Weather: Ha, ha…yeah…We were dismissed from school early (at 11:00 a.m.) due to freezing rain and ice all over the roads. It still has not stopped and we are supposed to get snow on top of it tonight…>.<
Working on: Updating my website, computer school lessons, listening to Youtube, and staying warm
Currently Listening to: Glee’s What Does the Fox say and Nasty Boys
Currently Watching: Jeff Dunham Christmas special yesterday.
Currently Playing: Okay. It took me a week to beat the first member and I am struggle, so, I put “Platinum” away for now. I have 4.5 hours on “Pokémon X” now. If you have a friend code, let me know! 🙂
Currently Reading: Fateful
Desktop Wallpaper- Pikachu decorating a snow tree with Pokeballs with some of his friends. I like how Pichu is making a snow Jigglypuff!
Thoughts and feelings: I hope I remember to update everything and MAN; it’s cold!!! >.<
Holiday(s): Repel Day and bathtub Party Day
Icon: A cup of hot chocolate because it has many marshmallows in it, like the many updates I have, plus I might need some hot chocolate; it’s FREEZING!!! >.<
Brrrrrr everyone! It’s cold and slick here in the mid-West! I hope anyone who is having ice and snow right now is staying safe and warm. I also hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. All three of mine were good! I also got about half of my Christmas shopping done on Friday…On-line! Agh! You could not PAY me enough to go out of my home on Black Friday! >.< We also put our Christmas tree and decorations up in the apartment. I even cleaned out the outdoor shed and found about 20 dead spiders, 10 in a row, frozen in place, and 4 large egg sacks! I told my husband this and he looked about sick. He HATES spiders. I can deal with spiders; it’s snakes that creep me…*shakes* I even put up our porch Christmas lights all by myself! *stands tall* They are messy looking, but I like them. 🙂 Anyway, it felt like late summer this weekend. Now, a mini ice storm!
Also, happy 9 years of being together on December 3rd to my Derrick! 😀 9 years ago on that day was when I sat by him, randomly kissed his cheek (my first impulsive move of my life for anything), grabbed his hand, and asked me if we were going out! I almost made him pass out, but look at all the blessings I got from that one moment?
All right! So, tons to update! Below are the links to my Author Introduction video and me reading my first chapter to my middle school. They were a grand audience and even asked me questions after I read it. 🙂 I WAS SO NERVOUS!!! -_-;; Please check them both out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhjeGzsetA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amXypbrmkZI
I was supposed to be interviewed for my local newspaper today and on one of the local TV and radio stations tomorrow, but with the weather, we have to postpone them until next week. I hope they will get out before the release! Follow my facebook and twitter to learn when and where these events are happening!
I also got to be a guest on another author’s blog for the FIRST TIME EVER!!! 😀 He wanted authors to write stories about Thanksgivings and I sent him a nonfiction story on an event 2 years ago around Thanksgiving time that changed my outlook on life a bit. Mr. Richard Foland is an awesome guy. Please check out his site here and his book, “At What Price”. My story is entitled “The Year of the Shinigami “on his Wednesday, November 27, 2013 entry. Let me know what you think of the story too!
http://pharosblogject.blogspot.com/
I am also apart of the Jingle Bells, Mistletoe, and Magic Booklovers Bash on Facebook. It is December 13th-15th. I am not giving anything away for this one, but I will popping on the page on those days and give some snippets from Spirit Vision. Please check out the event; over 100 authors will be apart of it! Here is there website for more information, but it is a facebook and Twitter event: http://virtualebookfair.com/
Along with the lines for events, Paper Crane Books is doing its event for the holiday session (and I LOVE the snow on the website!!!). It is entitled “The Midwinter’s Eve Giveaway.” It starts on December 21st and I know all the authors of the company will be offering giveaway prizes…including me! ^^ The rest is hush-hush for now, put check out Paper Crane Books news section for more information: http://papercranebooks.com/news/
On Monday, I had the honor of being a guest speaker and going over to my local high school to read to several students. I read excerpts from my book (I had four different sets so I and the teachers would not get board) and we had discussions afterwards. I had a lot of fun and they did too. Most of them asked great questions and they seemed excited. The teachers were all pumped; that made me more nervous! >.< But, it was great to see and interact with my freshmen Language Arts teacher who, unknown to him, inspired me to give writing a book a try. He was also great at asking harder questions to answer and getting the ball rolling for his students, which was fantastic! He set up the schedule for me and everything. So, I want to give a shout out to this great man! I hope the character I based off of you does you justice.
I even found a part with a lot of dialogue and 6 characters in it so I made copies, highlighted parts, and made forced volunteers come up to read the parts as I read the narration. ^^ Oh, 17 year olds act so tough, but they were all trying to hide when I did that, but the students were awesome! They all LOVED the cover to death and were curious about manga and anime because of it! WOOT! Making the otaku dream become closer to reality!!! I got to hand out tons of business cards too (My publisher made them for me. I added the picture below). They were OBSESSED with the snow on the Paper Crane’s website too! They kept talking about it and they are 15-17! =D I even had 6 students come up to me and tell me their ideas for books and they asked if I would look over what they had when I came back in January. They were so passionate and respectful; that made me feel so awesome! ^^ I also had a young man ask me about how to become a special education teacher for it was his dream, but he was too shy to voice it since that is not normally a male field (although he will get hired BEING a man for that field). That was so uplifting! I got to embarrass my cousin too, which was the bomb! AND! Well, I accidently almost killed a teacher! The students in one class (where I knew all the students for they were freshmen and I had them last year) asked for the blurb or basic idea of the book. I told them and, scared of saying “God” in school, I pointed upward and said “The Big Guy Upstairs.” A girl, all excited, smiled and yelled, “Santa Clause?” The whole class died!!! >.< I couldn’t talk for a whole minute and the poor teacher slammed her head on the desk and laughed for over two minutes straight. Her face was tomato red and she was gasping! I was worried about her! Luckily, a male student explained to the girl what I meant and we moved on slowly, tears in our eyes from laughter! It was such a wonderful experience to be able to connect with these fine young people! I hope I’ll get some sales too! 😉
If you want a Christmas story to snuggle up to this year, you might want to try my dear friend, Charles Carron’s book, “Elffis saves Christmas.” It’s currently $0.99 on smashwords .com and he told me he is thinking of making a sequel. Download it now and enjoy; it’s a darling tale! 🙂 http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/cscarron
On a final fun note, since there are 12 days until Spirit Vision’s released (HOLY COW) and it IS the holiday season, I wanted to do a parody, called “The 12 Days of Spirit Vision.” Each day on my Facebook and Twitter, I will post what day of Christmas it is and each one will have a different character giving me something. Please enjoy it! Here is the first one:
“On the first day of Christmas, Stary gave to me, a shiny star necklace.”
I also added a Christmas theme top ten on the blog page!
Don’t forget that you can pre-order Spirit Vision on Paper Crane Books’ store mail on December 17th! 12 days until the release! http://papercranebooks.com/spirit-vision
Thank you so much for all the love everyone. I’ll chat with you soon! 😀
Morgan Straughan Comnick