"Sunday Scoop" The Gang's Weekly Column

SUNDAY SCOOP

Welcome to another week's Sunday Scoop.  This week, Dave will be writing the Scoop.  First of all I want to thank you all as just today we hit our 500th follower!!!!  A WOO-HOO is in order!  It means a lot to us that so many of you visit our site and your dedication is what keeps us going.  So for that, a graceful thank you is extended to each and every one of you. 

Moooving right along, we have some pics of Bella that we will be sharing with you probably during the week.  Mara is organizing them and picking out the cutest ones for you guys.  She officially turned 9 weeks old a few days ago and she is just adorable.  She is potty/paper trained (mostly) and totally has shown us tons and tons of love.  We love her dearly and are glad she is a part of our family.

As some of you might have noticed, near the top of the right side bar, we added 2 ways to subscribe to our blog and receive all of our posts.  One by entering your email and the other by clicking the link.  THis way, you can be kept abreast of whenever we post.  I will admit, I did sign up for a tester and didn't receive any emails yet.  If you sign up, please let us know if it is working.  If not,  I will have to figure out the glitch.  Anyway, we thought it would be easier for you guys that way, as long as it works. 

On the reading/reviewing front, I have yet to review "Icecore" as well as interview the author for you guys.  I think that will happen over the next few days.  As well, I'm very excited to remind you that we are supposed to be interviewing the NYT best-selling author Frank Beddor.  Frank is best known for his trilogy, the "Looking Glass Wars" in which Alice in Wonderland meets reality.  Hopefully some of you have read them.  If not, hopefully you will after my review.  i picked up a copy of "Arch Enemy" which is book 3 in the trilogy this past weekend and can not wait to plow through it! I also have a few books that I have read and not reviewed yet that I will be posting this week.  They are pretty popular and I am looking forward to sharing them with you all.  As well, in the New Year Mara has promised me that she will be reading and reviewing more.  Things have been crazy around here lately, and things on the 3 girl's front have sort of slowed a bit.  The girls are up to their noses in schoolwork (for which I am actually pleased as they are doing very well!) but promised also to make an effort to review more steadily.  As for me well, like I said, more in the immediate future and  I plan to start reading much more aggressively than I have been.  THat just means more reviews for you guys. 

As far as the "Nook" Super Contest, things seem to be going well.  I plan to interview Becca in the next week or so and get some of her thoughts out to you guys.  She is an extremely talented author and I always like to get in their head and see what's cookin in there.  What I will say is that some of you have been making a genuine effort to gain some entries, while others are satisfied with their single entry.  Now I will say, it only takes 1 lucky entry to win, however the more you get the better your chances.  I think we have given you guys some easy- minor effort ways to gain more entries.  I know if it was me, I'd be doing everything I could to get as many entries as possible.  Posting the button as well as asking people to mention your name when signing up can gain you some serious entries.  We had mentioned in an earlier Scoop that we have had the chance to play with a real live Nook and it was extremely fun.  We can not wait to get ours!  Hopefully it will be arriving before January is over!  These things are still sold out which just blows my mind.  I wish Barnes and Noble had prior planned a bit better and made more.  Oh well, what can you do??  Sort of makes the anticipation of waiting for ours all that more exciting i suppose.

Well, something we have asked a few times, and although we have gotten some emails, we will reach out to you guys once again for help.  What can we do in 2010 to make the site better for you guys??  We will continue with the usual- reviews, interviews, contests, the Scoop and whatever else we usually do around here, but we want to be different.  We want to grab hold of your attention and not let go.  That is the reason we ask you what you would like from us.  Whatever it takes, we will deliver.  You can always comment on here or email us and we are always loving to get emails from you guys.  Perhaps we will have to make this fun.  Perhaps we will have a contest to see who comes up with the best new, original event for the Gang to host here.  More to come on that one!

I'll mention again that I am super excited as the 4 of us plan to attend BEA this year.  Why this is exciting is that we should be able to get a hold of every hot ARC for 2010.  This means nothing less than perhaps a MEGA ARC CONTEST!  Yes, we will definitely, without a doubt hold a bunch of giveaways for all of the ARC's we pick up.  Nothing would make us happier than to share them with you guys!  Besides the ARC's, we are so looking forward to meeting tons of authors, publishers, and hopefully fellow bloggers at BEA.  Registration should be soon, so we will confirm with you guys when we are registered and officially going.  Can't wait!

Although we have already done it, TLG would like to wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year and want to let you know that thanks to you guys, we were able to host TLGBRS this past year.  It has brought us so much joy to be able to create and maintain this site for you guys, you have no idea.  It is such a pleasure when we read your comments about enjoying our reviews or when we can help you decide to read a book that you might have been on the fence with.  That is why we keep doing what we do.  

We would like to give you guys a heads up on an awesome site that one of our affiliates, Paul of Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky has created.  Sourcebooks has provided us with review material as well as participated in sponsoring some of our giveaways.  They have just revamped their YA dept. and created it's own independent site with tons of things to come in the New Year.  If you would like to check out their new site click the following link- teenfire.sourcebooks.com  Paul is hard at work on the site and promises many exciting new books and other fun stuff coming our way.  Luckily, yours truly was the first to actually join up as a follower/member when the site was still in it's creation stage.  It was just for fun but still, being first was pretty cool.  Especially when the site takes off!

We hope that many of you will take the opportunity to review our last few posts in which I introduced my all time favorite author, James Rollins as well as reviewed his latest release, "Altar of Eden."  James is fairly young, so if you fall in love with his writing as I have, hopefully we have many years more of it to come.  Who is your all time favorite author??  I know many of us have our favorites, but I also know that each of us has that one author who totally inspires us and just blows our mind.  James is totally a pro at what he does and I totally respect him for that.  If I were to ever consider writing anything (hint, hint) I would totally take his work and learn from it.  There is plenty he has to offer.  Again, I am sure each of you has that special author that is your absolute favorite.  We at TLGBRS would love for you to share that person with us.  Tell us who it is and what about them totally blows you away.  Just another way for us all to share and possibly be introduced to some new authors and books.

Well, considering I wrote this edition of "Sunday Scoop" fairly late, and I'm running out of time for it becomes Monday morning, I'm going to head out, get Bella (and the rest of the gang) ready for bed and perhaps read a bit.  I hope you have all enjoyed this Scoop and check back this week as the pace around here is going to be picking up again, and hopefully full steam ahead!  Stay tuned and don't miss the train!

Thanks to you all!

DAVE