NOWHERE BUT HERE by Katie McGarry Trailer Release

Okay, this is a week late, but I am excited to take part in the reveal of Katie McGarry's new book Nowhere But Here! Katie McGarry is one of my favorite authors, even though I have only read one of her books, even though i am DYING to read the rest. Pushing The Limits was so great and beautiful I fell in love, bought it right after, and re-read it, meaning I read the same book twice in one year. This is a big deal, if you paid attention to my previous posts you know why. I hardly re-read, let alone actually buy the book. So when I was presented with the opportunity to help reveal the trailer, of course I jumped on that horse and road- about three feet and got off because I was tired, which is what happened on Tuesday night when I got the info and deiced to put it off until the next night. sigh.

Information where to get zee new book:

"Pre-Order NOWHERE BUT HERE, Register your Pre-Order and you’ll get the eBook you’ve been asking for, Abby’s Story, CHASING IMPOSSIBLE absolutely free! PLUS, you’ll also be entered to win a $500 VISA Gift Card! Register at http://bit.ly/1Mt8cjr.

NOWHERE BUT HERE Pre-Order:"

Amazon

Kobo

BAM

Barnes and Noble

iBooks

IndieBound

Synopsis of NOWHERE BUT HERE

An unforgettable new series from acclaimed author Katie McGarry about taking risks, opening your heart and ending up in a place you never imagined possible 

Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both. 

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down. 

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home. 

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NOWHERE BUT HERE TRAILER
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I'm excited! Are you excited? You should be because Katie McGarry is awesomesauce.

You can find her at her links @katielmcgarry on almost anything, besides on Tumblr where it's @katielmcgarryauthor

I'm really excited

^.^

Updater Time Week #3

Hola everyone! I apologize for not giving an update on Sunday, which doesn't really make a difference for by the time I get around to writing, editing, and publishing, it's after midnight. Anyways, I'm going to be giving a general update on a lot of things besides my writing escapades. Here we go!

First as always 

Camp NaNoWriMo

*cries*
I'm am at exactly 16,687. I was 2,000 behind last Sunday, no big deal. No big deal when you actually write, which I didn't AT ALL last week. I was suppose to hit 20,000 this week. I was doing so well the first week of the month that I was discussing with my Cabin about maybe even having to bump my word count up. So not happening now. My excuse it that Spring has arrived and the weather has been amazing (up until about yesterday, where it got chilly and rainy (which I love) but not good outside weather). Plus I had to write three research reports, which in reality did bring my count up to 20,000, but I'm not counting them yet. So I have to write 10,000 words in order to reach my goal, which isn't horrible. I wrote about 10,000 my first week, and I wrote 15,000 per week during NaNoWriMo a year ago. I wrote a little today, and hopefully more tomorrow.

NaPoWriMo

I have actually been good keeping up with writing one a day, or two. I did get behind, due to not writing at all over the weekend, but I was able to quickly catch up today. Thank God for Haikus.

Misc.

In which I have no idea why I'm telling you this

If you are in the book loving community, like moi, whether its reading and talking with others, blogging about it on Tumblr, or taking action in thoroughly responding to it like I'm attempting to do, you may be aware of Booktube. If not, allow me to explain. It's just that. It's a community on YouTube that talks about and discusses books. It varies in discussion from tags, reviews, skits, whatever. It's great and awesome.

A smaller Booktuber by the channel name of LittleRedReader, AKA Red, recently published a video. She has created the One Good Thing Project. This project is designed to influence positivity by filming yourself saying one good thing that happened everyday for a month. You can either upload the video every day, or make a video compilation of the weeks video and post them at the end of the week. You can even take all of them and post them at the end of the moth in one giant video! It's very flexible (which I like), all you gotta do is film once a day.

Do you ever just have one of those moments where you hear or read or see something and you're just like YES! THAT'S PERFECT! and you feel in your element; it's a puzzle piece that fits on your side. That's what I felt. However, thinking about filming myself AND THEN POSTING IT makes me extremely uncomfortable. I'm getting very anxious just thinking about.

