Wow, how the time flies. Also, gear up for a very half-assed blogoversary post, because if it weren’t for Nicole’s handy calendar, mayhaps I’d never have even remembered. Fun fact: I copied this from last year’s, which apparently Nicole also reminded me about. What I am saying here is, I am clearly killing it. I don’t even have any excuses, just that, well, 2020. (Incidentally, remember back when we were all giddy excited for 2020? Such sweet summer children, we were.)

Let’s talk about 7 Things that I have done/learned/whatever whilst blogging:

  1. Unity Days! Look, this was the best one. Nothing else has, or probably will, compare to that level of awesomeness. If you were wondering if The 100 cast is as awesome as they appear? Nope. They’re better. 
  2. Shattering Stigmas has been going on for six years apparently! I am kind of shocked, really, because I had never even attempted to organize anything before, and the fact that so many people took to it… well, it’s incredible. And I am so grateful to Taylor for keeping it running after I could not.
  3. Seven years later, and I still over-request books. Whoops? Look, I was a late bloomer to the ARC game, it took me literal years to request from Netgalley even, so I guess we’ll pretend I am still sowing my oats. (If it helps, I read them all, in a largely obsessive way, tbh.)
  4. The 100 is over and Idk what I am supposed to do now. I won’t lie, writing about The 100 has been my absolute joy all these years. In fact, The 100 has been around almost as long as my blog! I mean, I can still write about it, I suppose, but it won’t be the same. So I guess I need to figure out what the heck I want to do, where I want to go from here.
  5. Met all of you! This is of course the biggest perk of book blogging- meeting so many wonderful people! And if you’re reading this (and even if you aren’t) I mean you!! 
  6. Blogging is exhausting! Seriously, interestingly, today of all days, Twitter has been having some discourse over bloggers being paid for reviews. I’ll tell you this, I would never turn down monetary compensation, because this is one time-consuming (and costly!) endeavor. You gotta read the books, write the reviews, format the posts, then come up with creative content on the reg. I may have mostly given up that last part because I am old and tired.
  7. Blogging is more exhausting when the world is aflame. It feels quite odd at times to be writing about books when we’re actively attending the apocalypse. I have cut myself slack, and I really hope you all do too! And also, VOTE. You may get sick of me saying it, but I will say it over and over and over because hell, if one person decides to get out there, then it’s worth it.

So, let’s hope the world doesn’t implode and we’re all around for an 8th year at It Starts at Midnight!! ??

I even used the same GIF! Though frankly, it hits differently, doesn’t it?

Two winners win four books each! US Only because money.  Ends 11/15 at 11:59EST

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For funsies, tell me something great that you did in the past seven years!

Posted October 8, 2020 by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight in Blog Recaps, Funsies, Giveaway / 33 Comments

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33 responses to “It Starts at Midnight is Seven!

  1. Beth W

    Wow- 7 years! You introduced me to The 100, and SO MANY BOOKS…and maybe also The Bookish Games? And so many other amazing people in the book community! So thank you for this, seven years over. My life is definitely better and happier for having you in it! 🙂

    I’m cracking up over the paid blogger review thing because I *know* this was an active discussion in the book blogging community, like…9 years ago? Paid reviews were really becoming normal, and there was a concept of “if you send me unsolicited books to review, then I should be compensated for my time”. Which I 100% agree with, then and now, after watching companies get to run their marketing departments super lean (thus saving money) by leaning on blogger/influencer audience curation instead of having to do that work themselves. Book blogger have created areas of trust- that’s ACCESS. Access costs money on every advertising platform (TV, movies, websites, radio, podcasts) so why not on professional blogging?

    Also, I think you should get paid because people have definitely made money off me seeing your excellent reviews and turning around and buying books based on them (maybe I should just send you my money directly?) 😀

  2. I don’t think I’ve done anything in the last 7 years worthy of mention but at least, I no longer spell ‘of course’ incorrectly, which, no one tried to correct me. Isn’t wrong to say that sometimes bloggers are way too nice and never points out anyone’s faults? But I’m glad for that.

    Congrats on 7 years!

    Have a lovely day.

  3. Danielle Hammelef

    It’s been 3 years since I’ve been published, but in the past 7 years, I had 12 books written as work-for-hire published by Capstone. Even though royalties and author signing events are still my someday dream, I enjoyed the fast-paced researching and writing I accomplished. Congrats, Shannon, on your hard work and sticking with your fun blog. I’ve been blessed to be a small part of it lately as we did buddy reads.

