Good News Friday

Happy FRIDAY everyone! Another week has come and gone, and I would love to hear some good news. It's been crazy in the Bigheart house. It took me a few days to recover from the Mont Teen Book Fest. Whew....I was exhausted! We had such a great time, and I promise to write all about it this weekend. Meeting Lois Lowry was soooo.....everything!

My good news today is that we are throwing our daughter a 15th birthday party tonight! I really am old kids, so you can stop saying, "Wowwwwww." Anyway, we are throwing her a rave and busting out the black lights! These things have been the best investment ever! Need I remind you of our TX book blogger party back in December? Oy...good times! So, the house is decorated and the house looks awesome! I am kinda hoping that the 50 teenagers will ruin my carpet so I can score some new wood floors from my old man! We'll see...maybe that will be my good news next week!

Younger daughter on her 12th

Would love to hear your good news! Share it.....

Good News Friday (Mont Fest)

It's Friday again, yay! If you have good news, share it! Tell me about your new puppy, a lower heating bill, or even a good recipe you found. I have two pieces of good news. Tomorrow is my first TLA committee meeting! I have no clue what to expect, but I will write down everything. I hope I walk in and they hand me a ten page spreadsheet of all the awesome authors that are attending. Doubt that will happen, but a book nerd can dream!

My second good news is that a bunch of us TX book bloggers are meeting in The Woodlands this weekend for the Montgomery County Teen Book Festival!!!! I am SO very excited to meet some of these awesome ladies that I have been talking to for the first time. I know they are happy to meet me. ;)

So, you may notice a lot of crae crae tweeting going on tomorrow night and Saturday! Wanna come? Please do! Below is a link to the festival. I won't tell you what hotel we are staying in, but I bet you can find us if you roll down your window and drive slow down I-45. Also, a lot of these wonderful Lonestars are handing over bags and boxes of books to take to the Austin Children's Shelter. Awesome!

So what's your good news?

Mont Fest link HERE

Good News Friday (TLA & Giveaway Info)

Over the break I neglected my Good News Friday posts. This is just a time for me to share good news, and more importantly, here yours. Brag about your kids, your job, or anything else good that is going on your life. I would love to hear it. 

I have BIG news this week. Well, big for me! I was asked to be a co-chair for the Local Arrangements Author Area subcommittee for TLA's (Texas Library Association) Annual Conference! In a nutshell: I am helping with all of the aspects of the author signing area this year. I will help recruit and organize volunteers for the signing area and make sure the authors are all in the right place at the right time. I am over the moon! I can't wait to find out all of the authors that will be attending this year. The signing goes out mid February, but hopefully I will have a little more information sooner. I know of a few confirmed authors and you can see my post about it here. Hanging out all day with people I admire is going to be great! 

I have already had several awesome friends already say they would volunteer for the event. If you would like to volunteer as well...let me know! Look for the links below for info about the conference and volunteer info. You DO NOT need to be a TLA member to go to the conference OR to volunteer. You can buy an exhibitor pass to attend. Look for link below for more info. 

In other news, I scored some SIGNED swag from Richelle Mead at my local grocery store, HEB. That's right ...the grocery store. Richelle confirmed to a friend and blogger Stephanie that they were indeed authentic. I will definitely share the love with my followers. Be looking for the items next week! 

So, what is your good news? I would love to hear anything you have to share. 

TLA conference info: http://www.txla.org/annual-conference

Volunteer info: http://www.txla.org/volunteer-conference

Registration info: (click New User to get to exhibit pass as well) https://secure.txla.org/secure/forms/mtgLogin.asp

Follow TLA on Twitter and Facebook!

Happy Reading and TGIF!

The Book Blogger Hop (12)

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly event hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and runs from Friday to Sunday. The Hop is a fantastic way to get your blog noticed, and visit some other blogs that you didn't know about before. Head over and sign up and see what you can find!

Each week a different question will be added to the hop in order for conversations to occur, and for your followers to get to know you better. Here we go!

"Whah book influenced or changed your life? 
How did it influence/change you?

That's an easy answer, The Giver by Lois Lowry! I had been working at my daughter's book fair when she was in elementary school and somehow I picked the book up. I feel in love immediately. I guess it was the first dystopia I had read. I don't even think they called it dystopia then, just science-fiction. At this point, I began to take children's and young adult seriously, not just for entertainment. Dystopia is still my favorite genre!

Follow Friday is hosted by the lovely Rachel at Parajunkee's View. Here is her question:

"What book(s) have you discovered lately 
from someone's book blog"?

There have been a lot of great Waiting on Wednesday posts lately. I guess one's that stand out are titles from debut authors. If I have read a book I really like, I always take note of the author and make sure I seek out more books by them. Sometimes it's hard to find debut authors, but blogs like The Tenners (2010 releases), The Elevensies (2011 releases), and The Apocalypsies (2012 releases) are fantastic resources. These blogs list all of the authors that have debuts that year. Check 'em out! 

Hop on by and leave me your link. I would love to hear your answers. 

Reminders:

BLESSED ARC giveaway ends Jan 9th

Reading Resolutions Hop ends Jan 9th
DROUGHT ARC giveaway ends Jan 19th

Book tours for HUNTRESS, THE ANTI-PROM PROM, and more.

Montgomery Teen Book Festival Jan 22nd

Good News Friday

When I used to substitute a leadership course a few years ago, we would go around the room and share good news on Friday. It allowed the kids to brag about a new video game they bought or share exciting news from home. This is something I would love to do with you all. Every Friday I would love to hear your good news. Whether your excited for the weekend or you got a promotion at work...I want to hear it. I planned this earlier in the week and I was going to share news about my daughter heading to the western district championship games in Corpus Christi today for her soccer team, but I have more....

I woke up to an email saying a feature I wrote was published in Children & Libraries: the Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children! I was jumping up and down! Even though this isn't ground breaking youth programming, I am so excited to be a very small part in this wonderful journal and association. All youth librarians should become members too ALSC. Here is my feature:

Top Ten Reasons Why the Library is a Great Place to Hang Out

10. To get a free book mark
 9.  Because your friends hang out there too!
 8.  So you can listen to babies cry at random all day long.
 7.  You can read Dr. Seuss at any age without being judged.
 6.  The librarian always knows what time it is.
 5.  Because hanging out at McDonald's isn't as cool.
 4.  To watch returned items slide down the book drop slide.
 3. So you can visit that special, quiet corner that is perfect for reading.
 2. What other venue gives everyone a chance to practice the Dewey Decimal System?
 1. Who doesn't like that new book smell?

So there you have it, my little feature in The Dog-Eared Page and my first Good News post! I hope you all share your good news with me. Brag on your kids, your pets or your significant others. This world is full of Debbie-Downers (take a look at Facebook recently?), and I would love to hear something that made you smile.

Happy Reading!