SHORT GHOSTY STORY TIME

(still have no idea why I'm adding this)

Back in '12 when I just go into watching YouTube, I saw it as so much fun and I was really inspired to do it. Lack of editing software, a camera, and intriguing personality kind of shot that horse in the face, but I didn't give up the dream of one day doing it. When I came across BookTube a year later, oh boy, did I fall in love. Now I had to do it, and I attempted. Lack of editing software and decent camera, again,  killed it. I never posted a video to YouTube though, just attempted filming. Last year as I watched everyone at Vid Con, It looked like so much fun I got the urge to do it. But since then, and my high of it in the fall of '13, has diminished. I do not have the great desire to create videos anymore. But the thought of me publicly displaying myself just NOPE. Social Anxiety does that to a person. That is why I hide behind a penname on a blog where people don't see my face.

This project is perfect then. It completely goes against my comfort zone (feeling queasy), but I know I will regret it if I don't do it. You can do it any time, there isn't a certain date, but you have to do it for the full thirty days. So I'm going to be attempting to do it in May. Starting May 1st (I could not add another thing to do in April).

I am very, very, very, very nervous, but I do have support from my best friend on this. Oh boy. You will be able to find the videos on YouTube under the GhostyStories.

Whew! A lot has been covered, so imma go now. Peace!

April Update Week 2

I can not believe a week has gone by.

I'm going to keep this short because it's late and I'm exhausted to the point I'm barely able to keep my eyes open. Don't forget the headache.

Camp NaNoWriMo

I did not hit my goal of getting 15,000 written this week. I would have if I had written this weekend, most likely hitting it if I were to have continued on Friday night. I round off this week 200 shy of 14,000. I do not know if I had mentioned this, but my writing project for this month isn't the novel I have on my Camp profile. I needed something to put down, and had started writing it, but I have too many open projects that need wrapping up to write on a story I have no desire to continue after this month, nor anything to do it with. However, I did finish the last chapter on a fanfiction I have been writing over the past two and a half years. I will be writing an epilogue to it just to wrap it up,  but it's insane that the story I've been working on (note: not consistently) for the past two and a half years, is over. I'm done with it. I might cry. So much has changed since I started it; I was in such a  different place back then. It's a very bittersweet moment for me. Hopefully by next week I'll hit 20,000 word mark. It would be fantastic if I did more, but this is me we're talking about. Don't wanna set the bar too high. .

NaPoWriMo

Up to date with my 11th poem.

April Week 1 Update

Hello everyone, and happy Easter! I hope everyone had a great day; mine was fantastic.

As promised, every Sunday night during the month of April I will be updating my NaPoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo progress. Even though it has only been half a week, not much progress has been made, especially with the weekend of a holiday. But anywho, lets get on with it.

Camp NaNoWriMo

I did not write anything on Wednesday (April 1st) for I was busy, but other than that I've written, even just a small portion, for Camp NaNoWriMo. The project I'm working on for Camp is not just the novel I have on my profile, but other stories such as fanfictions I want to wrap up soon. I'm still debating whether this month I should write the short story I originally wanted to write for camp. Next week I should have an update on my decision. Right now I'm just writing to write because I've hit a bit of a writers block, which hopefully i'll be able to get over tomorrow. Currently my word count is 4,510. My Cabin mates are cool; I've been somewhat conversing with them. I can only get on once for a little while at night, so I can't always jump in frequently. They're all nice, and I have been jumping into conversation with them easily, and its all good, so I'm blessed.


NaPoWriMo
Everyday since April 1st I have written a poem a day, which is crazy because I'm not one to keep up daily routines like that (as I mentioned in my Ghosty Stories). However, I've been doing pretty good. It might not hold up, but oh well. I have not written a poem for today yet though, but I was busy, so I will be getting to it tonight.

As for quality of the poems, I'll give a C. Some are good; day one and two are. But the past two days I've been busy and written quick free verse poems, so I'm not completely happy with how they turned out.



So that's my first week, well half week, of NapoWriMo 2015 and Camp NaNoWriMo April session 2015. I don't think I'm doing too shabby so far; hopefully I will either improve or keep it up.

