Happy Bookday!

It’s here!  After more than a year, After Death is finally available in Paperback AND Kindle!

Paperback

Kindle

I’m so excited for the ghostly misadventures of Michael, Luke, and Kate to continue.  I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them!

I want to take a little bit of time, however, to celebrate a few OTHER books being released today: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer, and of course, the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

The fact that my book came out on the same day as all of these ladies is, quite frankly, a huge fangirl honor for me.  JK Rowling is Queen, as everyone knows, and I don’t know a single person whose lives she hasn’t touched with her magical world.  Stephenie Meyer, yeah, okay, it’s kind of fun to make fun of Twilight.  But I’ve got to be honest.  I still love it.  I love the story.  It’s just pure fun and fantasy, you know?  Very escapist, and I do love to escape.

Then, finally, there’s Rainbow Rowell.  I fell in love with her writing after reading the story of my life, Fangirl.  I’m serious.  I’ve never read a book that so keenly described what it feels like to love a book and, frankly, to be apprehensive of the world outside.  Oh my Heavens, do I love Fangirl.

As if I didn’t already love Rainbow Rowell enough for  bringing that story to life, I then got to meet her last May.  She is incredible, basically everything I want to be as an author and as a person.  When I found out that her new book, Carry On, inspired by the book series in Fangirl, was being released the same day as mine, I was thrilled.  And yes, I’ve already run out and bought my own copy.

Yes, I bought Life and Death too.  I wanted to buy the new Harry Potter, but let’s face it, as an Indie Author, I barely have two dimes to rub together.  I really shouldn’t have bought these two books, but I can’t help it.  I have to support the authors and stories that I love.  And, yeah, okay, I really need to feed my addiction to YA literature.  Most importantly, though, these books serve as a reminder of why I do what I do and why I put so much time and effort into my books.  I want this world of words to be my world, too.

Happy Bookday, everyone!  Go read your favorite book!  Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, go pick up something new!

May I recommend a ghost story?

Dallas Comic Con 2015

I spent my last three days on my feet, talking loudly, and telling people about my books. My feet hurt. My back hurts. My throat hurts. My voice is still hoarse.

All in all, it was the best weekend ever.

I’m not kidding, y’all.  Dallas Comic Con was awesome.  It was busy and it was colorful and it was so full of delightful, creative people and all kinds of fangirly goodness.  It was incredible.  I met so many cool people (several of whom were aspiring writers) and made so many exciting, nerdy memories.  I’m telling you, this one is going to be hard to beat.

Perhaps best of all, I connected with so many people who loved to read and to write!  They were enthusiastic and eager to talk about books.  I even sold out of Between Worlds!

I also had two of my best friends in the world, Kat and Rachel (AKA Rat), there to help me (and to geek out over all the Harry Potter stuff)!

Some of the awesome people I met include…

The Daughter of Athena AKA the REAL daughter of author Andrea Stehle, author of Gods of Arcadia: Daughter of Athena… https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23448104-gods-of-arcadia

Voice Actress Cherami Leigh… http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0473873/

The Guardians of the Galaxy…

KISS…

This adorable puppy named Lily…

The DFW Ghostbusters… https://www.facebook.com/DFWGhostbusters

This Scarecrow who is supposed to be terrifying but is actually quite friendly and tells silly jokes…

The Jurassic Park jeep…

And this adorable little R2.

Infinite love and thanks to my friend James William Peercy, author of The Wall Outside series, for inviting me to be a part of this convention!  I can’t wait for next time!

Thank You!

Hi, friends!  Happy Monday!

Okay, so the next two weeks are going to be crazy busy, but in a very very good way.  I have a lot that I need to get done and a lot to prepare before Comic Con weekend.  Thankfully, even though my dad (who usually goes with me to big events) will be out of town, two of my very best friends, Kat and Rachel, will be there with me to help!  They’re both super nerdy and super awesome, so they’ll be a very welcome addition to the team.  Kat also happens to be one of my editors.

