An Update!

Hello everyone! I know that its been a very inconsistent couple of months for me lately and I want to write a post to sort of update you all on what’s going on, there why I’m so busy and inconsistent and how I’m definitely hoping to get back on top of it and soon!

Blog Birthday Giveaway

I know, approved it ended AGES ago. I’ve been getting emails and such from you guys because it ended nearly a month ago and I haven’t picked winners. I will be picking winners either today or tomorrow and emailing them so thank you so much for being patient and keep an eye out for an email because you could be a winner.

Work!

The Mouse House keeps me incredibly busy! Recently I was trained for a new job at work. Normally I work the front of house position in stores. That means I ring people up and talk to them and keep the stores straight and all that stuff. Now I’m working the back of house stores position which means I still interact with guests and such BUT now I stock the stores. Its a lot more physical work and its a lot more hours so I’ve been so incredibly busy with that. And I usually don’t get off til 2 am where I proceed to drive home, medical eat something and then fall asleep with a book. Its SUPER fun and its the 60th anniversary of the park so its a whole huge celebration but I’m just exhausted as hell right now with that.

Reading

That being said I’m reading SO much. I’m not caught up, which I’m not surprised considering that Im working and all that so much. I’ve only read four books this month so far. Which is absolutely terrible. OH GOD. That’s awful. But I’ve been discovering a lot of new authors, and really delving into NA. There are still a lot of NA books that make me cringe but I’m doing some digging and I’ve been rooting all the good ones. Cora Carmack, Jennifer Armentrout, Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy are definitely high on the list for sure.

Writing

Writing has been rough lately. Mostly because I haven’t been disciplined enough lately to make myself sit down at my computer and write and also I’ve just been too busy to do it! BUT that being said, the story is so there. Its in my head. Between it being baseball season, and all the NA I’ve been reading, my own NA baseball romance is coming along. I love my main characters incredibly much so I’m working very hard on it. I have a lot of hope for it and I’ve even queried a few agents on just the proposal of the novel so there’s that! Exciting stuff.

The Awakened 

Speaking of agents and books and stuff, I thought I’d update you on The Awakened. I’m not giving up on it. I can’t. I just can’t do it. Not when I love it so much and I believe in it so much. I haven’t queried anyone in awhile but I’ve sent it in to a couple of indie publishers and I’m just waiting to see what happens. The fact is, science fiction is not the market right now. Publishers, agents, etc, they’re all looking for contemporary and that’s not what I wrote. It just might not be the right time for this book, and that’s okay. I’m writing other things in the meantime but this book isn’t going anywhere, no way. But rest assured my friends, its not going anywhere. You will read the story of Zoey and Ash eventually. I swear!

Friends!

I can’t even begin to explain how much time I’ve been spending with my friends and how much it means to me. Look, my life is great. It has its ups and downs but if you read my open letter to Jennifer Armentrout the other day, you’ll know that I’ve been struggling with an anxiety disorder for a few years now. Its not easy. Every day is a struggle to keep my anxiety and fears in check. No easy days, guys, just like in Cora’s books. And I’ve been having a blast with my friends. We spend a boatload of time together, laughing and eating and shopping and doing silly stuff together. They make me so happy and they’ve been keeping me going so I’ve been spending a LOT of what little free time I have with them.

Dating

Oh yes. I’ve been dating. WHAT? I haven’t ever really dated before. I had a high school boyfriend, a boyfriend after high school and then I was with my last ex for nearly seven years. I’ve never dated! I have no idea what I’m doing but I’ve been navigating the dating world with brand new eyes and figuring out. I’ve had good dates, okay dates and really super bad dates but its been kind of fun. I really have no idea what I’m doing and my friends have been doing it alongside me so its been kind of an adventure. Its been fabulous and weird but I love it.

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Yeah so thats been whats going in my life lately. I’ve been seriously busy but you guys all know how much this blog means to me so I’m going to try and get back on top of it as soon as possible. Thank you all for being awesome and patient and for following as always. And you guys can always pop over to Instagram to keep up with my adventures on a daily basis ;)

Dear Jennifer L Armentrout and All Of You: My Reaction to Scorched

I was originally going to send this directly to JLA. But then I realized how much that I wanted to share this with everyone. I’ve kept a lot of this stuff secret for awhile now and I’m ready for it to not be a secret. The main character of JLA’s new release Scorched really inspired me to be more open about myself and so that’s what I’m doing. I also want to warn you that there will be mild spoilers for Scorched in this letter. Thank you. 

