheClapAndGettingKnockedUp aka...unsafe sex in romance books

So. I've been having an issue with books this month and decided I needed to get a little off my chest. I don't know what it is but I've been slammed with book after book lately where the heroes and heroines throw all common sense out the window and...have unsafe sex.

Consequences be damned!

Because you guys!!!! it feels so good! who cares if they've only known each other for 2 days...aren't on the Pill...of course they can trust that the other is clean even though they don't really know each other.

They want to feel alive! And you know. The pull out method...totally valid.

Sweet. Mary. Let my eyes not roll right out my damn head.

Word from the Herd: 30? Girlfriend you're WAY too OLD for romance. Mmhm.

Okay so this post is way late coming--this is something I saw on a blog last year--but at the time I was just a little too grrr-argy to actually write the post. I decided though I still kind of wanted to put this out there. This was a guest post by a new romance author on things she'd learned while writing her first romance.

Blogger to Author (4)--When is it OKAY for an author to comment...

Blogger to Author is a bit of an advice column for authors with tips and suggestions about working with bloggers, blogging in general and making the most of the platform.

After 3 years of blogging I've noticed trends and methods I think can help or harm authors and their goals and wanted to put something together to hopefully create better author/blogger relations and give some insight to authors who may not be bloggers themselves. It's all based on interactions that have happened here on herding cats & burning soup over the years. 

Alright so a maybe kind of touchy subject today. Authors and commenting on posts! Eeps! In the last couple months I've had 4 authors tell me they were told to NEVER (ever) comment on a blog. Not just a review post. But ANY post. Spotlight, guest post, interview, etc. And gotta say I completely disagree with this train of thought.

Word from the Herd: Are there just *too* many books? What's keeping YOU from buying more books?

So. Here's the thing. Once again a post went by my Facebook feed bemoaning Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. And I gotta say. Totally makes me twitch when I see these types of posts.

Word from the Herd-- Are YOUR comments important to a blogger?

Happy weekend yall! 

So today I wanted to talk about commenting :D

I know. Scary word for some but so important for a bunch of reasons from morale boosts to community building and opportunities for bloggers.

And these reasons to comment apply to you if you're an author, reader or blogger.

(I'm not one that thinks authors have to avoid commenting on blogs but that's a post for another day)

Blogger to Author (3)-- Using a BCC when mass emailing--Please, please, please do this. Please.

Blogger to Author is a bit of an advice column for authors with tips and suggestions about working with bloggers, blogging in general and making the most of the platform.

After 3 years of blogging I've noticed trends and methods I think can help or harm authors and their goals and wanted to put something together to hopefully create better author/blogger relations and give some insight to authors who may not be bloggers themselves. It's all based on interactions that have happened here on herding cats & burning soup over the years. 

Hey guys!! Hope yall are all doing fabulous today. So a really quick Blogger to Author chat for this month. This one is about emails and if you're sending out a mass mailing.

One big thing for a LOT of bloggers is keeping their email fairly private. It's a huge aggravation--aka make a girl twitch-- type thing when mass emails are sent out and the person sending them does NOT BCC the email addresses. And it happens a LOT in our community. Not just by authors. But tour companies, publishers, etc. And oh my word is it frustrating.