Tuesday, September 16, 2008

BBAW Day 2: An interview with Shana of Literarily


I was thrilled to hear from Amy that I’d been paired with Shana of Literarily for the BBAW interview—I’d been hesitant to sign up for this part of BBAW because I’ve never done an interview before and felt a bit intimidated by the process. But Shana was someone I already felt comfortable with—after all, she was the first person to comment on my new blog! She also writes one of my favourite blogs—and has been nominated for a BBAW award in the Best Literary Fiction Blog category.


Avis: When did you start your blog? And, more importantly, why?

Shana: I started Literarily on June 11, 2008.

I had started another book blog a month or so earlier, with plans for it to be a community blog for the town in which I live. I planned to recruit other readers to write reviews. I live in a town of 6,500 and there are at least four active book groups, so I thought it would be fun to share reviews. That concept is still mostly in my head, and in the meantime, I started Literarily for my own reviews and book-related musings so that the original blog wasn’t just me, me, and more me.

Literarily quickly grew from there and right now, it’s taking up most of my online time, which is very limited with three kids. So the other blog is languishing but I’m having loads of fun with Literarily.

Secondary reasons:
  • I wanted to share my thoughts about books with others who love them as much as I do, instead of babbling on to the non-readers or less enthusiastic readers in my life and watching their eyes glaze over.
  • I love to write as a way of digesting my life. The very act of writing is calming and helps me make sense of things. This carries over into my reading. Writing a review is my way of figuring out what I really thought about a book, what I liked and what I didn’t.
  • I had been regularly reading Books on the Brain, The Literate Housewife, and Booking Mama for several months and was inspired by them.
Avis: How has your blog evolved since the beginning, in terms of both content and design?

Shana: My design has not changed much, but it might soon (hint, hint).

In terms of content, it is constantly evolving as I try to make it better.

I’ve tweaked my review format—I’m a tinkerer—since the beginning. Instead of writing the summary, I use the most accurate one (in my eyes) I can find online. I just figured the summary is already out there in several places, so why spend my time reinventing the wheel, so to speak. It allows me to focus more on conveying my thoughts about the book, which is what I think people are looking for in a review anyway.

The one exception is the reviews I write for my local paper, the most recent one being my review of Night of Flames by Douglas W. Jacobson. In those cases, I write the summary as well as, of course, the opinion portion.

Avis: Have your reading habits changed since you started blogging? Do you read more or less? Has what you read changed now that you’re blogging about books?

Shana: Yes! How much I read hasn’t changed as much as what I read. I’ve always had diverse taste in books but I’ve expanded my horizons even more now that I’m blogging.

Avis: When do you blog? Do you dedicate a certain time of day to blogging? How much time, on average, per day do you spend working on your blog?

Shana: I usually blog when my kids are sleeping, so usually at night. Sometimes, I’ll write a post when they’re napping. Most days, I spend an hour or two on my blog. That includes responding to comments as well as writing posts.

Avis: Do your family and friends read your blog on a regular basis?

Shana: I’m not sure. Some do, I think. I’m kind of afraid to ask. What if they say no?

Avis: If you had to pick the three best books you’ve read so far this year, what would they be?

Shana: Okay, I know I’m the one who came up with this question, but what was I thinking??? There is no way I can pick three. I even tried to narrow it down to 10 and it was impossible. Fortunately, I like most books I read and end up loving quite a few of them.

Avis: What is the craziest place you’ve ever read?

Shana: I’ve read at football games. My husband walked on at the University of Nebraska and remains a HUGE fan to this day. We have season tickets and he goes to most of the games. I go to one or two with him. I’ve been known to hide a book in my bag and sneak out to read when I get bored with the game. Shhhh—my husband doesn’t know... he thinks it was just a frighteningly long trip to the restroom!

Avis: How many books are in your TBR pile?

Shana: Around 50.

Avis: What is the most challenging aspect of blogging?

Shana: Definitely, finding time to do it.

The second most challenging aspect would be keeping organized. There are posts I want to write, usually weekly community events (Sunday Salon, Mailbox Monday, Tuesday Teasers, Friday Finds, Weekly Geeks) that I would love to participate in but sometimes I get busy and forget to write them.

Avis: What’s been the best experience you’d had since you started blogging about books?

Shana: I think the best experience has been meeting fellow bloggers who are so generous and wonderful that they offer to send me books they know I’d like to read, not because I won a contest or challenge or giveaway, but just out of the goodness of their hearts (Jennifer, Marcia, Becca... I’m talking about you!)

A tie would be finding out how wonderful authors are. As avid readers, they are god-like figures to us. Definitely up on a pedestal (and a well-deserved one at that!) But since I’ve been blogging, I’ve found out that these very talented people are also kind, generous and down-to-earth. Elizabeth Brundage and Lesley Kagen come to mind—I was already a huge fan of their writing but have since discovered there is an awesome person behind the book. The same goes for several people I’ve met in the book industry—publishers and publicists.

