BBAW Interview – Part I

In celebration of BBAW, Nat from In Spring It Is the Dawn and I had a little chat and got to know each other better!  We took a cue – okay stole - from Nymeth and Chris‘s Nerds Heart YA posts and used the magic of Google Documents to kind of interview each other in real time.  The first part of our conversation appears below, and the second half is over at Nat’s.  So, make sure you catch both parts.

Jessica: Nat, I’ve been reading your site for a while now, but, as with most book blogs I read, I’m dying to know more about you! Tell me three non-bookish things about yourself.

Nat: I’m a major night owl. I love the quiet time after my husband, and the cats, have gone to sleep. However, this means that I’m often on a slightly different schedule to my husband, and makes getting up in the morning more difficult. On the other hand, I do love my sleep, so I’m a walking contradiction.

Autumn is my favourite season. It’s still feeling quite summery here, but recently the nights are cooler, and I can’t wait. I love it when there is that crisp coolness in the air, and the leaves change colour. For various reasons I haven’t had a chance to get out with my camera all that much this year, but I’m really looking forward to taking some photos of the bright yellow ginkgo trees, and the red Japanese maple, and since we moved this summer, exploring some of the parks in this area.

I’ve lived in Japan for almost 9 years now, on and off, but I still can’t speak much Japanese. I can basically only manage greetings and short sentences. I teach English as a Second Language, but I’m a terrible student myself. At least I can sympathize with my students who are struggling to learn English.

OK, now it’s your turn. Tell me three non-bookish things about yourself.

Jessica: I love autumn too! I can’t wait for pumpkins and pie, though not necessarily pumpkin pie. I, however, really detest the season following fall. But, I digress. Three non-bookish things. Here I go:

(1) I am a practicing attorney in Utah. I do a lot of real estate and construction disputes and divorces. It’s a challenging, exhausting, and usually rewarding job.

(2) I love puppies and Dr. Pepper. I have an eight-month-old Beagle puppy named Blue. She’s adorable and mischievous.

(3) I’m expecting a baby girl in January! I’m very excited about that – even if being pregnant is not the most comfortable thing in the world.

Let’s see, Nat. Why are you over there in Japan? I think it’s very romantic that you are sort of an ex-patriot. Did you start blogging after you got there?

Nat: I didn’t realize that you were expecting! Congratulations!

Jessica: Thanks! I haven’t announced it yet on my blog, so this will be the first mention of it. No better time than BBAW, eh?

Nat: Definitely! Why am I in Japan? That’s a good question; I often wonder the same thing! But seriously, I studied Applied Linguistics (Teaching English as a Second Language) in university and I decided to try teaching somewhere other than Canada, for the experience of it. Japan was a logical choice and I originally came over for one year on a Working Holiday Visa. After that year, I went back to Canada but decided to return to Japan the following year, this time to Tokyo where I taught Business English. Then I met the man who is now my husband, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As for blogging, yes I started in Japan. We actually lived in England for a few years, due to my husband’s job, but we came back to Japan about 4 years ago and I started blogging not too long afterwards.

How about you? Why did you decide to start a book blog?

Jessica: I started a personal blog in 2007, but I ended up mostly posting about the things I was reading. I eventually decided to put all of the book-related stuff over at The Bluestocking Society and keep the personal stuff on my personal blog. Unfortunately, the personal blog died a slow death and no longer exists. I just love blogging about books and reading other people’s blogs about books.

Nat: Me too! It’s easy for books to take over, isn’t it? How did you decide on the name of your blog, The Bluestocking Society?

Jessica: Well, I hadn’t ever really heard the term “bluestocking” before deciding to start a book blog. I came across it when I was doing thesaurus searches on book-related terms. Once I saw the definition – “a woman with considerable scholarly, literary, or intellectual ability or interest” – I knew I had a blog name.

I think I read on your blog that your blog name comes from a Japanese book. Is that right?

Nat: Well, I think it’s a great name! As for mine, yes, it’s actually the first line of The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, written about 1000 years ago by a contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu who wrote The Tale of Genji. The Pillow Book is full of random lists, observations and her opinions of all the various things that went on at court in Heian Japan like fashion, poetry, love, weather, etc. Even though the book was written so long ago, it still surprisingly resonates, and I like to think that if Sei Shonagon were alive today she’d have a blog and would write some very entertaining posts.

Jessica: It’s a beautiful line, and it sounds like an interesting book. I’ll have to check it out. Did you know about the “book blog community” when you started In Spring It Is the Dawn?

Nat: Not really. Before I started blogging I used to belong to a few Yahoo book groups and some of the members had book blogs, which is what gave me the idea to start my own. At that time I only knew of a few others so I had no idea just how big the book blogging community really was, or would become. It’s hard to believe that there are 1000 or so blogs registered for BBAW! I wish I had time to read all of them.

Is there anything you wish you’d known about blogging before you started?

Jessica: I know what you mean. I think I’m still in shock about just how many book bloggers there are. It actually makes me feel better about the future of the book. We won’t let it die!

As for what I wish I’d known about blogging before I started, there are quite a few little things. It takes a lot of time. Not just with posting and commenting and whatnot, but with maintaining my actual blog. I’ve taught myself a little HTML so I can customize things, but it would have been so much easier at the beginning if I had taken a class in it or something. I also do wish I had known more about the whole of the book blogging community, so I could have gotten more involved right away. Still, my blogging experience has been very organic, and I’ve moved from step to step as I have reached it.

Now head on over to Nat’s for the conclusion of this scintillating interview.

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Tagged as: BBAW, Interviews