Celebrate Romance Every Day: SOS Aloha 6th Anniversary Finale - A Blog is Born

I shared the events leading to SOS Aloha at this link, link, and link. I created SOS Aloha while living on Pearl Harbor in March 2010 as a means to stay connected to Romanceland.  At the time, snarky blogs dominated social media - I did not want to create a forum where snarky remarks would be directed at military families.  To date, I have had no snarky remarks. 

Instead, I received enthusiastic support from authors, publishers, readers, and other bloggers.  Romanceland embraced every call to action to mail cards to deployed personnel - thank you!

I tried to register SOS America, sosamerica.blogspot.com, in honor of the charity sponsored by Kathryn Falk, the owner and founder of RT Bookreviews Magazine. But that name was already registered. I amended it to SOS Aloha, sosaloha.blogspot.com. 

Along the way, other bloggers helped me cultivate my craft:

- Terri from Bodice Ripper Novels (link) taught me how to insert images and links.

- Mary from The Reading Reviewer (link) encouraged me to write reviews

- Dani from Ramblings from the Chick (link), Kati from Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance (link), and Kim from Book Obsessed Chicks (link) created a community of mutual support.

I also thank the readers for being a part of this journey!

The turning point for SOS Aloha came in September 2010 when Rhonda Penders, Editor-in-Chief of The Wild Rose Press, contacted me to donate books to my blog.  Since I lived in Hawaii, I suggested she mail them to Mary in St. Louis to reduce the shipping cost (Mary would then send the books to winners after we spotlighted the author on my blog).  We were not expecting Rhonda to send over 200 books!  I contacted all the authors for an interview ... and viola, SOS Aloha grew by leaps and bounds!  Thank you, Rhonda, for that boost!

I am giving away a book choice from one randomly selected commenter. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment to my question,

1. If you started a blog, what would you call it?

2. Comments are open through Saturday, April 2, 10 pm in Baltimore. 

3. I'll post the winner on Sunday, April 3.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

PS Check out my other blogs:

- Aloha On My Mind, a travel blog with local interest and international culture: alohaonmymind.blogspot.com.

- Aloha Author Assistant, a helpful guide for authors where I reward readers for their feedback:  alohaauthor.blogspot.com.

I always welcome guest posts from authors and readers to any blogs!