Fierce Reads Tour Kicks Off in San Diego!

Yesterday was another epic author event under the belt for me, viagra 40mg down at Mysterious Galaxy for the first stop of the Fierce Reads Tour.

This fall Fierce Reads tour features authors Gennifer Albin and Ann Aguirre, what is ed with Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo as special guests.

Now, I’m already quite familiar with Jessica and Leigh. I mean, when Jessica Brody tweets you because she saw that you were interviewed in the CBS interview with Cassandra Clare, that’s pretty awesome. Jessica is the author of several contemporary YA novels, like My Life Undecided and The Karma Club, and the Unremembered trilogy, with a sort of Bourne identity storyline but with a kickass girl and a hot guy. Can’t deny that one can you?

Leigh Bardugo is the author of Shadow and Bone, and Siege and Storm, following the story of Alina Starkov in this immense and dark fantasy world, who finds out she has special powers and must be taken under the wing of the mysterious Darkling in order to learn them.

Gennifer and Ann are new authors to my ever growing list. Gennifer writes a sort of fantasy-dystopian where girls called Spinsters literally weave the reality of the world on looms. I just bought the first book of Ann’s trilogy, but I’m very excited to dive into it.

Authors at Fierce Reads

The adventure getting to Mysterious Galaxy was super fun, with my friends Cassandra, and Sylvia from FanGirlFeeels, and when we got there, I was SO happy to be there! I enjoy meeting authors and I love Mysterious Galaxy. They are such fun indie bookstores and they’re great. The authors had arrived at the same time, and both Jessica and Leigh said enthusiastic hellos to myself and to Sylvia, and thanked us for driving to see them.

Fierce Reads Books

The event was SUCH a blast. I already knew that Jessica and Leigh were super fun to meet. Each one of them has their own brand of humor, and I always have such a great time with their events. Add in Ann and Gennifer and it was literally a laugh fest the entire time. Seriously, I swear I want to be an author just to hang out with these super cool ladies. I was literally laughing, with a little bit of tears, every time they were talking. This was the first stop of the tour, and I know that the rest of the stops are going to be just fabulous, because they obviously have a fun and awesome chemistry going on.

Leigh Bardugo

All the authors shared a lot about writing, and about their books. I always love coming to these things because I feel like I get wonderful insight to the authors’ books and I also get priceless writing advice, which is always helpful to me. I gobble up all possible writing advice, anything to help keep me motivated and inspired.

Gennifer Albin

They also addressed the sort of controversy and issues going on with Allegiant. Each author sort of agreed that readers have the right to react as they please, but the reactions can be dealt with in other manners. Ann said she knows that not everyone is going to love her book, but she’d hope they wouldn’t bring it to her front yard. Leigh was extremely passionate about it, and said she would hope that readers understood where authors are coming from when they are writing their novel, and that they’re going to write the novel they set out to write. She also said that expressing all those emotions, like hate and anger, won’t change anything so its a waste of time. I liked what Jessica said, that love and hate come from the same place, and you know you’re doing something right if you get either of those.

Jessica Brody

I’ve also learned from these authors that the second and third books were harder to write. Gennifer Albin said that her first book seemed like a breeze to her, but the second one was a lot harder. Both Leigh and Jessica lamented over their third books, and jokingly called Jessica’s third book “stupidly awesome.” Ann talked about the difficulties of having a successful first book, and translating the story and the audience into the second and the third book.

Ann Aguirre

I found that SO interesting. She really explained how each of her books in her trilogy sort of represented something different: the first book was the quest, the second book was the emotions and building of relationships, and the third was the war. I really bought into that, and I really loved it. I’m writing a standalone sci-fi so I’m not frazzled at how to fit all of that into one book. But I thought it was a good way of thinking of it, and its something I’m definitely keeping in mind!

Then came meeting the authors, which is always fun because you get to interact with them, and I’ve gotten to know Jessica and Leigh, we’ve bonded and can joke with each other. When my friend Cassandra met Jessica Brody, she was like “you came with these clowns?!” and I couldn’t stop laughing. But she was extremely helpful with writing tips, and I’m going to be checking out this book called Save the Cat and creating a book bible for my sci-fi book. I’m going to start working on that now!

