Suze Reviews...: Happy Birthday to Me - with Anniversary Giveaway!

Happy birthday to me! Well, not quite - still a couple of months to wait for that. But this here little blog is two years old today!

This last year has been a bit up and down. I was off work for eight months with poor mental health, so things were difficult for a while, and there were tears. Lots of tears. And anxieties. I struggled with events, mainly book ones, and festivals, but with the support of fabulous friends I made it to most things. At times blogging felt too much. Hell, at times, reading felt a bit much. I took December off, but otherwise kept going, albeit a bit sporadically. I didn't read as many books or write as many reviews as I would have liked, but that's OK.

With author Johana Gustawsson at Bloody Scotland, September 2019.
Photo taken by Thomas Enger.

The blog still needs work done to it - think I might have said that a year ago, or more😂. The number of followers has just about scraped into double figures 😂 but with a bigger presence on Twitter and shares by wonderful members of the blogging community, my posts reach a wider audience. Over the last two years, I've shared 229 posts and had over 63,500 page views. I have no idea if that is good or bad, but that doesn't matter because it's not about the numbers. It is, and always has been, about sharing the book love.

So that was then and this is now. After a lot of help, some ongoing, and making some changes my mental health is way, way better and I'm feeling much happier (except about what's going on currently) which is great.

Far too early (for me) the other morning, but wanted a recent happy, if a little messy, pic.

But this third (blog) year isn't starting brilliantly. I went back work last week in a voluntary capacity to settle in and will re-start my job proper next week. Hopefully. The timing, what with Covid-19 and all isn't great, and I, like many others, will be impacted. But I work with individuals who have a degree of deafblindness and many of them will need support over this time, so I expect to be out working at least some of the time. And I am determined to use this time of social distancing to catch up with 101 things, but primarily my backlog of reading and reviewing. Oh, and I should probably finish my decorating... And of course the blog will continue to be about sharing the book love! ❤

But enough of these inane ramblings, this is a birthday, for goodness sake! There should be celebrations! And cake! And presents! Well, I must be doing something wrong, because I'm the one giving out presents! To celebrate, as is now tradition - because I did it last year - I'm doing an anniversary giveaway. And because it's also tradition - and he happens to publish books at the right time - I'm giving away the new one from Douglas Skelton, which this year is, The Blood Is Still. It's an absolute belter of a book and you can read my review here. Given the situation we're all in, I've opted not to go with a paperback which would need posted etc. and will instead be giving away THREE Kindle copies.

Douglas Skelton almost looking pleased I'd bought his book! 😂 😂 😂
At his fab launch event in Edinburgh in March 2020.

To enter, follow the blog and comment here and/or find me on Facebook (Suze Reviews), Twitter (@SuzeCM) or Instagram (simplysuze70) and follow the instructions to enter there. A contribution in each platform counts as a separate entry (only one per platform), giving you up to four chances of winning, so go for it! Entries will be allocated a number and the winners will be selected by a random number generator. Closing at midday on Wednesday 25th March. Get entering and good luck! Oh, and I'm keeping the birthday cake to myself, sorry (not sorry)!