Weather: It’s BEEN LOVELY for a week now! ^_^ Although, they keep hinting at snow tomorrow…GRRR!
Working on: Updating my website, trying not to fall asleep
Currently Listening to: Anime openings
Currently Watching: Lovely Complex (the anime) I just saw the CUTEST scene in an anime I have seen in a long while! ^_^ They are officially one of my favorite couples now!
Currently Playing: I FINALLY BEAT the main story of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. It was so action packed and sad at the end. I played it for over 26 hours. I can go back and finish the side story, which I will do when I have time.
Currently Reading: I just finished True, book 3 in Hilary Duff’s Elixir series. Will start The Selection next.
Thoughts and feelings: Super sleepy, but I got a lot done, so I feel good about it. PLUS, IT’S SPRING BREAK! Time to dig out the chilled Yoo-hoo! =^.^=
Holiday(s): Everything You Think is Wrong day…0.o Not sure how I feel about this one!
Wallpaper: Hetalia Axis Team (Italy, Germany, and Japan) looking forward while Italy plays his guitar and Chibi Italy is conducting. I <3 this show so much! I am cosplaying as Hungary in LESS THAN A MONTH!!! =)
Favorite Quote of the moment: “A man in his time plays many parts…”- William Shakespeare
Icon: Megaman and Roll from NT Warrior! I just saw this and thought it was so cute! I loved this show! 😀
The sun is shining. Children are playing outside. Birds are returning to do ‘business’ on our vehicles…Ah…That must mean spring is near! ^_^ I am not sure about you guys, but I am SO ready for it! The mid-west, where I am at, was hit HARD this year! We had 19 snow days and I made all, but 1.5 of my teacher hours up. It was hard though…-_-;;
Let me tell you guys what is going on in my life real fast, what I have been doing, and then time for A TON of book related updates! 🙂
Been working a lot since the ice and snow had messed us up, but it was not as bad as I thought. School has been chaotic with everyone trying to play catch up. This grading quarter FLEW by! I moved classrooms and I have an office inside a classroom, but it is spacious and my students had fun cleaning out all the stuff out of the first cabinet. 🙂 They found about 40 new floppy disks (which my girl had no idea what it was…*sighs*…-_-;;), 2 year old crackers, and a NEVER BEEN OPENED set-up kit with manual for the ORIGINAL Microsoft Windows! 0.o I recall Windows 95 when I was like 6, but nothing before that, so…man! What a time capsule! ^^ And we have barely made a dent in the cabinets! Who knows what we will find? I also got to have a really beneficial teaching experience, but I cannot reveal anything yet. Once I know the results, I will let you guys know! Been busy with my church’s Rag Time night. We are singing several songs, but it is fun.
Let’s see…OH! My best male friend from high school, the one who introduced me to my husband Derrick, has moved back to our town after years! 😀 We missed him so much and we picked up right where we left off, joking, laughing, and playing Smash Brothers! He is even in the building across from ours in our apartment complex! It is so nice to have him back! Derrick got himself a Playstation 4 and it is pretty rad, although he will be glued to it! >.< I cannot WAIT for Kingdom Hearts 3!!! I ALSO got asked to be a BRIDESMAID in my friend Tabby’s wedding! I have never been in a wedding before other than being a bride in my own and I CANNOT WAIT to support her! 😀 The theme is Steampunk and the colors red and purple with silver outlining. She did decide on our hair pieces and bracelets and they are gorgeous! They have about a year to plan. I wonder if we will wear fox tails like she does…
For my spring break, I will be writing A LOT on Spirit Vision 2 since I have had no time for hardly anything. I also will crack open the fifty thousand and eighty nine page monster that is my study booklet for my Elementary Praxis (teaching) test for my state. If I pass this, I can get 4th-6th grade added to my teaching certification (I have birth to 3rd grade currently). This will make me more marketable without making me more costly like it would have if I went back to college right now. I really want my own classroom, teaching the little ones! But, I only have ONE SHOT to pass it this time for they are getting rid of it in July. My test is May 19th! Wish me luck guys!