My real purpose behind this particular post, however, is to thank you, thank you, thank you all for all the love that Boy Band has been receiving.  This is the book that started out as a NaNoWriMo project.  I wasn’t even planning on writing it, and once I started writing it, I had no idea if I would even finish it, so to see it doing so well is just overwhelming!

As a token of my gratitude, I’ve lowered the price of the Cemetery Tours and Between Worlds Kindle Books.  For the next week, both books will only be $0.99 on Kindle (though I don’t think it’s been changed just yet… Might take a few hours).  Y’all are so, so awesome and wonderful and Agh!  I just can’t even begin to express how I’m feeling right now!

http://www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Tours-Jacqueline-Smith-ebook/dp/B00F7CHQ08/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1431967138&sr=8-1&keywords=cemetery+tours

I hope you all have a great Monday!

All Good Things!

So a few months back, my good friend and fellow author, James Peercy asked me if I might be interested in participating in this little event called Comic Con.  I said, “Yes, of course!” thinking, Wow, if this could actually happen, that would be a dream come true! 

Well, yesterday that dream came true!

James messaged me to inform me that we will, in fact, have a booth and be selling our books at Dallas Comic Con!

http://fanexpodallas.com

I’ve never actually been to Comic Con, but thanks to my love for The Big Bang Theory, I like to think I’m still worthy of being a part of it.  I am so, so, so excited, y’all.  This really is a huge dream come true to take part in an event like this!

In other news, I think I’ve finally recovered from that 24-hour-turnaround to and from Lubbock to pick my sister up from college.  Here’s the thing.  I love road trips.  I love driving.  I love Texas.

I do not love Lubbock.

I don’t know why, but Lubbock has it out for me.  You know Murphy’s Law?  Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong?  That happens to me EVERY time I visit Lubbock.  I’m not going to make a list of everything that Lubbock has done to me, because frankly I don’t have the time.  Just know that Lubbock hates me.

The drive out there is kind of fun, however.  That is when it’s not pouring down rain like a freaking hurricane in Florida.  Seriously, I’ve never seen rain like this.  There was one point where a giant truck passed the car I was driving (my sister was with me, our mom was up ahead in a rent car), and splashed this wave of water all over the windshield and I was totally blind for about three seconds.  I know it doesn’t sound like much, but three seconds with no vision, going 75 MPH on an overpass?  Not safe.  Not fun.  Very scary.  I really thought that was the end.  Sadly, I wasn’t thinking, “Oh no!  I have precious cargo (AKA my sister).”  I was thinking, “Oh no!  My kitty is going to be an orphan!”

Thankfully, we all made it home safely, if not completely dry.

Those are just a few pictures from the drive (the dry one, not the one with all the rain).  They’re all very Texasy.

Have a great weekend, y’all!

Oh!  And one more thing… Boy Band has remained in the top 20,000-10,000 Bestselling Kindle books for the past almost three weeks.  I am totally and completely overwhelmed.  Thank you all so much.  I’m trying to think of a neat way to thank you all!

Much love!

Rainbow Over Dallas

It’s always a gamble meeting the people you really admire.  They can turn out to be just as amazing as you ever dreamed.  On the flip side, they might end up disappointing you.  Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor and Park and one of my favorite books of all time, Fangirl, was not exactly what I was expecting.

She was even more amazing.

I went in to the reading and signing thinking she would be a neat person.  I love her books.  I follow her on Twitter.  She seemed like an all around awesome person and fellow fangirl.  But actually seeing her in person and meeting her?  Oh my goodness, she is marvelous.

She was all smiles from the moment she appeared, to the reading from My True Love Gave To Me, to the Q&A session, all the way to personally meeting and greeting each and every one of her fans.  She’s genuine and hilarious and sweet and enthusiastic.  She’s everything I want to be, not just as an author, but as a human being.  She’s so real, so personable.  She treated each and every one of her fans like they were the only person in the whole room.  I knew I admired her writing going in, but now I admire her even more as a person.

