Hello everyone! Welcome to What A Nerd Girl Says!

My name is Sara and I live in Southern California, as I have my entire life. By day, I’m a hiring coordinator for a home health care agency here in Orange County but by night, I am an author/blogger/professional fangirl. I’m thirty-two years old, the oldest of six kids, half Mexican, half Irish. I live with my fiancé, Daniel, getting married in April 2022, and our two kitties, Kaz and Kai, who are, yes, named after some of my favorite book characters.

I’ve had many different jobs in my life but the one that I’ve always had and probably will never be able to shake is writer. My first novel, The Awakened, was published in December of 2015 and the sequel, The Sanctuary, followed in January of 2017. After they went out of print, I rereleased The Awakened Duology as a self published author in June of 2020. In September 2020, I released my first new adult romance novel, Benched, with the sequel, Struck Out, coming out in fall 2021.

I have loved to read my entire life. I know so many people who have THE book that got them into reading – I don’t really have that. I was taught to read very young and fell in love with stories and books so young. I grew up on Baby-Sitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High. When I was young, YA didn’t quite exist the way it does now and so I read whatever my mom had, including her romance novels and true crime novels. I fell in love with Harry Potter when it made its US debut in 1998, when I was ten years old, and I first fell in love when I read Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries when I was twelve. When I was fifteen, I read my first Tamora Pierce book and my favorite genre has been fantasy ever since.

This blog was created in 2012 to be a place where I can share my passion for writing, reading, young adult literature, and all things in the nerd community. There was a period of time where I felt like I lost my way a bit and got caught up in the “business” side of it, obsessed with follower counts, views and whether or not major publishers were giving me ARCs. In the last year or so, I went back to my roots and fell back in love with What A Nerd Girl Says, completely re-did the blog and am back to the place of passion and love for all things nerd.

When I’m not doing all the things I talked about above, I spend a lot of time with my fiancé, my cats, my friends and my family. I love to go to the movies and hang out at both Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood – I’m a passholder at both. I’m obsessed with anything tiki, especially tiki bars, and love going to Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. I like going out to eat and discovering new restaurants and I can get lost in Target any day. I’m also learning to be more outdoorsy and going on hikes with the boyfriend.

I also love love love to run. About a year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and it flipped my world upside down. I changed my diet and suddenly became incredibly active. In doing so, I discovered a love for running. I’m not very fast and I’m not very good but I absolutely love it and just completed my 10th 5K. I deal with a lot of anxiety and depression and I’m very open about that, on my blog and on all of my social media. I have found that running and exercise helps a lot with keeping both of those at bay, along with a good healthy mix of medication and therapy.

I’m so glad you’re here and I hope that you enjoy the blog! Please check out my various social media accounts and drop me a line if you have any questions or just want to say hi!

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Favorites

Color: Pink, purple, blue

Author:  Leigh Bardugo, Tamora Pierce, Marissa Meyer, Cassandra Clare, Morgan Matson

Book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Trickster’s Choice, Six of Crows, Cress, City of Glass

Genre: fantasy, mostly young adult

Movie: Howl’s Moving Castle

TV Show: Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Star Wars Rebels

Band/Artist: Something Corporate, Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, Set It Off, Issues, NSYNC

Food: tonkotsu ramen

Bookstore: Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. You can check them out here.

Superhero: Captain Marvel, Ironman, Wonder Woman, Winter Soldier

Disney Character: Winnie the Pooh, Belle, Hatbox Ghost, Oogie Boogie

Fictional Female Characters: Princess Leia, Ahsoka, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Sabine Wren, Rose Hathaway

Fictional Male Characters: Jace Herondale, Adrian Ivashkov, Kaz Brekker

OTPs: Clary and Jace from the Mortal Instruments!!