Farewell March// Final chance to get your questions answered

Yes, I did change my blog's theme. I hope you all like it, but I'm tired of snow*. Spring is here you all even if it doesn't look like it.

*My sincerest apologies to all of the characters in my Winter Cursed series

Anyway onto my monthly wrap up, because I'm sure you've been so curious to learn what I've been up to.

Life

Not much going on there except that it's been busy. I've been working like crazy this month. Dear Kohl's, if you could stop scheduling me for five days a week that would be great because I'm only working part time. Thanks. I also got sick. That sucked. Especially since I had to work, so I've pretty much been a zombie this past week.

I've been on a kinda sorta internet break which isn't a full hiatus, but I had hoped that it would help give me time to prepare for Camp NaNo, and it's been successful to a degree so I've decided to continue my break into April. So if you don't see me around Goodreads as much or it takes me forever to reply to comments made on this blog, that's the reason why.

Reading

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
4.5 stars
Vampires//Gavriel//Darkly Beautiful

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch
1 star
DNF//Pirates//Wish I Could Have Liked It

The Traitor's Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen
5 stars!
Stabby//KESTRA DALLISOR//Traitors

The Deceiver's Heart by Jennifer A. Nielsen
5 stars!
Dark Magic//SIMON HATCH//cliffhanger

Black Blood by S.D. Grimm
3.5 stars
Finale//Prophecy//Destiny Made a Mistake

 Screen Time

I'm gonna add a new section to these update about the movies/TV shows that I've watched over the month. Now bear in mind that this isn't everything that I've watched this month, just the ones that I remember having watched. Also known as the ones that left an impression.

Ella Enchanted

This was a rewatch, obviously. I'm not even sure why I chose to watch it. I was bored, I guess. The book is way better, but the movie is also a classic and I don't hate it even though it is nothing like the book. Plus, Char is kinda cute so... yeah.

Oz the Great and Powerful

Also a rewatch. I was stunned by how many of the actors I knew from other movies and now the plot is pretty much: Harry Osborn runs off with Charity Barnum and with the help of Chicken Little also known as Minion, they take down Evie O'Connell. So yeah, that was slightly weird. But a thousand and one points to a pretty solid origin story and also that music is A+. Danny Elfman is the best.

Matrix

So, yeah, I watched Matrix for the first time. Consider my mind blown. Oh my word, I loved it so much!!! The concept was boggling, the action was epic, and the characters didn't suffer for it. Bear in mind that I did watch this through Clearplay so I didn't watch the version with all of the language. All the same, I loved it.

The Justice League TV series- Season Two

This is sorta a rewatch and sorta not. I ordered the complete series from Amazon and so I've been watching it with my siblings. I'd seen some of the episodes when I was younger, but not all of them. Still, this show is my childhood. This is pretty much the canonical Justice League for me and you aren't going to change my mind.

Also, you would be mistaken if you didn't think that the primary reason I am watching this is to not see my darling WonderBat ship sail.

Doctor Who- Season Two

Another rewatch, going back through the Doctor Who episodes. We started at Eccleston and are now to David Tennant's first season. Loving my dynamic duo, Rose Tyler and the Doctor! When I first watched Doctor Who, I loved Rose, but now watching it again, I love her even more. She's my favorite companion for this Doctor, by far. And you'd better believe that I'm gonna cry at the end of this season. I probably won't be whole again until Amy and Rory come onto the scene.

Writing

Officially started two new projects, unofficially started one. And I'm considering putting down at least two of those projects. I don't know. I have a bit of writer's block and when I have writer's block I tend to start and drop a lot of projects. I did get some writing done though in all of that stopping and starting so that's good! I also edited some Time of Trepidation. Hopefully next month I'll have more to update since it is Camp NaNo, I've decided to work on A Matter of Curiosity.

And finally, as an extremely late celebration of my starting my blog I am doing a Q&A!