Yes, me being me, I gave her a copy of Boy Band.  She was so sweet and she congratulated me and offered to take a picture with it.  I’m telling, y’all, she is so awesome.

One of the artists who contributed to the special edition was there also!  Her name is Simini Blocker and she is just as delightful!

Such a wonderful experience meeting these talented and wonderful women!  Thank you both so much!

Hitting the Road

Hi, friends!

I won’t be blogging as much this week as I normally do becaaaaaause I’m road-tripping up to Lubbock tomorrow to pick my sister up from college!  Since my dad still can’t drive, my mother has enlisted me to help be a mover and a driver.  I’m secretly stoked, even though I’m totally allergic to Lubbock.  I just can’t wait for a good road trip and to see my sister!  We’re going to have a blast.

I will probably be updating my adventures on Instagram and Twitter, however, so if you’d like to keep you, you can follow me here:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacquelineesmith/

or here:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackieSmith114

In other news, I had a fun weekend.  It was two of my friends’ birthday, so I got to bake them a layered cake!  I have never baked a layered cake before, so this was a brand new adventure.  I like to think, however, that it was a success.

Then this morning, I visited the Transamerica Book Club as a guest author!  I had so much fun and so enjoyed meeting everyone and talking about ghosts and books!

Now tonight is going to be a HUGE treat.  You me obsessing last fall over a little book called FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell (and if you don’t, here’s the link: https://jackiesmith114.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/ode-to-fangirl/).  Well, Rainbow herself is at BARNES AND NOBLE tonight and guess who is going to meet her?!  THIS GIRL!

I’m so excited.  I’m so excited.  Fangirl was a huge contributing factor into my decision to write Boy Band.  For one thing, it was also a NaNoWriMo book.  For another, it just reminded me of how much I love cute, fluffy, fun books.  I cannot wait to meet Rainbow tonight.  I know, just from reading her books and following her on Twitter, that she is super awesome.

I’ll definitely be posting pictures!  Talk to y’all later!

A Dream is a Wish

So, I know I said I wouldn’t be posting at all today, but I got out of jury duty at 11.  Seriously, it was so uneventful.  I sat for three hours in this enormous room and reread Mockingjay for three hours.  It was so boring, in fact, that it does not deserve its own blog post.  But you know, when it comes to jury duty, I’m okay with boring.  My number wasn’t even called.  Never had to go back.  I will take it.

That’s why, instead of writing about the three hours I spent doing absolutely nothing, I’m going to write about the new Cinderella movie coming out next month.

Y’all, it looks AMAZING.

Now, I didn’t see Disney’s first fairy tale brought to life, Maleficent, for a few reasons.  First of all, I heard there was a lot of CGI battles and those bore me.  Second, I don’t like the idea of trying to redeem the self-proclaimed Mistress of all Evil.  That was part of what made her such a great villain in the original. She was so evil that she threatened to kill this kid just because her parents snubbed her.  That’s EVIL.  I don’t like that they tried to make goofy King Stefan the bad guy or make it seem like Maleficent really loved Aurora.  Sorry, that just doesn’t work for me.  But onto Cinderella.

This movie looks awesome.  First off, there’s no CGI or crazy battles.  That’s an automatic plus for me.  Second, the previews are absolutely gorgeous.  Colorful, magical, amazing costumes, scenery, set designs… If nothing else, this will be a very aesthetically pleasing movie.  The music in the previews is incredible as well.  I get chills every time I watch the trailer (and I’ve watched it several times).  It looks that good.

