S.C. Flynn

My guest today is Rabindranauth, sole reviewer over at Drunken Dragon Reviews.

SCy-Fy: An easy one to start with, Rabindranauth – tell me about a typical blogging day.

DDR: A typical blogging day for me is pretty much popping into WordPress, checking notifications, then scrolling through my Reader to see what the folks I follow have been up to, if anything. In the event I’ve just finished reading a book, I’ll start putting together a review to post at some point, depending on when I think I’ve said all I wanted to say about it.

SCy-Fy: What are your future initiatives for the blog?

DDR: Currently, I’m quite happy with where my blog is. Beyond featuring some more Indie titles on it, I have nothing planned to get done on it anytime soon, beyond even more reading!

SCy-Fy: Looking forward 3-5 years, what do you think will be the major challenges for SFF blogging?

DDR: For SFF blogging, I think it’s only going to get better and better, as voices all around the world come online. The only real challenge I see will be where it comes to reviews, and their impartiality. Publishers are making it easier than ever to get free books out there for review, and I’ve already encountered some folks who seem to give nothing but absolutely good reviews. 1 + 1 . . .

SCy-Fy: Tips for bloggers? For reviewers? Writers?

DDR: For all three, it’s simple; do whatever you’re happiest doing. There’s always going to be a group of people that disagree with whatever you have to say or do, some quite eloquently, and some with the battle tested Yo Mama rebuttal. So write or post whatever makes you happiest to see out there with your name attached.

SCy-Fy: Just between us – your secret list of useful resources?

DDR: All the usual suspects where it comes to book reviews. I also use Goodreads and Worlds Without End. Other than that, there’s Fantasy Book Critic’s Upcoming Releases page that I scour for stuff I may be interested in. For general SFF stuff, I tend to go to Fantasy Faction, i09, Geekritique and The Wertzone.

SCy-Fy: Traps in SFF blogging?

DDR: Oh man, there’s the mother of all these: free books. When you’re blogging as a happy side effect of reading as I am, free books are exciting to receive, but they really throw off your plans for what you personally want to read. So you’ve got to find a balance between the two that works for you.

SCy-Fy: Things that have kept you going in hard times?

DDR: A new book. If I’m having hard times, I probably just need a fresh story to relax and brood over.

SCy-Fy: What has been your most popular post?

DDR: That would be my review of Anthony Ryan’s Tower Lord, which apparently does a good job of capturing the sentiments of most readers who’ve been waiting these last two years for the sequel to Blood Song from Anthony Ryan’s indie days.

SCy-Fy: Let’s finish with the bottom line. The best books of 2014?

DDR: I wrote a post giving my top 5 new releases of 2014, and then there was the stuff I read that was published before 2014, such as Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora, Gifune’s The Rain Dancers, Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon (reading at the moment but already a solid favourite), Tidbeck’s Jagannath, the list goes on and on and on…

SCy-Fy: Which upcoming releases are you most looking forward to reading?

DDR: After the big news from Brandon Sanderson the other day – those 2 new Mistborn sequels!