Jacqui Nelson's 1-year "Get Lost in a Story" blogging anniversary celebration

It’s been one year since I joined Get Lost in a Story and I feel like celebrating! Continue reading for a chance to win a special gift from my home in Canada...

It’s been a good year. It’s been fun and has gone by fast. It’s been a privilege to be a GLIAS host, to hang out with my fellow hosts, to read their blog posts and their guests' posts as well. I've loved getting to know everyone better, including the amazing GLIAS blog readers!

A behind-the-scenes confession... 

I could have had the pleasure of being part of Get Lost in a Story much sooner. Angi Morgan asked me to join earlier (a lot earlier—we're talking years earlier) but…I was shy about blogging.

What could I share regularly in a group blog? Did I have anything to share even in one blog post? How could I find (or entice) my fellow authors to join me as guests? Could I give blog readers something interesting to read?

Well, one never gets the answers to these types of questions until one tackles them. So, I’m lucky that last year at the Wild Deadwood Reads author-reader event (after having an amazing time touring South Dakota with Elisabeth Burke, and also sharing a room with her at the event), Amanda McIntyre asked me to join GLIAS. And Angi did again, as well. 

What happened next? 

• On July 24, 2018, Elisabeth wrote a blog post introducing me to the GLIAS blog.
• On August 6, I hosted myself as my first guest in my North of the Border guest blog series. I needed something (or someone) to introduce my vision for the theme of sharing something/anything about Canada that has inspired a writer or their stories. And what better way to introduce something than with yourself as the test subject? 
• On Sept 6, I hosted my first guest author, Alice Valdal. 
• And now on Sept 5 (one year later in 2019), my next guest will be Rick Lauber—and I’ll have hosted 27 guest bloggers! 

That’s approximately one guest every 2 weeks. Or maybe one guest every week and a bit, since for the entire month of August I took a break from blogging in order to fully enjoy a trip to southern France—a getaway from all things writing-related.

Sometimes it’s good to take a break from something you do a lot—so that you can return to that something refreshed and eager to continue.

And now for the chance to win my special gift from Canada, that celebrates my 1-year GLIAS blogging anniversary! 



COMMENT BELOW saying why you enjoy the GLIAS blog or just simply by writing "hi" (before the end of the day on Sept 2) for a chance to win a Canada-themed cup and coaster set.

The cup is from Victoria (where I currently live on Canada's southwest coast) and has a bunch of “Canadian fun facts” on it…such as “the longest beaver dam in the world is located in Northern Alberta.” Who knew?

I like that "fun fact" best because Northern Alberta (with its prairies, forests, and farmland) is where I grew up—and it leads perfectly to describing the coaster set in my giveaway.

Last year, while visiting Alberta in August, I found these super cute, vintage Royal Canadian Mounted Police (with a chipmunk on his shoulder) coasters. And I immediately knew I had to take them home. AND save them for a day like today—when I could give them away in a blog just like this 🙂❤️