For another thing, it features an all-star cast.  I was excited enough to see Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) as the Fairy Godmother and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) as Lady Tremaine, the evil step-mother.  But then I realized that Rob Stark (Richard Madden) is Prince Charming (he’s also SCOTTISH) and I thought my inner fangirl might actually keel over from all the amazing.  What finally did her in, however, was finding out that Derek Jacobi, AKA the BBC’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, AKA the greatest Shakespearian actor of modern times, if not all history, is playing the King.  I cannot handle the greatness.  I actually cannot.

As if all of that wasn’t enough of a reason to completely freak out over this movie, it’s directed by Kenneth Branagh.  Not only another phenomenal Shakespearian actor (he played Hamlet in a film adaptation which also starred – wouldn’t you know it – Derek Jacobi as Claudius!), Mr. Branagh is also known in the Potterverse as the one and only GILDEROY LOCKHART.  I’m telling y’all, I really don’t think my fangirl heart can take much more.

So, there you have it.  My list of reasons why I am absolutely ecstatic about Disney’s latest cinematic masterpiece, and I do truly believe this will be a masterpiece.

Ode to Fangirl

This won’t be a proper ode because, let’s face it, I don’t have a poetic bone in my body, but Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell deserves nothing less than a Shakespearean sonnet.

I’ve been wanting to read this book from the moment I first heard about it, coincidentally, here on WordPress.  I knew I would love it.  I just didn’t know how much.

This book, to me, was a love letter, not only to writers (I loved Professor Piper and the way she put writing fiction into perspective) but to anyone who has ever loved a book series so much that those places and characters, in fact, become real to them, in some instances, more real than real life.

(https://jackiesmith114.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/i-believe-in-dragons/)

Simon Snow is the Harry Potter of the Fangirl universe and the book included several passages from the books and fanfiction written by the protagonist, Cath.  I’ve got to be honest, if they were real, I would read those books in a heartbeat.  They sound awesome.  I found myself reading, not only to keep up with what was happening with Cath, her twin sister, and her potential love interest, but also to find out how the Simon Snow saga would end!

In the book, Cath and her twin sister, Wren, become immersed in the Simon Snow fandom after their mother walks out on their family.  For them, Simon Snow was an escape, a refuge.  It is revealed that Cath loves the fandom so much because for a moment, her reality stops.  She doesn’t have to live there.  I’ve never had something so horrible as a parent walking out happen to me, but my family did struggle financially for years.  I won’t go into it (I’ve already written it all down in the blog entry I posted above) except to say it made our home life miserable.

That’s where Harry Potter comes in.  Hogwarts became my own personal form of escape.  Instead of living in the horrible real world where our problems dictated our lives, I sought sanctuary in the world of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  While I was there, none of my stupid problems could touch me, because they didn’t exist.  Like Cath, I began reading and writing fanfiction (though I was not nearly as dedicated as she is), which eventually led to writing stories of my own.  I don’t list JK Rowling as one of my writing influences because I can’t even begin to compare myself to her, but the truth is, she’s the one who started it all.  I have other writing idols, but JK is the Queen.  We all know this.

Near the end of the book (I don’t think this is really a spoiler, but if you don’t want to read it, skip over this paragraph), Cath and Wren and a few of their friends attend the midnight release of the last Simon Snow book.  I’m not going to lie to you, but I got tears in my eyes.  The entire time I was reading, I was reliving my own time spent waiting for each of the Harry Potter books to be released.  It was real magic.  That moment the boxes come out, the moment they’re opened, the moment the first one is sold and everyone cheers.  If you’ve felt it, you know what it’s like.  These books, these characters, are so special and have such an impact on our lives.  That’s why I love writing and reading so much.  In some ways, it’s the only world I really know.

I’ve wondered my whole life when I would find my true place in the world.  It sounds so melodramatic and cliche, I know, but it’s something we all wonder.  I see people all around me who seem to know.  Some are meant for the world of business, others for law, some for medicine.  Artists, the writers and painters and sculptors and actors and musicians, I’ve come to believe, have no specific place in the world.  That’s why we feel compelled to create our own.  By doing so, I like to think we make the world a little bigger, give it a little something new each and every day.  And maybe, if we’re lucky, someone else will find a part of themselves in our creations.

