A year gone by...

I am never a girl lacking for words, and yet words cannot describe my 2010. It's been an extremely long time since I felt like I was really in my element because most of the friends I see day to day don't share my passion for stories, both reading them and writing them. This year I was among so many avid readers and well-read intellectuals that I felt truly myself for the first time since early high school.

I'm not sure how I am going to recap the awesomeness that was this year in one post. I don't think I can do it justice because I've attended dozens of outstanding events and met so many amazing people, many of whom have become good friends and have been overwhelmingly positive influences on my life. So to all the bloggers, authors and book lovers I met this year - Thank you! You are truly a special breed.

I don't mean to forget anyone in this post, but I know I will, so forgive me now. I will do my best to cover it all though! Cut for an obscene amount of photos...

Dear Blogger, don't hate!

I'm getting really tired of all the blog hating that I'm seeing on Twitter. It's been around forever, but it seems to have ramped up quite a bit lately. Frankly, it has made me rather embarrassed for us all. If we can't function as a community, what good are we?

Vindictive comments are unnecessary. In-fighting is stupid. General hating is just bad form. I'm sure your mother or some other older, wiser family member once shook a finger and spouted the old adage about not having anything nice to say. You know the one, and the fact is that they were right. Karma comes 'round people. That's all I'm saying.

Recently, this hating phenomenon turned a perfectly innocent hash tag on Twitter (#dearblogger) into a cesspool. By late evening Wednesday, it was positively overflowing with comments, most of which were insults or cease and desist requests masquerading as "advice".

There was some great advice, like:

"Don't be afraid to review older books & not keep up w/the current ones. Old fires deserve to be stoked." - Donna at Bites.

"Promoting reading and books should always be paramount. All roads should lead to it." - Emily at Emily's Reading Room.

"Remember - just because you have a blog doesn't mean you deserve ARCs. Content & Quality are what matters most." - Gail from Ticket to Anywhere.

Then there was that other stuff. Stuff that, frankly, would be better left unsaid. And forgive me, I'm about to share my thoughts. This stuff got me a little riled.

Meet me at the Book Expo?

Wow am I nervous! I've seen several people put up BEA meet-up posts, including The Story Siren and Sharon Loves Books & Cats, so I decided to throw in with the cool kids and do one too.

Here goes... My name is Susan. I like long walks on the beach, soft jazz (the closer it is to elevator music, the better), full-bodied red wines... Alright! You caught me! I like exactly none of those things. I'm a recovering sodaholic, avid reader and aspiring fiction writer who is pretty laid back and tends to go with the flow.

But seriously, as I type this post, I feel kind of like I'm making one of those awful videos for a dating service, all the while wondering if it will go unwatched. I hope that's not the case, but if no one responds, I have a dog, a computer, and a stack of books that don't judge. I'll be fine without you!

(Stay tuned for the best "dating service" video ever!)