Blogoversary; Faye Guest Post: Favourites

Hey Guys!
It’s that time again, time for me to give you all a “guest post”! Today I am telling you all about different favourites that have happened to me over the time I’ve been blogging! So many things have happened to me in the past two years and these are, by no means, the only great things to happen, they’re just the things that are more prominent in my mind as being exceptionally amazing.
I also want to take this quick moment to thank you all for following this blog, to thank everyone I’ve met and everyone I’ve made friends with because of this blog. You all rock like words can’t describe.

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Favourites List

Features

This is a list of all the features I have seen since I started blogging. They may not be ones that I have participated in, but have just enjoyed seeing.

• Top Ten Tuesday; I love this feature. I don’t always participate as I’m not actually the best at making lists, but I love seeing the lists that others come up and getting some great recommendations along the way!
• Waiting on Wednesday; Sometimes I can never understand how people find out about the books that they do but I love looking at all the books that people are waiting on and adding some to my wishlist or even telling others that it’s a great book to be waiting on as it was a fabulous read!
• Letterbox Love; So this was inspired by the IMM before all of the drama surrounding it happened but I really like this feature of us UK bloggers showing each other what we’ve bought, borrowed, or stolen! It’s a great thing to see all the exciting pretty new books!
• Wishlist Wednesday; Another feature that allows you to really add some books to your very own wishlist! This isn’t about books that aren’t out yet but rather the ones that are that we really want to read. I think it’s a great way of discovering new books you can read straight away!
• Bookshelf Requirements; I really love the idea behind this one. I personally have a favourite’s shelf – though it currently needs to be transported onto two shelves but I have no space! – and so I completely understand about those books that you simply MUST have on your shelves. Another great way to get recommendations and just to see what others are reading!

Online Blogging Events

This is a list of the best online blogging events that I have been a part of!

• The LGBT Read-a-thon; So this was actually an event that I organised but I really enjoyed the event and I thought the twitter chat we had for it was incredible. – We even ended up trending!
• Bout-Of-Books; While I’ve participated in many of these now, I still think the very first one I participated in was my favourite! I managed all of my goals, met lots of new bloggers and had an epic time in the twitter chat. I can’t remember what version it was but it was brilliant and the main reason I join in time and time again!
• Bloggiesta; Another one that was brilliant the first time that I participated in it! It really helped me to schedule things, I learnt so much about blogging that I hadn’t known before and it was just a great time to get to know other bloggers as well!
• Random Acts of Kindness; I only participated in this for a few months but I absolutely loved it. I loved giving books to people and making them happy for a short while and I loved it when I recieved a gift as well. My favourite gift was a homemade bookmark. It was done with so much effort in mind and I just loved it so much!
• Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon; Yet another event that I hosted! It was the first read-a-thon I hosted solo and I really enjoyed scheduling it all and organising it all. The twitter chat wasn’t very popular but I still really enjoyed the event overall!

Events

• Random House Blogger Brunch; The very first one I went to will always stick out in my mind but I actually think my favourite one was when Amy McCullogh and Jonathan Stroud were there to talk to us. It was great hearing about Amy’s book and seeing the kit that the Ghosthunters in Lockwood & Co would wear – and it was even more amazing to talk to them so personally about it all as well. A great event indeed!
• Hot Key & Templar Book Blogger Brunch; This was another event where we found out all about the new titles on loan and then got to chat with a whole bundle of authors. I met so many great people there and it was nice to have full on conversations with them, including giving and getting advice about writing which is always so amazing!
• Malorie Blackman Signing; This may just be the highlight of my life forever – or well, maybe until I meet J. K. Rowling. I was so nervous about this. Malorie has been an inspiration and a role model for me for too many years to remember and to actually speak to her was pretty mind boggling. Add to that the fact I spoke to her about writing and you might as well force a girl to have a dream come true! I will never forget this event.
• Damian Dibben Author Tour; Way back in my first year of blogging I was invited by Lauren Bennett at Random House to go on a book tour day with Damian Dibben. I jumped at the opportunity and I am so glad I did. I witnessed Damian talking about his book in presentation style to a hall filled with children and then witnessed him talking to a smaller book group of young children who had read his book. It was surreal and it was amazing and another experience that I will treasure. Especially as it was one of the moments that made me realise I wanted to be a publicist.
• Geek Girl Blogger Party; Aside from being a fantastic party – where table tennis was being played even as alcohol flowed – it was also a party where I met so many wonderful bloggers, as well as the wonderful Holly Smale. An author I spoke to about bullying, blogging, modelling, and writing. It was a well-organised event and one that was just truly memorable.

Authors Discovered

While the entire world of YA literature opened up to me as soon as I started blogging, there are some authors that quickly forced themselves into my favourites – alongside the ones already there!

• Hannah Harrington
• Louisa Reid
• Brigid Kemmerer
• Veronica Roth
• Julie Kagawa

Online Blogging Moments

These are all the firsts that happened to me because of blogging. These things would probably have never happened if I stayed away from the PC.

• First review copy; This was a book called Red Rock. It was a book by an indie author and I was so amazed that someone wanted me to read their book that I quickly accepted the request! But it was an amazing moment in my life.
• First Twitter Chat; This has been mentioned above. It was the Bout of Books twitter chat! It was crazy and it was hectic but it was also SO MUCH FUN. It opened my eyes to the true capacities that twitter holds.
• First Blogger Meet; Again, this is mentioned a little bit above. It was the first Random House event but it was only because I was meeting Lucy for the first time that I managed to really enjoy this event. She took my hand and guided me through and I was very appreciative of it!
• First Commenter; And well, supporter of the blog really. Brodie was the reason I even started blogging in the first place and as soon as I told her about it, she stalked me for weeks on end and commented on every single post I made live. It was the best welcome into the community anyone could ever have asked for!
• First Buddy Read; And, in my opinion, the best too! It was Divergent by Veronica Roth and I read it alongside Sarah! We both read it in just over a day, we were tweeting the whole time and it was just so utterly amazing to share that experience with someone else!