Crazy Creatures of The Blogging World

I am bringing this feature back for realzies this time! I have a bunch of interviews planed so that I can start doing them more often and you guys can meet and get to know more awesome bloggers! So keep checking back for more!

Quick news updates before we start:
1. I didn't get any books this week because I still have enough books that need reading from last week that you could bury a body (but please don't try that at home folks). So no Saturday Stacking the Shelves.

2.

Yes, yes I really was impaled. I think I will survive. I think. If you don't hear from me for a while don't worry I'm just crying in the corner and slowly bleeding out/ dying to death. Yes I just said dying to death. You want to argue with a dying person? Yeah I thought not. 

(It appears pain and trauma make me sassy and combative. I apologize. I love you guys don't worry.)

Ok, I'm done let's get this party started! Today Skylar Finn/ Selena from Life of A Random is here with us!

Tell us about you and your blog! How did you start? When? Ect.

Um…How do I start? Hi, I’m Skylar aka Selena in the real world. ;) I just recently graduated from high school after being homeschooled the whole way through. There are three things I love: chocolate, books, and sleep. Since a blog about chocolate or sleep probably would bore anyone who visited to tears…I have a book blog called Life of a Random. I’m short. I don’t scream (seriously, I don’t).

I started my blog in the spring of 2013 (I think). At that time, Life of a Random wasn’t a book blog. It didn’t really have any type of focus at all, but I started it just to have a place to write down my feelings and things I was interested in. Slowly the blog began to gravitate towards books. I LOVE books. I ship fictional couples all. the. time. And I love using Life of a Random to talk to other people like me in a way I wouldn’t be able to right off in real life because of my personality. It’s funny because even though I’m an introvert and a pretty shy one, I am SO sarcastic and funny (or at least I like to think so) on my blog. It’s great!

What is your favorite part of blogging? 

I think there are many reasons that make blogging one of my favorite things to do! Buuut, the top two would probably be interacting with everyone in the book blogging community and keeping up with book news like books getting all the hype or books that aren’t even out yet.

It’s the greatest feeling to have people around the world, whom you haven’t even seen, support you and like your blog enough to follow and comment. I still mentally scream when I see another person has followed my blog. I don’t think that will ever get old. J

What’s your favorite feature to participate in and why?

Hm, yikes. This is hard. This isn’t a particular feature but I really like doing tags. For features, I’m torn between Waiting on Wednesday or Top Ten Tuesdays. The first one, because it’s so simple, and the second one because it’s really fun. And simple.

What is the hardest part of blogging for you? 

Finding ideas for discussion posts. It’s really hard to find something original to talk about, so while I love writing discussion posts…the ideas don’t come easily.

Or stuff like scheduling and pre-writing posts *blushes*. I’m getting better but it’s still one of the harder parts of blogging for me.

How do you keep up with everything? How do you keep from being overwhelmed or deal with being overwhelmed?

That is a very good question. Typically, I’m not the most organized blogger, but more recently I’ve been trying to keep things orderly by using Google Calendar. I also keep a folder in each of my emails. One of them is called ‘Book Reviewing’ and another is called ‘Bloggy Friends’. I know, I’m so original. Be jealous.

If I get too overwhelmed, I take a short break from blogging and only publish posts that I have an obligation to publish like book blitzes or tours. 

How do you conduct your interviews?

I usually ask interview questions by email. I try to make them interesting and ask questions that will get informative answers, but also make it fun and easy-going at the same time. I don’t like things to be too stiff on my blog.

How do you expand your following?

With social media and commenting. Social media mainly being Twitter. I tweet all my post links, usually more than once, and also keep my Twitter up to date with personal tidbits. Commenting is also something that will get a lot of people coming back to your blog, especially for features like Waiting on Wednesday. My advice—link-up with your post and then go comment on A LOT of other bloggers’ WoW posts with a link back to your post. It’s exhausting but worth it.

A giveaway *wiggles eyebrows* can also be a good way to gain more followers, especially if you’re only a little ways from a particular goal.

What are your blogging and reading pet peeves?

I really don’t like it when I take the time to type out a long comment and it only gets a one sentence reply. Not a fan. And I definitely don’t like it when the blogger doesn’t reply at all.

Oh, and if a blog has fuzzy graphics or designs you can tell aren’t good quality then I tend to not be as attracted to it. I know that you can’t tell quality of the blog by the look of the blog so I try to not be biased as much.

Reading pet peeves…

1) I hate insta-love. HATE it. According to me, it’s way too common and unrealistic.

2) I don’t like it when the main character is selfish. Like, infuriatingly selfish not realistically selfish. There’s a difference ;)

3) Some inner dialogues of girl main characters I read are creepy. Because they’re admiring a guy and they go, “Oh what nice, muscular thighs you have.” And I’m like *shakes head really fast* What. Why are you admiring his thighs. If you can see a guy’s thigh muscles through his jeans, by the way, those aren't regular jeans.

4) Making out. Okay, let me clarify. Making out when the world around you is threatening to explode and lots of people are dying and mutants have escaped from a top secret science lab, but, oh, we’re going to make out. NO. THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Go save the world.

What has been your favorite blogging experience?

Being nominated for the Liebster Blog Award! It’s so fun and I mentally screeched when I got my first one. It’s a great way to discover small blogs or to help other people find some of your own favorite small blogs.

What are five of your favorite blogs/bloggers and why?

Cait & Mime @Notebook Sisters (because they’re hilarious, well-written/spoken, and just awesome girls), Ella @Once Upon a Bookish Time (she’s just so enthusiastic about books and leaves the BEST comments), Tansie @Totally Tansie (two words: dry humor), Aneta Augustine @The Graffiti on the Wall (you want someone to tell you exactly whether or not a book is good based on literary points? Aneta doesn’t let feels get in the way of saying it like it is), and Amber @The Mile-Long Bookshelf(Her booktube channel and discussion posts are the best. And she loves pizza. Guys, this is important).

What tips do you have for fellow bloggers?

COMMENT. You’ve probably heard this before, but comment, comment, and then comment some more. It’s the best way to gain more followers and friends. Also, you may just be starting out. And maybe you’re getting discouraged because you only have two followers and you’ve been blogging for ages compared to other blogs who already have a few hundred followers (um, yeah, how do they do that again?). Don’t give up. Keep going. Join features. Make friends. You will get followers and more importantly you’ll find people you can gush over books with.

Most importantly—don’t forget that you’re doing this because you want to. If it starts feeling a bit too much like work and when you have to force yourself to write posts, you need to take a deep breath, a small break, and re-discover why you started blogging in the first place. J

How can people find and follow you?

My blog: http://www.randomofalife.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/randomofalife

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/21584726-skylar-finn

Thanks again Skylar it was great getting to know you better! 

Check out Life of a Random and the other fabulous blogs she mentioned! Let me know if you have any suggestions/ nominations/ recommendations for other blogs and bloggers to interview and spotlight!