Guest Post: Cat From Beyond Books

I don't really recall how I stumbled upon Kristi's blog, but I know that aesthetically it drew me in and I would find a TON of book recommendations through her. Her About Me page had that cartoon image of her and her dog, and well, I fell for the dog. When Xander had dental surgery a few years ago that is when I started reading Kristi's blog on a regular basis. As a dog person myself I was very concerned as was my husband. I made a little Get Well Soon blog post from my dogs to hers and we started chatting more regularly.

Kristi wasn't someone I would email on a regular basis but I would comment on posts and I truly enjoyed the few chats we had and her sense of humour and of course, we traded dog stories.

When I was planning my trip to BEA I suddenly found myself in need of a roommate and I had mentioned I probably couldn't go without one. I was lucky enough to not only finally meet Kristi in person at BEA 2010 but to also share a hotel room with her (and Erica from The Book Cellar). I couldn't have asked for more like-minded roommates! Kristi and I are eerily similar from our not liking crowded events to going to bed at a reasonable Granny-type time while all the Young People (*ahem*, Erica!) party it up until 11:00 p.m. *gasp!*

I am thankful for the internet because it has allowed me to meet someone I could easily consider one of the best friends I have had in my life - who lives very far away! We aren't on the phone or email to each other every day, but I consider Kristi a great friend and I always appreciate her humour, opinions and book rec's.

Of course if I were to be completely 100% honest with everyone - I really only like Kristi for her dog.

                              --Cat from Beyond Books

Lesley Livingston's Words To Kristi + Giveaway

Kristi was one of the first YA book bloggers I had the pleasure of getting to know, back before WONDROUS STRANGE, my first novel, was even published. Her unbridled enthusiasm, respect for the work and the authors, and her adorable personality were immediately irresistible. She has since proven to be a driving force in spreading the love and getting the word out about all of the fantastic YA stuff out there and the blogosphere would be a poorer place without her. I not only appreciate her as a writer, I follower her as a reader! She makes me glad to have a character in my books who is a Siren! :-) Happy Blogday, Kristi!  Cheers---Lesley Livingston, Author of Wondrous Strange

*Giveaway*

Lesley Livingston has been generous enough to donate one (1) signed, finished hardcover copy of TEMPESTUOUS (Wondrous Strange # 3) in honor of Kristi's 3 year blogoversary and the Story Siren Appreciation Week. Thank you so much Lesley!

To enter:

- Leave a comment, with a way we can get in contact with you, telling us your favorite feature/meme/event hosted on her blog (POC lit challenge, IMM, Books to Pine For, Dear Story Siren etc. etc.)

AS King's Words To Kristi + Giveaway

What to say about Kristi? The woman rocks. I feel book bloggers have been a large part of any success I've had in reaching my audience and Kristi reaches out so many people! She writes great reviews, supports authors in tons of different ways and is really really really nice. I know. People think nice is a lame word, but I don't. In fact, I think nice is probably the coolest thing a person can be. Like so many bloggers, Kristi works her butt off and she doesn't have to do it. But she does it for us. Readers, writers, publishers and the blogging community. So Kristi--you ROCK. I know I've told you this before, but I'll just keep saying it. You rock. You rock. You rock. Thank you so much for everything you've done to support me and my work. (You rock.) -- AS King, Author of Please Ignore Vera Dietz

*Giveaway*

A.S. King has been generous enough to donate a "Please Ignore Vera Dietz mini pizza box of interesting Vera Dietz-related swag". (Non-chocolate lovers, do not apply.) in honor of Kristi's 3 year blogoversary and the Story Siren Appreciation Week. Thank you so much A.S. King!