Continue reading

Dear Jennifer L Armentrout and All Of You: My Reaction to Scorched

I was originally going to send this directly to JLA. But then I realized how much that I wanted to share this with everyone. I’ve kept a lot of this stuff secret for awhile now and I’m ready for it to not be a secret. The main character of JLA’s new release Scorched really inspired me to be more open about myself and so that’s what I’m doing. I also want to warn you that there will be mild spoilers for Scorched in this letter. Thank you. 

Continue reading

June California Young Adult and Middle Grade Book Events!

Some of you may have noticed that I no longer do Book Events Listings for the entire country. I used to but it just honestly got to be way too much work for me. I know it was really cool for you guys but it really was a ton of work. If any of you need help on finding book events in your area, visit this site I will be more than happy to help, but for now, I will be sticking with California (mostly Southern) events!

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June 12th:

Lindsay Cummings and Stephanie Diaz

Mysterious Galaxy

San Diego, CA

7:30 pm

Mysterious Galaxy is excited to welcome stellar YA authors Stephanie Diaz and Lindsay Cummings in celebration of their latest novels.

June 20th:

Catherine Linka, A Girl Undone

Flintridge Bookstore

La Canada Flintridge, CA

4:30 pm

Catherine Linka discusses & signs copies of her new YA novel ‘A Girl Undone’, the sequel to her debut novel ‘A Girl Called Fearless’

June 22nd:

Catherine Linka

Los Angeles Public Library

Sherman Oaks, CA

6:30 pm

Catherine Linka discusses & signs copies of her new YA novel ‘A Girl Undone’, the sequel to her debut novel ‘A Girl Called Fearless’

June 22nd: 

Adam Silvera with Aaron Hartzler

Barnes and Noble, The Grove

Los Angeles, CA

7 pm

Adam Silvera with moderator Aaron Hartzler and panelists Jennifer Niven, Holly Goldberg Sloane and John Corey Whaley discuss More Happy Than Not, Adam’s extraordinary debut novel confronting race, class and sexuality. Book signing to follow. This is not a wristbanded event. 

June 24th: 

Robin Benway, “Emmy and Oliver” Discussion and Signing

Vroman’s Bookstore

Pasadena, CA

7 pm

Those wishing to get books signed will be asked to purchase at least one copy of the author’s most recent title from Vroman’s. For each purchased copy of the newest title, customers may bring up to three copies from home to be signed. This policy applies to all Vroman’s Bookstore events unless otherwise noted. Save your Vroman’s receipt; it will be checked when you enter the signing line.

June 25th: 

Robyn Schneider, “Extraordinary Means” Launch

Skylight Books

Los Angeles, CA

7:30 pm

ROBYN SCHNEIDER reads from her new young adult novel EXTRAORDINARY MEANS with JOHN COREY WHALEY

Please join us for a very special launch party for Robyn Schneider’s latest YA novel Extraordinary Means, the stunning follow-up to The Beginning of Everything.

May Book Wrap Up!

Books Pledged to Read in 2015:

150

Am I On Track: 

2 books behind. This seems to be the trend every month..

Books Read So Far: 

59

Total Books For May: 

12

The Heir

22918050

Saint Anything

23009402

Pucked

24504274

Scoring Wilder

21843117

Be With Me

17558817

Stay With Me

19501672

Fall With Me

20980781

The Proposal

21491442

Trust In Me

17860217

Frigid

16122034

PS I Still Love You

20698530

The White Rose

24585267

All Lined Up (Re-Read)

18505845

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How was your May?!

What A Nerd Girl Says Three Year Blog Birthday and Giveaway!

OMG GUYS!

Can you believe my blog is celebrating THREE YEARS of existing today? I have had this little ‘ol thing for three years now. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this because I seriously can hardly believe that my blog is three years old. THREE years old. If it was a child, sale it would be walking and talking, and maybe learning to count and eating cheerios and watching Disney Jr and probably throwing tantrums…its insane.

I literally just had a mental image of my blog throwing a tantrum right now and it made me laugh out loud because how ridiculous does my imagination truly have to be to imagine my blog throwing a tantrum…

I gotta say, when I started this blog three years ago, it really started as a way for me to be like, look, come to this website and watch me ramble on how much I love books and nerdy things and also listen to me defend YA literature over and over and over and over and over again.

And those things are still a HUGE reason why I blog but my blog has morphed into something much more. Now I’m reviewing the actual books that I read…and I’m part of teams that support them and get the word out about them. WHAT? That’s insane. Totally normal to me now, especially with ARCs of book showing up in my snail mail and email inboxes on a weekly basis, but if you would have told me that was a thing three years ago, I would have been…wait, what?

