Hi everyone! Today’s Saturday Evening Interview is with fellow blogger Sacha Black. Aside from blogging, Sacha is a fiction and non-fiction writer and chief organizer of this year’s Annual Bloggers Bash. The First Annual Bloggers Bash was held last year in London. It will again be held in London on Saturday, June 11. For more info., you can check out Sacha’s blog here. You can also vote for your favorite bloggers on her site. I want to thank Sacha for taking time out of her busy day! Please help me welcome Sacha to Life of an El Paso Woman!
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ME: Please tell us more about your blog. What is your purpose for blogging?
Well, I guess it has a couple of purposes. The first is that I use it as a tool for consolidating my own learning. On Mondays, I post blogs on the topic of ‘writing craft’. I don’t claim to be an expert writer but I do share whatever lesson I have learnt that week. It’s like a bank of posts all containing writing lessons. Sometimes others love them, sometimes they don’t! I’m okay with that, as it’s a big electronic writing folder! The second purpose for my blog is that it’s a platform. I write both fiction and non-fiction and I hope to publish my first non-fiction book at the end of this year. My blog will serve as a platform for that.
ME: How long have you been writing and blogging? Officially, 4 years blogging. But in this particular blog guise I started at the end of 2014 and revamped in about April 2015. But I’ve been writing since I was 4! #truestory. I guess I have been writing with purpose for about 4 years and really seriously for about 18 months.
ME: What goals do you have for your blog? I would like it to be a platform for my books and writing career.
ME: How do you describe yourself in one word and why? Conniption. A fit of hysterical excitement or anger. I tend to flit between those emotions :p
ME: You’re the chief organizer for the Annual Bloggers Bash. How or why did you come up with idea? Indeed, I am the founder, but I quickly dragged persuaded the committee into joining me in organising it. AND honestly, I couldn’t do it without them. How did I come up with it? I guess I was just being my nosy self! I wanted to meet all the lovely people that had become friends. It seemed natural to suggest a big meet up. It’s just spiraled out of control now! It’s like a wild beast ever growing and evolving. We’re already talking about next year!
ME: How long has it taken you to plan the event and what does it entail? Seriously?! Blood… Sweat and a lot of teary tantrums! It takes a year! I think we have at least one ‘virtual’ (Google hangout) conference call a month. HUNDREDS of emails. Hours and hours and hours of time sifting through nominations, linking to blogs, designing awards, structuring the day, ordering stuff, prizes etc etc. It’s a big process. Next year will be even bigger!
ME: As you’re planning the event, what goes through your mind? Every emotion under the sun and at least 67 that are unknown to man at this current time!
ME: About how many bloggers are attending? Are they mostly from Europe or will some be coming from other countries? How has the event changed from last year? About 50. Last year there was 20 so it has more than doubled in size. The event itself is bigger this year, with a venue hired out, food and a master class delivered by WordPress. We intend to grow the event year on year to make it bigger and better each time. There are about 5-10 of those bloggers who are from another country.
ME: About how many people nominated their favorite bloggers in order to be included on the ballot? How many bloggers are nominated for awards? When is the last day votes can be submitted? There were over 350 nominations. I don’t know how many are left now though, but well over 100! Voting closes at 12 p.m. on June 9th.
ME: What do the winning bloggers receive? They win a branded mug, the award logo can be displayed on their site and the honour of knowing they have been voted for by thousands of members of the blogging public.
ME: For those who can’t make it to the bash, how can they keep up with what’s going on? If you follow me, I will post the winners announcement on the 11th June (the day of the bash) but you can also follow the hashtag #Bloggersbash (https://twitter.com/hashtag/bloggersbash?src=hash) on Twitter and also join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/991165987611263/
ME: Is there anything else you would like to add? Don’t forget to vote!
Life of an El Paso Woman 
😊 She’s a lovely person!
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