Being nominated for a BBAW award was pretty awesome, too. I hate to sound cliché, but that nomination absolutely shocked me, and no matter what the results of the voting, I’m thrilled and honored beyond belief to have been nominated at all.

Avis: If you could give just one piece of advice to new bloggers, what would it be? (This was a bonus question for Shana as the “senior” blogger of the two of us.)

Shana: Well, if I were to choose just one, I’d say to learn from other bloggers. Like I said, I read Books on the Brain, The Literate Housewife and Booking Mama for several months before starting my own blog and they remain my role models. Also, J. Kaye at J. Kaye’s Book Blog has taught me so much, like always responding to comments, leaving comments for others, participating in community events, etc. It’s true that readers make the blog, and always showing them how much you respect and appreciate them is very, very important.

Thank you so much, Shana, for this great interview experience! Visit Shana’s blog to read her interview of me and Amys blog to read other BBAW interviews (scroll down to the links at the bottom of her post).

24 comments:

  1. Shana should not be shocked by her nomination, her blog is fantastic.

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  2. Great interview - the story about reading at a football game made me laugh. I agree with her about authors - I'm still in awe that they'll email me!

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  3. Great interview! I'm a fan of Shana's blog myself.

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  4. I am in awe of Shana. I love her blog and she has accomplished so much with it in such a short time. She definately deserves the nomination.

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  5. This is a wonderful interview! I got introduced to your blog through Shana, and I learned more about Shana through yours. Thanks so much for participating in this part of BBAW. I'm so glad you both joined the book blogging party!

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  6. This was a awesome interview I didn't realize the blog was that new, it's really nice and i know i'll be coming back.

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  7. Thanks, everyone, for your sweet words. I'm very flattered. Truly.

    I think the interviews are one of my favorite parts of BBAW.

    I'm working my way through Amy's list of links and hope to finish today.

    Avis, you did a fantastic job posting up the interview and I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating - it was such fun working together on this! Thanks for making it a fun experience.

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  8. "The very act of writing is calming and helps me make sense of things. This carries over into my reading."

    That's totally me, too.

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  9. I enjoyed your interview. I laughed when you said you sneak out to read when you get bored with the game! Of course, I would, too! lol

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  10. I enjoyed your interview. I laughed when you said you sneak out to read when you get bored with the game! Of course, I would, too! lol

    Forgot my email address.
    mittens0831 AT aol DOT com

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  11. I wasn't surprised at all to see that Shana was nominated! Her blog is one of my favorites! I have a hard time finding a moment to blog and I only have one kid...I give her credit for doing it with three!

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  12. What a great interview! Shana's blog is one of my favorites too and it was nice getting to know her a bit better through this interview. Nice job, Avis!

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  13. I just wanted to let you know, I was intrigued by your mention of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher during Shana's interview of you. I'm participating in a Genre Challenge hosted by Bookworms and tea lovers, and I think I'm going to use that one for my detective fiction. It sounds so interesting! Thank you.

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  14. I know how you felt about doing an interview for BBAW. The one I did was my first, too.

    You did a great job with Shana and asked wonderful questions.

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  15. Kudos to you upon sneaking out to read during the game, lol. This blog is new to me.

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  16. She runs one of my favorite book blogs!
    and My favorite bands has a songs names Aunt Avis. I have always loved that name. Kudos to your parents!

    and a fantastic interview. you should not have told us it was your first missy!

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  17. The interviews have been one of my favorite parts of BBAW too, Shana.

    You both did a great job in each interview - nice to learn more about the person on the other end of the blog.

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  18. It makes quite a difference when you know something about the person behind the blog. And I find what she said about writing and reading being calming to be true for me also. Good interview.

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  19. This is such a great interview and Literarily is a fantastic site! I found it through BBAW and I found yours that way too! I love how Shana says that her reading choices have expanded into other genres she may have not read before because that's happened to me through my experience with book blogs. It's so cool.
    doot65{at}comcast[dot]net
    Elizabeth

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  20. Thank you, everyone, for your kind words about this interview. (I was so nervous about the whole thing I almost didn't sign up to do an interview and I'm so glad I did!)

    Thanks, kagey10, for saying you like my name! When I was a kid I hated it (I went to French elementary school and "avis" in French means warning, so you can imagine I got teased a lot!), but now I appreciate having a fairly unique name.

    Colleen, I hope to have a review of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher up soon!

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  21. Thanks again, Shana, for making this such a fun experience!

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  22. I love the idea of 'crazy places to read'...
    As much as it's weird to read about other book lovers (aren't you used to being the only one in the crowd?)--i really am intrigued (in a gossipy kind of way) to know about other people's crazy places to read.
    Did you guys come up with the questions together, or did others also have the same questions?

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  23. Brogan, apologies for not answering your questions sooner! For another post on crazy places to read, head over to Amy's here. The questions for the interviews were mostly written by Shana, with a few from Amy (as part of BBAW we were asked to answer a survey; that's where the "crazy places to read" question came from, for example) and then a couple from me.

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