Mostly to make the voices in my head stop talking! I mean sometimes a book, publishing industry news, a story, a character, an author, any idea will just grab my brain and not let it go till I get it out of my system. The online world is the best way for me to connect with other readers and purge my thoughts since I don’t have many IRL friends who read, or read romance.

I can sleep easier once I write it down and share it, whether two people read my post, or 200 do, its still connecting with a similar community.

In terms of my audience I have actually met a number of 20something bloggers in my area (DC) but I started blogging because i loved romancelandia. So since I know “Regular” bloggers (about relationships, living in the city, life in general) AND “romancelandia” bloggers both visit my site I have been making it a little more personal that I originally intended.

And I comment on blogs, cos I like to talk beep? Regardless of whether that was a Q or not, but you may have noticed that!
As to being completely honest, I try to filter a fair bit, cos I have noticed that I am often coming at things from a different angle than the majority, but I manage to cram enough nonsense and honesty in my comments I think. Though I probably over comment, as most of my friends are not big readers, and there is only one who reads romance and she will rarely admit it. I want to talk books!!

@heidenkind Your point about questions sometimes stifling discussion is an interesting one. I suppose it depends on the subject of the post. The downside of posing a question is that visitors might feel obliged to focus on that alone, even if they’d rather talk about something else. Plus, it runs the risk of the blogger feeling frustrated because the comments are not focusing on what she wants to discuss and going off on a tangent.

@Christian I still find it shocking how many people stop by your blog when you put no time and effort into it. Huh. What’s your secret?

I wouldn’t say I write just for myself–I do write with the expectation and hope that other people will read my words and find them interesting/entertaining. But when you’re blogging, you never really know who exactly your audience will be. So I always try to write with myself in mind as my audience–if that makes sense–so in another way I am sort of blogging for myself.

I can’t say I’m speaking with complete authority, but at the time I started I only know of 2 others that were actively blogging in the romance community. One has since quit blogging, but the other is still going strong. Rosario http://rosario.blogspot.com/ and she’s been blogging since 2002!

@zeek I also find the blog a great way to keep track of my reading. Plus, I get a ton of recommendations for more books from the comments here and from other blogs.

@Wendy Seven years? Wow! Have you been blogging even longer than KristieJ?

@janicu Keishon is the go-to person for mystery reviews. She introduced me to Julia Spencer-Fleming, among others.