Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Interview with Candace of Candace's Book Blog & CBB book promotions

Over the past year or so, my fascination with book bloggers has grown. What began as an effort to obtain reviews for my books, became something else. The more time that I spent on the book blogger's sites, the more intrigued I became with their unique styles of reviewing books and creating great places for bibliophiles to hang out online.  So I've invited some book bloggers to be interviewed. These folks invest a lot of time and energy in reading, sorting through books, and sharing their opinions. I wanted to learn more about who they are and what drives them. I hope you'll enjoy learning more about them, too.

I'm honored to present the first interview with Candace of Candace's Book Blog & CBB book promotions.

1. Introduce yourself. My name is Candace, I run Candace's Book Blog and I've been blogging books since 2008 but have been pretty immersed in the online book community since 2005 when I discovered Shelfari and immediately started connecting with authors and book people.  I read most genres and review young adult, middle grade, children's books and adult books on my blog.  All are well labeled but reviews are clean whether it's an adult book or not.  I'm married and have two children, a daughter who's 8 and a son who's 4.  I live in the gorgeous Pacific NW but grew up in Sturgis, SD (yes, where the motorcycle rally is).  Besides being a book blogger I run CBB Book Promotions and do book promotions like blog tours and on going publicity for authors.

2. Coffee or tea or water? Espresso, drip, instant, or french press? Bag or looseleaf? Bottled, filtered, tap or rainwater? I drink coffee in the morning.  Usually only about half a cup or so as I'm weaning myself off.  I juice in the afternoon and other than that I usually drink water.  I do drink tea when I'm needing an extra immune booster too.


3. Why do you blog about books? I started blogging because I wanted to record my thoughts on the books I read and have it all in one place.  Soon after I had my son and I didn't read as much for a few months but then when I went back to it I pretty much immersed myself in the blogging community and found I didn't just want my blog for me, I wanted to share it with everyone!  I started another blog at the same time about cloth diapering and green living and while it's another passion of mine I found myself loving the book blogging more and ended up deleting the other blog.  I started my blog at the same time as two friends of mine and we have supported each other the whole way and run several yearly events together.  They are Lori at Pure Imagination and Angela at Reading Angel.


4. What inspired the design of your site? My friend Lori (mentioned above) is a blog designer and so I just told her something bookish and magical.  She had me pick out some different images I liked and then she played around with them and came up with something gorgeous! I have had her update the design to be more streamlined and add in CBB Book Promotions but I've kept the majority of it since I love it so much!

5. What is your favorite thing about book blogging? Where to start?  I love the community and feeling connected to so many like minded people and sharing my book thoughts with them, I also love helping out authors that need help getting their books out there.


6. How do you decide which books to read?  Oh geez, that can be a tough one.  First of all I read by mood.  There's no point in picking up a book that doesn't fit my mood cause then I'll end up liking it less.  But for the most part it's by what I have acquired first when it comes to review copies.  Since I went to ALAMW I put all my books in order of release so I work my way through them so I can review around their release date.  But since I have so many Indie books on my kindle I read at least one a week from that 'pile' by order they came in (if for review).


7. How much time do you invest reading and blogging? Lots.WAY more than I should probably.  How I like to do it is mornings are for reading and doing housework, etc.  I usually get at least an hour in of reading.  Then I spend time with my husband before he goes to work.  Around 1:30 I get on the computer and I'm on and off the rest of the afternoon.  I have a 4 year old at home all day so I have lots of interruptions, but it's still a few hours a day.  Then before bed is reading time, which is about 2 hours of reading.  While I spend 5 or so hours on the computer a day most of it is working on blog tours and other author promotions I'm doing.   It's hard to say how much is actual blogging.


8. Care to comment on the Alice Hoffman quote: Books may well be the only magic? Books make it so we can experience anything.  We can travel anywhere, we can be anything and anyone we want, and go through things we can only dream of. Books ARE magic.


9. On a scale of 1-10, how eccentric are you? 10 being VERY… I don't know... maybe a 6?  The things that use to make me eccentric are now pretty common.  I'm a vegetarian (mostly vegan actually), I used cloth diapers (he's potty trained now though), I juice, I try to grow my own food as much as possible, I prefer to avoid any GMO foods and eat all organic (when it's possible).  I dye my hair red (often a variety of reds) and... I think that's about it!


10. Is there anything else we need to know about you? I don't think so.  I'm sure I forgot something important, but I'm not thinking of it right now!


Thanks so much for having me on Heidi, it was fun! Candace

Candace's beautiful and popular blog has many great features, including:
Saturday Situation with links to hundreds of reviews and giveaways!
CBB Book Promotions Now Open & Accepting New Tours