Fandom Friday-The Lynburn Legacy

The Fandom Friday is a weekly feature, this site with each blog post written by a new contributor.

This is the weekly post where either myself, or a guest blogger, talks about a new fandom. See, I’ve had the experience in my life where I’ve been made fun or put down about my particular fandoms. And that has made me feel pretty crappy. But I’ve also put down other fandoms as well.

So I’ve decided to change that. I’m opening my world up to new fandoms, and the best way to do that is to bring people in to write about various fandoms. I’m very excited about this segment.

If you guys are interested in becoming a guest blogger for the Fandom Friday, feel free to email me at whatanerdgirlsays at gmail.com or contact me HERE

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The Lynburn Legacy by Sarah Rees Brennan 

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What It Is: 

The Lynburn Legacy is a paranormal mystery series written by the immensely talented Sarah Rees Brennan.

The story follows the main character of Kami Glass, who lives in the tiny town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, where nothing happens, not since the mysterious Lynburns left town. Kami is an aspiring reporter, determined to get a story, and recruiting her friends to help her do it. Her best friend, though, is a boy named Jared, a boy who lives in her head, a boy who she doesn’t even know is real, until one day, she bumps into him on accident and she finds out he is part of a group of Lynburns that have returned to town. Now that the two are thrown together, their connection and bond and growing attraction to each other makes it incredibly awkward to be around each other. But there are more problems to contend with: brutally murdered animals are being found around town and when Kami starts investigating, she’s nearly killed as well. Plus there’s something a little…off about the Lynburn family that Kami is determined to find out about.

So far, there are two books in the series, Unspoken and Untold. Untold was released quite recently, in September, so it probably will be about a year, next fall, for the third book to release. This book is full of adventure and mystery, romance and magic. It reads like a murder mystery, wrapped up in magic, and humor.

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How I Found It 

I met Sarah Rees Brennan back in March, when she was on tour with Cassandra Clare on her Clockwork Princess tour, along with Maureen Johnson. I thought she was absolutely adorable and she made me laugh, and she had the BEST taste in clothes ever. Seriously, Sarah, I don’t know where you get your dresses, but we need to go shopping together soon.

But I knew immediately that I wanted to read some of her books, her and Maureen. I knew if they were endorsed by Cassie, they had to be good. And they were just so hilarious.

I read Sarah Rees Brennan’s Demon’s Lexicon trilogy and I liked it, but this series is really the one that brought me in. I had heard of it but had been no rush until my own contributor Christina Marie recently read Unspoken and loved it so much that she just had to share it with me. I immediately bought the first book, and read the second book just the next day.

My number one fictional crush has been Jace Wayland for a LONG time now, and probably won’t change at all, but Jared Lynburn is now an incredibly close second place.

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Why You Should be Reading It 

I feel like I need ridiculous gifs from Tumblr to explain why you should be reading this series because words are hard to use to describe this series.

It made me laugh out loud. It made me want to scream and cry, and it made me scared and excited. It made me feel so many different emotions all at the same time.

And it was so NEW too. I tend not read too much paranormal romance YA because it starts to get repetitive and frankly, kind of irritating. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to read this series to begin with. Maybe I had that idea that it would just be the same thing again.

But its not at all. Sarah tells this story like its a mystery and like the magical aspect of it is just an added bonus. It literally reads like a murder mystery to me. Its exciting and did I mention funny? Kami Glass is such a brave and fun character and she makes me laugh so much. She’s so stubborn and determined and its not a wonder that she drives Jared absolutely bonkers. I kind of want to BE Kami Glass. Sarah has created this character that is incredibly relatable and at the same time enviable. She’s incredibly smart and clever and super witty, she has a sharp sense of humor. I love that no matter what crazy situations she gets herself into, she just pushes forward. She’s brave, and she’s loyal to those that she loves.

I also absolutely adore the fact that Sarah represents the world the way it is: she has mixed race characters, and characters that have different sexual identities. She represents what we actually see when we go outside. Kami is half-Asian, and there are friends of hers who are questioning their sexual identities and there’s just so many differences in it, and I love it. It shouldn’t be a problem but it is, and the fact that she does it so beautifully and subtly makes this book so much better.

Plus there’s just the fact that she’s a great writer. Its a fun story, with just enough awesome elements to keep you speeding through the book. There’s humor and action and adventure and mystery and romance and fun and amazing.

Seriously, read these novels. You won’t regret one minute of reading these books.

An original fan artwork of Cassandra Jean. I was so happy when I discovered she did art for this series, as well as Cassandra Clare's series.

