I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Can’t believe we are about to begin a new year! So rather than a December Rewind & Review, I’ve decided to recap my entire year. (2014 was rather fabulous, friends.)

STATS:

Posts – 91
Book reviews – 21
Movie reviews – 5
The Book Thief // Vampire Academy // Divergent // The Fault in Our Stars // The Giver
Author interviews – 3
Ned Stuckey-French // Elizabeth Stuckey-French // Marissa Meyer

I read 61 books this year, beating my goal of 50. (And last year I didn’t even make my 50-book goal, so this is especially exciting!)

Needless to say, it was a really great reading year.

And I think this is largely thanks to the fantastic book blogs I stumbled across this year, which reviewed/recommended several of my favorite 2014 reads. Also, the discovery of these blogs led to my participation in Top 10 Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) and Rewind & Review (hosted by Shae Has Left the Room).

I continued to participate in the blog chain hosted by Teens Can Write, Too.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

• New look! – In early January, I changed my blog design to the theme you see now, and I’m quite happy with it.
• ARCs! – I became a member of Netgalley and received my first e-galleys to review.
• Conference – For the second year, I attended the Tallahassee Writer’s Conference and blogged about my experience.
• Sunshine Award – I was nominated for my first blogger award! Tara Therese nominated me for the Sunshine Award.
• Syd’s letter – I introduced my sister to the blog via a letter she wrote to me for a school assignment.
• Snippet series – I wrote a series of posts about creating a Snippet.

I also traveled to Italy this past summer and then started college, so I’d say it’s been a pretty big year. Thanks for sticking with me! I’m looking forward to an even better 2015.

Tell me about your year! Personal/professional accomplishments? When you look back, what stands out? And what suggestions do you have for Brooke Reviews? 

I’m excited to be participating in the ‘Bout This Blogger tag, hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury to celebrate her transition from the old site to the new site. (While I shall miss Notebook Sisters, I love the new design! Congrats Cait!)

Below are the 10 questions I’m supposed to answer giving you my backstory.

WHY DID YOU START BLOGGING?

I started blogging back in May 2006 because I wanted to have my own space on the Internet to share my poetry. (I wrote loads of poetry. It all rhymed. And it’s all still in the early archives of the blog, but by the time you’re reading this I’ll probably have taken it down because it would make excellent blackmail!) Now, however, I blog because I enjoy being a part of the online reading/writing community and reaching out to other teens who share my interests.

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND YOUR BLOG’S NAME?

So the blog was originally titled “Brooke Harrison’s Blog,” which is super original, I know. When I changed the blog design and decided to become a book blogger, I titled the site “Brooke Reviews.” I think it’s clever, as “Brooke” rhymes with “book” and it’s been sort of a joke in my family because I love to read. It’s also a play-on-words. “Brooke Reviews” like “book reviews” but also because I review both books and movie adaptations.

HOW MANY DESIGNS HAVE YOU BEEN THROUGH SINCE YOU STARTED BLOGGING? (Pictures! We demand pictures!)

I originally used Blogger. That was way back in the beginning. It was a standard design with a green color scheme. Unfortunately I do not have pics of this original theme. I switched to WordPress maybe a year or so later and found a cool coffee-shop-esque theme. Last Christmas I installed a new theme called ‘Delightful.’ This is the theme you see now, and I’m quite fond of it.

HAVE YOU EVER SWITCHED BLOG PLATFORMS? WHAT MADE YOU MOVE? If you haven’t ever changed…why?

I switched from Blogger to WordPress fairly early on in my blogging career as I believe WordPress is more professional and more easily customizable. While I liked Blogger for its simplicity, it definitely had limitations. I love working with WordPress.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE A POST? WHAT’S YOUR POSTLY PROCESS LIKE?

I wish I had a better process – I wish I could say I write all my posts in advance and therefore spend time writing AND editing these posts before scheduling them in my dashboard. Alas, this is not the case. Sometimes I’m inspired and write a complete post in the heat of the moment. Other times I outline first and flesh it out later. Some posts take longer to write than others.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN SUPER NERVOUS ABOUT A POST? Why?! What was it?

I met a local author once who gave me a copy of her book and asked me to review it. I took forever to read it and then was super nervous to post the review. It’s a very different thing to post an honest review when you’ve met the author face-to-face!

DO YOU HAVE A BLOGGING SCHEDULE?

