Guest Blogger - Shooting Stars Mag!

I never started out to have a book blog. I’d come across a few webzines that focused on music and I thought it would be nice to start my own. With the help of a few online friends, I began Shooting Stars Magazine and we set off to promote the music we loved and wanted others to know about: The City Drive (now just Danny Smith), Envy on the Coast, Close to Home, etc. (All good bands by the way if you want some new stuff).

As I continued, I noticed a lot of book blogs through myspace and I thought it was great since I’ve always loved to read. I figured why not focus on all forms of entertainment then? Why does Shooting Stars have to only be about music? So I went ahead and added books to the mix and then movies and tv shows. There’s even more than that these days, but those are the main items you will find if you peruse the blog.

It’s been a lot of fun “meeting” people: authors, book reviewers and book lovers alike, musicians, actors/actresses, and even the ones behind like the scenes like publicists! I hope to continue with Shooting Stars for as long as I can and I hope to get bigger and better as time goes on. This August will be my two-year anniversary and I think I’ve come quite a long way since I began.

To be honest though, it does get hard. It’s mainly me these days…I always refer to it as a “we” because Keaton is still my partner in crime though I do most of the work and I think you all talk to me more than you do Keaton. It’s a lot of fun though, like I said, and I wouldn’t want to stop doing it just because it gets hard and tiring sometimes. It comes with the work I guess, and yes, it is work. Everything I do takes time, but I hope that people enjoy it and find new things by reading what I write. That’s the main thing. I’ve always loved to spread the word about things. When I’m a fan, I want others to be too.

At the moment, I’m 19 years old and just finished my first year in college. Yeah, it’s a bit hard juggling school, family/friends, and the blog…as well as whatever else comes along, but I do it. I do it because I want too, I do it because I love talking to people, I do it because it’s different and interesting, and I do it even though I don’t get paid and it’s just my own willpower making me do it. But like I said, I do it. All of us bloggers have to feel the same; otherwise, what’s the point?!

I’m sorry that I couldn’t include a picture of my ARC’s or piles of books, but I can include the first book reviews that I did for Shooting Stars Mag. And the one and only comment we got? (On blogger, I mean) Yeah, some anonymous person dissing the fact that we are on a blog but call ourselves a magazine (more like a webzine really, but it doesn’t matter…) and even saying our layout was bad (I forget what the old one even looked like.) J

http://shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com/2008/03/old-book-reviews.html

Thanks for having me!!