To enter:

- Leave a comment, with a way we can get in contact with you, either congratulating Kristi on 3 years of blogging, telling her what she means to you or sharing a fun Kristi moment or talking about a book you read because of her!  :)

Guest Post: James From Book Chic

I absolutely love Kristi. I mean, who doesn't? We started our blogs the same year (though I was first by 6 months- BEAT YA, KRISTI!) and so we've known each other a while. She's a wonderful person to talk to and we've helped each other out with questions we have or if we needed advice on something. But even though we'd chatted for so long, we didn't get to meet until this year at Book Expo America. We're both a bit shy, and she seems to be a kid at heart because she kept hitting me to show me how much she loved me. I went to bed with bruises at night (kidding). A favorite memory of mine (well, one of two) was Kristi seeing me shirtless in my hotel bed at night (I tried to cover myself with the comforter but alas, I could not); it was very funny and scandalous. The other favorite memory took place at PAYA when we spent the whole afternoon together drooling over hottie male authors, getting our hair pet by Josh Berk, and just having a good time together. It was fun to get to know her better. I can't wait to see what we get up to at BEA this coming year.

Kristi is a fantastic blogging inspiration; she's done so much for the YA blogging community (way more than I ever will) over the three years she's had her blog. She answers questions (I do this too though, but mine's not as successful), posts thoughtful discussion topics, has started up some wonderful features and annual challenges, helped out newbie bloggers by talking about them on her blog, has a cute, if extremely huge, dog (and I'm a cat person, so me calling a dog cute is BIG), among many other things. I don't even know how she does it all! 

I can't say enough good things about Kristi and her friendship means so much to me. I hope that both our friendship and her amazing blog continue on for years to come. Happy third blogoversary, Kristi!!
                                                          -- James from Book Chic (http://bookchicclub.blogspot.com/)

What Bloggers Have to Say About Kristi (2)

I don't know Kristi as well as some other bloggers. She's not my best blogging friend or anything like that. But, she was a big part of the inspiration behind my blog (I started it back when there were maybe 10 of us) and she's continued to be an amazing person to me. Whenever I'm working on one of my endless projects, she's always there and willing to help out. I guarantee that PAYA would never have been as successful as it was without Kristi. She even drove the 8+ hours it took to come out to the PAYA Festival in August to support it. Without Kristi here, I truly believe the blogging world would be different. I think we all look up to her and really, she deserves it! --Harmony

I met Kristi at PAYA this past summer and she was so very nice and extremely funny. For me, it was like meeting a blogger celebrity. :) She has contributed so much to the blogging community and I hope she is around for many more years to come. Congrats on your three year Blogoversary, Kristi! I am wishing you all the best.   ----Christina from Confessions of a Book Addict

Not going to lie. I was totally drawn in by Kristi's beautiful layout---true story. Then I started actually reading her blog and loved how passionate she was about YA literature which I had just recently started reading after a burnout of adult novels with too many marriages and divorces along with the harsh reality of being a college graduate. YA was my safe haven and Kristi helped to add some quality books to my radar. It wasn't until I met her at PAYA that I knew Kristi completely rocked. I had read her blog but only here and there. When I met her at PAYA I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought she might be loud, aware of how much of a "celebrity" she was and someone who probably wouldn't want to talk to a newbie blogger like me. Let me just tell you--I was WRONG. She is pretty shy until you get talking to her but she is so friendly and fun. She had to announce the winners of the raffle and she was so nervous to do it and she was just so humble! She's such a down to earth girl! We had the best time talking about books and how our husbands/boyfriends put up with our crazy bookish ways! I pretty much wanted to be bff's with her. Since then Kristi and I have talked on Twitter and on each other's blogs. She makes me laugh and she is truly one of my favorite people to talk to. She even is willing to help me out in the midst of a blogging "crisis" on a Friday night! She rocks. Congrats Kristi!  ---Jamie at The Broke and the Bookish/The Perpetual Page-Turner


I wanted to thank Kristi for being such an inspiration. I've gone through a few rough times on my blog, and she's always helped motivate me to carry on and continue to blog. Thank you, Kristi!!!

--Anne from Potter, Percy and I

Lisa Desrochers' Words To Kristi + Giveaway

"Even before Personal Demons sold back in December, I’d heard of Kristi’s blog. She’s kind of the queen of YA book blogging, so when I saw she’d added Personal Demons to her 2010 Debut Authors Challenge list, I felt like I’d made the big time! When she asked if I’d be interested in doing a September interview on her blog, I squeed (Seriously!) then totally sweated out her review. I even squeed again when she listed the sequel to Personal Demons, Original Sin, in her Books to Pine For post this week. Whether she knows it or not, Kristi is a rock star and I want to thank her for all her support"--Lisa Desrochers, Author of Personal Demons

*Giveaway*

Lisa Desrochers has been generous enough to donate one (1) copy of Personal Demons in honor of Kristi's 3 year blogoversary and the Story Siren Appreciation Week. Thank you so much Lisa!

