Wonderful Christmastime

Hi, friends!  Well, the new book is out, I enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Sanger Library as my last public book even for the year… I’m ready to enjoy the holidays!

It’s funny, I’ve had so many deadlines this year that every time I look at my phone and see the date, I think, “Oh my gosh! I need to hurry up and…”  And then I remember that I HAVE no more deadlines this year!  Yay!  It’s a pretty great feeling.  Not gonna lie.  And I’m proud of myself for sticking to them.  Now I just have to get them out of my head and relax and enjoy.  I’ve never considered myself a workaholic, but I am very goal oriented and I usually have to have SOMETHING I’m working on or toward or else I just don’t know what to do with myself.

But I DO have a lot of things to work on.  For one thing, I’m beta-reading my good friend’s first book!  Her name is April, but you might know her as A Well Read Woman.  I’m very much enjoying her book.  It’s taking me a bit longer to read than most books, however, because I’m going through and making notes.  I really enjoy beta-reading, especially because it means I get to read books before they’re released!

April was also sweet enough to read Boy Band and she wrote one of my most favorite reviews of all time.

And no, I don’t JUST love it because she included a One Direction gif.

After I’m finished beta-reading, I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the books on my TBR list for 2015.  I’m not sure I’ll finish them all by January 1, but I WILL finish.

If I could have one wish this Christmas, it would be for independent authors everywhere to enjoy the same amount of recognition, respect, and readership as our traditionally published colleagues.  If you have a reader in your life, visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com and check out an independently published book.  I guarantee you you will make an author’s Christmas dream come true.  A reader’s as well.

Love you all!

Reader Questionnaire!

I feel like I spend so much time talking about my books and myself here on this blog.  I want to know more about all of you!  If you are reading this, please feel free to answer all of the questions, or perhaps just some of them.  Or none at all.  I’m not going to internet peer pressure you into anything.  I hate that.

Note: This isn’t a survey. I’m not doing research or anything of any kind. This is just for fun. If you want, you can even post the answers to your blog and send me a link.

1. What is your favorite book?

2. What are your goals? For the year? For your life?

3. Are you a writer? If so, tell me about your work. 

4. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

5. What was the last movie you saw in the theater and was it worthwhile?

6. I’m curious, are there any books that you’ve tried to read and simply couldn’t finish? This is a no judgement zone. 

7. Are you currently working on a new book/project right now? If it’s secret, you don’t have to tell me about it. If so, however, I hope it’s going well.

8. If you could live in any of your favorite books, which one would you choose?

9. Are there any book-to-movie adaptations that you think are just incredible?  That you absolutely hated?

10. What do you look for in a book that you want to read?  What’s the first thing to capture your attention?

11. If you’re an author, what do you do when you first get an idea for a book? I make a playlist and create a secret Pinterest board.  

12. How do you feel about different genres? Romance? YA? Sci-Fi? Poetry? Do you have any favorites? Any least-favorites?

13. If you could meet any writer in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?

14. Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

15. Are there any characters that everyone loves that you can’t stand? Or vice versa?

16. What do you like to do besides reading/writing?

17. If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?

18. What is your favorite guilty pleasure book? I love YA and Nicholas Sparks. 

19. Do you have a reading goal set for this year? 

20. Tell me anything about yourself that I haven’t asked. Random fact. Weird human trick. Whatever. Example: I can pop my shoulder out of its socket. It’s gross. 

Posting or Lack Thereof

If I go a day or two without posting, it usually means one of several things. I might be busy.  It might be a holiday.  More than likely, however, it means I have no idea what to blog about.  Seriously, sometimes my life is not that interesting.  And believe it or not, something I don’t have anything to say.  Shocking, but true.

I really didn’t think too much had happened in the last few days, but the more I look back on them, the more I realize, hey yeah, a lot kind of did happen.

For one thing, Cemetery Tours and Between Worlds keep getting great reviews.  I think on Amazon, CT is up to 52 while BW is at 22.  I’d love to see more, obviously, but for indie books about ghosts, that’s pretty okay.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0989673405/ref=x_gr_w_bb_t1_x?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_t1_x-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0989673405&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

Twenty people have already marked Boy Band as To-Read on GoodReads and it won’t even be out until April 21!

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7260466.Jacqueline_E_Smith

I’m signed up to participate in two book events in the springtime – The North Texas Book Festival and AuthorFest in Dennison, TX.  I’m trying to find a time also to visit a few independent bookstores around here as well as getting into urban exploration.  That has nothing to do with books or anything, but I find it really interesting and I think I could get some pretty cool pictures.  Photography, as you know, is my other great love besides writing.

I’ve also been reading a lot more than I got to near the end of 2014.  I used all my Christmas money to buy a mountain of new books and I’ve been able to read them regularly.  It’s been so great!  I also bought a new summer candle to burn while I read, so it’s kind of like paradise in my living room.

