Hello there! My name is Erika, also known as Rei by my art clients. I am a freelance digital artist and I’ve been drawing for other people since I was 16. I started blogging in 2014, which was initially aimed to showcase more of my arts, some work in progress and tutorials. However, as you can see, it ended up as a book blog.

Honestly, I don’t fancy introductions or saying something about myself, because I’m a really awkward and very introvert individual. But at the same time, I want to be more interactive and have a more intimate relationship with my readers (well, if there are any), that’s why I want you to get to know me. So, on this section of the blog, obviously, I will let you know more about the person behind The Nocturnal Fey.

Growing up, writing has always been one of my greatest frustrations. I’m really more into visual stuff rather than literary stuff or being literate in general. I love books, yes. But not much until I was in senior high school. Back then, I only read book whenever I was in the mood to read, or when I was required to do so, and that’s it. I was never the writer-type. I never saw myself writing stuff – not even just reviews. I figured that I’m not for literature when I joined our high school publication team, and I totally sucked at it. So instead, I joined the broadcasting team or anything that makes use more of the voice than the writing ability.

So yes, no, I never planned to be a blogger, and a book reviewer on top of that. It’s always been a struggle for me to express my thoughts and feelings in a written way. Give me a pen and paper, I can draw it for you, but an essay? Nah.

Why did I even start a book blog then? 

As I’ve mentioned, I only became a wide reader when I was in my senior year in high school. And at that moment, I ended up feeling sorry for myself because I realized how much I missed for not being a bookworm at an early age. I just wished that I became a bookworm at a much younger age…

Then, when I went to college, on my earlier years, my love for reading became intense. That’s when I started collecting books. I came to the stage of impulsive buying, hoarding, and spending too much time on Goodreads than my textbooks and whatnot.

I started writing short reviews on Goodreads then. More like just impressions – those that are no longer than 10 sentences. (eg. Really good, I love it, I totally recommend this, blah blah blah). Then I started to discover the book blogging community, which I didn’t even know exists. I spent times reading book blogs – especially The Social Potato, a fellow Filipina book blogger – and yep, they became an inspiration.

When I created my blog, I was more focused into running this for the sake of arts. But then again, I unconsciously turned this into a book blog. It was because the more I read books, the more I engage into something bookish. I want to have an outlet after reading a book and I know that writing book reviews is the best way to do that (other than talking to bookish friends, of course).

And there are also these really admirable book bloggers, which became my inspirations. That’s the point where I decided to take this opportunity to finally practice my writing. I know that writing hates me. Yes. But instead of hating writing back, I decided to put a mindset that I should make this great frustration of mine into a talent.

I know that I am still lacking in so many ways, and I still have a long way to go in improving my writing. But the most important thing is, after I tried book blogging, instead of giving up half-way because I thought I can’t do it, and that it can make me hate it more, I was relieved and glad that I ended up liking it after all. I was able to discover that book blogging is really fun and that it’s an experience that I will never regret I pursued.

Now, I am proud to say how much I love what I’m doing and how much it makes me happy.

Erika