Author Archives

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I’ve Been Nominated!

Yay! I was excited to hear my blog was nominated by Jen Naumann for the Liebster Award. Thank you so much Jen, you are awesome!.

The rules of the Liebster Award are as follows:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you.

2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself and create 11 questions for your nominees;

3. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen. (No tag backs)

4. Copy and Paste the blog award on your blog.

Random Facts About Me

  • I have nine tattoos and I can’t wait to get more.
  • I read Spanish cards, which is something like tarot cards. I only read my friend’s cards and of course mine.
  • I always wish I could have gone to Woodstock 69’, but that was way before I came into this earth. I did however get to go to Woodstock 94’ and 99’.
  • The boy band Menudo was my first love. I lived for them. Don’t judge me I was in the third grade.
  • I always wished I needed to wear glasses; meanwhile I am the only person in my family that doesn’t need them.
  • My best friend is five years younger than me, but she acts more mature than I do.
  • My love for reading happened when I was in the 7th grade and we were assigned to read The Outsiders by S.E Hinton. I read it in one day. After that book I couldn’t wait to dive into a new book. Later in high school my English teachers tried to kill my love for reading by assigning the most boring books ever, which I couldn’t relate to. I’m not a big fan of the classics.
  • In high school English was my worst subject, but in college, not only did I major in it, I also became part of the English Honor Society.
  • I do not have any children, not by choice. It was tough at first, but now I enjoy it. I work with three and four year olds and love coming home to a quite house. Besides a baby crying is the most annoying sound to me.
  • I love going to concerts and dancing around the lawn. Yes, I always get lawn seats! I hate being trapped in a seat unless I’m going to stadium to see a concert. I plan to be the old lady surrounded by young people at shows. Although, I vow to never look my age.
  • I love wearing jeans with holes in them and shirts with skulls on them. The skull symbol is all over my car. It’s the badass in me wanting to come out. To bad the dork side of me keeps the badass trapped deep inside.

Questions From My Nominator

 1.     If you could live the life of any character in a book, who would that be and why?

The girl from 50 Shades of Grey, I’m just kidding. I would love to be Megan from Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols. It’s my all time favorite book. I love that she finds the strength at the end to change her spiraling life. It also helps that she has someone like John After in her life. He’s pretty hot.

2.    What do you like to do to relax?

I light incense and listen to music really loud as I dance around my room.  My attention span is too short to sit around in a tub or meditating. I get bored way too easily.

3    What’s your favorite vacation memory?

It’s the first trip I ever took with my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time. We went to Lake Placid in Upstate New York. It was a great time and I fell in love with the area. I knew then I didn’t want live in the city, but instead I wanted to live in the country. I have a little of both now.

4.    Do you have any strange quirks?

I have to have the television on when I fall asleep. I hate complete silence.

5.    What are some of your favorite movies?

My list is so long, but I will name a couple: Dazed and Confused, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Breakfast Club, 50 First Date, Pitch Perfect, & Sixteen Candles.

6.    What do you and your best friend like to do together?

We love dancing in the car. Before she had children she was also my concert buddy. We also used to watch Lifetime movies on the phone with each other. I miss those days.

7.    If you could see anyone in concert, alive or dead, who would that be?

I would love to see Led Zeppelin and Kings of Leon. I also don’t care how many times I’ve seen O.A.R in concert I get excited just thinking of seeing them again.

8.    Favorite childhood memory?

I don’t remember which Christmas it was, but I remember my mother gave me a second hand typewriter (this was before everyone owned a computer) and a stack of paper. To this day it has been the best present ever. I wish I still had that typewriter.

9.    Is there any book in particular that’s really had some kind of impact on your life? How so?

Forever by Judy Bloom. It not only taught me about the birds and the bees, but it also made me fall in love with the YA romance. I knew then this is what I wanted to write about.

10. You just won the lottery. What would you do with the money?

First I would do a happy dance, and then pay my debt off and quit my job.

11.  What do you enjoy most about blogging?

Finding out that people actually read my thoughts. I love finding out someone liked it. To me it’s like winning the lottery.

My Nominees:

K.L. Toth ~ Creative Expressions

L.H Cosway ~ L.H Cosway’s Blog

Leigh Statham ~ Scribble Leigh

Brittany Severn ~ Brittany Severn

Angela ~ Ang Writes

Marisa Reichardt ~ Young Adultish

Kerrie ~ Read and Repeat

My Questions for my Nominees:

1. When did you fall in love with reading?

2. Which book almost turned you off to reading?

3. Whose your favorite band or singer?

4: When is the last time you fell in love and how did it happen?

5. What’s the one thing you can’t live without and why?

6: What’s the best and worst part about blogging?

