Zemanta Power User – Stephanie of Fangs, Wands, and Fairy Dust

We’re proud to present Stephanie of Fangs, Wands, and Fairy Dust as this week’s featured power user! Enjoy!

Who are you?

My name is Stephanie and I’m a blogger living in coastal New England in the northeastern US. I have an MA in Rhetoric and Communicaton with a BA in the same with a minor in English . Ex-bureaucrat, ex-programmer, sales-person, business owner, artist, graphic design hobbyist. I am currently taking a break from volunteering in my community as a board member and fund raiser.

I have four cats and one husband. I am obsessive about reading which is handy as a book blogger! I enjoy movies but tend to read or work as I watch. I can’t stand not reading, unless I am shopping or driving. I love museums but am generally not a fan of tourist attractions, except in Las Vegas where everything is a tourist attraction and is therefore like a giant museum of tourist attractions. I take Pilates twice each week.

Love strong, but imperfect heroines, and sexy heroes, steamy romance. I love to do giveaways and try products, read ARCs and communicate with people everywhere. I abhor spam in it’s many forms. I try to write fair reviews and never attack an author personally in my reviews. I may strongly state my opinion but I try to remain professional even while entertaining and informing readers. I am not a fan of expository writing or product placement in a book. Continuity is important.

I JUST started reading Titania Hardie’s The House of the Wind from Simon and Schuster’s Washington Square Press.

I don’t plan months ahead for almost any thing. I have an idea what I will be reading but unless it’s a contest or interview I fly by the seat of my pants. I never guarantee I will read or review anything I am sent. I can usually find at least ONE good thing about a book. Usually.

What do you blog about?

Anything: That’s why I have two blogs and also have a companion blog on Tumblr & use Pinterest. Fangs, Wands, and Fairy Dust usually looks at the world of speculative fiction and/or the Paranormal in books, movies, and culture from an adult POV. Sometimes I have an “Out of Genre Experience.” Adult issues may be discussed so I ask that readers are 18 and over. Of course, any such viewing by minors is the purview of the parent.

I mostly look at adult PNR or Urban Fantasy, but sometimes YA for an older audience. When I do I look at it as an adult.

I like to promote using YA books to keep the lines of parent-teen communication open. They give kids and their folks a way to know each other and discuss ideas like sexual readiness and responsibility without making it personal. If a kid can reach a conclusion through discussion it is more likely to stick. Reading YA can also help know what your kid is talking about.

On Winged Effigy I will talk about whatever strikes my fancy. Today it’s religion, yesterday it was movies. I may also discuss adult issues here so again 18 and older.

When I say discuss adult issues I mean that I look at intimate scenes or issues of an adult nature and discuss them frankly but tastefully.

In a first run of True Blood season I will do a scene by scene look at the show each week. That can keep me up until two or three in the morning.

I spend 10 to 16 hours a day working on my blogs. That means reading, writing, networking and learning new internet stuff like HTML. I don’t use a rating system – I recommend or don’t recommend something to people in various ways and varying levels of enthusiasm.. Eventually I would like to make money blogging or at least in social media.

When did you start using Zemanta?

Shortly after I began blogging in March 2010; basically as soon as I became aware of it. I am not certain it was available when I began but I started using it ASAP. There is rarely a day that I don’t need it.

How does Zemanta help you blog better?

It saves me time by giving me access to images and articles for which I would otherwise have to search. Zemanta tells me what I need to do to use a picture and it saves readers time with the related articles feature.

The quote add-on that is available on Chrome is a fantastic feature and I hope it is eventually on Firefox.

The guys at Zemanta are always working to improve everything they do. If you go to Blog World at BEA you should stop by their booth to learn more.

Power User Tip (please share a Zemanta tip!)

1. If you see something like Cannot find editor just retry.

2. Make sure your own blogs are followed for access to your own previous posts.

3. If you are on Blogger and change a picture’s sizeize you can also change the size of its envelope in HTML mode. There are two width numbers and they should match.

4. Make sure your Amazon affiliation is registered so that when a picture of a book cover says it is from Amazon you can use it as a buy link.