Saturday, November 15, 2014

MY VERY FIRST BLOG HOP with GIVEAWAY!!


After my first blogoversary giveaway, I was discussing my lingering dreadful blog followers stats with my feature co-host, Brittersweet from Please Feed the Bookworm, and she suggested I start doing blog hops so more readers would visit my blog and have a look around. 


Britter suggested this hop because it was a getting to know you hop. Thank-you CUDDLEBUGGERY for hosting this book giveaway blog hop!


I grew up, and still live in, Rod Serling's hometown. He is best known as the creator and narrator of...


I spent ten years, from age sixteen to twenty-six, on the road with several different rock bands. Don't get excited, no one famous, only regionally. I didn't get much book reading done during those years, so I am making up for it now.


Because of older cousins my first musical love was The Beatles.
My current favorite is Faith No More.


This is my favoite Faith No More song.


*click it*



As some of you know I accidentally registered this blog trying to validate Rafflecopter entries on one of author A.G. Howard's giveaways, a little more than a year ago. I guess you could say I fell down the blogging rabbit hole. I figured as long as I had it, I would use it, and here I still am. Because of this start I have a very laidback approach to blogging. Nothing much is scheduled; other than the only feature I follow (which happens to be my own, lol). I only post when I have a review, or have stumbled upon something bookishly interesting I want to share. Even the feature Tell Me Tuesday, I co-host with Brittersweet, can be bi-weekly if you want. I call it Serendipitous Blogging, and most of the time it is stress free.


There are also some wacky facts about me on my birthday post, HERE.

I am also a HUGE Potterhead. I started reading the Harry Potter series with my son and my ex back in 1999 before the books were popular.


My favorite HP characters are...


and



Which leads us in a wonky way to my giveaway.

I am involved in many Harry Potter themed activities on the internet. I belong to a large social site called MyLeaky, a couple of Facebook groups, and admin a few fan pages, one of which has over 5,000 followers. I even did some HP RP for awhile. This is where the La La Toadstone name came from. I have met, and become friends with many Potterheads and when one of them wrote a book (and a fellow Ravenclaw at that), I ran straight to Amazon and bought it to support her. It is a dystopian set in the UK by British author Joe Kipling. I was thrilled (and relieved) its storyline and setting were unique from other dystopians. I loved it, so that is why I am sharing it with you today.



MaryAnn is one of the privileged. It doesn't matter that her friends can sometimes be cruel or that the boy she likes just threw up on her shoes, it's all about being noticed at the right parties. But it takes a single event to rip her life apart.
Blinded by the Light is about death and coming to terms with loss, the abuse of power, discrimination and the fear of the unknown. It is the first book in The Union Trilogy.

You can read my interview with two of her characters, HERE.


The author Joe Kipling has been lovely and offered to ship her book with bookmark, INTERNATIONALLY!
 Thank-you, Joe.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to visit these other wonderful bloggers and Get To Know them, also! Each of them has a giveaway contest for books.

14 comments:

  1. YAY you got it fixed!! Those eyeballs are so creepy though! Also love you tips on how to meet authors... i might try that or arrested, you know which ever comes first!

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    1. I have never been arrested. Should that be on my bucket list? Lol. I have a funny story about licking hands. Remind me to tell you some day. :D

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  2. I really love dystopians even if I haven't been in the best of moods for reading them as of late it seems, but if you say this one is unique enough, I'm adding it to the wish list!!

    Thank you for making this one available international La La!! And I love your laid back approach to blogging! ;)

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  3. Hi, Pili. I was sooooo happy when I asked Joe if she would send internationally and she said yes! I was pretty much the same way about dytopians at the point I picked up BbtL, but it is very different, I promise.

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  4. yey! I'm so glad you joined the blog hop! I hope you find it useful. I am fascinated that you spent all those years on the road like that.

    Thanks for participating!

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  5. I hadn't heard of this book before! And yes...I kind of want to join in a blog hop at some point, but I just never remember too. >_< I'm very unorganised too.

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    1. Ha!! Well I say being disorganized leads to creativity. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Thanks for the visit. :)

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  6. Yesss! I was really excited when I saw Luna (who is my kindred spirit) and the Weasley twins were your favourites...til I realized that really, you could have put up pretty much any of the characters (with a few obvious exceptions) and I totally would have responded the same way hahaha. It's awesome you were/are so involved with music on so many levels! It's CRAZY awesome you studied to be an opera singer for a bit - I'm an oboist, and I frelling love opera. Too bad they're folding left and right :(

    All in all you sound like you have had one of the most interesting lives ever! It's awesome to meet you :D

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    1. Thank-you for visiting. Our regional opera company is still doing well (knock on wood). I think it is because our local university has a large music program. One of my best friends in high school was an oboist. I admire your dedication, it is a diffcult instrument to play! I am happy I was able to get all of my wanderings and shenanigans out early in life because now I have time for coffee and books. :)

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  7. Hiii! I just wanted to say hi haha. I love Harry Potter too and I'm always trying to learn Japanese :P I'm fairly new to blogging but it's so great to meet more book bloggers :D

    Eileen @ BookCatPin

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  8. Thanks for dropping by. I want to learn Japanese because I want to watch anime without having to read the subtitles. Lol.

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  9. We're a family of Potterheads here! My dining room has "floating" candles (tapers hanging from fishing line from the ceiling) all year long. I put them up for my son's birthday a year ago and took them down for a bit, but missed them. I have no plans to take them down again!

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  10. That's fabulous! In our last apartment we had two bathrooms and we had one decorated with a Harry Potter theme for awhile. Lol. Thanks for stopping by. :)

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Thank-you for dropping by! I love to chat, so comments get a lot of love.