Weather: SLICK AS GLASS!!! >.<
Working on: Updating my website, listening to Youtube videos, eating pizza
Currently Listening to: Youtube
Currently Watching: Girl’s High was the last thing I watched on T.V.
Currently Playing: I’m 16 hours on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. It’s fun! ^.^
Currently Reading: Just finished Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George and will start House of Night book 11: Revealed later. SNOW DAY!
Thoughts and feelings: Enjoying some time to myself; will work tomorrow. And…I shouldn’t have put chocolate chap stick on and then taken a bite of pizza…WEIRD!
Holiday(s): The Day the Music Died Remembrance and National Carrot Cake day
Wallpaper: Saber from Fate Stay Night, looking awesome, but will change it to Chii from Chobits surrounded in pink bubbles and roses soon for Valentine’s Day season! ^^
Icon: Princess Tutu. I love this anime so much and I woke up, wanting to watch it yesterday. Her outfit reminds me of winter for some reason! 🙂
Things to add:
Hello everyone! I am back from Oz and boy, do I have some stories to tell! Those women love their shoes over there a little too much, water is apparently harmful, and they totally have rainbow horses over there! 😀 It was more than I could bear, so I clicked my hot pink sneakers three times and expected to be home, but when I stepped into this new world, I was not in Missouri any more, oh no! I was in flippin’ Narnia! >.< I took one step and I nearly slipped on my rear like some sort of silent film comedy routine. The Snow Queen really needs to control her anger management issues. I’m on my 12th snow day! Geez!
HA! Sorry for my rant! 🙂 I’m not quiet awake and my students who I had a study group with last week told the other kids who wanted to come we were going to Oz! HA! And, it really is icy today, my school is on it’s 12th snow day, and I really was super close to sliding flat on my bottom with one step on my driveway. Too much ice, hence the pun in my title. HA! I’m so clever! 😉
It’s been about three weeks since I’ve made an official Home page appearance, but I know my guests and Pokémon friends on my blog have been taking care of you guys! Below this post is Emily Wenstorm’s guest post on the evolution of vampires in literature and my friend, Adam Pfaff’s interview, my first Aspiring Author! Thank you both for being such amazing guests and starting my 2014 off right! ^_^ My new Aspiring Author for February will be revealed on Friday, the 28th.
Check out my Pokémon X Review too! Because it took me so long to write (although it was fun), I will make it my top ten for this post. I will do a Valentine’s Day theme top ten in two weeks for you guys though! 🙂
I updated my “To Be a Nerdy Otaku page” (hover over the “About the Author” page and it’ll show up), along with my Links page, my Reviews page, my Guest posts page, and my Books page.
My book is being sold at three more places now too! WOOT! 😀 I-Tunes, Book Depository, and Books-A-Million (BAM)
For Spirit Vision advertising news, I have quite a bit. First off, Sheenah, my lovely publisher, decided to do a Goodreads giveaway, the prize was one copy of my book, Spirit Vision. The contest ended last night and I do not know who the winner is, but I just checked and it had 560 ENTRIES!!! >.< I was stunned when I reached 200+, but over 500!!! You guys are so incredible! I love you all oodles of noodles! 😀 Thanks for entering and I hope the 260ish people who added Spirit Vision to their “Want to Read” list enjoy it if you ever get to read it. And to the winner, congrats! <3 I was not aware of the contest, but I will keep you guys posted if there is ever another one.
I DO know that we are having a giveaway REALLY soon on Paper Crane Books. Check the website often for updates! That’s all I can say about that…;)
Also, if you are a book blogger, reviewer, or just have a book site, you can sign-up for the Spirit Vision blog tour. The tour will be from March 17th to March 28th. Click the hyperlink for more information. It’s my first tour and I am super pumped for it! 😀 Thanks for the support.
Speaking of tours….I can seg way into book signings! 😀 March is going to be a busy book month for me. On March 1st, I am going to have my first book signing at my local trading card game shop, Gamers Bazaar! The couple that owns it are so rad and so supportive! They are also the first local business in my hometown to sell copies of my book (the second in my area. A bookstore about 35 minutes away has copies for sell too, Books Galore. Their website is on my Links page). The book signing event will be three hours of awesomeness. I’ll be signing anything for a $1, all money going to Samurai Dan and Jillian’s campaign (they still need help and I think we have until March 7th to donate. But, they DO NOT know about this; it’s a surprise, so shhhhh! ;D), selling products, and conducting a Pokémon event where I have causal card or handheld battles with anyone who wants to battle me or my friends (Derrick, Nathan, and Tabby). We also will teach anyone who does not know how to play the Pokémon Trading Card game how to play! It’s only a $1 in the charity jar to play at this event. We also have a raffle that for every $1 you donate to the charity, you get a raffle ticket and a chance to win a Pokémon deck of their choice from the store! 😀 I want to help Dan and Jillian as much as I can and I hope showing them how much we love them will be enough. It’ll help Gamers Bazaar and me get exposure too. We’ll all have an electrifyingly good time! 🙂 Also, please click the hyperlinks to check out Dan and Jillian’s campaign.