Now, on to what WILL be happening on the book front and then some book related things I did. Ready?! 😉
Starting this Monday, March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day…WOOT!), I will start my FIRST EVER blog book tour for Spirit Vision! 😀 I am SO excited and honored to be able to experience this, especially with all you guys. Please follow me each day on the different blog and review sites for guest posts, interviews, excerpts, and reviews you can ONLY get on the tour and a chance to win The Ultimate Spirit Warrior Giveaway! I had a lot of fun preparing for this and my publisher, Sheenah, once again, outdid herself getting it set-up! HUGGLES TO HER! <3 Go to Paper Crane Books’ Events Page to look and follow the schedule:
Add the banner with this URL or Paper Crane’s and spread the word for me amazing stars in training! Click here to see the schedule:
Also, I am throwing my first contest! For Spirit Vision, I added a Question and Answer section as an extra, but the fun part was all the questions were from the middle school students at the school I work at. For Spirit Vision 2, I wanted to do something just as awesome and I recalled The Fan Basket section in the back of all the Fruits Basket mangas. So, I am having a Spirit Vision fan art contest! ^_^ You have until April 25th to enter. Click on the link below for Paper Crane’s official rules and how to enter! Six lucky winners will get their artwork PUBLISHED in the back of the book. ALL ENTRIES will be added to my Fan Base page forever to thank them! I also will except all media styles, genres, use of materials, and so forth as long as the drawing is acceptable for ages 12 and up; please keep it clean!
Take a banner and advertise it on your social media! Tell all your artist pals! I CANNOT wait to see the entries! Judges will be revealed at a later date.
Spirit Vision Fan Art Contest!
Lastly, for major items, if you live in my area, follow my facebook page for information about my second local book signing and our Pokémon The Trading Card Game Classes at our AMAZING local card shop, Gamers Bazaar (follow them on facebook too).
I had my VERY first book signing here and it was SO much fun! I did not sell a ton of book products, but me, my friends, and my hubby were able to get kids of all ages excited on how to learn to play, how to make a deck (several got cards from the shop or are now telling me about the decks they made themselves), and organize their cards. I had kids from ages 4-16, which was AWESOME! They had such a blast and several pre-teens and adults even kept looking at my training sessions. I would smile and ask them if they wanted to watch or learn to play next. They would always say no, walk by again, stop to look, and so forth. By the third or fourth walk-by, they would either finally crack and challenge me/ask to be taught, or, the rusty players, would ask why I did that move or what a certain card did. When I was packing up, I had a good handful of players (for Yu-gi-oh or Magic) talk to me privately about Pokémon cards or my book/publishing process. The owner’s wife told me that it seemed to go well and asked if I could come back. I said I would like that. I e-mailed the owner that night and he said after I left and the rest of the evening, he had people ask me when the next Pokémon class was or what it was all about! 😀 That made me feel good to bring Pokémon back out into the lime light of card gaming like it deserves! This was March 1st and I cannot wait to go Saturday to do it again. I hope I will have my crew with me…I know I will be challenged to a few handheld battles this time and I have Pokémon board games for the younger guys. 🙂
This week, I did a two day book signing at my middle school. Character Council (our stu-co and ambassadors combined), have helped me out A LOT from making posters, promoting charity, being my helpers the day of, announcing it, and helping me immensely with my advisory challenge where I make a verse for a teacher I had at the school that is still there and as a homeroom, each class has to guess. The winner gets a donut party!
I came in early to decorate the library with stars and purple and blue décor. It looked pretty good. ^^ I had some brave kids hang up things on the ceiling since I am scared of heights. Sad… So! For the book signing, the students came in and I got rid of all the tables and found these awesome carpet squares like kindergarten classrooms use and we had story time. First, the students had to, raising their hands, tell me their eight pillars of character words (empathy, honestly, accountability, respect, humility, service, courage leadership, and perseverance). They got candy if they got it right. I chose a student from each class who had a million dollar smile, could model, and listen to directions. They were my Vana White (the Wheel of Fortune lady) and got to move their class star up or down based on what I told them. I graded the class’ star movement on character, behavior/manners, and how well their question asking skills were. I had many good hours and I was going to only give out one prize to the best class, related to my book, but I decided to do it twice and another prize for the class who asked the best questions (although they were super good too, but I had two that were just ALL STARS)! This helped me monitor things since I had different class sizes (one was 4 and another had over 70!). 0.o I then read the blurb on the back of the book and they had to tell me which of the eight Stary and a Spirit Warrior would have to have and why (for Starburst again).