This is your chance to find out everything there is to know about me (except for the stuff I won't share). Just leave a comment on this blog post with your questions and I'll get around to answering them next week!

Whelp that's all for now. Next month I'm probably going to dedicate this blog to Amar and Amar themed things. What with Camp NaNo and all that. You have been warned.

Are you planning on doing Camp NaNo next month? Who is your favorite of the Doctor's companion(s)? Have you seen Matrix before? Do you ship Wonderbat? Do you have any questions for me? Comment below!

The Rising Author Tag

So... I'm stealing this tag, but I was told to steal it from the person I'm stealing it from. Of course she was originally a thief, and things just sort of get messy from there, so we're going to move on to the questions...

1. What is the weirdest thing someone has ever said to you about your writing?

Well, my family keeps asking me how I can accidentally kill characters, which I've done before*. So probably that.

*And am deeply repentant about.

2. What is the worst thing you ever wrote? 

So I would say my first story that I ever remember trying to write, that being a stellar novel by the name of The Princess in the Sewers but I never technically wrote it* so I guess it doesn't count.

* Writer's block started at a young age y'all

I'm kind of embarrassed to say this, but after I first started writing again at the age of twelve, I became obsessed with writing romances. And what I wrote was horrible. I'm not going to specifically point out any of them because they were all really bad, though there was one particularly bad one about aliens invading the earth and one that was even worse than that about super heroes.

Let's just say that they were sappy and melodramatic and leave it at that.

3. What is the most awkward scene you've ever written? 

Other than everything that I tried to write in my romance phase when I was thirteen... I'm going to have to go with some earlier encounters between Chelsea and Easton. As I was trying to detox romance out of my system Chelsea and Easton suffered for it. They became blushing robots. Pretty much every encounter between them was the most awkward thing I had ever written.

Here is a brief example of what I mean.

“You know, Clint and Bobby have a bet going on about how soon we’ll kiss,” I managed to get out before my voice box suddenly turned off.

I said this startling bit of news just as Easton took a large swig. The result was that Easton accidentally spit it out in a spray.

I jumped out of the way and Easton cried, “What?!”

“I know; that was my reaction. Well, minus the part where you spit out all your water. Although, I think that was a nice touch. It made you look really, really surprised instead of just really surprised.” What was I babbling about? Oh, why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?

Please keep in mind that I wrote this at fourteen. Ugh, and that isn't even the very first draft, but that will be buried with me, thank you very much.

4. On a scale from 1 to 10, how often do you end up writing more than 3 chapters of the stories you start? 

I'd say that it's an eight or in the very least, a high seven. If I start a book, I'll usually get at least three chapters done. The question then is if I continue it into chapter four, five, six... and so on. I have manuscripts sitting in my laptop with thirty thousand words already written in them and eighteen chapters. Heck, I have a manuscript that I'm sixty thousand words in that I haven't touched in close to three years. Season of Subterfuge, I'm looking at you...

5. What is the hardest thing for you to write?

Emotions. Definitely, if I had my way my characters would be unfeeling rocks. Snarky unfeeling rocks, but unfeeling rocks all the same. Also, this kind of stems from emotions, but romance. I know some of you probably find this answer hard to believe, but it's true. I struggle with romance, which is why I spend so much time on developing it because I know how to write terrible romance and I don't ever want to do that again. *grimaces*

6. When you look back at your early writing pieces, what's one thing you can see you've improved in?

Uh, everything. I mean it. Characters, dialogue, plots, simply being able to sit down and write, romance was a big one... I literally knew nothing when I started out and it showed. Now I know slightly more than nothing and hopefully that also shows.

7. How do you name characters?

Painfully.

Each character goes through a different name process. Sometimes I use a name book. I have a Medieval name book (where I got most of the names in Winter Cursed). Sometimes I Google for names with meanings that I want. My characters from A Certain Sort of Madness I named off of characters and authors of classical novels. My characters in Of Gold and Iron were named off of birds and/or Irish names. Sometimes the name just gets stuck in my head *glares at Mary Rose and Thea* Really, my process is different every time. The only consistency is that it is painful.

