10 August 2015 update…Thank you so much to Jeremy @ Inklingstime for his thoughtful Blogger Recognition Award nomination. I recently discovered his blog a month or so ago and love to visit!

Finally getting to some of these awards and meme’s that I have waiting in my queue. This was a (very) recent nomination, but an easy one to tackle first. 🙂

Many thanks to Maren @ The Worn Bookmark (I love that name!) for nominating me for the Blogger Recognition award! She has a great book blog, and I always enjoy her reviews and posts.

…and updating a week later to thank Ana @ Ana’s Lair for a nomination as well! Another great blog you all should check out.

This award was originally created by Eve over at Edge of the Night

Rules:

• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to. Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you.
• Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers. Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog. List who you’ve nominated in the post. Make sure to also attach the award itself! (You can do this by right-clicking, saving, and uploading the image above.)
• Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to the award post you created.
• Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

My Story

For years I had thought about starting a blog, but I wondered what on earth would I blog about? TV shows? Old movies? Pictures of my dog? I’d been doing book reviews on Goodreads for a few years, and I kept seeing people thanking NetGalley for ARC copies of books. So I began to investigate. And I realized, NetGalley totally gives free copies of books to book reviewers! Lighting struck, the heavens collided, and everything went into place. I could blog about books. My husband wouldn’t have to listen to me ranting or raving about what I was reading. (Who am I kidding? He still has to listen to that.) I could connect with other book lovers around the world. I found my blog.

I saw author Steve Berry at a book talk few months ago, and he said:

Don’t write what you know. Write what you love. If what you know and what you love are the same, then even better.

I love books. I love to read them and I love to write about them.

If you’ve visited my about me page, you know that the name of my blog comes from the first Nancy Drew book I ever read. It’s been a love affair with mysteries and detectives ever since. (Although I do read other genres too.)

My Advice to New Bloggers

I’m still pretty new at this (February 2015 is when I started). But I am having so much fun. Here’s what I’ve learned:

• Don’t be afraid to connect to people. Leave a comment. Like a post. Follow another blog. Start participating in a weekly or monthly meme. There are tons out there, and these will open you up to a broader community and a greater experience. The book blogging community is fabulous!
• Don’t be afraid to make it personal. I’ve found when I read other book blogs that I enjoy their reviews, but I really like getting to know them as well. Sometimes it’s through awards like this. Other times, they’ve been inspired to write something non-bookish or off topic. When I first started Hidden Staircase, the first few weeks my posts were just book reviews. But I’ve found my favorite posts to write are Top Ten Tuesdays, fun book tags, recommending Stephen King, and even the one about my dad, which had nothing whatsoever to do with books.

My Nominations

I’ll do my best to tag people who haven’t done this one before…

• Erika @ The Books the Thing
• Erika @ Rickus Bookshelf
• Kayla @ Mindcrazed
• Erika @ Erika in Bookventure Land
• Josie @ Josie’s Book Corner
• Josh @ Been there, read that
• FictionFan @ FictionFan’s Book Reviews
• By Hook or By Book
• Conny @ Study. Read. Write.
• 52 Letters in the Alphabet

…and anyone else who wants to do this one! Doesn’t take much time and a fun way to let your fellow bloggers know how you got started.