Well I guess what’s left is me 🙂
What to say…I have seriously been wondering about that for the past month…waiting till the last moment to write down something for myself.
Let’s start at the beginning I guess. I got introduced to the M/M community when I was in a down period of my life. Being a depressive, my life is kind of always fluctuating so to speak. In this case RL was hard and I was searching the internet and stumbled on the Luke and Noah story line from the soap As The World Turns. (Nukie forever 😀 ) And I could almost say the rest is history LOL.
From the nights watching this it went to searching the internet, finding forums, sites and Facebook at a time that here in the Netherlands it was all about Hyves and FB wasn’t a thing. Well for me FB was becoming a thing connecting with friends I met through different sites and forums.
From fanfiction I ventured into the m/m romance and when a dear friend of mine mentioned he was starting a review site he asked me to join. I said no for a while because I had never ever written a review for anything. But well…Sid can be convincing and we had known each other for a couple of years because we started out sharing the same love for Nuke and became friends from the start on sites related to that.
My review thingy was born and I had the pleasure to review for The Blog of Sid Love with some awesome people (some who I still call my friends). When Sid couldn’t handle the day to day business anymore he asked me to join him in co-owning the blog and from there it went fast as I started to do the bulk of the work and in the end took over the blog completely. That is also when we changed the name to Love Bytes (Reviews).
I cannot believe that the blog has been around for more than 5 years now. So many reviews, posts, reviewers and so many hours of work 🙂 Love Bytes wouldn’t be what it is without those people. I am not naming names because we are absolutely a complete team. I do want to say that some of our reviewers have been there for a long time. I am grateful and thankful for each and every one of them, from the old timers to the new reviewers who joined our ranks and also the reviewers who have reviewed with us in the past.
It is no secret that blogging takes a lot of work I think somethimes people don’t realize that. The assumption is often ooh you get free books…..uuhhh trust me that is not how it works. Reviewing is about trust and about commitment, authors send you a book in good confidence they expect you to never share it (WHICH YOU JUST DON’T DO) and to write a review of the book they send you. I leave my reviewers (if I am allowed to call them that for a moment) to choose the books they want to review themselves. I do ask for their commitment to make sure they deliver the review they requested. On top of the reviews there are the guest posts, spotlights, excerpts, author posts,giveaways that we run etc., and I think there are rarely days that I don’t spend at least a couple of hours on the blog to set up stuff, mail, request etc. Yes, of course I cannot do everything alone and by myself but I do believe that some things as an owner you just need to do yourself so the contact with authors and publishers for example is something I do myself.
Love Bytes brought me a lot. I cannot deny that, but it is also hard work and yes there have been times that I was wondering should I continue doing this…is it not too much you know but so far the scale keeps tipping to the yes part.
I will always be grateful for becoming part of the LGBTQ+ community, the friends I met, the books I have read, the authors I met and yes I admit at times fangirled over 🙂 and the conventions I had the pleasure going to. Who could have thought I would be organizing a convention myself on European Mainland for the fourth year ( EuroPrideCon ) in a row.
Let’s finish with some personal info for the people who don’t know me. I am 45 years old and living in the Netherlands. I’m married to my husband for 19 years (been together with him for 28 years) I have a beautiful daughter who is 16 and is my pride and joy. I work part-time in a construction store and I like to go out to eat, to the movies and read (duh). About the reading I am a contemporary girl all the way but I can absolutely enjoy a good BDSM or Shifter story.
You can check me out on Facebook under Dani Elle Maas.
Thanks for reading my post and thanks for being a part of our 5 year celebration.
Love Dani x
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Thanks so much for blog, Dani, and to DSP for the GC. I’d like to think that your journey has come full circle, where you first found m/m and it helped you, and now you are helping SO many more people find it, find joy in it, and for many find themselves too.
Thank you for a little background on how Love Bytes got started. I do appreciate how much work you and all the reviewers have put in to make it a success that helps the authors and the readers.
Thank you for all your hard work, great to know more about you! (And I had no idea AS THE WORLD TURNS has/had a gay couple, I would have watched had I known!)
Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself with us. I only recently discovered that there is something like EuroPrideCon. Didn’t know you were the organiser. That is really awesome 🙂 Organising something of that magnitude deserves a lot of respect!
Also thanks for operating this great site. The way everything is presented is always a treat. Love the reviews and love the monthly author’s posts. Would love to see Flashback Friday come back, though^^
Thank YOU, Dani! For everything you do for both readers and writers. Both parts of me are incredibly grateful for all the time and effort you put into this wonderful blog of yours. Here’s to many more happy years of reading and blogging. <3
Thank you for all that you and your team does to keep the blog going. I love coming here to see what you have going on every day. Congratulations on your 5th Anniversary!
Thank you so much for the glimpse at your story, Danielle. I love your reviews. I actually love everything in this blog. I hope there are more years to come!
thanks for being the bestest blogger …ever! <3
I never realized how labor intensive a blog is. Now I’ll aopreciate it all the more.
I’ve been reading your blog since at least 2015 and have enjoyed every posting! I’ve been introduced to new books, new authors and wonderful series. I hope you know how important your blog is to the entire reading public. I can’t thank you enough for the world of ideas you’ve introduced me to…along with some really wonderful scenarios!
Keep up the good work!
I really like your site. Thanks for all the reviews!
Thank for the post and sharing about how you got started and about yourself. And thanks for all the hard work you put into this wonderful blog.
Thank you for sharing about how you got started and why. Thank you for putting so much time and effort into maintaining the blog and to all the reviewer, authors and publishers who helped you contribute to the blog and have helped to make the blog what it is today!
Thank you for all you and your team at this blog have done these five years and I hope still continue for years to come. As a reader, a bunch of enlightening post – aside from book promos – also help open my eye and fill me in on the myriad spectrums of LGBTQ and I’m still learning. Cheers to you guys, happy anniversary and here’s to more years to come for Love Bytes! <3
What a great post, and thank you for sharing about you! I really enjoy following this blog! 🙂
I used to think it was easy but now I really know it’s not the case. It takes to compromise and a lot of time and sometimes it can get too much. It’s always sad when a blog you follow closes. Like it’s happening with Sinfully Sexy this time.
Thanks for all the posts! This is one of my fav review blogs I enjoy.
Thank you Danielle (and the whole team) for all the wonderfull blog posts, reviews, giveaways cover reveals, polls and story’s you give us each week though Love Bytes. I enjoy your blog very much and i hope there will be many more years to come. Congratulations!!
Dani, thanks for the look at how the blog came about and how much it takes to keep it running. I was quite early doors but it was Blog of Sid Love when I first found you – and you are an integral part of my day!!!!!
Great hearing more about you. I’m curious on how you watch As The World Turns in the Netherlands?
Congrats Love Bytes team 🙂
Congratulation on the anniversary and thank you for all the reviews and everything you do on this site!
Congratulations on the 5th birthday! Keep up with the amazing work!