Answers To Your Questions: Part 1

Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my first ever call for Q&A questions. The form is still open for now if you want to submit something!

I’ve broken them into smaller sections and some are themed and some were questions I decided I would devote a whole post to! So today I’m going to answer some of the ~about me~ sort of questions!

Have you ever thought about doing videos on YouTube? I think your very interesting and your blog posts ROCK!!! I would love to see videos either book or lifestyle related! ~Erin A.

Well, firstly, thank you for that major boost today! You are way, way, way too kind. I did do Youtube videos for a while on my channel, perpetualpageturner, but then I stopped. It got to be too much to balance between blogging and making videos and I much prefer writing. Plus I went through this stretch where I was kind of BLAH and I noticed that when I would make videos I just couldn’t fake being super cheery and stuff so it came off very bland. Also? I hate editing videos. Like so much. And honestly I love that I can be writing blog posts while in my jammies and with greasy hair and nobody knowwws. Youtube was sooo much effort for me to look semi decent.

It’s funny you ask this though because I have been getting this itch to do more lifestyle videos to go along with how my blog direction is going. WE SHALL SEE THOUGH. Maybe I need to step out of my comfort zone. I think I got kind of bored doing just book videos so maybe trying different types of videos will help. I also think I had a hard time doing book videos because I had a hard time finding my community there (not to say they weren’t) but I felt SOOO much older than many of the YA booktube community. I felt like such an old boring married lady so maybe I just need to make videos that would attract other old married ladies (now even more boring with a baby that I always talk about! ha! Is there a market for that??). Jkjk but I’m glad you asked this because now I’m really thinking about it.

Do you ever plan to relocate out of PA/the Philly area, or do you love where you live?

For a really, really long time in my early 20’s I wanted to move so badly. I imagined myself moving and living a couple places before I was 30.  But then my sister had Genevieve and I just really wanted to be in the area to know this little niece of mine. Since then Will and I HAVE talked about moving and places we’d move to (Chicago, NYC, San Diego, Austin, London (lol wishful thinking) are some of our top cities) and it totally COULD happen because his job has opportunities as they are global.

The nieces and nephews that would make it hard to leave

It’s funny though, as the years have gone on, I realized that in addition to being really rooted here because of my nieces and nephews and new friends I’ve made that I actually REALLY love this area. Philly is a great city. We are close to the beach. We are close to the mountains. We are close enough to make day trips to New York and D.C. We have major transportation hubs. There’s just honestly access to lots of stuff and I realized how much I genuinely love this area.

So will we ever? I don’t know at this point especially with having Riley now. I think my mother-in-law would kill us. But it’s always in the back of my mind just because I always have this desire for a new adventure.

I know you’ve been through a lot in life, so I would like to know how books have helped you/if you have any kind of book that is helpful when things get too much (asking for me). — Elena – Bodies in the Library (Elena is great, you guys, you should follow)

Oh wow what a great question! Books have meant SO MUCH TO ME when things have been hard in so many ways. When I was in need of an escape when things were way too much I could always pick up a book and get to take my mind off for it. I feel like books REALLY helped me in dealing with losing my mom. I lost my mom when I was 21 and I think discovering YA and so many books that dealt beautifully with grieving really helped me to process my own experience through what I was reading on those pages (you can read more about that here and specifically this book just GOT ME). They made me feel not alone and honestly made me confront some things on those pages that helped the grieving process. I will say it’s funny how books have always found me in the right time and one of those books was Just One Day by Gayle Forman…it literally changed my life because it inspired me to take action when it came to a couple things in my life.

I’m not sure exactly what kind of book you are looking for based on your last part of this question so I’m going to answer it in two ways. When life is way too much and I want to escape I absolutely reach for very lighthearted and happy books because it helps suck away some of that heaviness.

My favorite place to escape reality with a book

In terms of books that have helped me gain some perspective or inspired me when things were tough: Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, The Last Lecture by Randy Paush. I feel like I really like to read about people going through hard times who have insight and perspective and I can see that they survived and persevered. Related, but not exactly books, guided journals have helped me SO MUCH. I just wrote a post about them! Definitely have helped me when things have been too much recently!

What’s your favourite book of all time. You know, that book you’d honestly read over and over again?!

This question is so evil because 1) never in the 32 years of my life have I ever been able to pick ONE favorite book and 2) I’ve been SO, SO, SO bad at rereading even favorites in the past few years so this is making my brain hurt thinking about this.

But I just looked over my “favorites” lists and one really stood out to me and I’m kind of shocked because it’s not the book that I would have thought I would have picked out of all my all time faves (ie anything Gayle Forman, Morgan Matson, Melina Marchetta, Anna and the French Kiss, Fangirl, etc). I’m going to say Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. I am shocked. Wow I just picked a favorite. And it kind of was revolutionary because I have so many books I’ve loved for longer and more fiercely than I’ve loved that one but it’s the one I’m like yes I could read it over and over again. It makes my heart happy and I could read it no matter my mood and no matter WHAT I’m in the mood for. The other book I was going to pick was Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta but that’s the third and final book in a series so I thought that might be a weird book to pick I honestly think it’s my all time favorite book EVER.

What is your favorite social media, and why?

For the longest time I would have said Twitter. It was definitely the place where, for blogging, I made all my best friends and where I had the best conversations on social media. Lately (for blogging AND personal life) it’s definitely been Instagram. It’s funny because I kind of have a love/hate relationship with that ~Insta-perfect~ kind of vibe Instagram has but I love the visual aspect and I am REALLY loving Instagram Stories — way more laid back and kind of like the old school Instagram feel. (If you don’t follow me on Insta you should!!)

How many sisters do you have? I know you talk about the one a lot and I think you have more? What’s your relationship with them like? -Mandi

I have 3 sisters — one biological and two half sisters! One is older than me by 2 years, my sister Angela who I talk a lot about is younger than me by 2 years and my youngest sister is 23. I’m really close with Angela — we fought like crazy as teens/college but we’ve been through so much together and we’ve always just been super close since we were kids despite those moments. Especially now as adults we are ridiculously close. My other two sisters I’ve never LIVED with them (my youngest I saw a lot more when we were younger and we also spent lots of weekends and summers there) but I’m close with my youngest sister and not-so-close with my oldest. We’ve just had a rocky relationship and have just never been able to remain close but in the past few years we definitely talk here and there and things are 100% fine with us but we just, for whatever reason, can never get beyond a certain level of closeness.

What would you say your worst habit is? –Lindsey

Oh god I have so many bad habits. Do I want you to think less of me? haha. Sure, why not. I’m pretty sure Will would say that my worst habit is leaving cabinets in the kitchen open. I don’t know WHY I do that but I do. It annoys him to no end. I think one of my worst habits, personally, is that I’m terrible at texting people back/keeping in touch. I have gotten LOADS better at it though in the past couple years.

Okay that’s all the questions I wanted to fit in this section! Feel free to ask any — through the form or in the comments if you have any you want me to answer! This is so fun!!