I implemented my Monday/Thursday schedule last year (it was a New Year resolution/goal for the blog) and I think it’s worked well. This past May, I also began participating in Top Ten Tuesday. For the most part I’ve really honored my schedule, but occasionally life just gets in the way and I either forget to post or don’t have anything to post. (For example, I’ve been on an unofficial hiatus for the past several weeks because school consumed my every waking hour.)

DO YOU TELL PEOPLE IN-REAL-LIFE ABOUT YOUR BLOG? THEIR REACTIONS?

I generally don’t go out of my way to tell people IRL about my blog because I just don’t think they’d be interested. I have more online friends who share my love of reading/writing than offline friends. But if people ask about my blog, I’m always happy to tell them about it. And I’ve had friends who’ve actually taken the time to check it out, and it always makes me feel really warm and fuzzy inside when they tell me they think it’s really cool or that they love my design or that they’ve subscribed.

TOP TEN BLOGS YOU READ/COMMENT ON THE MOST! Go! Go!

Here are the top 5 blogs I read most often. (I really need to be better at commenting! I’ll read really great posts and think to myself, “What a great post!” and then forget to leave a comment saying so.)

Emma @ Awkwordly Emma // Shae @ Shae Lit // Sunny @ Blue Sky Bookshelf // John @ Teens Can Write Too // Go Teen Writers

IF YOU COULD CHANGE/IMPROVE THINGS ABOUT YOUR BLOG, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?

I’d love to get better at using my own images. Also, as much as I love participating in blog hops and weekly memes (I really, really do!) I’d love to write more original posts. Maybe I could write something once a week about my writing process, or something I’ve learned that I’d like to share with other members of the online writing community (?). And as a blogger, I need to be better at supporting my favorite blogs by commenting more often to show my appreciation.

Thanks for reading! Check out Cait’s new site and be sure to participate in the tag and enter her giveaway. Please share your thoughts or the link to your ‘Bout This Blogger post!

Last week I wrote about the content and layout of my Snippet project. I’ve outlined my project in Scrivener and have already added several chapters via my online dashboard.

Today we’ll be getting into the multimedia part of Snippet – I’ll be sharing how I’ve edited the images for my project, including the cover and the headers.

First things first. Before you create a super-awesome cover image for your Snippet, you need to be sure you’re aware of the correct dimensions.

The dimensions for Snippet are as follows:

1536px x 2048px – cover image / chapter cover image
1536px x 520px – TOC header
1536px x 400px – chapter header

The photo-editing software I’m using is called Pixelmator. It’s basically Photoshop for Mac. I wrote about Pixelmator in an earlier post about the tools I’m using for this project.

When I open the application, I can create a new image and set my own dimensions.

So for my cover image, I wanted something simple. I added background color and text with my title and my name. If you’re new to Pixelmator, you can find fantastic tutorials on a variety of topics at Pixelmator’s website. I thought the videos were extremely helpful.

Upload your cover image and header image to your Snippet the same way you upload chapters. Uploading the chapter headers is similar. (Click into your chapter first.)

Most importantly, have fun designing your cover image. Be creative. In my opinion, the multimedia features of Snippet are what truly make it great. It’s a visual experience that compliments the reading experience.

If you have any questions, I’d be happy to help. Write a comment or shoot me an email or contact me via social media. Thanks for reading!

Oh, and Happy Halloween *mwahaha* 

So I’m participating in “Rewind & Review,” a blog hop hosted by Shae Has Left the Room. Basically, we’ll be glancing back at what happened on the blog during the month of October, and also take a look at what I’ve been reading.

Books I Read

On the Fence by Kasie West
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas

Posts You Might Have Missed

Week 2 – Snippet – Getting Started
Brooke Reviews: Not in the Script, Blue Lily Lily Blue
Week 3 – Snippet – Brooke Reviews “Let Go”
TTT: Places I Want to Be
Week 4 – Snippet – Tools
TTT: Series I’d Like to Start
Week 5 – Snippet – Content & Layout
TTT: Books to Inspire Halloween Spirit

Upcoming on the blog:

Had more opportunity to read this month, but my reading has significantly slowed down due to my HW load and new school responsibilities. Again, looking forward to future TTTs (Top Ten Tuesdays), book reviews, and the completion of my Friday series.

By the way, I’d love feedback regarding the Friday series. I’m a huge fan of themed posts, or packaged posts, so share your thoughts and let me know if you’d like me to cover something in particular in a future series!