Next, depending on the class’ behavior, I either read my book or an activity. For the good classes, recall how I said I made the high schoolers a few months ago act out a scene from my book with lots of dialogue? Well, I did the same scene again with my middle schoolers, but they were not as shy. I gave them a little backstory on the previous chapter and a description and voice impression by me (hey! I HAVE to do fun voices! ^.-). The characters were Stary (I was the narrator version of Stary) and her four best friends: Chloe, Rin, Lauren, and Mark. I told the kids about the people who inspired them as well. After I explained Chloe was boy crazy and I made her sound like a valley girl (SORRY MISSA-BOO if you read this! -_-;;), ALL the boys wanted to play her! HA! So, I had only ONE female Chloe in like 9 classes! 0.o I had two that blew my socks off. Once I got my five volunteers on ‘stage,’ I pulled out my secret weapon that I randomly thought of late that night, wide-awake in bed: PROPS!
Stary had a star and moon wand. Rin had a football to pound. Lauren had a New Moon hoodie since she always wears hoodies. Mark had on Los Vegas sunglasses and last, but not least, Chloe had a wavy yellow blonde and pink wig! All the boys got so excited to wear it although MAN! They had trouble putting it on. The kids were fantastic and I have no idea how many teachers I made tear up from laughing. We ALL lost it once when once of our Chloe boys, on accident, tooted when he bent over for a part. Poor kid, but he laughed with us and for two minutes, his teacher was red as a tomato and gasping from laughter! What a day! I hope they at least remember that scene when they read my book! 😉
After this, they got to ask me questions and they were so impressive here. I had a few questions that made me think and some I chuckled, which is fantastic. After this, they could buy things, pick up their books, and buy an autograph or candy to raise money for either St. Jude’s or our local animal shelter. We raised almost $85 total! I’m proud of you guys! ^_^ I got to sign a wallet and cell phone too! I also brought 12 extra books and I only have 3 left now! Woot! The library bought three for themselves.
I will never forget this experience. I am already having many students ask me why I wrote things a certain ways, asking me about characters, and they tell me how awesome it is to talk to an author of a book they are reading. I never thought about it, but if I was in their shoes, I would follow the author around too! HEHEHE! I got two other schools see me do the event (they were visiting our school) and asked for my contact information to perhaps come to their school. 🙂 I have at least 15 students tell me they have been writing or had a book idea and I told them go for it and I would LOVE to look at it! I had three tell me they are now inspired to write and thanked me. I may still be new at all of this, but I feel like connecting to my students, my precious young teen fans, is something a lot of authors do not get to do. I am so blessed. I raffled a free book and the boy that got it was so grateful. His eyes lit up and his smile was so sweet! I am glad he won because he worked so hard being my helper, always a smile on his face. I had the book, signed, in a shiny star bag, and I saw him carrying that bag half the day around. In study hall, he brought the book to class (still protected in the rainbow star bag), got it out carefully, and jumped right into reading it! I really felt good seeing that.
OH! I did have two Spirit Vision related requests: one is to write a book or short story on Umbra and Maren’s life and their backstory before they were killed. The students are obsessed with this backstory! And a girl in elementary school saw my bookmark for Stary and thought she was so adorable. She wants to read my book, but is too young, so she asked if I would write young readers chapter books with some pictures about Stary’s adventures before she became a Spirit Warrior, maybe some encounters with ghosts or spirits before her powers were fully activated. I adored this idea! <3 And, of coarse, they LOVED Suzy’s artwork to piece and want Spirit Vision to be a manga with Suzy being the artist! I DREAM of this, but we would have to find a lot of time… At least an audio book is in the working as I type, huh? 🙂
To celebrate the FIRST time I ever finished a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game and such an amazing one at that, I have another Pokémon related top ten! This time my Favorite Male Gym leaders (I did female last month). I will mix it up next time, promise! Make sure to check out my fanfiction in the Fun Works section as well!
Here is my updated book category list BTW:
- Vampire: 4 for sure (and 3 more maybes): 4-7 total
- Fantasy: 8
- Fairy Tale: 2
- Realistic Fiction: 3
- History: 12 (with 3 maybe): 12-15
- Resource: 1
- Children: 7
- Manga: 10
Kiss a rainbow, hug a Yak, and string your dreams into a necklace to keep them close to your heart! <3 Please follow my blog tour, enter the art contest, and return soon for more updates along with our March Aspiring Author! 😀 PASTA!