On March 6th and 7th, my school is allowing me to do a book signing there in the library. I got 17 book orders, which is awesome for my first one. ^^ Our character council, which is like our student council and ambassadors combined, are helping me promote it and come up with ideas. They have posters. They are helping me with the two charities (St. Jude’s and our local animal adoption center), raffling a book to a student, raffling an autographed, framed print cover to a staff member, decorating, being my helpers the day of, and more. I’m really excited. Every student gets to go the signing for I am connecting it to language and our character education curriculum, having a Q & A session, and then signing and selling products. Again, it’s a $1 for as many autographs as they want on school acceptable items and all that money goes to the charities (the students get to pick which of the two jars they want to put it in). The teachers, my students, the principal, and our wonderful library goddess have been amazing with all this! ^_^
I may have some contests for you guys in a few months too. Check back here and my medias often for more information! ^_-
BIG NEWS! I got my FIRST official book review on Amazon and it was 5 stars! 😀 Thank you kind reader for taking time to write a review. You can read the review on Spirit Vision’s Amazon page or on my Review page here on the site. Sheenah made me a banner to celebrate. She’s so good to me.
Big news for Friday too! My new author friend, Danielle Beinvenu, will be my guest on here on Friday, February 7th. I got to interview her! She is such a kind, talented person and has 14 books currently out! Please come back Friday to read her interview and check out her cool site.
On to my normal (ha!) life. Been very much at school due to all the snow make-ups we have to do. February is also the busiest month for me with Valentine’s Day, school events, applications to jobs due in March, starting summer school plans…*sighs* So, I will be a busy girl. On top of all this, I am planning two book signings, writing the manuscript for book 2, going to a Special Education Workshop for work, studying for another teaching test, checking on my grandma (she broke her arm and hip on News Years Eve and will be in a nursing home for therapy for a while. Love you grandma!), and more. So, my weekdays are always shot or I am too tired to do much when I get home from work at 5:00ish to 7:00 (depending if I have Kickboxing). I will also have singing practice once a week to prepare for a Rag Time Charity Event at my church on May 2nd.
I’m chugging along on Spirit Vision 2. I can say I should finish chapter 12 today. It’s better than nothing, right? 🙂 I DID get my cosplay for NatsuCon! I ordered it, custom sized, on January 4th and I got it sent to me, FROM CHINA, three weeks later! 0.o It’s incredible and fits me so well. Normally, I have cosplay issues…*knocks on wooden desk* I cannot wait to wear it! I’m Hungary from Hetailia in her Austrian Succession War battle outfit (looks sort of colonial). My brother got his confirmation e-mail a few days ago that they are starting his; he’s going to be Li Syaoron from our beloved Cardcaptor Sakura! WOOT! =D I also got to go to a book signing tea with my Aunt Rosie and Aunt Dot (my dad’s older sisters; he’s the baby). It was so sweet and they have been a blessing to me with their love and kindness! All my family has! 😀 We took my Aunt Joni and Uncle Larry (my mom’s brother and his wife) to our Shogan’s to try Japanese food and my aunt kept telling the waitress I was her niece, the novelist, and was upset that she left my books in the car! The poor waitress was nodding kindly and kept staring at me uncomfortably! I was sinking in the booth! HA!
I haven’t done my book updates in a while! I’ve read 4 so far and I want to get as many as I can; I’m always asking for books. But, it takes me like 2 weeks to read a book lately because I just am too sleepy or have NO TIME! Here is my current list:
- Vampire: 4 for sure (and 3 more maybes): 4-7 total
- Fantasy: 9
- Fairy Tale: 4
- Realistic Fiction: 4
- History: 12 (with 3 maybe): 12-15
- Resource: 1
- Children: 7
- Manga: 11
I hope I can do it!
I will then see you guys Friday for Danielle’s interview and then on the weekend after Valentine’s day for a normal update and a lovey-dovey top ten! 😀 I have all of Derrick’s gifts except for making his Valentine’s Day chocolates and YES, I MAKE Japanese chocolates like the girls do in anime! ^.^ Look it up or watch any Valentine’s day episode of an anime if you’re not sure what I’m taking about! 🙂 It’s fun. Derrick has some of my stuff he says, lol! We decided to have a nice Japanese lunch on the 15th since I have to work on Valentine’s Day. What are you guys doing? <3 OH! Derrick also put together a steel and dark deck for Pokémon with two annoying Snorlaxs in it! I thought it would be unstoppable when I saw all his cards and he’s such a TCG pro, but I beat him the first game and he beat me the second. Pretty intense!
Well, time to say farewell! Smell a rose, eat a hamburger, talk to a flying mint bunny, and pretend to be the box of tomatoes’ fairy! Adios!