M.I.A. for now

Just wanted to touch base and apologize for being off the radar for awhile.  Lots of craziness around here and the blog has been neglected.  My apologies.  I've been hospitalized and will be again in the next few weeks awaiting some surgery that will hopefully resolve a sudden health problem.  While in the hospital I tried to do reading for reviews but the painkillers gave me a strange sort of "stoner dyslexia" that made anything I wrote complete nonsense (as opposed to the usual partial nonsense!).

In any case, in fitting with the Eastern European Reading Challenge, I have a Russian doctor! LOL  That has to count somehow....he's adorable too. Igor, can you believe it?

So, good news and bad news:
Bad news:
The blog will be updated less frequently, however, I do have some reviews lined up as I still have to keep to my obligations.  The Eastern European Challenge will be the priority in terms of reviews, so please share any titles, and if anyone would like to guest-host a post, email me and we can chat.  This week should see a few new posts, and I'll stagger some in advance to auto-post.  But yes, the EERC is still a go so please continue to submit titles and remarks.

Good news:
I have about a gazillion giveaways in the future, as many publishers are sending me duplicates of everything, and a few are international.  So check in for those now and then.  Algonquin has been especially generous with their summer and fall catalog titles.

Especially good news is I've been offered some more paying gigs to write and do reviews for some print magazines, so that's going to be a financial boost (helpful!), but I will not be allowed to use them on the website (magazine gets exclusive rights).  But, I'll let you know what they are if they are especially excellent.  This last month saw a number of print reviews in a variety of places, as well as a few feature articles on literary topics.  Yes, a byline!  Woo-hoo!

Publicists and publishers:
Per my contact tab above, I'm not able to accept any more review titles until things settle down.  Just put me on hold, and don't write me off yet!  Any books I have already rec'd are still in the lineup according to date of receipt.

And in terms of some great other stuff to look at, in case you've missed it, check out HTMLGiant and Daniel Casey's Gentlyreadlit, as well as Lisa's Other Bookshelf and A Concise Blog for some great titles to explore.

This week should feature a review of Thomas Bernhard's Prose, possibly later today.  It's about what happens when you think too much.

If you have any questions, e-me at amy at theblacksheepdances dot com.