8. If you had to pick one genre to write in forever, what would it be?

Fantasy, definitely because that would include stories with magical realism, not just high fantasy. Though I would miss Sci-Fi.

9. Which of your characters do you feel most guilty about?

I call them the big three.

Easton from My Time in Amar, Radmir from League of Thieves, and Cedric from A Winter Dark and Deadly.

I am so, so sorry for everything that I have ever done to them because they are so precious and didn't deserve any of it. They're all just the kindest, softest souls ever (even if Cedric tries to hide it) and I do more than torture them and mess with their heads and break their hearts. I take what they love most and what they fear most, and I use those things to destroy them. I utterly destroy these characters, and they were always my best characters.

*excuse me I'm crying*

I AM A HORRIBLE PERSON!!!!!

10. Which of your characters deserves everything you've given them? 

Um, probably none of them, but for the sake of answering the question I'm going to go with Ravven Crowe from Of Gold and Iron because, yeah, he probably does deserve what I do to him. He's a horrible person and I really shouldn't feel bad about all of the bad stuff that happens to him. But he's also a sweetheart so that means that he deserves the good that comes his way as well. He's just all around very deserving.

So yeah, some of those questions were pretty painful to answer. I'm not tagging anyone. Let's keep the circle of thieves growing, you gotta steal it if you want to do it.

What do you think of my answers? Which of your characters have you tortured the most? Do any of you have a writing phase you never want to go back to? Comment below!

Bookish Meltdown Tag

I've been tagged! *runs around in circles like a headless chicken* I don't know if I've ever been officially tagged before. I steal my tags, and I don't know what to do when a tag comes to me via a legal means?

I decided to do the tag, though for a while it was between that or become a hermit and renounce the internet forever.

So without further ado, I give you the Bookish Meltdown Tag. <<<< and I don't think there have been two words to better describe me than bookish and meltdown, especially when used with each other so needless to say that I'm pretty excited about this.

FIRST, the rules, because I have to. It's in the rules...

- Credit and link to the creator of the tag (Lilian @ green tea with books)
- Include the rules.
- The BEST part: choose at least 8 books that you can’t wait to get your hands in the very nearish future!
- Tag at least 3 people to do this on any social media platform you choose.
- Let the 3 people know.
- Optional: You can use my featured post image if you’d like.

So this was a little difficult, because I have like 629 books on my to-read shelf, and normally I exaggerate, but that wasn't an exaggeration, m'darling.

But the books that I chose are definitely sitting right there on the top. I do however want to mention two books that I couldn't decide whether they should be on this list or not despite how much I want to read them. They are The Traitor's Game by Jennifer Neilson and The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. I decided against The Traitor's Game because technically it's in my currently reading pile now not my to-read, despite the fact that I've only read two pages of it at this point. And I decided against Queen of Nothing because it isn't published yet. Sure, I have a few books in this list that aren't published yet either, but at least they're coming out this year *glares at Holly Black*.

With that said, let us move onto my bookish meltdown.

Please note, I got the pictures for all of these books from Goodreads! 

To Best the Boys by Mary Weber

Okay, so these books are listed in no particular order except for this one. This one is without a doubt the top of my list and my most anticipated read of 2019. Mary Weber is one of my favorite authors. She didn't even have to include a labyrinth to get me to want to read it.

I am so excited to read this book that I don't even know what else to say except I NEEDS IT!!!!!

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

This book has literally no reason to be on this list. I've never read another book by Kemmerer, the genre is one I enjoy but not one I obsess over, Beauty and the Beast is a fun retelling but not my favorite fairy tale to be retold*.

*shout out to Cinderella and Twelve Dancing Princesses

I DON'T KNOW WHY I WANT TO READ IT SO BADLY???

But I do, so it made it to the list. Actually, It's waiting for me at the library and I'm super excited.

Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

Okay, so I blame Faith for this, and all of my other friends who seem to obsess about this story. I was mildly interested in it before, because I really enjoyed Messenger's Sky Fall trilogy, but this book seemed more Middle Grade and I haven't really read any Middle Grade since I was in Middle Grade. The pain was too recent.

But all of my friends seem to love this book so I started getting more interested. Besides, long series with huge books have a certain appeal to me. Unfortunately my library only has the last book in this series. I am extremely put out by this fact, because otherwise I would have probably read this already.

Now I'm working toward collecting them Two down, now I only have what? Five to go? *cries* I'm heading to a library sale and Half Price this week with this very mission. Wish me luck!

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

I'm not going to lie. A huge amount of this book's appeal has to do with the fact that A Matter of Curiosity takes place in a circus and I need the inspiration. Am I the only one who does that? Or do you all read and anticipate books because you know they will inspire you to work on that story of yours?

Also, I've been slowly collecting the entire trilogy. Just ordered Finale! And it's gonna be a signed copy. Supposedly a different cover too. I'm super excited.

The reason that I haven't started it yet. Is I haven't been ready to work on A Matter of Curiosity yet. See, it works both ways, my friends.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

I read An Enchantment of Ravens by Rogerson and enjoyed it immensely, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that precisely 87% of the reason I want to read this book was because of the cover. Because seriously THAT COVER!!! 😍😍😍😍😍

Actually, that is all I have to say about this book. I liked her other book and the cover is gorgeous! Hope it doesn't disappoint.

Romanov by Nadine Brandes

I'm going to give you three very good reasons why this book is on this list.

Dancing bears...

Painted wings...

Things I almost remember...

Eh, you probably thought at least one of those reasons would be because Nadine flipping Brandes is writing the book, but nope nu-uh, you're wrong. That's just the cherry on top. Because I'm going to let you in a secret. You have just stumbled upon the biggest Anastasia fan on this side of the Pacific Ocean.

I am here, solely for Anastasia.

Nadine Brandes is a good author, even if I have still yet to read her original series. In fact, that should be listed above rather than Romanov because I own them and everything, but nope. Anastasia all the way!

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

I'm a loyal reader. If you write something I love then odds are I'm gonna want to read anything else that you've ever written. So, yes, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Heartless because Meyer won my heart over with her Lunar Chronicles series.

I've heard that this book is dark and tragic and I am there for that. That sounded slightly wrong didn't it?

Also, if I'm being completely honest, this is another book that I know will inspire me for A Matter of Curiosity. Especially since I'm going to have my own Queen of Hearts introduced in that book.

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Excuse me while I hide from this book that is glaring at me because I have it literally sitting on my nightstand and I haven't started it yet.

A Matter of Curiosity isn't the only book that needs inspiration. I originally got this book out of the library with two other pirate-y books to help me in my writing of A Time of Trepidation, Pirates, and Lost Princesses. Those two books turned out to be bitter disappointments, so I'm really hoping that this book will make up for them.

Plus, The Little Mermaid retold with sirens? Psh, as if this mythology lover can pass that up.

Okay, now onto the tagging.

Faith

Merie

and

Nicole

That's all for now folks. What do you think if these books? What's your most anticipated read of 2019? Comment below!

Introducing My New WIPs

Yes I've lost my mind

So, I said last week that I was probably going to be starting two new projects, and that I'd try to announce them soon. Well, here we are. Who here is dying of excitement to learn what my new projects are? How many here are shaking your heads at me *glares at my sister*? How many of you are like me and actually fall into both categories?

So, yes, I know I kinda work on a lot of books at once. Believe me, I am well aware of that fact, but the majority of the books that I'm working on, I'm editing and/or rewriting. I haven't actually been able to write much. And A Matter of Curiosity is proving more difficult to get into than I had originally thought. In fact, I am currently suffering a mild case of writer's block.

