JenLeoLIVE!

New Job Blogging for the LA Times

I can finally tell you about my new job! I am the Travel Deal Watch blogger for latimes.com.

The LA Times launched a brand new travel site today. travel.latimes.com. And on the right hand side, you'll see the Daily Deal Blog. That's me. Our aim is to bring travel deals of all budgets to Southern Californians so they can getaway, relax, and have fun. My boss, Andrew Nystrom, said it best in his intro to the blog.

Go check it out! And please, pass it onto anyone you think might benefit. Obviously we're in early stages. The blog will expand to several writers, with hopefully some columns and posts geared towards building community. It's going to be a fun and inspiring resource!

CURRENT: PASADENA, CA
NEXT: ???

Nearly 100,000 books sold!

I just found out that the Sand in My Bra series (plus A Woman's Path where I had co-editor credit) have sold nearly 100,000 copies. 92,000 to be exact. I don't know if that includes translations but still, at $14.95 per book, that's more than a million in sales!

I Love My Job at TypePad

I don't talk about my different freelance projects that often. But one of them is co-writing the TypePad Featured Blogs with Harold Check. I met Harold via Weblogs Inc. when we launched PPlayer (now CardSquad) in 2005. Harold is an editor at Six Apart and one of my few friends that satisfies the part of my brain that is in a constant state of web-lust. The part of me that wants to be Jenopolis rather than Jen Leo, or the eager kid that wants to be a part of every great blog in the blogosphere.

TypePad Featured Blogs fuels this inner blog slut like nothing else. I actually get paid to pour through blogs, then discover and report what's great about them. If you love blogging like I do, it's a dream job. A constant source of inspiration and education.

Yesterday, I hit the nail on the head. I was assigned to write up Beauty Dish. The blogs that we review are often filled with one (or many) good reasons for us to spotlight them. But Birdie really impressed me. She's an amazing woman, and a fantastic blogger. An absolute shining example of someone who is doing it right. I've already written my review, and you can visit the blog we're talking about here. She's expressing her passion, sharing wisdom and providing a service, working for a reason, keeping it personal, and being honest—key elements to a successful blog. I was dying to know if Avon was paying her to write. It's clear she is an evangelist of her own accord, but I sure hope she's getting a little something something from the higher ups.

Anyway, since one of the main reasons I write JenLeoLIVE! is to connect with my family, I thought I'd post about this. Not only can you see one of the things that I do, but you get to see one of the ones that got an A. Read the comments, apparently my writing is getting better. I don't always nail the reviews or get the bloggers with such accuracy, but this time I did.

CURRENT: PASADENA
NEXT: ANYWHERE, PLEASE!