Diversify Your SteamPunk Day 5: Welcome Back Balogun Ojetade!

During our month of highlighting diversity back in December of 2013, we introduced our audience to Balogun Ojetade for the first time. Clearly with his followong he doesnt need to be introduced, but we couldnt think of a more deserving candidate to end our first week of Diversifying our Steampunk.
1. You've been here before, so while we don't require an introduction, our new followers do! What can you tell us about yourself the person, the author and the steampunk innovator?

My name is Balogun Ojetade. Although my name  is Yoruba, I am descended from the Ateke people of Gabon and the Seminole Nation of the Southeastern United States. I am a husband, father of eight children – seven girls and one boy – and I am also a grandfather twice over.

I am author of six novels, one non-fiction book, several articles and short stories I wrote are in anthologies and magazines and I am contributing co-editor of two anthologies. I am also a filmmaker and fight choreographer and I have created two short films and two feature films and choreographed three films, thus far.

Blogoversary Celebration Day 4: Interview with Romance Novels in Color + 2 Amazon giftcard giveaways!

Today we’re sitting down with Delaney Diamond, the site manager of "Romance Novels in Color." "Romance Novels in Color" promotes diversity in romance novels, which is great to hear. Too many novels focus on a "default"(white) experience, when love is experienced by all. They do some really fun things there, so we thought maybe they would be interested in coming on down. Guess what? They were!


1. What is Romance Novels in Color? Who is involved? Why do you feel as though Romance Novels in Color is necessary?

Romance Novels in Color (RNIC) is a review site that promotes the appreciation and awareness of diversity in romance novels. To meet our goal, we have a volunteer group of reviewers and offer advertising to authors. Our other volunteers include Kimberlee Stevenson, an avid reader and our Social Media Manager; Anna D., our Assistant Manager who handles everything from author promotions to advertising; MJ Kane, a published author and the Editor of our author and reader newsletters; Roxy Wilson, a published author who is our Review Coordinator; and Laurel Cremant, also a published author and RNIC’s regular blogger who shares romance industry news with her wicked sense of humor.

Twinja Book Reviews will be featured on "A Kind Voice on Books!"

Just wanted to let individuals know out in the internet world, that our blog, amongst many will be featured on "A Kind Voice on Books" , a part of the larger family of radio programs(Uniquely named "A Kind Voice") that include Good News, Music, Innovation, Sports and Movies. They focus greatly on positive and interesting reads.

The episode will be titled: "BookLove." It is a special episode "A Kind Voice on Books" is airing to bring listeners book recommendations they could possibly enjoy.

The host, Eden Blackwell, contacted us based on our multicultural themed blog, and thought we could give a unique perspective on our love for two books in particular. Ellen Oh's "Prophecy" from Guinevere's perspective, as well as Heather Heffner's "Year of the Wolf" from Libertad's.

Those were books both of us read, and have many positive things to say, that not only highlight diversity, but relate to us in some way.

The three fellow bloggers whom are being featured are:

Katie Cross of: KCross Writing
Kim Ukura of: Sophisticated Dorkiness
Al Kunz of: Big Al's Books and Pals

And us of course! Guin&Libby T. : Twinja Book Reviews

Anywho, it should be fun. It doesn't air until February 12, 2014 at 7:00 pm EST(6:00 pm CST) , but will be available for download for later listening @ http://tinyurl.com/qgkqory

We hope everyone can tune in!

Diversity on The Shelf-Reading Challenge 2014

Soooooo My sister and I don't usually join reading challenges but this one really caught our eyes!!! Either one of us should have no problem getting achieving this goal!!!

I'm(Libertad) going to set a goal of the 4th shelf, which is a goal of 19-24 books. I'm dealing with a bunch of stuff this year, but I know I can definitely handle 24 books!!!! I'll be tracking my progress every month!!!I'm sure 

Here's what I've completed so far:

1.Edge of Truth by Natasha Hanova

2.Burning Emerald by Jaime Reed

Why don't you join in on this awesome reading challenge!!!