So I decided that the perfect cure for my little problem of writer's block is to work on some stories for fun in order to remember how to write a book again so that I will be able to more easily write the books that I actually need to write. Hopefully you kept up with my confusing thought process.



via GIPHY

But I only need one book to do that, so the question is, why am I deciding to work on two new projects at once when I already don't have any time to work on my other books? Well I guess the only answer to that question is that I couldn't decide between the two of them.

The first is a story idea that has been cooking around in my head since the end of 2017, I decided to write A Winter Dark and Deadly instead of this one. Then I started it last October and it was originally going to be my NaNoWriMo project but I decided to finish Of Gold and Iron instead. The second project is... well, it's completely new. I came up with it last week. *chuckles nervously*

I'll talk about the first project first since it's already waited long enough.


Red Like Blood and Flowers...

                             

                             All's fair in love, war, and bloodshed, M'dear...

In case you didn't gather from my oh so subtle title, Red Like Blood and Flowers is actually a Scarlet Pimpernel retelling. A YA fantasy Scarlet Pimpernel retelling that is the first in a series of other YA fantasy retellings of my favorite classical novels including Dracula, Pride and Prejudice, and Wuthering Heights.

The synopsis...

Darkness clings to the edges of the lavish world of Azrea.

Blood soaks the earth of its neighbor Fulare.

In a world where wealth and prestige is determined by how much magic a person has in their blood, the nobility waste their magic on trivialities, never noticing the seething masses of non or low magickers until it is too late. The common folk of Fulare have decided that they don’t need the nobility or the king’s magic to protect them from monsters from legend.

Equality for all. Death for the magic wielders.

Marguerite St. Andreas is a popular Fularian actress. She possess only a very small talent for magic, but her bevy of suitors don’t seem to care about this fact.

However, when her brother Sydney is imprisoned for treason, she is left with a cruel either or. Find a suitable replacement for her brother’s neck on the scaffold, or he dies. But there is only one person who could be considered a suitable substitute. The Scarlet Pimpernel, a brave soul who risks his life to save those magic wielders who would otherwise face death.

Unwilling to let her brother die for a faceless phantom, Marguerite accepts the proposal of one of her long time suitors, Sir Percival Blackwell, a powerful magic user from Azrea. Percy is an inane idiot, but on his arm, she will be able to infiltrate the high society of Azrea where she must find the Scarlet Pimpernel. Or her brother will die. But is the cost of betrayal a price too high for Marguerite to pay, even for her brother’s life?

In a world of bloody revolution and monsters that hide in human skins, where enchantments conceal sinister intents, is there anyone who can truly be trusted?


And now we move on to the second of my projects.


Remember Me This Time...

                 Forget the past, save the present, and escape the future.

So yeah, if you're thinking that this sounds like a time travel story then you are dead right. Because that is exactly what it is. I'm going to admit to you that I have a special weakness for time travel stories, but I've been too fearful to write one because I was always scared of getting the historical details wrong. But with this story any changes can be chalked up to the plot so... yeah. I have literally no idea about the future of the series, I mean, it's probably going to be a series, or in the very least a really, really long book? It's a tragic romance, a story of friendship, and my first book that will be written solely from a male's perspective.

The synopsis!

Time travel is a thing of the past.

1890, a man dies. Missing from his body is a single note. The man was from the future, and that note just broke history.

It’s the present.

Humanity is in a golden era, making leaps and bounds in technology including the latest conquest- time travel. But time is a delicate thing and so to protect the future, certain fail safes have been put in place. To travel into the past, a person must forget their own present, therefore they will not be able to tamper with history to change the future.

Time travel offers an escape for the outcasts. A new start, a different life. For some...

It’s the future

Jameson Edward Vondrasek has a secret that could destroy everything. He doesn’t forget when he travels through time. He’s also immortal. Jameson has dedicated his existence to learning and protecting time from those who would wish to change the course of historical events. The last things he needs is more complications, especially when he realizes that someone is trying to destroy the past. Let alone complications that come in the form of a girl from the future with no memory.