  4. Happy blogoversary, Shannon!! I’m actually just starting up watching The 100 again after a couple years and I’ve been going back to each of your episode posts after I watch that episode 🙂 I’m one of those people that LIVES for gushing/ranting about TV shows after watching them so that’s my sort of weekend treat. I hope you have a wonderful next year and best of luck finding your next TV show muse!

    Laura @BlueEyeBooks

  5. Congrats on 7 years! I know what you mean about blogging being exhausting when the world is full of COVID. While watching the debate last night, I was writing a blog post about Instagram. The post felt very, very pointless. What have I done in 7 years? I wrote 1000-something blog posts, got a master’s degree, and the universe is trusting me with a human child for some reason.

  6. Congrats on 7 years! Thank goodness for Nicole, right? It was wonderful actually meeting you in Chicago…hopefully that will happen again sooner than later. LOL It’s been a weird, weird year, but I do like that people are still blogging. And I’m totally down for book reviewers being paid!

    -Lauren

  7. Happy BLOGVERSARY!!!! ??✨ Forever adore your blog and all the work you do with amazing reviews!! I definitely admit i’ve become a slack blogger but…still here (sort of?) Here’s to many more years of amazingness ?

  8. Congratulations!!! I’m glad you are here when so many have burned out.

    I remember when even thinking about getting paid was taboo – it would make you untrustworthy reviewer. That thought was so ingrained into me but it’s interesting watching the newer group expect it. It really is soooo much work with very little thanks. I think my time making money is over – I just have no motivation to stay on top of things and post regularly like you have to for that.
    Anyhoo – here’s to 7 more!

    Karen @ For What It’s Worth

  9. Happy blogoversary! Woot!!!!!! I’m gonna miss your 100 recaps but maybe a new show will get the love at some point? Love the GIG BTW… :):)

  10. Congrats on 7 years! This definitely has been a tough year, but thankfully it’s almost over! Here’s to a significantly better 2021!

    I’ve decided that I’m also going to list 7 things that have changed for me in 7 years, because why not! I’m also gonna try to focus on the positive (or neutral) because I feel like my mental health will thank me for that choice.

    1. Started a blog. This one was the thing that stood out the most as something that has changed in recent years.
    2. Moved out and had an apartment close to college. This one is no longer accurate, because of COVID, but for 1.5-2 years, I was living pretty independently and I really think I grew a lot from the experience.
    3. While we’re on the topic, I started college. In fact, at this point I’m about 65% through with my college degree!
    4. Both of my brothers got married and moved out. (This means I get to use their rooms as a place to chill when I’m sick of being stuck in my room after 5 hours of classes/HW).
    5. I travelled internationally for the first time on my own to visit friends. I’m actually quite proud of this one because I can get very anxious with new scenarios and unstructured time, but I handled everything that came my way pretty darn well.
    6. I learned how to drive. I freaking love driving, so this was a really big deal. In fact, in my senior year of high school, I even did carpool with all of my friends most days, since my mother was working from home, and I was able to borrow her car usually,
    7. I presented my research at a conference. I happen to love public speaking and learning scientific facts and such, so the conference was both fun and educational for me, and the fact that I got to talk about research I had done over the summer to people who were interested was a really exciting experience for me!

    Here’s to another 7 years filled with only joy, happiness, and success! ?

  11. Wow 7 years already, how amazing! I think we’ve been around for 7 too but we haven’t celebrated in a while and kind of lost track! OOPS. HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY!

  12. CONGRATS on your anniversary!! I think I’m hitting 7 years in February (I’ve lost track recently with everything going on in the world) and it’s SUCH an accomplishment to stick with a hobby for so long! Can’t wait to see another year of content from you!

  13. Congrats, Shannon! I’ve been very absent the past… well, years now really, but I always like coming back to your blog and catching up with you whenever I do return to the blogosphere, so I’m very glad your blog is alive and kicking! Though I’m sorry about The 100, and the apocalypse. Happy blogoversary, and many fun books, and The 100 rewatches. I was trying to remember how old my own blog is (though it’s technically a new blog, and I lost the old entries, it’s still got the same domain, so I feel like it counts)… I guess about five or six years? Either way, we are old, and the young generation should respect us haha. Hope you’re doing well and have a good weekend!

  14. Kate

    Congrats on 7 years!! That’s amazing! One great thing that has happened to me in the past 7 years is that I discovered that I enjoy writing immensely and i’ve received great feedback on my writing throughout this time. My new goal is to write New Adult and Young Adult fiction novels!

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