Such an Amazing Weekend!

Oh wow… where do I start?

I’ve got to be honest, I might share more than one blog update today because I’m not sure that everything will fit in one post!

I guess I’ll start with Wednesday evening.  I had the distinct honor and privilege of meeting Kathleen Kent, NY Times best-selling author of The Heretic’s Daughter and The Outcasts.  She was such a friendly and lovely person, very personable.

I also took her a copy of Cemetery Tours, which, I admit may have been a bit presumptuous of me, but she was so sweet and excited about it.

The next day, I was delighted to be a guest at the Melissa Book Club.  They were lovely ladies and I had such a wonderful time!  I love going to book clubs.  It’s so much fun meeting and connecting with people who love books as much as I do.

On Friday, I was finally, for the first time in my life, talked into signing up for NaNoWriMo.  Originally, I had been led to believe that people just write books during the month of November.  I honestly had no idea it was this entire website and community that you join!  How cool is that?!  Anyway, I signed up under a super secret pen name A) just in case it doesn’t work out and B) because the project I’ll be working on is YA and SO COMPLETELY different from Cemetery Tours and I want to keep my reputation as a spooky ghost story writer for at least a little while longer.  I’ve got to tell you though, I am SUPER STOKED to be participating this year.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun!  I even designed my own cover for the book.

Saturday, was one of the most exciting days of my career thus far.  I was asked to give a short presentation on ghost stories at the Colony Public Library!

I decided that no one wanted to listen to me talk at them, so I decided to engage the audience in a little Ghost Story Trivia!  I think everyone really enjoyed it.

There was a bucket of fun prizes.

And consolation prizes.

This is me, looking dumb while talking.

I also had the honor of meeting and listening to a presentation on Ghost Towns by non-fiction author, Robin Cole-Jett.  Her photographs and experiences in these abandoned places are so fascinating that she’s inspired me to delve more into urban exploration.  You can find her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-River-Historian/195104580538409?ref=hl

Afterward, I went on an amazing history tour of the Colony, but I’ll tell you more about that in my next post.  I have a lot of pictures and one totally creepy story to share!

Before I get to that blog post, however, I wanted to share Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer’s AMAZING review of Between Worlds: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2014/10/worlds-jacqueline-e-smith.html

I highly recommend Kimba for anyone looking for an honest, thorough, reliable, and all around awesome reviewer!  You can find her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/kimbathecaffeinatedbookreviewer

Seriously, folks.  She’s awesome.

Happy Birthday Cemetery Tours!

It’s been exactly one year since I first published Cemetery Tours, so I thought I’d take a little time to celebrate the book, the characters, and the readers that have come to mean the world to me.  I was a junior in college the first time I seriously considered writing a book.  This year has far exceeded anything and everything that I could have imagined in that moment and I have all of you to thank for that!

So now, for a little bit of fun, please enjoy…

The Unofficial Cemetery Tours Soundtrack: https://jackiesmith114.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/soundtrack/

My Dream Cast: https://jackiesmith114.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/dream-cast/ 

Cemetery Tours on Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/windtrailpub/cemetery-tours/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18470430-cemetery-tours

Fun Facts and Trivia:

The only character who did not undergo a drastic name/personality change throughout the entire four years of developing and writing the story is Brink.

Luke Rainer was originally a character in a different story.  He was going to be the main love interest.

The Bible verse quoted in Chapter 19, Phillipians 4: 6-7, was my class’s senior verse in high school.

I use the British spelling “woah” as opposed to “whoa” throughout this entire book. I think I’ve spent too much time reading Harry Potter because I didn’t even realize I was doing it.

Kate and Gavin’s parents, Terri and Rex, are named after my mom’s best friend and her husband, both of whom passed away while I was in high school.

I despise female characters who don’t eat anything except salads and veggie burgers, so I make a point in every book to show Kate eating pizza or fast food or chocolate.

My dad came up with the title Cemetery Tours before I even considered becoming a writer. We were on a day trip to San Antonio and we stopped at a Dairy Queen in a small town, right across the street from an old cemetery.  He said, “You should write a book about a group of kids who travel around to different cemeteries.  You could call it Cemetery Tours.”  The name stuck.

Cemetery Tours on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CemeteryToursSeries

Thanks for an awesome year, y’all! Here’s to you!