Blogoversary Post and Giveaway: Gretl

Here at Goldilox and the Three Weres we are celebrating our 

4 YEAR BLOGOVERSARY!

In honor of the four wonderful years this blog has had, we are having authors share with you what they were doing four years ago at this time and what they hope to be doing four years from now. Of course, we thought we should share our own answers with you guys too! Each post, including the ones from us, will include a giveaway, so be sure to check back every day until August 7!

Today's Post Comes From:

Gretl

You might have noticed that it's the fourth anniversary of Goldilox and the Three Weres. But it's also the one year anniversary of Rose Red and I joining the blog. My first review appeared on July 24, 2014. So we're both particularly excited about this Blogoversary. Here's a little bit about how I got here.

Four Years Ago
Well, actually I'm going to go back a little further. For most of 2010, I was unemployed. Looking for a job is a really tedious process now that everything is done online. There's lots of "hurry up and wait" and lots of uncertainty about whether a real live person ever actually saw your resume. But one of the good things that came out of that experience was that I started reading to fill all that free time.

By 2011, when I was working again, I was definitely an Urban Fantasy Addict. And it was a great time to be discovering the genre. So many of my all-time favorite series debuted that year. Kate Daniels, Chicagoland Vampires, Iron Druid, Charley Davidson and Shaede Assassin just to name a few that are still going. It was also some time that year that I started reading book blogs on a daily basis. Because how else was I going to find my next fix? One of the first blogs I started to follow was Goldilox and the Three Weres. And just look how that turned out!

Four Years From Now
I hope sometime in the next four years I actually get the hang of this blogging thing. I'd like to achieve a better blog/life balance. I feel like I'm either slammed or I have nothing to write about. I mean really, publishers, do you have to release ALL THE BOOKS on the same day every month? But I predict that in that time, self-publishing will make significant changes in the book world. I'm already seeing books released on Saturdays, and why not if that's when most people buy them?

I think a lot of the words we use to define our books and ourselves may change as well. I can't tell you how crazy it makes me when people mis-label my UF as romance. (Not that there's anything wrong with romance.) But I'm also seeing the term Urban Fantasy-Romance and I think we can expect to see a lot more genre-blending in the future. There's a fandom out there for just about every crazy combination. Though I certainly hope some of my old favorites are still going strong in four years as well.

In honor of my first literary love, VAMPIRES, I'm giving away books from one of our favorites series. I've got hardcovers of Richelle Mead's Silver Shadows (signed) and The Ruby Circle, as well as the Vampire Academy movie, and some other vampire-themed goodies. (This giveaway is U.S. and Canada only.)