I have an extra-fun interview-giveaway today!! Miki is an author... of her blog! A book reviewer! I "met" her when she started following and commenting on Colorimetry. There was a giveaway back in spring where she asked me to check on the shipping cost of something. For days I ran around on my errands thinking "Miki - shipping - Belgium". Lol. She quit waiting for me to get back to her and entered the giveaway for Halflings, which SHE WON!!I emailed the winners via Rafflecopter information and she was kinda flippin'-excited over winning, but *shrug* I still didn't realize she was Miki. Lol. You know how we all have different names for different accounts, right? I didn't make the connection until I saw "Belgium" in her address.
By then I'm wondering if I have a large following in that awesome country - that Google wasn't identifying? So I just asked her straight up... "Tell me you are not Miki!!!!!" And then I freaked out, too. Lol.
Well... how often do random winner generators pick the "right" people? Ok... I believe they do all the time. But I was slow to realize how closely Randomness and I agreed on this one.
As a side note, I assume the Rafflecopter chooses my giveaways rightly. I do my homework and verify the entry... as well as snoop around and track down winners' blogs, Twitters, Facebooks and follow-follow-follow, if I'm not already. But I don't really believe in Random as much as I say I do. I think people win for a reason. Which might be why I email so much with winners. *shrug* Maybe I'm just starving for attention. Lol.
Miki is one of those kind-hearted people who like to give. As evidence I point to all the RAK months she's participated in. (Search "RAK" on her blog!!) She emailed me about making a bookmark for me, and my hotmail didn't let her email thru. (It gets vicious like that without being provoked occasionally.) She persisted by commenting one Saturday that it was weird I didn't want a "gift" - and I was thinking... that is weird. I like gifts. (I'm paraphrasing.)
The end of this beginning of a story/friendship is that we found another way to communicate (since we all have various accounts everywhere, do we not?) and she made me a bookmark designed especially for me!
Her generosity is now extending even further, to offer a bookmark or keychain to one of you!! I want to thank her as well as share her awesomeness... which has resulted in the following interview & giveaway. Please welcome... Miki!!
Lecture toute une Aventure
Why did you start a book blog?
I always loved reading and in really hard moments in my life books have been the only things giving me comfort and they made me dream , escape so I wanted to share those feelings too and I hoped to feel part of the community.
To justify myself I also decided that it was a way for me to improve my English writing, I still have a long way before me but I think I did at least a little bit progress already.
What books were your favorites since you started blogging?
There are a lot of authors and books that I loved before I started to write a blog and that still are on my auto- buy list like Patricia Briggs' books. I discovered the first Mercy Thompson by accident and at that time I didn't think books were enough for me but that one helped a lot. Suddenly I could hope again, the heroine is hurt and different from other but she doesn't give up. I needed her courage and she gave it to me so I could help my mother and not give up in front of everything that happened. Then I couldn't stop and the series was too long to be translated so I jumped on the English edition as well.
I also love Jeaniene Frost series “The Night Huntress” and the “Kate Daniels” series by Ilona Andrews.
The blog did expand my horizons, while entering some challenges (like Romance and me by Stella from ex-Libris) I wanted to discover others genres and subgenres and it was the little push I needed ( because I want to keep my engagements and I hate giving up). So now I’m also a fan of Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris ‘series The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. I love this steampunk series and I’m feeling a bit stupid to have been hesitant to read this series before I won those books.( Thanks you again Amanda^^)
Also another new favorite series of mine is The bloodhound Files by DD Barant, I’m reading it this month and so far no book has disappointed me it’s original and I really love the mix of romance and investigation with paranormal as the background.
Also I love the writing style of Susannah Sandlin and her series " The Penton Legacy", one of the first book I got for review and it's a wonderful discovery too and a author terribly kind and generous.
Oh yes, I was going to forgot Devon Monk: I love her Age of Steam series ( another Steampunk, yes) and the Allie Beckstrom one.
The I marshals stories by Michele Hart are also a wonderful discovery and I’m glad I came across these books.
On the Ya and children book side, I discovered Jennifer L Armentrout and I loved Obsidian ( Onyx a bit less) ;I was also positively surprised by Deacon Leeds and the pyramid of Symbols by Grant Morris. It’s few titles and authors yes but I have more to discover and I’m fully planning to.
There are still many books I have to read and I hope some of them will be added to my favourite list
What do you like best about Belgium?
How did you start making bookmarks & keychains?
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I guess that we can say that my health is quite unstable one of the consequences if that I had and have to stay often inside even as a child I did not want to waste that time so when I was well enough I tried to create things. Until some years ago for example there was not a lot of merchandising, goodies about mangas available so I decided to make my own.
A put that aside for a bit until I discovered the RAK ( Random Act of Kidness) hosted by The booksoulmates the goal is to share some love of books so you can choose one person or more and send them one or more books from their list, sometimes too you can be chosen and receive something too ( but the main goal is to give not to receive) I loved this idea that was a concentration of the kindness and generosity of the book bloggers community that I admired before so I did my best, saved some money and and I offered some books yes. However on the form there is the possibility to offer handmade gifts. Since it's already really difficult for me to buy English books for myself I encounter the same problem when I want to offer one to other people but I wanted to express how grateful I was for the kindness and the spirit the book bloggers share together so I tried to think about something related to book I could do and I came with the idea of bookmark.
I collect paper bookmarks so i thought book lovers would love bookmarks and I tried to make something new. My health having been quite bad lately I was obligated to stay at home a lot and I spend that time experimenting and then creating since I wanted to offer something personalized thus I’m not making them before hand but I’m asking some questions before I start to create it.
I collect paper bookmarks so i thought book lovers would love bookmarks and I tried to make something new. My health having been quite bad lately I was obligated to stay at home a lot and I spend that time experimenting and then creating since I wanted to offer something personalized thus I’m not making them before hand but I’m asking some questions before I start to create it.
Then I thought about those who read more digital books, they don't need a bookmark so I started the keychains and since a long time ago I did earrings too, sometimes I offer this opportunity too ( but those takes really a long time to make so it's only when I have the time like holidays and such)
I prefer to use my time for those small gifts than staying in my corner whimpering or complaining. If this small gift gives some happiness to its receiver, I’m happy to. I still need to improve in this too soothe so the models can vary and I’m often looking for new ones.
About the Blogger:
My pseudo is Miki and in the real life, I'm Isabelle. I'm a student in communication and languages, living in Belgium and I'm a native french speaker.
Reading is my passion, in english as well as in french, and it's the reason I've started this blog. My preferred genres are paranormal romance, fantasy, ya, urban fantasy, sci-fi and i'm open to discovering more.
I also like mangas and roleplaying game ( pathfinder etc)
Find & Follow:
I know there are a lot of great bloggers out there... as Miki says, this is a wonderful community!! It would be my pleasure to get to know various other bloggers better. I don't see why there can't be more blogger interview/giveaways! Isn't that a great idea? If you're interested, shoot me an email!
To enter Miki's giveaway, please follow her! As she mentioned, the winner will need to answer a few questions so Miki can design a bookmark or keychain specifically for them, after which she will begin to make it. So... you're entering to win something for yourself for later. Think Christmas or afterwards.
You must be able to receive wonderful things in the mail and able to enter the Rafflecopter. See my general giveaway rules under the About tab.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