Geeking Out

Okay, guys.  So yesterday, I was scrolling through Tumblr, browsing the Harry Potter tag, and I came across something about two of my favorite actors from the franchise, James and Oliver Phelps.  I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love the Weasley twins, how Fred was my fictional boyfriend for like eight years before JK Rowling MURDERED him, and how I actually felt like I’d lost a friend after I finished reading the seventh book.  Fortunately, I can live happily knowing that James and Oliver are actually both alive and well.

They are also apparently going to be starring together in a new movie.  A remake of Hamlet.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2349632/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1

I don’t know if I’ve told y’all this… BUT I LOVE SHAKESPEARE.  I especially love Hamlet.  It’s one of my favorite plays.  I also love Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Twelfth Night, Macbeth (I could write a whole blog post about why I love Macbeth, and maybe I will someday), etc…

I’m not sure how he did it, buy my high school English teacher had this way of teaching all of us Shakespeare, among other great things, in a way that made all of us love it.  We even ended our first semester with a trip to Shakespeare in the Park where we all had an absolute blast.  That love for the Bard stayed with me all the way through college.  I even wrote and illustrated an ABC Shakespeare children’s book for a Children’s Literature class.

Desdemona and Othello.

Romeo and Juliet’s nurse.

The Weird Sisters from Macbeth. Fair is foul and foul is fair…

Anyway, James and Oliver are going to be playing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in new version of Hamlet, at least according to that IMDB link.  If you’ve only read or seen Hamlet, you might not think a whole lot of those roles.  Their scenes with Hamlet are amusing, but that’s more due to Hamlet pretending to be mad than any sort of character development or connection to Rosencrantz or Guildenstern, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t really care when I heard they’d been killed at the end of the play.  Easy come, easy go.

However, if you’ve read or seen Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, you’ll know that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two of the greatest (and most philosophical) characters in the entire play!  Reading the play was a complete and utter joy, but the movie, staring Tim Roth and Sirius Bla – I mean, Gary Oldman, is just about the best thing ever.

I wish, more than anything, that once they’re done shooting Hamlet, then James and Oliver would star in their own version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.  Still, having my two favorite twins from my favorite series ever starring in one of my favorite plays ever… I will not complain!

Weasley Twins + Shakespeare = Pure Happiness

In other good geeky news, I found these AMAZING pictures on Pinterest.

As if the glorified combination of Harry Potter and Shakespeare wasn’t enough, now I get Disney and Van Gogh?!  Is it my birthday?!  Seriously, I thought I couldn’t love anything more than Fred and George as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but these pictures are SO BEAUTIFUL and I love Disney Princesses almost more than anything and I don’t know a soul who doesn’t love the art of Van Gogh.  Or that one Dr. Who episode?

I’m not even much of a Dr. Who fan and I could watch that episode over and over and over again.  And Matt Smith is actually the cutest human being alive.

Alright, well, I’ll let you all enjoy the rest of your evening while I sit here in all my geeky glory.  Chapter 27 of CT2 is coming along nicely.  For all the Luke Rainer fans, he gets a little bit of the narrative in this one!  I’m excited!  He’s such a fun character to write.  Good night, all!

Fangirling

So, I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a huge nerdy fangirl.  I geek out over so many things; Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Tolkien, Sherlock, Ghost Adventures, etc…  I’ve also mentioned that I have several guilty pleasures. 

One of my ultimate guilty pleasures in life is reading Nicholas Sparks novels.  I own every single one of his novels.  In fact, it was reading one of his books (At First Sight) that made me realize that I wanted to be a writer. 

Well, I just found out that his next novel, The Longest Ride, will be released the same day as Cemetery Tours!  I find that so incredibly cool.