Gimme Five! or How I Survived a Half-Decade of Blogging

So, my dear friends and occasional readers...Offbeat YA turns five today! 🙌

I don't know if it's a big accomplishment or not. There are probably many blogs out there older than mine. For sure, there are SO many blogs out there that have been able to grow (much) bigger and better than my corner of the web in a (much) shorter span of time. There are so many dedicated bloggers who have worked hard and have grown an impressive reader base, while I was posting once a week in my best year (2014) and struggling to even do so. I can blame my hectic life and a whole set of issues that I have to battle every single day, plus work, plus age (because yes, I do tire more easily than I used to), plus the fact that I can't buy all the books most people can afford and I don't even want to, since I'm SO. DARN. PICKY. The fact is, after five years, I'm still one of the smallest fishes in an overwhelmingly vast sea of bloggers. Do I regret it?

To an extent, yes, of course I do. I would love to be popular and - more than anything - to be able to inspire more people with the desire to read those less hyped books I made it my mission to boost five years ago. But I'm aware I'm not cut out to be popular. And while my age doesn't seem to count for much (despite the vast majority of bloggers being in their 20s, maybe 30s), since my MUCH younger peeps gladly (??? 😉) interact with me all the time - the books I don't read, the memes I don't participate in, and more than anything, the posts I don't write, condemn me to blogger oblivion. Oh, I've tried to spice things up from time to time. I've also tried to concoct a reading/blogging schedule, and you know? it would work fine, if only my life were a tiny bit simpler. Because I try to set feasible goals, but even those ultimately get smashed by the weight of my reality. So, even smaller goals. A simplified schedule. And I trudge on.

But I'm not here to complain, heaven forbid. All in all, I'm a happy blogger, because I engage in something that I like, get to talk to like-minded people (or to great people anyway), have a handful of authors who trust me with their budding books (as in, beta-reading and such), and most of all, I'm part of the world. From behind this screen, from this crippled life I'm forced to live because of a series of home problems I won't weigh you with, I rise and breath and feel like I'm a human being with a purpose and a place (albeit small) in the world. That's the magic of reading and blogging to me.

Now it's time for me to thank a few people, who are the reasons why I not only survived a half-decade of blogging, but also found solace and enjoyment in this hobby of mine. So the Offbeat YA awards go to (in roughly chronological order)...

• Karen (from For What It's Worth) for being my first blogging friend and a tireless commenter/retweeter, and for always providing a smile or a good laugh with her pet pics and tales;
• Hannah...or Sophia...😉 (from Bookwyrming Thoughts) for being my first follower (it was a follow train thing, but kudos to her for turning it into a peculiar kind of friendship later, though she sometimes likes to remind me I could be her mom 😅), and for making me understand the importance of gifs 😜;
• Kate (from Midnight Book Girl) for being a funny and big-hearted blogger, and for sharing my Christopher Pike obsession;
• Guinevere and Libertad (from Twinja Book Reviews), also known as authors GL Tomas, for always being appreciative of yours truly and her blog even when it doesn't deal with diverse books or inclusivity;
• Anila (she's not blogging right now, but this is her old blog, and you can talk to her on Twitter) for making me laugh with her vignettes and cry with her story, and for being the only certified person whom I was able to turn into a book/author enthusiast (Christopher Pike, go figure 😊);
• Tessa (from Crazy for YA) for her unwavering support and for being a fellow Supernatural & Doctor Who fan;
• Veronika and Ruzaika (from The Regal Critiques) not only for being friends with this old lady to the point of asking her to guest-post on their blog, but also for letting her pick their Halloween nicknames 😄 (that was last year);
• Fanni (from Ink, Maps & Macarons) for tweeting me David Tennant gifs when I'm down and fangirling with me over him and Doctor Who (occasionally, Supernatural too);
• and, last but not least, Carrie (from Bright, Beautiful Things) for always being amenable to chat on Goodreads and liking my reviews on there, plus commenting often on my blog though I can't comment on hers (it's a Tumblr), plus being a fellow Christopher Pike fan (do you see a pattern here? 😎).

Oh, and of course I have my handful of authors to thank too (again, in chronological order 😉). B.C. Johnson, Erin Callahan, Troy H. Gardner (just a Goodreads page for him at this stage - new site coming soon), Allison Rose, every single one of which trusted me with something they had written and thought that my opinion mattered. Not to mention the wonderful folks at Curiosity Quills Press, who don't care if I'm the smallest blogger alive and are always happy to feed me books with no strings attached (not that I request a ton, but still).

Now, I know it's customary to do a giveaway on such occasions as blogoversaries. I feel really small because I can't afford one. Also, me, Hanna Sophia (and her cobloggers of course) and Tessa were planning to do a group blogoversary celebration (ours are close), but I had to back out ultimately, since I didn't have the time to come up with ideas and stuff for it, and I don't know yet if I rained on their parade so hard that they decided not to do a joint event at all, with or without my input. (If so...I'm sorry, peeps 😢). As I said, my life has a mind of its own. But I love every single one of you, and I hope you'll understand. Thank you for being at my side during this crazy journey, and I hope for better things when Offbeat YA turns ten...also because ten is a magic number with me 😉 (...nah, that wasn't a Doctor Who and David Tennant reference, not at all...😜).

Thank you all, and never stop being amazing!