7. If you can lecture one character from a book who would it be and what would you tell them?

8. What’s your best and worst trait?

9. If your life was a reality show what would the title be?

10. If you could go to dinner with anyone famous who would it be?

11. Name three book titles, without thinking of the stories themselves, that describe your life right now?

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The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

I am so excited to be part of The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. First  of all I must thank K.L Toth for inviting me to take part in this. I still don’t know how we met on Twitter but I’m so glad we did.  It is exciting to share the details of the new book I have been working on. Hopefully my answers to the next ten questions will give you some insight on who I am and what my new book is all about.

Well here goes nothing, I hope you enjoy it.

Q1: What is the working title of your book?

Letting Go (Hold on Tight 2)

Q2: Where did the idea for the book come from?

Letting Go is the squeal to Hold on Tight. I got the whole idea for the first book watching old episodes of Dawson’s Creek. I wanted to write a love story with two guys who can make your heart flutter. I wanted the reader to be as confused as the protagonist Emma is. Letting Go begins at the exact moment Hold on Tight ends. 

Q3: What genre does your book fall under?

YA Romance Contemporary 

Q4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I love and hate this question. I always say if they made any of books into a movie I would want the parts to be played by unknown actors. But if I have to pick I will say I would like Emma Paige to be played by Victoria Justice, Court Dobberson to be played by Ken Luckey, and Nash Harrison to be played by Nolan Gerard Funk.

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Q5: What’s one sentence synopsis for your book?

To be with the one you love you must be willing to let go of the past.

Q6: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It will be self-published. I fell in love with the whole process when I published Hold on Tight.

Q7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I want to say six weeks, but I lost that first copy when I lost my laptop. Yes, I made the biggest mistake any writer can EVER make, I didn’t back up my work. I was using a new computer and thought what could happen? I can leave my laptop on top of my car roof and lose everything is what can happen. So after shedding many tears I had to start all over again, which was really hard, because all I kept thinking was I wrote it so much better the first time. So in total it’s taken me six months. Wow I didn’t even realize it was that long.  I can honestly say a lot of sweat and tears when into writing this book.

Q8: What other books would you compare this story to, within your genre?

I guess I can compare it to The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han, only because of the love triangle. 

Q9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I actually wanted to write another book before I wrote the sequel to Hold on Tight, but as people read it they began to ask me for the next book. So I thought if I don’t write it now, I might never write it. Besides, I had the characters already embedded in my head.

Q10: What else about your book might pique the readers’ interest?

The POV in this book is not only Emma, but one of the guys gets to tell his side of the story too. Please don’t think just because he’s telling the story he is the one Emma chooses.

Now I’m excited to pass the torch to two exciting, amazing writers, who will tell you all about their work when they post on December 12th and December 14th. These two writers are:

Danielle Sibarium

Leigh Statham

Ladies, take it away…

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Soundtrack for Hold on Tight

I couldn’t have written Hold on Tight if it wasn’t for music. It inspired everything from the storyline to the characteristics of my characters. The followings are the songs that inspired Hold on Tight:

This first song I used to remind me of what is was like to be young and free:

Court’s song to Emma:

Nash’s song to Emma: 

Emma’s song to both Court and Nash:

The two songs that were constantly playing while I wrote Hold on Tight:

 

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Making My Dream a Reality

My life as a new author has been crazy. A few months ago I was walking around dead, not really knowning what I wanted to do with my life anymore. Yes I’m a preschool teacher, but it was not fullfilling me. It was not what I dreamt about when I was a little girl. I had written Hold on Tight and let a couple of people read it, they all suggested I publish it, but I didn’t have enough faith in myself to do that.

Then one day at work our accountant asked me “What are you doing with your life?” It was a simple question that had a simple answer: “Nothing.” I knew I had to do something, something to get me out of my funk. It was as if the heavens opened up that day. To top it off as I got in my car my iPod decided to play Walk by the Foo Fighters, I don’t know why but it spoke to me like it never had before. All of the sudden the words began to hit home. I had to learn to walk again. I got home that day and pulled out Hold on Tight and began to edit it. Everything started falling into place. I found the book Becoming an Indie Author by Zoe Winters, which became my bible. I got on twitter and began to follow other authors, bloggers, and readers. I have met the coolest people there. I’ve recieved so much help from other authors, it has been surreal.

I began to smile again. I was happy, something I hadn’t felt in such a long time. I wasn’t just walking around like a zombie anymore, I was alive again. Don’t get me wrong, I would still have my tiny moments of doubt, but they were very small. I remember one day telling my husband, I’m not supposed to be the girl that’s supposed to live out her dreams, I’m the girl that keeps her dreams in her head. Right after I said those words out loud I was over any doubts, because I realized how stupid it is to think like that. Thanks to the support of most of my family and my friends I went full steam ahead without any fears.

Now here I am three months later and my book has been officially released on Amazon.com. And in couple of days it will be on iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony reader and many other places. It’s so freaky. I’ve been going through so many emotions since I found my book on Amazon. Everytime someone tells me they got my book, I cheer and then I panic. Of course my 1st fear is that they won’t like it. But I have to let go of that fear and just enjoy witnessing my dream become my reality.

2year old me

Even as a little girl I loved to dance

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