Lastly, I LOVED talking to Gennifer about Harry Potter and Doctor Who. She had the cutest Doctor Who lunch box/purse thing, and I showed her my Doctor Who tattoo and she was so excited about it, and she was like “I need to get my Deathly Hallows tattoo” and I just held out my other wrist, and she laughed, and was like “You stole all my tattoo ideas!” I love author bonding ;)

Here is all the awesome swag/signed books I got!

Fierce Reads Bag

Signed 52 Reasons Book Signed Crewel Book Signed Enclave Book Signed Fierce Reads Poster

OH! And of course I had Gennifer and Ann sign my poster of writing advice :) Check out what they had to say!

Gennifer and Ann Writing Advice

I also was really stoked to meet one of my followers, Kayla, who is the blogger over at The Thousand Lives. We talk a LOT online, especially about books, and it was her VERY FIRST book event. You can read about her experience here, and I am so glad to have met her IRL and to be part of her first author event experience!

Last night was just the first stop of their tour (they’re in Albuquerque tonight), and there are SO many more stops. Check out this link to find out if they’re coming near you. You definitely do NOT want to miss out!

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Fierce Reads Tour Kicks Off in San Diego!

Yesterday was another epic author event under the belt for me, viagra 40mg down at Mysterious Galaxy for the first stop of the Fierce Reads Tour.

This fall Fierce Reads tour features authors Gennifer Albin and Ann Aguirre, what is ed with Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo as special guests.

Now, I’m already quite familiar with Jessica and Leigh. I mean, when Jessica Brody tweets you because she saw that you were interviewed in the CBS interview with Cassandra Clare, that’s pretty awesome. Jessica is the author of several contemporary YA novels, like My Life Undecided and The Karma Club, and the Unremembered trilogy, with a sort of Bourne identity storyline but with a kickass girl and a hot guy. Can’t deny that one can you?

Leigh Bardugo is the author of Shadow and Bone, and Siege and Storm, following the story of Alina Starkov in this immense and dark fantasy world, who finds out she has special powers and must be taken under the wing of the mysterious Darkling in order to learn them.

Gennifer and Ann are new authors to my ever growing list. Gennifer writes a sort of fantasy-dystopian where girls called Spinsters literally weave the reality of the world on looms. I just bought the first book of Ann’s trilogy, but I’m very excited to dive into it.

Authors at Fierce Reads

The adventure getting to Mysterious Galaxy was super fun, with my friends Cassandra, and Sylvia from FanGirlFeeels, and when we got there, I was SO happy to be there! I enjoy meeting authors and I love Mysterious Galaxy. They are such fun indie bookstores and they’re great. The authors had arrived at the same time, and both Jessica and Leigh said enthusiastic hellos to myself and to Sylvia, and thanked us for driving to see them.

Fierce Reads Books

The event was SUCH a blast. I already knew that Jessica and Leigh were super fun to meet. Each one of them has their own brand of humor, and I always have such a great time with their events. Add in Ann and Gennifer and it was literally a laugh fest the entire time. Seriously, I swear I want to be an author just to hang out with these super cool ladies. I was literally laughing, with a little bit of tears, every time they were talking. This was the first stop of the tour, and I know that the rest of the stops are going to be just fabulous, because they obviously have a fun and awesome chemistry going on.

Leigh Bardugo

All the authors shared a lot about writing, and about their books. I always love coming to these things because I feel like I get wonderful insight to the authors’ books and I also get priceless writing advice, which is always helpful to me. I gobble up all possible writing advice, anything to help keep me motivated and inspired.

Gennifer Albin

They also addressed the sort of controversy and issues going on with Allegiant. Each author sort of agreed that readers have the right to react as they please, but the reactions can be dealt with in other manners. Ann said she knows that not everyone is going to love her book, but she’d hope they wouldn’t bring it to her front yard. Leigh was extremely passionate about it, and said she would hope that readers understood where authors are coming from when they are writing their novel, and that they’re going to write the novel they set out to write. She also said that expressing all those emotions, like hate and anger, won’t change anything so its a waste of time. I liked what Jessica said, that love and hate come from the same place, and you know you’re doing something right if you get either of those.