And time is running out.

Jameson failed to stop that note from being delivered, and now time is falling apart around him. On top of all that, now he suddenly has to deal with a psychotic time traveler who has started plaguing his timeline, and knows too much about him. She doesn’t seem to forget either which makes it suspicious when she suddenly shows up claiming that she has no memory of anything and that his future self sent her to him. He’s expected to babysit her and somehow make her good again while still keeping himself at a distance, because emotions only ever lead to pain.

The clock is ticking… for now.

And it’s up to Jameson to make sure that it remains that way, but with two girls with amnesia and his future self seeming to hinder his every step, he isn’t so sure if he will succeed in time.

Okay, so there you have it. My new projects. What do you all think of them?

Don't forget that throughout the month of March I am accepting questions about myself or my books for the Q&A post I'm doing in April as an official celebration for actually starting a blog (I know I'm a little late, but I'm sure that Jameson can help me out there).

That's all I've got for now. What do you think about my new WIPs? Have you read the Scarlet Pimpernel? What do you think of Time Travel? Do you have any questions for me? Comment below!

Farewell February// Birthday Book Haul

Spring is in the air. Or at least, it was earlier this month. It's a little cold right now, but at least the snow has been coming out more and the birds are returning. And now February is at a close, and technically it's March now, but I couldn't leave February without saying farewell.

Life

I turned nineteen which was... scary. I still think of myself as a kid even though I'm becoming a full fledged and responsible adult. Other than that, there isn't much to comment on. I worked, I drew a lot, and stayed up late way too often. My life is boring. Move along.

Blogging

So as many of you already know, almost the entirety of my blogging last month has been dedicated to fantasy. I've been trying out blogging on Wednesdays, and I think that worked out well. I've had every Wednesday this month off so I'm going to keep with the Wednesday blogging schedule. Also, I realized that I never really did anything to celebrate my starting my blog so I'm doing that now by doing a question and answer post. It will be at the beginning to April. You will be able to leave your questions in the comments of any blog post throughout the month of March.

Reading

I only read five books this month. They were the four books in the Black Mage series. It was so good, I'd already read First Year and Apprentice before but I finally finished the series. And wow, was it painful in the end.

And Seafire. Which I hated.



Writing

So, my writing this month has had its highs and lows. I realized that I wouldn't be able to publish A Winter Dark and Deadly in the amount of time that I had been hoping, which was disappointing of course, but I just want to thank you all for your support. It means so much to me. I also sent Of Gold and Iron to a publisher which was both terrifying and exciting. I also wrote a piece of flash fiction that was just under three thousand words, for this anthology contest. It's called A Chance at Death and honestly I wasn't expecting it to be quite as emotional as it was. I even drew a piece of art that I submitted with it. Hopefully I'll hear back in a few months with good news about that.

Finally, I didn't get much actual writing done outside of editing. I've been having a bit of a creative rut with my written projects. Therefore, I'm setting Here is There down for a little while and starting a new (or possibly two) new projects to try to pull myself out of that. I'm super excited about these new projects and maybe I'll announce them next Wednesday to give myself time to make certain that these are in fact the stories that I will be starting. Please keep in mind that editing my sequels and polishing Of Gold and Iron up for publication are still my main priorities, these are just side projects so that I don't forget how to write.

Birthday Books

But now, enough of the updates, I promised a birthday book haul and so a birthday book haul you will get. I was busy with February is Fantasy month so I didn't really have much of an opportunity to do this till now. I got a lot of books for my birthday and I'm super excited about all of them even if my bookshelf no longer has any space at all. So without further ado, here are the newest arrivals to my book family.

From my grandparents

Never even heard of this book before my birthday

Got first book at library sale

And that's it. A pretty good birthday book haul if I do say so myself. Ignore my bookshelf crying in the background.

Now it's your turn. How was your February? Have you read any of the books that I got for my birthday? What do you think of my idea to start a new project or two? Comment below!