Sometimes it's the author not the story that gets my attention

*Reminder* Don't forget to enter my book for you, book for your library contest here!

I had this funny realization the other day. I have bought books based on what I knew about the author instead of just wanting to read the book. Who new? The prime example of this was Twilight. Let me just get this out there first - I am not a fan of vampires. Maybe it's the fact that I used to have this freaky reoccurring nightmare that involved a vampire when I was a kid, but I'm just not that into them. So it's no wonder I had no desire to read Twilight based on the fact it was about vampires (which as we know Twilight goes against many of the standard vampire ideas so maybe that's why I like it?).

Then I read an article/interview about Stephenie Meyer, then went and found her web site where she shares a lot of info on how it all began. Once I learned how she was a young mother of three and just sort of had this dream, wrote a book, and become a huge success I was intrigued. This was before the mayhem began (even before the last book came out - before I started writing even!) but late enough in the game that the world knew it as becoming a movie. Another reason I was curious. Love a book to movie.

It happened again when I started writing then blogging and discovered real life published authors were doing the same thing. Duh, right? When the awesome Beth posted about Carrie Ryan's debut The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I checked out Carrie's blog and site and instantly wanted to go get her book because her story was super interesting too. Lawyer turned YA fantasy writer? Love that. Did I also mention I'm not typically a big zombie fan? Yet I LOVED this book.

Most recently it happened with Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush. I'm not sure how I heard about it or if it was because I found her blog first then her site, but I wanted to read her book not only because it sounded amazing but because she seems like one of the nicest people on earth. Becca takes time to reply to what I am guessing are all the comments on her posts and is just so approachable you feel like you can ask her anything. Did I mention her book is AMAZING? It is.

I guess I'm a sucker for debut authors, especially ones who blog. It's like getting to know someone, and who doesn't want to pick up a friend's book? I sure do. In my mind blogging and other forms of social networking are a huge asset for both authors and readers. It helped me discover books I may have never read otherwise and boy am I glad I did. Lately I've been thinking about my time management (or lack thereof) and I just can't rationalize skimping on the time I spend reading and writing blogs or my growing interest in twitter because I love doing it and because I've seen how effective it is.

I'm far away from publication considering I don't have an agent yet, but the way I look at it is that I'm trying to do what I love seeing in authors. I'm recording my journey from the beginning. Even if I didn't want to become a published author I'd still do this because it's so fun and because of the incredible people I've met. For me blogging and networking is worth the time on many levels so I guess I'm going to have to find another place in my life to skim time from so I can write more and get other things done more efficiently. It really does come down to what is a priority for me. Sleep, showering? Who needs them? Kidding of course. Now cleaning under the bed or washing my car, they can wait.