Bloggiesta!

-

When the first Bloggiesta happened, I was newer to the blogging scene and was merely lurking through Maw Books Blog. But I did follow the posts, and I got good tips about fixing up my blog. At that time, too, I was more or less freelancing, so there were days I'd spend around 8 hours or so just tinkering around with my blog or blog-hopping. Kinda like a mini-bloggiesta just for me.

Well, this time around, I figured I'd officially join the Bloggiesta 2nd edition, scheduled for January 8-10. I even have my nachos and salsa ready.:)

One thing I really enjoy about book blogging is the wonderful community, so I like taking part in community activities such as this. And, of course, I do need to work on a lot of things on my blog. Here's a list of things I need to do, though I'm keeping my options open because I've a feeling I'll get good ideas during the bloggiesta itself:
  • Catch up on last year's reviews.
  • Fix and update my right column.
  • Clean up my tags.
And here's what I'd like to do, if I have time and if I can figure them out:
  • Improve my banner
  • Get a better background
  • Organize my archive page
  • Finally get a gravatar and a favicon
To all bloggiesta participants, let's have fun tinkering with our blogs. To the non-participants, same wish.:) Whether or not you decide to join, you can still check out the posts. There's a lot of good learnin' out there.



Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey, thanks for the tip, Honey! Must check out that site so I could improve my blog as well.
January 8, 2010 at 1:18 AM
Unknown said…
Hi! Getting a gravatar takes about 5 minutes. Just sign up here: http://en.gravatar.com/ then when you comment on a blog just make sure in the box you type your email to use the one you signed up for your gravatar with :D Great list of projects.

Pam
bookalicio.us
January 8, 2010 at 1:55 AM
fantaghiro23 said…
@Jo - My pleasure, Jo!

@Pam - Hey, thanks! Will head on there to check it out right now.:)
January 8, 2010 at 8:59 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soledad's Sister by Jose Dalisay, Jr.

-
Image
Soledad's Sister  by Jose "Butch" Dalisay is the first Philippine novel to be shortlisted for the distinguished Man Asian Literary Prize  in 2007. I remember reading about the Man Asian at that time and finding out about Dalisay's shortlisted novel. And I recall thinking, "Well, that sounds about right." After all, Butch Dalisay is one of the country's premier writers.This much is evident when you read Soledad's Sister . Way back in college, I was fortunate enough to have Butch Dalisay as one of my professors. The class was an undergrad course on Survey of American Literature, and I remember every single story and poem we took up to this day. I also remember him reading to us one of his essays during class. He had his Mac open on his desk and was reading his essay from the screen. Back then, I was thinking, "This should be boring. But it isn't." And I realized it wasn't boring because I was entranced by his words. The summary...
Read more

Filipino authors with internationally-published books

-
Image
Some of the books from Filipino authors published by intl. publishers. Clockwise from top left: Age of Blight by Kristine Ong Muslim; The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco; The Courageous Princess Vol. 1 by Rod Espinosa; Learning To Fall by Mina Esguerra, Smaller And Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan; The Last Time I'll Write About You by Dawn Lanuza. It seems an exciting time for Filipino authors. A Filipina YA author was at the Brooklyn Book Festival and other festivals, some Filipino authors just wrapped up panels during the Fil-Am International Book Festival in San Francisco , a few other Fil-Am authors are coming out with new books from a major publisher in the next few months ( literary fiction , young adult , and middle grade ), and another classic author was recently published by Penguin Classics. Not to mention that a few Filipino authors have been pitching at #dvpit and have already found agents . And I'm pretty sure I'm barely scratching the surface her...
Read more

The El Bimbo Variations by Adam David

-
Image
When reading a poetry collection, one of the last things you expect to do is laugh out loud. But, if you were to read Adam David's new edition of The El Bimbo Variations , that is exactly what you'd be doing. My advice: try not to read it in public, unless you're okay with people looking at you weird because your shoulders are suddenly shaking in laughter or you have a snap-happy grin on your face. I first read The El Bimbo Variations back when it was still in pdf format. Four years ago, the poet Adam David gave a talk to one of our high school junior classes during a yearly activity where we expose students to real-life writers. In preparation, he sent us  a copy of his El Bimbo Variations , and told me that we could distribute it to the students so that they'd know his work. We photocopied them for the classes assigned to Adam and, on the day of the talk, I went in and listened to his session where he got riled up about big publishers and their limited repertoire...
Read more