Jessica Brody

I’ve also learned from these authors that the second and third books were harder to write. Gennifer Albin said that her first book seemed like a breeze to her, but the second one was a lot harder. Both Leigh and Jessica lamented over their third books, and jokingly called Jessica’s third book “stupidly awesome.” Ann talked about the difficulties of having a successful first book, and translating the story and the audience into the second and the third book.

Ann Aguirre

I found that SO interesting. She really explained how each of her books in her trilogy sort of represented something different: the first book was the quest, the second book was the emotions and building of relationships, and the third was the war. I really bought into that, and I really loved it. I’m writing a standalone sci-fi so I’m not frazzled at how to fit all of that into one book. But I thought it was a good way of thinking of it, and its something I’m definitely keeping in mind!

Then came meeting the authors, which is always fun because you get to interact with them, and I’ve gotten to know Jessica and Leigh, we’ve bonded and can joke with each other. When my friend Cassandra met Jessica Brody, she was like “you came with these clowns?!” and I couldn’t stop laughing. But she was extremely helpful with writing tips, and I’m going to be checking out this book called Save the Cat and creating a book bible for my sci-fi book. I’m going to start working on that now!

Lastly, I LOVED talking to Gennifer about Harry Potter and Doctor Who. She had the cutest Doctor Who lunch box/purse thing, and I showed her my Doctor Who tattoo and she was so excited about it, and she was like “I need to get my Deathly Hallows tattoo” and I just held out my other wrist, and she laughed, and was like “You stole all my tattoo ideas!” I love author bonding ;)

Here is all the awesome swag/signed books I got!

Fierce Reads Bag

Signed 52 Reasons Book Signed Crewel Book Signed Enclave Book Signed Fierce Reads Poster

OH! And of course I had Gennifer and Ann sign my poster of writing advice :) Check out what they had to say!

Gennifer and Ann Writing Advice

I also was really stoked to meet one of my followers, Kayla, who is the blogger over at The Thousand Lives. We talk a LOT online, especially about books, and it was her VERY FIRST book event. You can read about her experience here, and I am so glad to have met her IRL and to be part of her first author event experience!

Last night was just the first stop of their tour (they’re in Albuquerque tonight), and there are SO many more stops. Check out this link to find out if they’re coming near you. You definitely do NOT want to miss out!

*      *      *      *      *

Cinda Williams Chima and Marlene Perez at Mysterious Galaxy!

You guys all KNOW that I’m obsessed with the author, information pills Cinda Williams Chima, drug and I basically spend some time each week trying to convince you all to read her books.

One, that will literally not stopping happening. Cinda Chima is an absolutely wonderful author, and I won’t stop until every single one of you have read at least one of her books, because I swear, that’s all it will take to be addicted.

Two, I was finally able to meet her yesterday, and hopefully discover a new author, Marlene Perez!

They both did a presentation/signing at Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach. If you live in the Southern California area, you definitely want to go either locations (Redondo and San Dieg0). They have some of the BEST signings, their stores are awesome, and the bring the best authors to their stores and to events like WonderCon and Comic Con. I wish they were closer to me, because I would shop there ALL the time.

But to the authors!

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When they walked in, Cinda immediately came up to me, and gave me a huge hug, and introduced me to Marlene Perez. I had to admit, I had mini fireworks in my stomach while this was going on because I was SO excited that she knew me from online!

Both of these authors were super fun to meet, and super enthusiastic. The turnout was…less than ideal (which is why I’m STILL pushing) but their enthusiasm was there, and it was super personal, being able to talk and meet with them.

They both really had a lot to say about writing and that was really fantastic for me, as an aspiring writer, especially since I’ve been thinking of taking that dip into science fiction or fantasy, and stepping away from always, always contemporary.

They also talked about balancing writing, and life, since they both have kids, and getting out of those abysses where your writing gets so bad that you think you’re the worst writer ever. They both were really adamant about setting goals, and setting aside time to write, and to make sure you write, because even if its awful, its something that you can fix. Marlene Perez quoted Nora Roberts’, “You can fix anything but a blank page.” That was awesome.

Cinda and Marlene talked a bit about the whole book to movies option thing, which was super enlightening, especially since it seems like everyone’s book nowadays has been optioned by somebody.

Lastly, they really are starting to convince me of using Scrivener. I got to get on board with this thing…

I got a HUGE kick out of the fact that Cinda is a Cassandra Clare fan, and both enjoyed the books and liked the movies. I felt like saying, SEE! Older, educated women liked the movie too! And I just love the Mortal Instruments so much, but you guys all knew that already!

