Down the Rabbit Hole

Happy Wednesday once more everyone! I hope you've all had a great May. May has been full of lots of life stuff and writerly stuff and reading. I am so excited to share it with you all (along with an awesome new thing I'm doing for next month on here)! May Writing: May was full of lots of writing... Like lots. I finished draft four of The Lost Ones, came up with the name The Lost Ones and finished editing draft five. Now comes the hard work of plugging in all those changes and edits into my Word doc. Oh the joys of writing... ;) But for real, I am so excited that I finished the read through for TLO and I am even more excited to finish this draft so I can get it ready for betas. This month I also planned out the series... I've never planned out a series ever. I'm a pantser so what do I do? I make life hard for myself by winging not only my novels but entire series too. That whole not planning thing? It didn't work for me and since I'm wanting to take myself m...

Happy Wednesday once more everyone! So recently I've been doing a lot of craft-learning and have discovered some pretty awesome resources that have been so helpful to me. I'm also contemplating trying my hand at a How To guide for writers. I've already written a How to Write a Serial book and it just needs to be touched up. I think I might make it one of my freebies for my newsletter. So then not only do you get a short story but also a how to guide cuz I realized a lot of the newsletters I sign up for come with how to guides or writerly resources. But anyways, here are some of my favorite books/podcasts/blogs that have been so, so helpful to me over the past few months: Craft Books: Go Teen Writers: Edit Your Novel by Stephanie Morril and Jill Williamson: This one has a little bit of everything in it and is perfect for beginners. If you've just started plotting your novel, are in the middle of writing it or have begun the editing process this is a must have!  ...

Hello hello everyone! Happy Friday! I can't believe we only have a week left of May. This month has felt like it's gone by so fast for me. Despite it going by so fast though, it's been a really great month (especially in the book department). Two of my most anticipated reads came out this month: Finale by Stephanie Garber and Romanov by Nadine Brandes. Of course, I had to read Finale first and man guys!! It was so good!! I'll try to keep all the spoilers to myself, but I just have to say, this book was the perfect ending to the series. When it comes to ending a series I always get a little nervous because you never know what will happen. Some authors like happy endings, some like sad endings and some like bittersweet endings and sometimes the ending the author envisions isn't what the readers envision. However, Stephanie Garber did a brilliant job wrapping up the Caraval world. I am so sad that the stories of Tella and Scarlett and Legend are over. :( As I wri...

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday once again! I have a quick update about my writing for this month. So in March I wrote the first book in an NA paranormal fiction series. I wrote it in like fifteen days or something like that. A record amount of time for me. I revised it a little and then took a big break because I was feeling stuck on the revisions. I didn't know what else to do with it and where to go with it, until last week, when the plot clicked and I figured out what I needed to do to revise and edit it. Anyways, so I got draft 4 done and am now in the process of printing it out little by little and editing it by hand. I hope to do 3 chapters a day and have the hand-edits done by the end of May. By the end of June I want to have it ready for either betas or maybe an editor and I am going to be working super hard to have it ready to be published by August or September. It makes me a little anxious thinking that far ahead, but if I want to have a planned out, solid book launch...

Happy Friday all! I hope you've all had a good week! I am so ready for the weekend... Yesterday felt busy to me. Not physically. Like I didn't really go anywhere or do anything crazy. But mentally it was a lot. I have anxiety and I get really anxious when I talk to people on the phone. Sooo when I ended up calling the college I plan to go to the in the Fall like three or four times yesterday it felt like a lot. I had a lot of information thrown at me and there was this whole mix up (a misunderstanding on my part) that I had to sort out. But now, I have all my meetings and everything scheduled and once I get those done I don't have to worry anymore and can finally sign up for classes and just be excited to start college again in the Fall without having to get anxious about adviser meetings and orientation and all that. One more thing before we get to the review, I know some authors do a title reveal and all that and maybe for the next book I will, but for this one I was ...

Happy Wednesday once again everyone! So last Monday, Episode one of Dragon Hearted went out and I just want to say thank you to everyone who signed up to my newsletter list for all your wonderful feedback. Seriously, it means the world to me that you guys enjoyed the first episode so much and I can't wait to share episode 2 with you all next Monday! For those of you haven't signed up, it's never too late! Every other Monday that I post an episode (and in my first of the month newsletter), I will also put links to the previous episodes in there so anyone who hasn't had the chance can catch up. You'll also get the first episode the instant you sign up for my newsletter (as well as a Cinderella short story retelling). Alright, one more announcement. C. M. Banschback revealed the cover for her new book Oath of the Outcast! Doesn't it look awesome?? Here's the blurb:  A lost brother.  An unwilling outlaw.  A rising enemy.  An unusual allian...

Hello all! So I was going to do another book review for this Friday buuut then I read Nicole's blog post and saw she "stole" a friend's tag from her blog and I was like I'm going to do that too. So I totally stole her stolen tag and am going to do it on here cuz it looked so fun! Rules of the tag: Feel free to include the above graphic somewhere in your post (but it’s definitely not necessary).   Take the questions and answer them on your blog (or social media or wherever!).   Tag up to 5 other Marvel fans!   Without further ado, here is the Marvel Cinematic Universe Tag in honor of Endgame created by Christine Smith. 😃 How Were You Introduced Into the MCU Fandom?  Well, so, my answer to how I got into the MCU fandom starts with the comics. Actually, it starts with a TV show. I don't know if anyone else has ever heard of this one but I loved X-Men: Evolution. It was an early 2000's show and to this day is still one of my favorite iterations of...

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! I had a great time with family on Friday and Saturday and then a nice, chill Easter day at home. We went to church and had an egg hunt and then just sort of relaxed the rest of the day which was really nice after two days of travel. So I don't know about you, but I am a total TV show junkie. Like I love shows just as much as I love books. Don't take away my bookworm credentials buuut most of my favorite characters are from TV shows and I've actually learned more about writing while watching shows then I have reading books. Actually, let me put it this way, I've learned more about storytelling while watching TV shows. With books I've absorbed and learned a lot about writing but shows are where I get all my best storytelling tips and tricks. Here are five things that TV shows have taught me about storytelling. Teaches you pacing and structure . This one is huge! Go back and rewatch any of your favorite ...

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday! And guess what?? I'm going to go see Endgame tonight!! I am beyond excited! In other news, I've been thinking a lot about social media lately. The good of it and the bad of it. How to utilize it without it making you crazy. I tend to jump all in. To throw myself into the deep end. When I have an idea, a goal or a plan I just dive right in there without a second thought. While that can be good for some things, it definitely is not good for others. Social media, branding and marketing is one of those things you should not just dive into. The idea of branding and marketing is too vast and big to jump into without a plan. You'll drown in all the information and things you should be doing and want to be doing. And yet, that is exactly what I did. After taking the Author Brand Challenge, I jumped right in with both feet. At first it was OK. I was managing my time well and wasn't letting social media and my image take me over. But over th...