Here's to another week. :)

Ghosty Stories| My NaPoWriMo Story

I told you I was going to tell you the story of last years NaPoWriMo, and let me start it by kicking off my first segment on this blog Ghosty Stories. Ghosty Stories won't be a weekly/annual thing. It will basically just be me telling you whatever random story I decide to share at any random time. Some might be short, others long. Shall we begin?

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Let me just start of by saying poetry is not my strong suit, and it's a fact I've come to terms with and accepted. In English II last year I had to write a poem for an honors assignment, and that proved my greatest challenge for that semester.

One Sunday night, I believe in February or early March of 2014, I was forced to go to a youth bible study session thing at a friends of my parents house. That particular night I wore my Winner Nanowrimo 2013 shirt (which I had actually win that year), which sparked a friend and I's writing conversation. Turns out she was also in the same Creative Writing Group as moi, which was awesome, for it was an online ordeal and I rarely spoke to anyone on there. She then mentioned NaPoWriMo, which i had never heard of before. But nerveless, a club meeting a week or two later, NaPo was brought up.

In March I went through a very hard time. The event had to be done, but it left me torn and broken on the floor. I remember last St. Patricks day I stopped crying enough to peel myself off the floor and eat corn beef, which was flavorless on my tongue. I felt severely alone and scared, and anxious; It was a terrible ordeal for me and I needed a distraction. So as soon as I heard about NaPoWriMo and what it was, I signed on to participate along with my creative writing group.

Camp NaNoWriMo was something already brought to my attention before I ever heard about NaPo, and I had already planned on participating in the April session also, continue working on the novel I had flew into during NaNoWriMo in November.

April started off kind of slow. I was still in a great state of emotional turmoil, still trying to pull myself together. The writing group had a blog in which I took advantage of at this time. In order to official win on their account, you had to post thirty poems within the thirty days to the forums. Each day a new writing prompt was posted to the blog and you commented your submission, whether it be with the prompt or not.

I am not one for routine, or daily routines, so writing a poem a day fell off fast, and by mid April I had a growing pile of prompted poems to write. But that's what made it even more fun.

My friend also participated in NaPo, and we talked quite frequently then, and it was really cool to see her poems on the forums and to read everyone elses, and to talk about the prompts and poems with her elsewhere.

I stayed with the prompts for the entire month, though I had written a few poems along side that I kept to myself. What was nerve wrecking was posting my poems to the forums. As I mentioned earlier, I am not strong suited in poetry, and I evidently really suck at it. Posting my poems for others to read, un-anonymous, scared the crap out of me, especially when one of my friends would read it. But I needed this, I needed to do it. And so I did. And  it was great.

The fear of being judged, of whatever irrational, anxious thought that coursed through my head, died down the more I posted my poems each day (or in abundance in one day). It was thrilling, and I was happy.

During the month of April, also things personally calmed down and things mended there way together, and so I felt better and was doing better. But I will never forget my choice of doing this. Of doing something I sucked at. At being presented with a challenge like NaPo, at writing poetry, a skill I very much lacked, and taking up the challenge because it was just that, a challenge, and I didn't coward away. Not only that, but I posted them to the internet, to be read by the entire group. It was bliss. It was a decision I never regretted, and one I never will.

Through the rest of April I had all the prompts written on a piece of note paper with bacon on it, in which I would track down all the unwritten prompts on my part, and cross off when I had published them to the blog forums. I had a notebook that I used where I would sit on my bed, on my desk, even outside lounging on a wicker chair in the hot weather.

I did a lot of research to learn how to write different forms of poems that went along with the prompts each day. I still don't exactly grasp how to write an Ode.... nevertheless I tried my best, and posted it!
Also research went into finding words that rhymed with my desired word...

On April 30th, I submitted my 30th poem on the forum with the weight of what turned into a great month, and great experience, to live on with me forever.

It is one of the most memorable times of my life. It was a terrible time turned good. So good I couldn't wait to do it this year. Unavoidably, I moved out of state that summer, and so I do not have the writing club to join in this year with, which honestly saddens me. But if I learned anything last year, I will not let negative events trump a potentially great experience.