The books I’ve read so far are:

As You Wish by Cary Ewles.  I loved this book.  I love The Princess Bride (both the book and the movie) to begin with, so getting read about the filming experience from the point of view of The Man in Black himself was really great.  It also really made me want to watch the movie again.

Alienated by Melissa Landers.  Fun and fast-paced Young Adult novel about a race of aliens who participate in a student exchange program with earth.  I never thought I’d say this, but Aelyx, the alien, was kind of dreamy.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway.  My sister recommended this book to me and may I just say that it is laugh out loud hilarious and an all around great read.  Imagine your ex-boyfriend writing a song about you and having it become an international hit.

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. Oh boy. If you want to read a book that will break your heart and have you tearing up throughout the entire story, this is the one.  Very rarely do I cry so easily at anything, books, songs, or movies, but I was fighting back tears the entire time.

Right now, I’m reading Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor.  It’s good so far, but again, it’s kind of sad.  I’m really enjoying it though.  I realize that as I approach the big 27, I’m getting more back into reading Young Adult than I was in college, which is kind of weird, but whatever.  I’m really enjoying all my new books, and i’m especially enjoying them because I have my own YA book due out in a couple of months.

In other non-book related news, I was in my first Earthquake the other day.  Well, technically, I’ve been in Earthquakes before, including that enormous one out in California, but I slept through them so they really don’t count.  Being in an Earthquake is really weird.  It’s like a giant gust of wind traveling through the foundation of a building.  I saw the walls shake and everything.  Crazy.

Finally, I’m just really looking forward to celebrating my birthday this weekend (even though it’s not till the 14th) before my sister has to go back to school. We’ve had a great holiday and i’m going to miss her like crazy, but I’m pretty sure the next few months will fly.  There’s just so much going on!

Later, gators.

Thankful

Usually, I can always think of something blog about.  Books, writing, polymer clay dragons, but today I’ve kind of got nothing, except to say that I hope that our nation, heck, that our entire world, can find peace.  That’s probably a long shot, but it’s something I know a lot of people are praying for.

As it is the week of Thanksgiving, however, and I probably won’t be posting again until after the turkey comas have come and gone, I would like to dedicate at least a little bit of my blog to the people, places, and things for which I am thankful.  I know, I run the risk of sounding terribly hokey, and I apologize.  But it is the season.

I’m thankful, first and foremost, for my family, my parents and my sister.  They are, without a doubt, the most important part of my life, and I’m so grateful for their love and constant support.

I’m thankful for my sweet kitty, my Midnight.  She has been through a whole lot in her life, but I hope she knows just how loved she is and that she is safe and sound inside her forever home. I think she does.

I’m thankful for friends who make me laugh and listen to me when I’m crazy and who I know I can count on no matter what.

I’m thankful for books and for the gift of words.

I’m thankful for my home.

I’m thankful the opportunities I’ve had in the past year.  To be honest, getting to participate in book events, being asked to speak (I’m actually speaking at a writer’s group on Saturday!), I just never could have imagined that I’d get to do stuff like this.  I made the decision to become an author five short years ago.  It’s insane to look back and think about how far I’ve come.  And I’m hoping it’s just the beginning.

I’m thankful for this holiday season and all the joy it brings.

Finally, I’m thankful for you, all of you reading this.  To everyone who has supported not just me, but any author, traditional or indie, a huge THANK YOU.  I know several of you are authors yourselves, so I know you’ll agree with me when I say that we owe our readers everything!  Thank you so, so much.  You make our worlds go ’round!

Live and Learn

Yesterday, I woke up fully prepared to make it a hugely productive day, and the first few hours were.  I was feeling pretty good about everything.  But then life, as it sometimes tends to do, threw me a curve ball and as usual, I had no idea how to respond to it.

I’m not going to go into detail here, because in the end, it really wasn’t a big deal, but at the time, I thought my entire world was ending.  That’s the kind of melodramatic nonsense you get to put up with when you are or you know a creative mind.  My first response to this traumatic event, of course, was to cry and call my dad.  He’s my go-to guy for crises, mostly because he is very calm and rational and lets me know exactly how I need to respond (which is often the exact opposite of how I planned to respond).

Again, this wasn’t that big a deal.  It had nothing to do with my books or business.  But still, it had me very worried and unfortunately, I let it get me down the entire day.

Today, I’m feeling better, but I’m still a little worried (what can I say, I’m a dweller).  Mostly, however, I’m disappointed that I let almost an entire day get away from me due to circumstances beyond my control.  However, it’s not the first time it’s happened and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last, because that’s just the kind of person I am.  It’s not something I particularly like about myself, but it’s there and I have to learn to live with it and hopefully work through it.