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Myself with author, Marlene Perez. I picked up her first two books of her YA series, Dead is the New Black and Dead is a State of Mind. I can’t wait to dive in and read them, especially since I’ll be seeing Marlene again next week at the Los Angeles Teen Book Fest (more on that later!)

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Me and the wonderful, amazing, hilarious, inspiring, addicting author Cinda Williams Chima, who was gracious enough to sign all the books I brought, and talk to me and just be awesome. I feel SO lucky that I was able to meet her, and under awesome circumstances.

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They also signed by Writing Advice poster. I had this idea a few months ago to have authors signed this poster with writing advice. Once its all filled up, I’m going to frame it and hopefully hang it over where I write so I can feel a little better during the not-so-good writing days :)

Gretchen McNeil and Kendare Blake at Mysterious Galaxy!

Today I was able to meet both Kendare Blake and Gretchen McNeil at the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in Redondo Beach, more about celebrating the release of their two new books.

I was fortunate enough to meet and “discover” Gretchen McNeil a few months back when she was a guest at the Ontario Teen Book Fest (which you can read allll about here). She made me laugh a lot during the panels and I really was impressed at the way she made a point to reflect all of our differences in her characters, i.e. her main character in Possess is half-Asian. I thought that was really interesting and I decided to make a point to read her books.

That was in May, and it is now September and I’m sad to say that I’ve only read one of her books. Its okay though, because now I am about to be on track, as today I bought her second novel, Ten, and her brand new novel, 3:59!

Kendare Blake is an author I had not heard of before, but I picked up her brand new book, AntiGoddess tonight, and am excited to start it.

Gretchen McNeil

As said before, Gretchen McNeil is the author of Possess, Ten and the brand new 3:59, which was just released this past Tuesday. Here is the GoodReads synopsis:

Josie Byrne’s life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she’s betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can’t get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo’s life is everything Josie wants: she’s popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they’re just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo.  Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo’s perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo’s boyfriend, he hates her. Jo’s mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh. By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

Kendare Blake

Kendare Blake is the author of Anna Dressed in Blood and its sequel, Girl of Nightmares. Her brand new novel, AntiGoddess, is the first of a planned trilogy. Here is the synopsis:

Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health. Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god. 

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. 

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out. 
 Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

Okay, please tell me you think those sound as absolutely amazing as I do! I canNOT wait to dive into them. They are now in my pile ‘o books, and I am eagerly anticipating reading them soon!

Mysterous_Galaxy_updated_pic-1Photo Credit: Mysterious Galaxy Website

The event was SO much fun. I had never had a chance to go to Mysterious Galaxy, either locations in San Diego or Redondo Beach, and I definitely will be returning. I’m trying more and more to support bookstores as much as possible, especially the independent ones, and this was a really nice one! They put on a very awesome event, and they had a crazy beautiful store. I can’t wait to come back to this store in a couple weeks for the Cinda Williams Chima event.

Each author talked a little bit about their books, the synopsis of them and how they sort of got the inspiration for each of them. They talked a lot about writing, which was SUPER awesome for an aspiring writer like me. They talked about handling new ideas, especially when you get new ideas while working on something already. They both seemed to agree about writing their ideas down, but remaining focused on the story at hand, even though sometimes that can be very hard, especially if a book is getting hard to write.

They told stories about their book covers; Kendare has had some issues with her girls in blood looking like they’re having some serious menstruation issues, and Gretchen had an issue with her Asian character NOT looking Asian on the cover. T

hey shared some books that they are obsessed with. Gretchen swears by the book The Twenty Nine Steps by John Buchan, and Kendare is a HUGE fan of The Odyssey and the Iliad, just recently getting a quote from the Iliad tattooed on her! As you all know, I applaud book tattoos, definitely!

It was super fun meeting both of them. They had a lot of quality advice, they made me laugh, and I can’t wait to dive into their books. Watch out soon for some book reviews, and maybe a few extras as well ;)

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Signed 359 Signed Ten

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Signed Antigoddess

Okay, can I just say the fact that Kendare signed my book with a Terminator quote was just TOO cool for life? LOVE it.