As for Aprils session of Camp NaNoWriMo 2014, I wish I could  say it was as equal as a great experience. To be honest, I gave up about two weeks in, haha. I made the mistake by continuing on with my novel on the same document, so I had to jot down my word count before I wrote, and after. Me being me, I didn't always jot down, or memorize, or even write down my saving point, so everything got confusing. Tip to you: if you're continuing on with an already written story, start in a new document; its easier to track your progress. Take it from me.

Also, I wasn't too pleased with my cabin. Nothing wrong with the people except for the fact I was the youngest, by at least five year at the least. This was before I really checked out the cabin settings, in which you have the option of age range, and so I was the only high schooler with a bunch of people who are in legal drinking age. Yeah I as a quitter, but hey, I had NaPoWriMo.

April Camp NaNoWriMo & NaPoWriMo 2015

In one week is April 1st (where did the time go?), and that date holds more importance to me than just pranking, it also starts a long month of writing. April is the month of NaPoWriMo and the spring session of Camp Nanowrimo, which I will participating in (once again) this year.

For those of you who don't know what either of those are, allow me to quickly explain:

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in November of each year. During that time you have 30 days to write 50,000, or more (not required, at least 50,000 to win) words. Camp NaNoWriMo happens twice a year before November, in April and July. With Camp NaNoWriMo, not only do they have a totally different site decked out all summer camp like to fit the mood, but it is not required for you to write 50,000 in one month in order to win. With Camp NaNo, you set a writing goal each Camp session for you to work after. If you hit your goal, you win that Camp session! It's a ton of fun, and plus you are assigned to a Cabin (there is an option to not be assigned to a Cabin) in which you get mashed up with a ton of cool new people to meet and talk about and cheer each other on with during the month. You can set who you'd like to get in your Cabin (same age range, same novel genre, etc.,) by going into Cabin settings. So not only do you get to write in this awesome Camp atmosphere,  but you also get to meet new people also.

NaPoWriMo stands for National Poetry Writing Month. Like NaNoWriMo, it happens once a year, but this time in April. Instead of having a word count goal, to win NaPo all you have to do is write thirty poems in thirty days. There really isn't much to it.

Last April was my first time participating in either challenge, and it was a whirlwind. I will be posting my story about lasts year challenges, and that will be coming soon.

Both challenges are really fun, and I definitely recommend doing it with other people. So take advantage of your Cabin, and also Twitter, and if a writing group you're supposedly in is participating, be sure to join them.

I won't be posting my poems on here. Poetry is a struggle for me and none of them are good, but it's fun and sucking at it is not going to stop me from participating. However, I will be doing weekly updates, which are going to be posted on Sundays, on my progress on both challenges.

I hope you decide to join me, and all of us who are participating in these challenges this year. I'm super excited, and April is going to be a busy month. Lets do this.

My Story With the His Fair Assassin Trilogy + Mortal Hearts Review

This story isn't nearly as exciting as the His Fair Assassin trilogy by Robin LaFeveres, but bear with me.

There are two things you need to know about me:

1) I never physically react to books while reading, unless is those occasions I'll laugh out loud slightly or smile. Other than that, I never express outwardly emotions when reading. The only time I ever cried (or what I pass off as crying I.E. the brimming of tears) was when I was thirteen and reading the end of Only The Good Spy Young by Ally Carter. For those of you who have read the book, you know what happens at the end (not the very end, that's another story, literally), but one that will cause a teen girl who marathoned the three books in four days to want to tear her hair out. After that and all my reading escapades, including reading The Fault In Our Stars, never had I cried, nor expressed any emotions. You probably get the hint now. I'm an emotional, heartless bitch.

2) Unless a series (consisting more than one book, this including dualogies, trilogy's, and full length series) has completely captivated my attention and has me dying for more, I won't read the next installment, if it is released, for a much longer time afterwards. This doesn't happen if the series is bad and I'm just putting off finishing it, but ones where I am on board with finishing the series, and thoroughly enjoy it. Often what happens in when the next book is not released yet, I will forget that the book (series) is expecting another installment, then before I know it it's years later. There are alot of books to read, and series that I want to finish sooner, that lengthen the gap to when I get to the other books in such series.