In other news, there are rumors circulating the world wide web about the possible return of Harry Potter?!  Oh, be still my heart and please, please, PLEASE let them be true!  JK, you tease us so!  If that’s not a sign from the universe that everything is going to be okay, I don’t know what is!

Also… Don’t forget to enter my GoodReads Giveaway! I promise my books are a lot more fun to read than this blog post! https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/109579-between-worlds

Have a magical Tuesday, everyone!

The Liebster Award

Hi, everyone!  Lots of exciting things are happening.  My second book signing has been scheduled for July, we have less than a month until Between Worlds is released, and I just found out I’ve been nominated for another Liebster Award!  Thank you so much Veronica and Ashley of http://citygirlscapes.com for nominating me!

For this award, nominees are supposed to answer 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated them and then list 11 facts about themselves.  I’ve been really short on blog ideas lately, because all I am doing with my life right now is proofreading (yay), so this is a great opportunity for me to spread the love and get a little writing and blogging in!  Thank you again, Veronica and Ashley!

11 Questions:

1. What is your reading platform of choice: an e-reader or an actual, physical book?

Actual physical book all the way.  I love pages, I love the smell of books, there’s just nothing better.

2. Inspired by Bird Box by Josh Malerman, if you had to live blindfolded, what would you most miss seeing?

Forests and oceans and lakes and mountains.

3. Where in the world would you travel if nothing was stopping you?

Australia, Fiji, Spain, Italy, Alaska, Caribbean, back to Scotland… the list goes on and on.

4. What TV show do you never miss an episode of?

The Big Bang Theory.  I watch it religiously.

5. If you could sit down for dinner with one celebrity, who would it be and what would you say to break the ice?

Benedict Cumberbatch, and I’d probably say something really awkward and stupid like, “Hi, I’m single. Let’s get married.”

6. What inspired you to start blogging?

I started this blog when I began exploring the publishing world.  It began as a way to document the process, but now I use it for connecting with fellow writers and readers.

7. Do you have a landline telephone or do you only have a cell phone?

Only a cell phone.

8. What was the last thing that made you laugh really, really hard?

A Very Potter Senior Year by Team Starkid.

9. Who do you look up to?

My parents, my sister, and John Green.

10. What is your dream job?

I think I’m supposed to say “author,” and it is, but truly, my dream job would be just being so filthy rich that I could travel and take pictures and save marine life.  That, or Disney Princess.

11. Where do you want to see yourself in 5-10 years?

I would love to become a #1 Best Selling author by the time I’m 30, but I’d settle for mid-30s also.  I’m also hoping to be traveling!

11 Facts

1. I don’t drink coffee or soda or anything with carbonation, not because I like to be healthy, but because I do not like the taste or the fizz.

2. I once stole a cross necklace from my church. Technically, it was my choir cross and it was going to be thrown out anyway.  But my friends and I all snuck into the choir room and smuggled our crosses out on the last day.  We called ourselves The Crucifixers. FYI the cross is still proudly displayed in my room.

3. My ideal man (besides Benedict Cumberbatch) is Niles Crane from Frasier.  I even named my car after him.

4. I don’t like scented markers.  After my grandmother died when I was six, people brought a lot of gifts over to our house, and for some reason, I got like, three packages of scented markers.  To this day, the smell takes me right back.

5. I once stuck my finger inside of our old typewriter to understand how it worked. I ended up with an O on my finger.

6. My great-grandparents were friends with Colonel Sanders, aka the guy on the KFC box (though I may have shared this before, it is my one claim to fame).

7. I’m a Ravenclaw.

8. My favorite actor is Geoffrey Rush. I love him in everything, especially PIRATES!

9. Even though I’ve been out of school for two years, I still have nightmares about not studying for exams and incomplete assignments.

10. I won a goldfish from the state fair when I was 9.  She lived 14 months!

11. I’ve had a lot of people question my ethnicity because of my hair. The truth is I have the most boring heritage ever.  Scottish, Welsh, and French, with a hint of German and Irish.  The curly hair comes from Scotland.  I fit in quite nicely while I was there!

I nominate…

http://jadoremusic89.wordpress.com

http://coffeewriterepeat.wordpress.com

http://audreyhepburnbooks.wordpress.com

http://paws2smile.wordpress.com

Here are your Questions!

1. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?

2. Do you have a favorite go-to snack or drink for whenever you’re reading or writing?

3. Are there any movie adaptations of favorite books that you either really loved or really hated?

4. Mac or PC?

5. If you could have any pet in the world, what would it be?

6. What book would you like to forget so that you could go back and experience reading it for the first time again?

7. Where is your favorite place you’ve ever been? 

8. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

9. If you could visit one fictional or mythical place, where would you go?

10. Do you have a favorite writing/reading spot?

11. If you could meet three people throughout history, who would you meet? 

 

Monday Report

Hello, everyone.  It’s the start of a new week.  It’s also very cold.  I’m sure it’s also very cold where you live, unless you’re a lucky duck Australian, in which case, I envy you a great deal.

