Hi! Today, you can find me over at Little Red Reads as part of her “Blogs to Talk About” feature. Stephanie is super nice, and I loved the interview questions she gave me! Some of them were really tricky. Anyway, click her blog button and head over to check out the post, learn some more about me, and spend some time at her blog!

 

Armchair BEA is a fun online event that those of us who could not attend BEA in New York City can participate in! There’s ways to network with other bloggers, posts on blogging tips, giveaways, and happenings at BEA from people who are there. Visit the Armchair BEA blog to see a schedule of events!

Today’s topic is tricky for me. The creators of Armchair BEA have asked us to, “share your top tips for getting beyond your blog! Have you done any freelance writing? Are you monetizing your blog and how so? How do you make connections outside the book blog community on the internet?” I haven’t freelanced, I’m only an Amazon Associate, and there’s not a lot of ways to get involved in the bookish community where I live. Since none of these really apply to me, I’ve been encouraged to talk about a fun aspect of my life, separate from books.

There’s not a lot I do that’s separate from books! Haha. I’m a graphic designer, and I own my own business called Enchanting Simplicity Graphic Design Studio. Throughout my design career, I have freelanced for Microsoft working on some XBOX things, created a brand identity for a motion picture company, designed websites for schools and small businesses, done a lot of wedding announcements, and designed t-shirts, album covers, advertisements, and books for various performing groups and organizations. I love, LOVE what I do. In the future, I plan to get beyond my blog by designing book covers for self-published authors (and maybe someday I can get on a design team for a major publisher like Harper Collins, Random House, Macmillan, etc. That’s my dream!). Book covers are very exciting things to design, and I already know I love working with authors and other people in the book industry! If you’re looking for a book cover, let’s talk!

When I’m not designing, I love making jewelry, watching re-runs of my favorite shows (like Friends, Saved by the Bell, Wings, etc.), hanging out with my friends and family, and going to MOVIES. I am a major movie-lover. I also love traveling around the world. Reading has really opened my mind and taken me to amazing places. I’ve got this constant hunger to find the locations I read about, and if they don’t exist I like to find places that remind me of them.

Well, this is my life beyond the blog! What’s your life like when you’re not reading or blogging? And what are you doing to achieve the goals you’re hoping to achieve through book blogging? Link me up, and I’ll come visit!

 

Armchair BEA is a fun online event that those of us who could not attend BEA in New York City can participate in! There’s ways to network with other bloggers, posts on blogging tips, giveaways, and happenings at BEA from people who are there. Visit the Armchair BEA blog to see a schedule of events!

Today, I get to talk all about my life with books, networking outside the book blogosphere, and what I have done to impact the bookish community locally, rather than just online. This is a topic I simply adore, just because doing this helped me discover that my love of reading is even stronger than I had thought.

After I graduated college in December of 2009, I kind of went through a mini “what now?” crisis. I had my degree, but just didn’t know where to go from there. I knew I wanted to own my own graphic design business, which I do now, but I didn’t know if I wanted to only do that, or if I wanted to do that as a side thing and find something else to do as well. Long story short, I had to feel useful until I knew what I was going to do with my life. I decided to start volunteering at a local elementary school, teaching children how to read and/or speak English. The school I chose did not have enough employees to reach every child who was in need of extra help. Most of the children come from low-income families, and almost all of them are Spanish-speakers. I knew this would be a wonderful use of my time.

I started working with children one-on-one for several hours a week, and really enjoyed it. My kids and I bonded, and it was amazing to see the transformations they went through. It was so fast! I had one little guy in particular who had just arrived from Mexico. Not only did I have to try and teach him to read, I had to teach him English! We went through the alphabet every day, and he would get so excited when he got things right. It was an amazing experience. I ended up being offered a job, and I snatched it up. I spent the whole next year tutoring in reading, teaching English and phonics to different classes of youngsters, smiling every time I heard “Miss Jana!!!”, and getting lots of hugs.

In a way, this blog is dedicated to them. I constantly think of my littles, and all the amazing things we learned together. They made me realize how important reading is, and how exciting it can be. I watched the tears fall when it was too hard, and we jumped up and down together when it all of a sudden became easier for them. Those breakthrough moments made me grateful for my education. I think about them every time I close a book. Some of them have excelled far and beyond beyond their grade levels, and some are still working. I like to think I was able to give something back to them, though, as they all changed my life forever.