Back in 2012, when Grave Mercy, the first book in the His Fair Assassins trilogy, released, I got my hands on it from the library and barely got past the first chapter. As time goes on, my pickiness for books wanes thin and now I really couldn't care much for certain element in a book, but back then the thought of Medieval France with no electricity and having to travel by horse, didn't thrill me. But nevertheless, a few months pass by and I give it a go.

I finished it.

And I enjoyed it.

I always love the plot, and the general idea of the story. This may be a good idea to tell what the series is about.

It takes place in medieval France in the region of Brittany in northern France. At that state, France is attempting to overthrow and take control of Brittany in the political atmosphere of the book (this element of politics takes an important role in the book, but it surely does tell you more and give you a better description and outlook on whats going on than I will). At this time, everyone, or maybe to those just in Brittany, follow and serve God and His Nine saints. To make it simpler, our main protagonist(s) serve Mortain, the Saint of Death. Those sired by Mortain (whose mothers have lain with Death in order of protectiveness of their child) are gifted with special gifts, that will later in life best suit them to fulfill his duties. usually these mothers don't survive, and the girls are blamed, and in a close encounter with death, are rescued and brought to the Convent of Mortain, where they are trained to be assassins and do Mortains biding.

Grave Mercy was good, but didn't have much of an impact with me, which is why it took me two years to get to the sequel that is Dark Triumph.

Each book in the series takes you through the view point and life of a different assassin who serve Mortain, and are, yes, all connected, but that is not a spoiler.

About the end of January, I was browsing through the town library in which I just moved to, and along with a dozen other books, the His Fair Assassin trilogy caught my eye. Grave Mercy was good, I was intrigued with the plot and idea, so I picked up Dark Triumph, aware that it was told through a different view point.

Oh. My. God.

Dark Triumph was so good. Amazing, at best. There was a certain element in the beginning that made me iffy, and I didn't really want to read about it, but I pressed on. Thank God I did.

With these books, trust me on this, you have to give them time. At least a hundred pages in. If that wont do it, go for two hundred. If you're on Grave Mercy, take on Dark Triumph. Trust me on this. If it were shit, I would have told you.

At my next trip to the library, I immediately sought out Mortal Hearts, which I just finished about roughly eight hours ago.

In this book we follow Annith, who is shortly seen  (at least to my memory) in Grave Mercy, and briefly mentioned in Dark Triumph. When finishing Dark Triumph, just for what was mentioned about the girl, plus for she is the other girl in the trio of sisters that are similar in age, I already knew I was going to be reading from Annith's point of view. Which is exciting for we did not get much of her in the books.

Again, though thrilling events took place, I found myself not as captivated about 100 chapters in, wondering if it was going to get better or if I was just wasting my time. But again, I pressed on. I only really needed about twenty pages later.

This is the first book ever I have thrown.

I read the twist.

Stuck in the book mark slowly.

And tossed it.

Then rolled myself into a burrito with my blanket, barring my face into my bed, and silently screamed to myself because it was 1am and everyone was sleeping.

Some may be able to pick things out, but my God. It's such a thrill, there are twists that are just woah. And it is all done beautiful and carried out in such a way that it doesn't completely destroy you in the end, but the journey to that point does.

It's beautifully done, greatly written, and I learned how to say shit in French.

Learning to curse in a different language is always a plus.

My feelings on the ending, for it is wrapping up a trilogy, in one of confliction. We do have closure, and things going on are tied up, but I'm not fully satisfied. I guess because the books created such a reaction from me, and just hit me like BAM! so much, I was expecting a little more of a wow effect in the end. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not a good as I would have liked.

I guess I would have liked if those in Nantes (rivals to the Duchess in Brittany) had a little more attention in Mortal Hearts, and more happened with it in this book, rounding off the edge on that. To be honest, I am not fully satisfied with how things turned out with a certain character ( I fear if I mention the name it will give you an advantage to guessing the plot twist beforehand and getting out of the full experience), but with Annith and her lover. For him, I feel as if maybe what happened didn't happen, and he remained the same. That is all I'm saying on that matter.

However, greats series, and fabulous final installment.

This may have been greatly boring, and I apologize for that, and if I did this incorrectly. It is my first review and I will get better within time. But I cannot improve if I do not try and fail.