I feel like I have a lot to talk about, but nothing so pressing that I’d dedicate an entire post to it, so I figured I’d give you a few tidbits of what’s been floating around in my mind all weekend.

1) I saw Catching Fire for the fourth time this weekend.  I’m relatively open about my outstanding nerdiness, but in case you’re new to the blog, I’ll say it again.  I am a huge geek, and one of my favorite things to geek out over is The Hunger Games.

I could go on and on about everything that I love about the books, and the movies, for that matter (Jennifer Lawrence!), but I won’t because I would literally be typing until my fingers fell off.  So, I’ll try to stick to the point I originally set out to make.

*WARNING: Possible Spoilers Ahead*

As with any franchise I find myself fawning over, I desperately want to know more about the other characters and what was going on behind the scenes of Katniss’ point of view.  One of the reasons I love the movies so much is that they give us a glimpse at the other characters and what they’re doing while Katniss is in the arena.  The books are told entirely from her perspective, so we only get what we’re told her shown through her experience, but in the movies, we get to see a little more, like the game makers who control what happens in the Arena during the games.  I LOVED seeing how they did that!  I also really love any scene with President Snow.  Seriously, he gets the best lines in the entire franchise!

“Hope.  It is the only thing stronger than fear.”

“Because of her, they all pose a threat.  Because of her, they all think they’re invincible.”

And that moment at the end of the first one where he just turns and walks away all dark and creepy?  Or how about in the second one when he realizes that Plutarch has deceived him?  I LOVE THOSE MOMENTS.

Speaking of Plutarch, he’s who I’d really want a separate book about.  Well, him, Haymitch, and the tributes like Johanna and Finnick who were in on the plot to break Katniss out of the Arena during the Second Quarter Quell.  How long had they been communicating?  How did they get the others in on it?  I am DYING to know.  I’m also dying to know more about Finnick and Annie and their love story.  All we got from Finnick in Mockingjay was, “She crept up on me.”

Seriously?  That’s it?  NO!  That is NOT COOL, Suzanne Collins!

2) Today, one of my coworkers at my job that’s not writing came into where I was filing and handed me an envelope.  Then she said something like, “It’s your 10.60” (I don’t remember the actual number).  For some reason, I really thought it was money, so I got really excited.  But then I opened it and realized it was just a bunch of tax crap.  I have finally and begrudgingly come to accept that people will not just walk up to me and give me money.  That is not the way life works.

3) I also went to the post office today to renew my P.O. Box, so that was fun.  And $30.  But hey, it made me feel like a real responsible adult, which you know, really isn’t that great a feeling, but everyone seems to think it’s something to which we should all aspire, so whatever.

4) Cemetery Tours received another amazing review from Paul Ruddock at http://echoesofthepen.com.  Thank you so much, Paul!  Your review almost brought tears to my eyes!

5) Last night, as I was writing, I was watching The Walking Dead (again), and I’m beginning to think that maybe I really just can’t handle that show.  I always feel like I end up writing about the horrific experiences I’ve had while trying to enjoy a show while simultaneously ignoring my natural instincts to avoid all things zombie.  I’ve finally reached the point where I’m almost totally immune to blood and guts (though there’s still one scene in the second one that just… ugh…).  I’m still NOT okay with puke, but that’s something I’ve lived with my entire life and will probably never overcome.  Last night, however, I discovered that there is one thing in the zombie universe (or probably any sort of disgusting universe) that I absolutely can not handle.

Maggots.

Oh my gosh.  I don’t know how I never noticed them before, but there is one scene with a corpse in a tent and its nasty forehead is crawling with MAGGOTS.  One even falls off his forehead and onto his ear where it wriggles around until it finds its way back to the flesh.

EWWWWWW.

Now, I’ve always been pretty girly, but I usually can watch just about anything (except puke) and not get grossed out.  Those maggots grossed me out so much that I thought I was going to gag.  I even had a minor meltdown on Twitter because it was 2 AM and I had no one else to talk to.

So yeah, you get the picture.  It was horrible.  Thankfully, my brain spared me further trauma in my dreams.

Well, that’s not entirely accurate.  I actually dreamt that my friend became a plastic surgeon and decided that I needed plastic surgery to make my hands more feminine (they’re kind of manly) and so she cut up my hands and wrists, but I kept telling her I didn’t have health insurance, so instead of stitching me up, she just put band-aids on my wounds!  I was so scared that my hand was going to fall off, but she assured me that probably wouldn’t happen.

But at least I didn’t dream about maggots.

Have a good week, y’all!