Armchair BEA: Beyond the Blog

Hm. Today we're supposed to talk about top tips for getting beyond the blog. I don't monetize, but I do write all of my primary reviews for another site. I like to think that folks like what they read there and find the blog or vice versa.

I did recently join Twitter though. I was pretty against it for a while, realizing how much time I spend online already, it felt like just one more thing to add to the already long list of distractions :) But I bit the bullet earlier this year and joined up.

Most of my Twitter friends are fellow book people. I've discovered new blogs and new authors and I've tried to promote my own blog further through the site. It's actually a whole lot of fun.

If you want to follow me, my handle is @BeckyLeJeune

A fun aspect about life separate from the blog... I'm a big foodie. Big. I have a huge cookbook collection that actually influenced the design of our small kitchen reno (currently ongoing). See we moved in Dec and the new house had very limited work space available on the counter. By limited (and I'm aware there's worse out there), I mean a little over a square foot of space so close to the stove top that my elbow could rest on the burner limited.

Plus, the design of the house was such that you'd have to go downstairs to get to the dining table (as the previous folks had it laid out) and, sorry, I need space for my books. So we added a few prefab cabinets and an eat-in island with bookshelf supports. It's not finished, but now my cookbooks are on the shelves and I'll have plenty of space to do things like roll out dough or lay out condiments and side dishes. I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to cooking, but having no work space and constantly juggling things around has made cooking in this house not as much fun as it used to be. I'm looking forward to it being done and diving into some new recipes. I've even got a new Indian cookbook I've been waiting to try out on company. And now that we won't have to sit at the coffee table to eat, hopefully it'll be easier to have guests over for dinner.