If you would have told me three years ago that I would have over 300K views on my blog, and over 2000 followers, I would laughed. I have 1538 followers on Facebook, 1345 followers on Twitter, 1997 on Tumblr and 2346 followers on Instagram. And yeah, in the grand scheme of things, I have such a small following. But I adore each and every single one of you because you guys are so enthusiastic, SO encouraging and just plain awesome. And the fact that I’ve had several of you write me letters and emails and come up to me at events and tell me good things and ask to take pictures with me? Just absolutely blows my mind. I’m not famous in the slightest (oh and I know this) but hearing things like that from you guys means the TOTAL world. You guys are the ultimate rock stars.

I gotta throw some shout outs to my fangirl besties: Sylvia, Alex, Cassie and Steph. You guys are so awesome, you are there throughout every fangirl adventure, whether its a book event, a movie premiere, an insane road trip for ONE day at a book convention (I still can’t believe we did that) or just eating a TON of food and talking about books. This blog wouldn’t be what it is without these girls because they’re the ones that get me into all these adventures and ridiculousness and they help keep the reading passion alive. When you can talk for HOURS about fictional characters as if they’re totally real? They’re the winners!

Also a huge shout out to every single blogger that I’ve come across, because you are all awesome and you work just as hard, if not more, than I do and all of your blogs and beautiful and inspirational and this blogger community is so kickass.

Thanks to Courtney and Allison for being the most badass librarians around and for believing in me and supporting me and talking about me in their presentations because that’s pretty cool.

My dad because seriously I don’t know how many other dads put up with the fact that their 27 year old daughter lives at home and takes up most of her space with her ever growing book collection. One day, there won’t be enough room for me to even sleep in this room. I’m still deciding if that’s a bad thing or not ;)

Every single YA (and NA) author out there who has written an amazing book. You guys are the reason this blog even exists. You guys have become my friends (which still blows my mind, every, single, time) and my encouragement and as long as you guys keep writing these awesome books, I’m gonna keep promoting the hell out of them.

Lastly (I feel like the music would be turning on at this point if I was saying this at the Oscars or something…), a shoutout to ALL the nerd girls out there. Let your nerd girl flag fly high and proud. You can be girly and badass and you can do your hair and make-up and curl up with a book. You can be anything you want to be and don’t let the haters (cough cough boys cough cough) get you down because you all ROCK!

Okay

Now to the fun part ;)

The Giveaway!!!!!!!

SO many prizes :)

Prize #1

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-A Copy of Cora Carmack’s All Lined Up, A signed All Lined Up postcard, a signed All Broke Down postcard and an ecopy of Elle Kennedy’s The Deal

Prize #2:

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-A Signed Copy of Jessica Brody’s Unremembered, a Signed Unremembered poster, a Unremembered bookmark, an Alienated bookmark, a Trust Me, I’m Lying postcard and an Ex-Gen button

Prize #3:

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-A Signed ARC of Robyn Schneider’s Extraordinary Means, an ARC of Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall, a Signed How We Fall by Kate Brauning postcard, and a bookmark and magnet for Michelle Levy’s Not After Everything.

Prize #4

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-A signed copy of The 100 by Kass Morgan, a signed copy of Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver and an ecopy of Tonya Kuper’s Anomaly!

Prize #5:

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-The ultimate swag pack with bookmarks, buttons, postcards, sneak peeks and more from authors such as: Michelle Levy, Jennifer L Armentrout, Danielle Paige, BT Gottfred, Shannon Messenger (signed), Tonya Kuper, Sabba Tahir, Victoria Aveyard, Cora Carmack (signed), Sara B Larson (signed), Lindsay Leavitt (signed) and Mary Elizabeth Summer! Includes a tote bag!  

The Rules

Because, yes, there have to be rules!

The contest will run from today, May 23rd until June 6th!

The winner will be contacted within 24 hours of contest end. If winner(s) do not respond within a 24 hour period of contact, their prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be chosen.

Come back every day to share on Twitter and Instagram to earn more entries!

This giveaway is in NO way endorsed by any authors, their publishers or any other affiliates.

What A Nerd Girl Says is not responsible for lost, stolen or damaged prizes. It HAS happened before, but only once!

How to Enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thanks again guys for showing all your support, as always. You guys are rock stars and I can’t wait to be celebrating FOUR years next year!

PS. This is the image you need in order to enter the Instagram portion of the giveaway!

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