Please, PLEASE link me to your awesome posts for today’s topic! I’ll come visit as soon as I can!

Oh, and can I just thank all of you? I hit 500 followers tonight, and could not be more thrilled! I love you all!

 

Armchair BEA is a fun online event that those of us who could not attend BEA in New York City can participate in! There’s ways to network with other bloggers, posts on blogging tips, giveaways, and happenings at BEA from people who are there. Visit the Armchair BEA blog to see a schedule of events!

Today’s post is all about networking, and getting to know other bloggers participating in the event. Hopefully we can all make some new friends! So, here are five things about me (the questions were provided by the creators of the event)!

Meet Jana

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?
Well, I’m Jana! I’m a graphic designer, substitute teacher, world traveler, art history lover, and bookahaolic! Oh, and I’m turning 25 this month. Oh. My. Heck. I started out blogging with The Broke and the Bookish back when the blog was born in June of 2010. Jamie, the creator of the Goodreads College Students group, thought it would be a fun idea, so about 10 of us joined together and entered the blog world. I’m not sure any of us thought the blog would grow so big so quickly. In November of 2011, I decided to break off of TB&TB (don’t worry! I still write there too!) and run a solo blog so I could post reviews more frequently. I absolutely love the blogging community, and have had so much fun getting to know all my blogger friends! I’ve also found a deeper love for reading than I ever imagined.

2. What is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?
Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard (read my review!). I connected so much with that book. Bria, the artsy main character, had the courage to do something I had always dreamed about! She took off on an amazing traveling adventure, fell in love, and learned a lot about herself. About a week ago, I returned home from a 6-week extravaganza through Europe with my mom. I didn’t fall in love, but I learned SO much about myself. I came home wanting to read Wanderlove all over again, because I would be able to connect with it on a whole new level. Perhaps a re-read is necessary!

3. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?
I recently hosted a tour stop on the Of Poseidon by Anna Banks official tour. I got to interview her after reading her amazing book! She is so hilarious and so down-to-earth. I’d love to have dinner with her (and I would hope she’d bring along Emma and Galen), and then go pedestrian-hunting. Check out the interview and giveaway of Of Poseidon here.

4. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?
I want to visit the world in Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. It’s a crazy-sounding place, with virtual realms and the Aether (which sounds SO much like van Gogh’s Starry Night). It’s a dangerous place, I know, but I would absolutely LOVE to see it!

5. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?
I love all the people, the authors, the publicists, and publishers. Book lovers are the coolest people in the world. It does not matter where we live, what we do for a living, or what we think. We all love books, so we’re all connected. The bookish discussions and recommendations have changed my views on so many things, changed my preferences on books, and really shaped my own blogging persona. I’ve made some lifelong friends, and I know I will always have at least one person to cry over fictional characters with!

Thanks for stopping by! It’s so nice to meet you (or see you again)! Please leave me a link to your intro post so I can get to know you better, and if you’re not participating in Armchair BEA, please tell me something about yourself that I don’t know already!

Hi guys! I bet you’re wondering why things have been quieter around the blog and on Twitter. Some of you may have already known this, but I’m on vacation in Europe! I’ve spent the last two weeks on a transatlantic cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Tenerife, Canary Islands; to Palma De Mallorca, Spain; to Barcelona, Spain; to Provence (Toulon), France; to Livorno (Pisa) Italy; ending in Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy. It was divine. After Rome, we went to Siena and Venice. This morning, I left Venice, Italy and took a train to Milan to see the Duomo and this awesome mall with gorgeous architecture, called Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. After our jaunt in Milan, we took another train to Lake Como, and a hydrofoil to Bellagio. We’re staying in a gorgeous hotel with a balcony overlooking the lake. It’s just me and my mom, and you better believe that we’re eating lots, shopping lots, looking at tons of art and architecture, trying to speak Italian, and burning through our Kindle batteries like you wouldn’t believe. I got so much reading done on my balcony on the cruise, and am going to get even more done as I spend the next two and a half weeks traveling by train to Interlakken, Switzerland; Paris, France; Ghent and Bruges, Belgium; Rotterdam, Delft, Gouda, and Amsterdam, Netherlands. I’ll be back soon, but until then I have some reviews and other posts scheduled so you don’t miss me too much. We’ll see if I have more time to check in here, but since I only have my phone, and reliable wi-fi is hard to come by, I might not be able to post much until I’m home. Look for my trip updates on Twitter, though, and I’ll post pics for you when I get back to The States! :)