Blogs of Note: Twisted Kingdom

Liz B, who runs A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy, highlights a new blog every week in her Blog of the Day posts. The blogs range from reader to professional (librarian, bookseller, and publisher) to author blogs and represent the interesting and informative in their field. Thanks to this feature on Liz’s site I’ve found many delightful blogs that I never would have discovered otherwise. I’ve always wanted to do something similar here with the new, intriguing, or just plain pretty blogs that I run across in my lit-blog surfing, so I’ve decided to borrow Liz’s practice* and make it my own.

To that end, let me introduce the first blog of note in what I hope will become an ongoing tradition here at Bookseller Chick central: Twisted Kingdom.

Twisted Kingdom (the blog) was created in September 2006 in response to perceived lack of fantasy review sites on the web, especially when compared to the abundance of romance reader review sites. As Nath, one of the founding reviewers of Twisted Kingdom, explained to me, “There's been a lot more paranormal romance on the market in the last few years, but there are still many fantasy books in which romance is very limited, but it doesn't mean it wouldn't appeal to romance readers. So we thought it'd be fun and helpful to start a review blog for fantasy/paranormal books.”

The blog recently experienced a rebirth in March, and the reviewers—Ames, Dance Chica, Kailana, Mailyn and Nath—have made a concentrated effort to post daily since then. In addition to book reviews categorized by their fantasy type, readers will also find a fantasy dictionary (where the reviewers attempt to define Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, etc as well as give examples of books that fit that subgenre) as well as guest posts by popular authors (Kelley Armstrong was the latest to post this month).

Twisted Kingdom is open to submissions from fantasy authors (including self-published) from the category of Young Adult fantasy on and is looking to make a name for themselves. If you’re interested in getting your book reviewed, or just reading up on what others think of the newest fantasy releases, this is a blog to check out.

Here’s hoping this rebirth leads to a long and fruitful life for both Twisted Kingdom and the Blogs of Note** series.

*Liz, in theater they claim that borrowing is the greatest form of flattery and please know that I’ll work to uphold your tradition of blog coolness.

**If you have any suggestions for blogs to be included in the blogs of note series, please email me at bookseller {dot} chick at gmail. All blogs of note will eventually find their way into the side bar column of links for a permanent home.

What a Girl Needs...

I have a favor to ask y'all, a need to use your combined knowledge.

No, not to build my evil empire of doom, that comes after the indoctrination, head shaving, and implants.

Duh.

What I need from you internet saavy folks is your help combing the 'net to find reader review sites for all the different genres, fiction and nonfiction alike. I need you to pick your brain for this knowledge and then copy and paste the URL, site name, and genres reviewed (reviewer too if you can) into a comment box. I will then take said knowledge, break it down by genre/type, and place it in the side bar.

Together we can build a greater tomorrow, and a resource for writers who want to get their book out there on the web. In celebration of this great plan, I will also find a way to start accepting ARCs (because I want to love them, and squeeze them, and hug them forever), so that I can get in this reviewer game. I will also accept chocolate, diamonds and non-sequential bills, but I figured y'all knew that already.

If something like this already exists (and it might because there are many, many people in the world that make me look dumber than dirt--if indeed dirt is dumb), please let me know and I will just link to that with a big announcement for writers to go there because obviously their cool. It would make my job a lot easier.

A million thanks in advance to anyone who responds.

ETA:

I should probably add that I meant reader blogs and review sites alike, although I'm slightly more interested in reader blogs as they represent a kind of grass-roots marketing that I find intriguing on many levels. Any and all genres are welcome, fiction and nonfiction alike, so bring it on. As for contacting me about possible reviews, ARCs or where to send their five-pound chocolate bribe, all someone has to do is click on the email link/button in the sidebar.