To enter:

- Leave a comment, with a way we can get in contact with you, telling us a book you read because of Kristi!

What Bloggers Have To Say To Kristi (1)

In addition to authors, there are many book bloggers who have some things to say to Kristi:

Kristi over at The Story Siren is one of the nicest bloggers I’ve come across while blogging.  She’s also a fountain of knowledge about anything and everything in the YA world which I’ve come to appreciate a whole bunch.  The way that she reaches out to help newbie bloggers and even newbie authors with her Debut Author Challenge is nothing short of amazing and I admire the amount of work she puts into her blog because while my blog is all about me, Kristi’s blog is all about the reader and that’s totally worthy of my admiration.  When I first started The Book Scoop, Kristi took the time to give me a warm welcome and it totally made my month.  She’s like a blogging celebrity and I was touched that she took the time to stop by for a quick visit. Her blog posts are always thoughtful and helpful and really, there just isn’t another blogger quite like her.  Kristi rocks and I’m very appreciative of everything she does for the YA community and what she does for blogging in general.  Happy Story Siren Appreciative Week!             -- Rowena at The Book Scoop

Kristi means a lot to me and my blogging! She is the one who gave me the ambition to start my own blog! Also on those long days when everything about your blog and blogging goes wrong, she is always there to save your template or ask that dire question that needed to be answered. I have e-mailed Kristi so many times since I started blogging! She is there for moral support and always makes me feel better! I participated in the 2010 DAC and it was my favorite challenge of the year and I look forward to DAC 2011. I also can not get enough of IMM! I love watching Kristi's vlogs and they inspired me to start vlogging as well. I can not say enough about what a great friend Kristi is and how much her presence in the book blogging world means to me!

                                                                                                           -- Erika at Moonlight Book Reviews

Kristi's blog was one of the first I started reading on a regular basis.  She's been super supportive of my blog ever since I started it, doing things like allowing me to participate in Backstage Blogging, but also has tons of awesome stuff on her blog like IMM and the Debut Author Challenge.  Plus, i always love talking to her on Twitter about things like dogs, or just life in general.  Thanks for being so awesome, Kristi!

--Liz at Consumed By Books

I started book blogging only a few months after Kristi, and her book blog was one of the first I discovered when I started looking for other blogs in our community.  The blogging landscape was WAY different (and way smaller) back then, and I know we all took cues from each other to build up the blogs we have today.  Kristi puts so much work into her blog and has definitely earned all her success and popularity.  I still get excited to see a new post from her in my Google reader.  Happy blogoversary Kristi!                       

--Lenore at Presenting Lenore

I stumbled upon Kristi's blog quite by accident. I remember the first thing that really drew me in, was the title of her blog: The Story Siren.  As a huge lover of books and mythical sea creatures, you could say that she had me hooked before I even browsed through the actual contents of her blog. The concept of book blogs were still a relatively new concept to me at the time and as someone who had no idea how to approach or go about starting my own book blog, stumbling upon Kristi's blog was pretty much a heaven sent guide to me (and I'm sure many other bloggers). I spent the next couple of months playing blog voyeur, bookmarked her blog and started becoming an avid fan and devoted reader of her blog. Here was someone with a real, conversational, chatty voice whose love for reading simply just radiated (and still does) with each and every single word she types. Extremely generous, she not only spotlights fantastic new authors and books, but her willingness to share the wealth of knowledge that she's picked up from the book world and from working with various publishers has always been something that I've really appreciated and it's something that I'll never take for granted. Kristi, you''re a shining star in our book blogging community. Thank you for a real, shining presence, for the fantastic giveaways that you host, but mostly for making the time to always get back to us with any questions we may have - and all this while you still have a full-time job.  Happy blogaversary - and thank you for what you mean to the book blogging community. Here's to many more years of fabulous book blogging posts, interesting discussion points and wonderful, opinion-based (as opposed to academic based) book reviews!                                                                        - Tammy at The Book Fairy Haven