Blogger of the Month~ July

Hello everyone! It's another new month and with that comes a new "Blogger of the Month."

This will consist of a post that includes an interview with the chosen blogger, along with featuring them in my sidebar for that entire month.  It was a new feature I started on my blog in April (Refer HERE if you would like to see the original post & if you would like to be apart of this as a blogger).

July's Blogger is Sarah from The Book Traveler

Sarah is a book blogger over at The Book Traveler. Not only does she blog there, but she also creates whimsical book trailers that match the books perfectly. She is currently hosting #RockMyYTBR. With that she is also one of the hosts of the twitter chat "Blog Hop Party".

Connect with Sarah:
| Twitter | Youtube | Bloglovin' |

~Interview Time~

Sabrina: **Stands up to shake hands** Hello Sarah! It is quite extraordinary to have you as my July blogger of the month!

Sarah: Wow, thank YOU so much for having me! I’m truly honored.

Sabrina: How about we start off this interview by you telling us a little bit about yourself?--Such as your likes and interests.

Sarah: Haha oh gosh, I always get a bit nervous with this question because I feel like I’m kinda of a boring person when it comes to my interests. LOL.

 Obviously, a huge interest for me are books! If you know me from Twitter I am always on (slightly obsessed, okay maybe A LOT obsessed with Twitter) and I love to chatting to anyone about books. When I first really got into reading (about 3 years ago) I read anything that was dystopian. But now I gravitate to anything fantasy. Give me swords, fighting, royalty, romance and I am SO there!

I used to watch a lot of TV but now with reading, working and kids, my time is very limited so the only show I’m currently watching is Game of Thrones (you know...swords, fighting, royalty, romance, *wink*) 

Sabrina: Since this is an interview focused on your blog and blogging experiences, how did you decide that you wanted to take up blogging?

Sarah: I found the book community on Twitter one day by following authors and then my whole world totally expanded. I had NO IDEA that so many people talked about books, blogged about books, and even read early copies. I had never heard of ARCs. I was so intrigued and I recently had become obsessed with reading myself, so I thought it’d so much fun to throw myself into this blogging world.

Sabrina: Which five blogs to you actively enjoy visiting and checking up on their posts?

Sarah: There are A MILLION blogs out there, but blogs I regularly visit are...

MyFriends are Fiction

Booksand Ladders

TheFox’s Hideaway

Brittany’sBook Rambles

APerfection Called Books 

Sabrina: What is your favourite post to write and share?

Sarah:  Hm...that’s a tough one. I think one of my favorite posts is one I wrote about book hype. There was a book published earlier this year that the hype got way out of control so I wanted to address the good things about hype but also the bad. My post is called Hyped Books: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Sabrina:Who has been your favourite or most cherished author to meet in person?

Sarah: Can I say all of them??? I’ve actually only met a small number of authors so they all have meant a great deal to me. My very first author signing was with Sarah J. Maas and Susan Dennard. This was during Sarah’s Heir of Fire Tour. It was a BLAST. The two of them together were the best.

I also got to see Susan a second time when she did an author signing with Victoria Schwab. I was blown away at how sweet and humble Victoria was. I loved meeting her so much!

I VERY briefly got to meet Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff at BookCon and just being in their presence was amazing.

And then I got to meet Maggie Stiefvater. She was hilarious and very cool.

Sabrina: How long have you been blogging and a part of the bookish community?

Sarah:  I’ve been blogging for 1 year and 7 months! Sometimes it feels longer but I also was involved on Twitter only for a year previous to that.

Sabrina: How did you and Emily start your twitter chat, and how long has it been going on?

Sarah:  On Twitter we were discussing ways to encourage other bloggers and do blog hopping. Emily messaged me one day to see if I’d be interested in co-hosting a chat with her for blogger support. Of course I said yes! I had been thinking about hosting some sort of Twitter chat and this was perfect. I love meeting new people so I thought it was a perfect way to do that. Our very first #BHPChat (it stands for Blog Hop Party Chat) was back in October of 2015, so we’ve run it for 7 months. It’s a once a month chat on the last Tuesday of the month at 9:00 PM EST. It’s so great to hear about what everyone is doing with their blogs for people to ask questions or find encouragement.

Sabrina: What are some Twitter bookish chats that you actively try to partake in?

Sarah: Every Saturday is the #BBTC (Brittany’s Book Themed Chat) hosted by Brittany. They’re spoiler-free book themed chats and are super fun. Most of the time the author is there too.

I also enjoy the #WYAKW (Whadda know Wednesday) monthly book trivia chat hosted by @SwoonyBoys and @fictionfare. I always stink at it, but it’s a lot of fun!

Another chat I occasionally join in with is the #K8Chat. It’s every Thursday at 9:00pm EST. Kate has a special guest each week and they talk all things from book publishing to fantasy to podcasting.

I LOVE chats so basically I’ll join in to almost any chat that is happening.

Sabrina: What 2016 ARC book are you eagerly awaiting to have the rest of the world read once it releases?

Sarah: Easy. My Lady Jane! I was able to be an ARC tour for My Lady Jane and really didn’t know what to expect going in. I was, to be honest, afraid I’d hate it. But it was fantastic! It has wonderful characters and a great story. Other 2016 books that haven’t yet released I am excited for others to read don’t have ARCs, haha. Like Empire of Storms and Crooked Kingdom.

But I did really enjoy Three Dark Crowns and can’t wait for others to read that one!

Sabrina: What is one thing that has made you fall in love with book blogging and the bookish community?

Sarah: The people. Hands down. I’ve made some of the very best friends through this community that make me laugh, they are there for me when I need to talk and are just plain fun! I also LOVE being able to talk to my favorite authors. To me they are my celebrities so every time an author talks to me I have a fangirl moment.

Sabrina: It’s been super fun interviewing you Sarah! Thank you for sitting down with me today and giving us some insights on you and your blogging.

Sarah: Thank you so much for having me Sabrina! The pleasure was all mine.