Blogiversary Celebration Day #5: Top Ten Bookish Moments and Giveaway!

It's the final day of The Cover Contessa's blog anniversary celebration! 

I can't believe it's over today! So, I'm gonna give you one more day of me talking about blog related stuff. Today, I'm going to tell you and show you some of my all time favorite bookish moments over the last year. It's been such an incredible year, being able to meet some great authors and other great book related people! So let me show you!

My first ever book signing with my best friend D'vora (International Girlas YA Book Club). We went into NYC to what is now one of our favorite bookstores, Books of Wonder. 

And here's who we met:

Tahereh Mafi and Anna Carey

Veronica Rossi and Lauren Oliver

Then, during the summer of 2012, I got to attend YA Fest in Easton, PA. I went with my awesome sister-in-law (and sometimes additional reviewer on the blog), Crystal, and my friend/fellow blogger/ fellow moderator from Goodread, Marni!

And all these awesome authors!!!

Jennifer Murgia, Brigid Kremmerer, Jennifer L. Armentrout

Maria V. Snyder, Anne Greenwood Brown, Michelle Zink

Cyn Balag, Shannon Delaney, Jennifer Hubbard

Charlotte Bernnardo and Natalie Zaman, Jeff Hirsch, Cesya MaRae Cuono

These two moments were really special to me: two trips into NYC with my bestie to help Andrea Cremer celebrate the publication of her prequel to the Nightshade Trilogy, Rift and to see the awesome Veronica Ross when her sequel to Divergent, Insrugent, was published:

And lookie lookie who came to Northern NJ for a signing!

Yup, that's me with the oh so famous E.L. James as she signs my Fifty Shades trilogy set! That place was hot and packed and just all around crazy!

Another great moment. Dragging my sister in law to yet another signing, this one in Westchester, NY. where I got to see Jennifer L. Armentrout, once again, along with Kristi Cook and Amalie Howard. AND, I got to meet the awesomely great Kate Kaynak, founder and lead editor of Spencer Hill Press.

Another trip (or two) to Books of Wonder in NYC let me meet these tremendous ladies and gentlemen!

Alexandra Bracken, Laurie Faria Stolarz, and Kate Brian (Kieran Scott)

Cynthia Hand, Jocelyn Davies and Teri Terry

Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton

And finally, I got to attend the final day of the Teen Author Festival in NYC (once again a trip to Books of Wonder, see a theme emerging here?)! These are all the great authors I got to schmooze with!

The most awesome Emmy Laybourne, as you can see we fell in love!

Tiffany Schmidt, Sharron Cameron, and T.M. Goeglein

David Levithan, Jessica Brody and Zoraida Cordova

And finally, my BIGGEST thrill of the year (and I am not kidding you, I totally and completely fangirled when she came into the store and sat BEHIND me!). The most awesome Victoria Schwab!

So, it's been a BIG year for me! And it just stands to get bigger as I gear up to go to Book Expo America (BEA) at the end of May. I know I'm going to meet a ton of new authors and others that I already know! I can't wait to connect with publishers and bloggers and others in the book industry who have made the last year totally amazing for me!

And now, the final Rafflecopter! Yup, it's Day #5 and I'm giving you the biggest prizes yet! So, go on, enter, you know you want a chance to win! And thanks SO much for celebrating with me! It's been a blast!
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Blogiversary Celebration Day #4: Top Ten Reasons I Love To Blog and Giveaway!

Welcome to Day #4 of The Cover Contessa's blog anniversary celebration!

Today I'm going to tell you the top 10 reasons I love to blog! And I won't make it all fancy. I'm just going to list my reasons for loving what I do!

1. The Books! Need I really tell you more? Of course not, that's the whole reason for this blog, no? Well, I will a bit, anyway. I love books: reading them, buying them, getting them as gifts, taking them out of the library, having them sent to me by publishers. Whatever way I can get my hands on them is all good. 

2. The Authors! Yup, that's right, one of the best perks of blogging is getting to know the authors you blog about. I will often read a book and love it so much I just must have the author on for an interview. And I've never been let down with them saying no! 

3. The reading! I love to read, right? Well, blogging forces me to do what I love to do and what makes me happy. Otherwise I might just get bogged down with my job, or house chores and what fun would that be?

4. The other bloggers! I have met so many great people since creating my blog. People who live close and people who live across the world. But it's easy to meet them through cyberspace, although I do hope one day to meet them all in person!

5. The learning! I have learned a lot through blogging: how to write a great review, how to get in touch with publishers and authors, how to figure out good literature from awful stuff. Most of all, I've learned what a pleasure it really is to let myself into all the worlds the authors build to keep my mind occupied.

6. The ARC and beta reading! Yup, I get to do these things I love my ARCs for sure. I love to be able to read the books before they are even out and be part of telling everyone how great they are before the release. And I love that authors have asked me to beta read, the process even before the ARCs are distributed. It makes me feel like they really trust my opinion.

7. The blog tours! I have such a blast making up my posts for blog tours. I can put my little spin on them, make them all mine, all while highlighting the authors and their books and helping them get their names out there.

8. The Giveaways! I love to run giveaways. I love to let other people into my book loving world by offering them books. And I have to say I love entering the contests myself. I have won so many great things through entering these contests!

9. Meeting great publishers and publicists! I've met some really great publishing people during my time blogging. And I hope to meet many more. Thankfully, I get to go to BEA (Book Expo America) this year and meet even more industry people. It's fun and entertaining.

10. The accomplishment! Yup, I feel accomplished. I feel like I'm doing something for the book loving world (and I don't even get paid for it!). I feel like I am bringing others closer to books and authors and characters and worlds. It's fun and I don't think I would want it any other way!

 

So, are you a blogger? Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

Don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter below for Day #4. So many great prizes! And don't forget to go back and tweet for days #1, 2, and 3, so you can have more chances to win those great prizes! Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

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