An original fan artwork of Cassandra Jean. I was so happy when I discovered she did art for this series, as well as Cassandra Clare’s series.

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I hope you all enjoyed this edition of the Fandom Friday. I realize there aren’t many hours left in the day of Friday but I made it! Yay me!

I hope you all are able to check out this book series, you will NOT be disappointed.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Exclusive Interview with Jewelry Designer Viviane Hebel!

Its not hard to be part of the fan girl world, prescription and not run into the awesome and talented, Viviane Hebel.

Vivi Hebel runs her own business, Hebel Design, which specializes in handcrafted jewelry based on your favorite novel series like the Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, the Curse Workers and Faerie stories by Holly Black, Unremembered by Jessica Brody, the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, the Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout and SO many more.

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The first I heard of Vivi and Hebel Design is when I met Cassandra Clare back in March, and interviewed. As a gift, Cassie gave me a clockwork angel necklace, that I wear SO often. Almost exactly a month later, I met Vivi at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books when she pointed out that I was wearing her necklace. I’ve been addicted to her stuff ever since. Her family rings, rune bookmarks, and jewelry for all books are just TOO beautiful.

She’s also been featured in Huffington Post, Epic Reads, The Examiner and more!

So, of course, I had to try and get her on this blog, with an interview and I’m really excited to bring her to you guys today!

Sara: How did you get into jewelry making and jewelry design? What sort of skills did you have to learn? 

Viviane: I went to college for integral design-graphic, textile and industrial. So I had my base in materials and methods. I’ve always been more interested in 3D than 2D work so it was more of an evolution for me. Some 10 years ago, I took classes in silversmithing and so it began.

Sara: How did you get involved with all these authors like Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Leigh Bardugo, Sarah Rees Brennan, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Anna Banks, Jessica Brody, etc? 

Viviane: I read Cassandra Clare’s 3 first books from TMI, what was published so far, and fell in love with the world and the Runes. I had some kind of vision and did some research before I contacted her to present my idea. There’s always been a market for movie props and replicas so I thought fans of the books would like them too. It’s been an evolving thing since then I thought of expanding to other series. So the process is the same, contacting the author and proposing my ideas. Since I’ve been in business for a bit, sometimes authors come to me with their ideas.

Sara: Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you read the books to design these pieces, or do the authors ask for something specific? 

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Viviane: I always like to read the book first, to get the whole context. Whenever there’s a new book in the series that is not available to read yet I have to rely on author’s descriptions. Then I try to get details of when, where, why, who…and so on.

Sara: What is your favorite part about having this business? 

Viviane: Being able to create an actual piece that an author just conjured in her head. Sometimes it’s a real challenge to go from imagination to reality, I like those the most.

Sara: Was having a jewelry making business always something you had wanted to do, or did you have other career aspirations? 

Viviane: As I said, its been an evolution as a designer. I like looking for new things to do. Jewelry has been the longest one so far, so many possibilities.

Sara: What is the process like when making a piece for your business? 

Viviane: First, I need to visualize how it would look more or less, then sketches and possible materials. Making samples and prototypes, sometimes it stops there, sometimes production of molds and such.

Sara: What are some of your favorite books to read, movies to watch and bands to listen to?

Viviane: The list is super long. I am a big fan of fantasy, paranormal and science fiction. In movies too, I like animated movies a lot! I just love their attention to detail. Music is very eclectic, if you looked at my playlist, it has all kinds of old and new, from pop to rock to latin, country, new age. All time favorites that I never get tired of are James Taylor and Prince…Goo Goo Dolls, see a pattern here? Not really.

Sara: What are some of your favorite book-related pieces that you have designed? 

Viviane: The ones that have been more of a challenge. The Clockwork Angel, the Morozova Collar, the Family rings. The Midnight Flower just came up in my head and it actually came out like I imagined. Not always it happens like that. I also like when I can reproduce exactly what’s described in a book, like the turquoise necklace. I love the new Lynburn hands.

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Sara: Do you have any pieces, or new collaborating authors that we can look forward to? 

Viviane: There’s always new stuff in the works…just to keep the interest up!

Sara: I ask this to all my interviewees, who is your fictional crush? 

Viviane: You’re allowed to have more than one, right? Rhett Butler, as a classic, growing up. Will Herondale tops this list, but there’s so many more, I could actually embarrass myself.

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I hope you enjoyed this interview with Viviane, and that you are able to head to her website, and check out her awesome work. I seriously want EVERYTHING, especially a stele pen and the Lightwood family ring. Her stuff is awesome.

All pictures are courtesy of HebelDesign.com