Welcome to the 1st year of the Diversity on the Shelf reading challenge. The aim of Diversity on the Shelf 2014 Challenge is add diversity to you bookshelf by reading books by authors of color and/or about a main character of color.

Challenge Details

1. Any book (by any author) with a main character that is a person of color qualifies for this reading challenge, as well as any book written by an author of color. The goal is to encourage readers have a more diverse reading experience and to support diversity in the publishing industry by reading and reviewing books by or about person of color.

2. The challenge will run from January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014 (books read prior to 1/1/2014 do not count towards the challenge). You can join anytime before 12/1/2014. Sign up at My Little Pocketbooks

3. Books can be any format (print, ebook, audio).

4. Novellas, Short story collections, Poetry, Graphic novels/manga, Children Books, and all genres are allowed. 

5. Books can be of any publication date. 

6. You can choose your books as you go or create a list in advance. Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.

Join the Challenge

To join the challenge, grab the Diversity on the Shelf 2014 Challenge button and post this reading challenge on your blog to track your progress. Please include a link back to this sign-up post so others can join the reading challenge too. 

You do not have to be a book blogger to participate; you can track your progress on Goodreads, LibraryThing, BookLikes, Libib, etc., just as long as you have a dedicated shelf for the Diversity on the Shelf 2014 Challenge and your profile is not private. The point of linking up is to have a place where people can see what you’re reading.

Pick a Level

Choose how many diversity centered books you would like to add to your “read” shelf in 2014:

1st Shelf: Read 1-6 books

2nd Shelf: Read 7 -12 books

3rd Shelf: Read 13 - 18 books

4th Shelf: Read 19 -24 books

5th Shelf: Read 25+ books

Once you pick a level you can go higher and read more books but you cannot go down a level.

If you'd like to participate in the Diversity on the Shelf 2014 Reading Challenge, please sign up, and if you have a blog please spread the word by grabbing the button and post about your participation.

If you need some ideas for what to read go to the original POC Reading Challenge blog.

There will be giveaways along the way, theme reads and a giveaway at the end for the participants who participate each month and completes the challenge.

Interesting start to a New Year

Just wanted to catch everyone before January ended. Hope everyone had a good New Year.

Twinja Book Reviews has been having a rough January, and it is the reason why there was no interview for the month of January.

I(Guinevere) recently had two setbacks.

One, I lost my IPhone. To be honest, I could've lived with it, because it was just a phone. An expensive one, but just a phone. It was my very first smartphone, and kept me well connected when it came to my half of the blog runs. Not having it set me back, as my laptop literacy immediately decreases when dealing with my phone XD

Two, my identify was recently stolen. A person I used to work with, swiped my case full of credit cards and debit cards, even gift cards, and I suffered greatly because of it. Libertad also suffered, because I've been broke all this time, and stealing from me is essentially stealing from her.

What bugged me was that I worked with this person, and given them rides home in the past, so when I realized my stuff was missing, I didn't automatically excuse them, in hopes that they wouldn't do such a thing to me. There were too many clues that pointed to this person when they started spending my money =(

Multiculturalism through social networking

Were not going to lie to you.

Three years ago, we despised social networking. Despite having a Twitter account, a Facebook account, a highly neglected Myspace account(does anyone even still use Myspace? => ) , for the most part, they were often unused. Created just to say we owned one. Overtime, we did get into Facebook. But to be honest, it's a bit like the "new" Myspace. It just tends to connect you with people you think you may know.

But Twitter? Tumblr? Pinterest? LinkedIn? There are so many, that at times it becomes difficult to keep track of the ones worth joining and the ones worth ignoring.

And then came Goodreads. Mind you, we didn't jump on Goodreads with it's start up. But it became our first online community that we became highly invested in.

Until Goodreads, we assumed diversity in books was just a myth. A desire that only WE wanted. Or, if we weren't the only ones, we were a small group. Not enough to band together to demand to see diverse images in the books were investing our money in.