A little bloggerly clean up

I can't believe I'm doing this, but *sigh* I am. I've read posts on various sites over the past few months about professionalism in the writing industry, and one idea that comes up repeatedly is how to handle the issue of book reviews and such. Keep in mind that I don't necessarily believe in the old saying, "if you don't have nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all" when it comes to books. I think authors should expect to get both good and bad reviews and judge their worth accordingly. But as a writer (and hopefully a professional one someday), I've come to the conclusion that it could be bad business to rate a book and then expect to sit next to that same author during a conference or such.

Let me say that this isn't easy. I do love talking about books, especially what worked for me and what didn't, and I love it when someone reads a book I've recommended and adds their own stamp of approval. But it's a step towards becoming a professional writer that I feel is necessary to take. Granted, I'm not published yet, but it seems good to get into the practice now. So *takes a deep breath* I've erased all my book reviews and ratings. Yep, that's right. I've taken that tab off my blog. Now if you look up there, you'll notice that I still have an addictive books list. I thought it would be okay to at least list the books that I absolutely loved and hopefully someone will peek at them from time to time. I've also kept up my lists of all the books I've read the past two years because I find it highly motivating to watch the lists grow. But you're not going to see any star ratings anymore. Unfortunately, this leaves me with one less feature on my blog, which means that I'll have to find more interesting things to talk about. I'm thinking I'll have to beef up my posts on writing in general and try to come up with some good topics that my readers will find entertaining. And maybe next year I'll start doing teasers again. I should have a new WIP going by February. We'll see.

Coming up tomorrow: More about resolutions!!