BBAW Interview: The Mortal’s Library

It’s Interview Swap Day, the best part of Book Blogger’s Appreciation Week when you get to meet and talk behind the scenes with book lovers from around the world. Today it is my pleasure to welcome two bloggers from The Mortal’s Bookshelf, Shelbie and Amanda.

Shelbie and Amanda are teens from Minnesota who enjoy reading and writing about books, in particular the hugely popular YA fiction genre. Some books they have reviewed recently include The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab and Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik.

Let’s meet Shelbie and Amanda!

I really want to find out about writing as a team. That seems like so much fun.

Blogging as a team seems like a great way to keep content flowing. Do you check in with each other about each post or do you write the reviews independently?

Shelbie:  Mostly, we write independently. If there is a lag in posts sometimes we will get together to and do something random so readers don’t just look at an empty blog. We also get together for blog events we have like Fantasyfest. 🙂

I’m glad you mentioned FantasyFest. Next month Shelbie and Amanda are going to have some fabulous events and giveaways at their blog. More about that at the end.

What are some of the advantages of blogging as a team? Any disadvantages?

Shelbie: One I can think of is that we have a joint Twitter account (Follow @mortalslibrary!) and somehow we always end up on it at the same time, so I’ll be getting ready to post something and all the sudden there are people responding to a random post that I didn’t put up, so I’ll have to look to see what Amanda wrote, and then everything gets super complicated… haha! Amanda: Well like Shelbie said, the Twitter thing. Also, sometimes it gets confusing in e-mails because for official blog stuff we use our joint e-mail. We definitely love blogging as a team though, because it means even more work goes into our blog and we don’t have to worry about it being neglected.

I can relate to Twitter issues. I resorted to starting another account.

You interviewed Lisa and Laura Roecker, authors of The Liar Society. Sounds like they started out as readers, too. Any plans to be writers?

Amanda: I have come up with several ideas for books and even written bits and pieces, but when it comes down to it I just don’t have the time or the patience to write a book. Maybe in the future though. Shelbie: Right now, I always thought it would be super cool to be a writer and I’ll always come up with these ideas that I think are really really awesome and then I’ll maybe get one chapter in to the “book”… I just don’t have a long enough attention span to be a writer!

I don’t think you give yourselves enough credit. You have some wonderful content on your blog.

Do you think your tastes in books has changed since you started the blog? Do you see any changes in the future?

Amanda: Our blog has definitely opened me up to new genres and authors, so yeah. I’ve realized that I really love dystopians and they’re my favorite books to read. I also am a little pickier about what I read now, because I have a time frame and a deadline for a lot of my reviews, so I can’t waste time on books I don’t like. As for the future, I’m not sure. I feel like in the long term I’ll still read the books I like now, but maybe be a bit more open to other books. Shelbie: Not really, I think my interests have broadened over the time that we’ve run The Mortal’s Library but generally I think that I always be attracted to lovey dovey romance novels… what can I say…

Do you read mostly e-books or traditional paper kind? Preferences?

Shelbie: I have a Nook, and I’d say I use it about 50% of the time, I’m so bad, if I really really really want a book I’ll buy it on ebook at light midnight the night it comes out (just a tip, if you don’t set your time, it will default to the eastern time zone and if you live in centeral time like me, you get your books at 11!) and I’ll buy the ebook for books that I don’t already have hard copies of, but I still enjoy the satisfaction of turning the page. Amanda: I also have a Nook, so I read a lot of my books on there. However, a good percentage of the books I read are by authors I know and love, so I buy physical copies of their books.

I have to admit I have a preference for the paper kind, mostly because until recently the electronic readers didn’t handle picture books as well. With apps, who knows?

If you could change places with any of the characters in the books you reviewed this year, who would it be and why?

Amanda:  That’s really difficult actually. There are so many different worlds I’d like to live in and characters I’d like to be around. If I had to choose one person to switch places with, I think it’d be Zoey from Forget You by Jennifer Echols, just because Zoey gets Doug, who is one of my biggest book crushes. Although I hope I’d make less mistakes than Echols’ characters. Shelbie: Ooh, this is a good question. I would say Bianca Piper from The Duff, because she is so sure of herself. Also because she gets Wesley, but you know… just a minor detail 🙂

I review children’s books, so I have to ask what your favorite children’s book was/is?

Shelbie: It was Little Bo by Julie Andrews Edwards. Amanda:  Okay, it’s not a picture book, so I guess it’s an older children’s book, but I love Coraline by Neil Gaiman. It still gives me the chills when I read, but it’s one of my favorites.

Amanda and Shelbie have big event called Fantasyfest each year. For a month they offer a blast of author interviews, guest posts, giveaways and of course, awesome reviews. The best news is that this year’s Fantasyfest is coming in October. Be sure to bookmark their website and visit often.

Learn more about what they have to offer here: