Why Hello There, 2018!

It's the first week of the new year and already I am inspired by the newness of it all. Typically I shy away from new year resolutions because I feel that I'm just setting myself up for failure. Why admit to the world that I am going to commit to something, only later bailing out, and then feeling down on myself about it for the rest of the year? Yeah, no thanks.

I'm taking a different approach this year by making small changes (eating less sugar, more protein) to eventually add up to a bigger change (a healthier heart & mind). Positivity is a key word I am going to focus on this year. If I can feel more positive about myself, project more positivity into the universe, then perhaps it will create a happier, healthier space for me in this crazy world we live in.

For the first time, in a long time, I've been inspired to write again. Back in 2013 & 2014, I ventured into NaNoWriMo territory and discovered that I really enjoyed writing. But since then, I've also discovered that I only enjoy it when I feel a story needs to be told. I can't just write, because I want to write. It's been a few years, but that passion has slowly seeped its way back in and I've started tinkering with a new story idea. Thanks to my good friend Trish Doller, already the best cheerleader, I've got something brewing. I'm not quite ready to share my words with the world, but when I do, I'll be sure to post snip-its here and there.

Listening to music is never a new thing for me, but creating new playlists is always a fun thing to do. Spotify has been my best friend for quite some time. It's the best source for me to discover new music and build playlists to my liking. I literally listen to the app daily, whether it's through my phone, on my iPad, or sitting at the computer. Music is constantly on in my world. Here's a listen of my top songs from 2017:

As for reading, well we all know THAT is not new for me, either. I just finished my first book of the year & it was FANTASTIC. Seriously, Katie Cotugno is a force in the writing world, one I hope continues to build and build, because damn she shines bright! Her upcoming novel 9 Days & 9 Nights picks up just after her novel 99 Days, and it is... well, a journey, for sure. I read it almost in one sitting (just stopped long enough to go to bed.. because ya know, sleep needs to happen sometimes). It's already a favorite for the year I know and THE YEAR JUST STARTED! I'm scared for whatever I read next. Lots to live up to there.

2018, you are looking promising so far. Here's to a new year of more fabulous books to read, stories to write, and music to be inspired by.

Blog Tour: IN REAL LIFE by Jessica Love + Giveaway

I am SO pumped to be sharing an exclusive excerpt + the playlist for IN REAL LIFE by Jessica Love, a YA contemporary novel that I absolutely adored.  And to make this post even more sweeter?  Today is IN REAL LIFE's pub day!!! *throws all the confetti*  Before I share the content, check out the details on this fabulous book...

About the book: Hannah Cho and Nick Cooper have been best friends since 8th grade. They talk for hours on the phone, regularly shower each other with presents, and know everything there is to know about one another.

There's just one problem: Hannah and Nick have never actually met.

Hannah has spent her entire life doing what she's supposed to, but when her senior year spring break plans get ruined by a rule-breaker, she decides to break a rule or two herself. She impulsively decides to road trip to Las Vegas, her older sister and BFF in tow, to surprise Nick and finally declare her more-than-friend feelings for him.

Hannah's surprise romantic gesture backfires when she gets to Vegas and finds out that Nick has been keeping some major secrets. Hannah knows the real Nick can't be that different from the online Nick she knows and loves, but now she only has night in Sin City to figure out what her feelings for Nick really are, all while discovering how life can change when you break the rules every now and then. [goodreads]

Doesn't this novel sound amazing?! Well, that's because it is!  The concept of connecting with your best friend over the internet will resonate with so many readers.  Today's society lives and breathes by the internet.  Finding a connection with someone, friendship or romantic, across the miles is part of the ordinary these days.  However, as someone who grew up in the age of the internet such as AOL and instant messenger, this story really connected to me, bringing forth nostalgia from my younger years.  We've heard the horror stories of "meeting someone online" (I may have encountered a few myself), but there's also a reality living and breathing within this virtual reality that allows introverts to really express themselves.  I adored this story because it highlights the connection two souls can have through words and texts, yet also shows the reality of what happens when those words come face to face.

Need more reasons to read this fabulous story? Check out the exclusive excerpt below. [Credit In Real Life by Jessica Love; Courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books)

My best friend and I have never met.

We talk every day, on the phone or online, and he knows more about me than anyone. Like, deep into my soul. But we’ve never actually seen each other in real life.

Sometimes, when I’m talking to Nick, I wonder how we managed to get ourselves into such a bizarre, complicated friendship. At first glance, our relationship probably doesn’t seem all that odd.

Like right now, it’s the Friday afternoon that kicks off the spring break of my senior year. I’m lying out next to my pool with my feet dangling in the chilly water, my back flat on concrete, and I’m talking to him on the phone. This is how I spend pretty much every Friday from 3:30 to 4:25-ish, before he goes off to band practice and I have one of my various school or family obligations. Sounds pretty normal.

But the thing is, Nick lives in a different state, 274 miles away. Yes, I looked it up.

“Ghost,” he says, because he never calls me Hannah, “you know I will do anything for my best friend, and this is no exception. I’ll have this girl killed for you without a second thought. Just give me twenty-four hours.”

I laugh as I swish my feet back and forth in the pool. “There’s no need to resort to murder. It’s just a stupid student government trip. I’ll be over it by the end of the week.”

As tempting as it is to plot Aditi Singh’s violent end, the only reason she applied to go to the national leadership conference when it should have been a given that the senior class president (aka me) was going was because I got into UCLA and she didn’t, so a big ol’ middle finger to her. But she can’t see my middle finger, because she’s in Washington, D.C., for spring break and I’m at home with no plans like a big loser.

“Well, if you change your mind,” Nick says, “just let me know. That’s how much our friendship means to me. The code word is ‘Platypus.’ Just say it, and—poof!—I’ll make her disappear.”

I sit up and pull my feet from the pool, crossing them in front of me. “And how can you do that?”

“Hey, I live in Vegas. I have connections to the mob. Everyone here does.”

“You’re a senior in high school, and you live in a tract home in Henderson. You’re not exactly Al Pacino.”

“You don’t know. Everything I’ve told you for the past four years could be a front. I need to have a cover. No one suspects the quiet, nondescript white boy.”

“You’re right. There is a lot I don’t know about you. I mean, there are any number of huge secrets you could be keeping from me.” I say it just because I’m playing along, but it’s not true at all. I’m pretty sure I know everything there is to know about Nick Cooper.

I know when my sister met his brother at a concert four years ago and they told us we should start talking online, he thought I was one of his brother’s friends playing a joke on him until I e-mailed him a picture. I know in the middle of junior year, he shaved his head when his favorite English teacher started chemo. I know the gravelly scratch of his voice when he wakes up in the middle of the night to answer one of my random “I’m bored, talk to me” phone calls. I know the hole in the sleeve seam of the lucky Rage Against the Machine T-shirt he inherited from his brother, Alex, since I’ve seen so many pictures of it. I know his middle name (Anthony), the date and time he was born (September 24 at 3:58 A.M.), and his favorite color (gray). And he knows more about me than absolutely anyone else, even the über-embarrassing stuff. We’ve IM’d, texted, sent a million pictures, mailed each other packages, video-chatted, and talked on the phone.

We’ve just never been in the same place at the same time.

I don’t think it’s strange to be so close to someone I’ve never met. Yeah, he’s in Nevada and I’m in Southern California, but I talk to him more than to people I’ve been in classes with since kindergarten. I do wish we could go to the movies together or something normal like that, but we watch the same movies at the same time and mock them over video chat, which is pretty much the same thing.

On the other end of the phone, his laugh stops abruptly and his voice changes. “Secrets? What kind of secrets could I have?”

“Who knows!” I try to sound shocked and serious, but I can’t keep a laugh from creeping in. “For all I know, you do have a secret mob life. Do you have some sort of gangster name I’m supposed to call you?”

His voice lightens again when he realizes I’m joking. “Oh yeah. Knuckles Nick. Or, no. Wait. Nick the Click.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know. It rhymed. Don’t those names always rhyme?”

“I know nothing about mob names, Nick the Click. But rhyming names do make mobsters seem a bit less murder-y.”

There’s a shuffle, a thump, and a squeak on his end of the phone, and I imagine him collapsing backwards onto his twin bed. “I just hate that you’re still bummed over missing out on the trip.”

“It’s not that I’m bummed, it’s just . . . I followed all the rules, Nick. I did exactly what I was supposed to do. Serving four years as class president means I go on that trip, not Aditi Singh. Onetime vice-presidents don’t get to go! It’s supposed to be my year. She broke the rules, but she got picked. How do you break all the rules and get what you want like that? It isn’t fair.”

“Well, you know what they say. . . .” “Life’s not fair?”

“Well, that, too. But I was thinking rules are made to be broken.”

Now, have a listen to the IN REAL LIFE playlist on spotify:

Spotify link to playlist: CLICK HERE

Are you dying to get your hands on this novel now??! Well, here's your chance!  One lucky winner will receive a copy of IN REAL LIFE by Jessica Love, courtesy of St. Martin's.  The giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only.  Good luck!!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jessica Love is a high school English teacher in Los Angeles, California, where she met her husband and her two tiny dogs online. She is the co-writer of Push Girl with Chelsie Hill.

SOCIAL LINKS:
Author’s Website
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Top Ten Tuesday: Music + Books

For this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt, I decided to feature ten songs that I wish were stories (or better yet, ten songs I imagine as stories each time I hear them).  As a lover of so many different genres of music, this list could have been a mile long.  I decided to focus on just country music today, though.  Being from Texas, country music has been in my blood since I was born.  I go through phases where I love it, or I want to turn it off.  But every once in awhile I'll hear a song that really grabs me, causing me to slip inside its lyrics, and imagine a story that I'd want to read.

I've embedded the songs for you to listen (hopefully spotify player works on your end).  If not, feel free to look up the song tracks.  Each one is a definite listen!


1. Stay A Little Longer by Brothers Osborne - the first time I heard this song, I immediately started picturing a New Adult romance I'd want to read. The lyrics mention fighting temptation, wanting something you probably shouldn't, but then realizing maybe it's something you need. Definite material for a New Adult romance, if you ask me.

Have a listen...



2. Cop Car by Keith Urban - this song is every bit a contemporary YA romance, if I ever heard one. It begins with these two teens sitting in the back of a cop car, the boy trying to figure out how they ended up there, yet realizing he's not quite regretting it if that means he gets to spend more time with her. Yup, a story in the making...

Have a listen...



3. Springsteen by Eric Church - this particular song was actually the inspiration behind one of my writing projects. I heard such a definite story in its notes, that I felt compelled to write my own. Will it ever become something more than just words written on my computer screen? Who knows. But when I hear these chords, those lyrics, I can't help but imagine a certain beachside town.. a boy and girl.. and that long, yet oh so quick summer they were seventeen.

Have a listen...



4. Talladega by Eric Church - there is something about that summer, just after high school, before the "real world" begins that holds so much purpose, so much yearning, and so many untold stories. When I hear this song, I think of those stories and all the what if's...

Have a listen...



5. Dirt Road Anthem by Jason Aldean - I'm all about settings in the books I read, and this song has always taken my mind to a story about a dirt road in the middle of the country.. late night bonfires.. breaking rules.. all while falling in love.

Have a listen...



6. Even If It Breaks Your Heart by Eli Young Band - oh how I love this song. It embodies two of my loves, great story-telling + music. When I hear it I've always imagined a story about a young guy, having a dream about becoming a professional musician some day, putting in his dues, working hard, and hoping to one day find himself on that stage.

Have a listen...



7. Sounds of Summer by Dierks Bentley - because my heart is with summer romances, no matter what the medium is, I had to include this song. Plus, wouldn't this make a great book title too??

Have a listen...



8. Crazy Girl by Eli Young Band - this is another song that made an appearance behind the inspiration of a writing project of mine. I kept hearing it as I wrote a particular moment in my story and it set the scene blazing.

Have a listen...



9. Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter - how can I make this list and NOT include this song??! Pretty sure it's one of the first country songs I heard and immediately saw a story. I was about 17 years old when it first became popular, and my teenage heart, even then, longed for her own strawberry wine story.

Have a listen...



10. Watching Airplanes by Gary Allan - I always thought it would make a great scene in a romance to see a couple sitting out on the hood of the car beside an airplane runway, wondering where they're going, imagining it's taking them to far off places. But then later in the story, after drama and heartbreak unfolds (because it usually does), he returns to that same runway field, longing for those memories with his girl.

Have a listen...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Songs of Summer: What I'm Listening To...

For the past few years, I've been creating personal playlists on spotify for each season.  They aren't necessarily new songs (though some are). Each playlist embodies a feeling I have with each new season.  It's a good sound to have on as I'm getting ready in the morning, when I'm cruising down the road, or while I'm writing.  Pretty much a playlist for my life during that season.  I thought I'd share my current jams for this summer: Songs of Summer.  Sit back, have a listen, and enjoy.

SONGS OF SUMMER 2015

SUMMER COUNTRY

I listen to this playlist a lot while writing.

SUMMER CONCERTS

My friend Jess created a playlist of the summer concerts we'll be attending!

While we're on the subject of summer, don't forget to check out my SWEET SUMMERTIME READS feature!  Find out more details on the introduction post + enter the giveaway to win a summer books release... [click this link here]

GReads! Interrupted. A little of this. A little of that.

Sometimes I want to share things with my followers that aren't necessarily a book review, so I thought I'd create a sporadic feature on my blog to do just that.  GReads! Interrupted. is a personal reflection of me -- music I'm listening to, something I recently purchased & want to show off, or even just a random thought that I feel is worthy of sharing.  This is meant to be a fun break from the usual reviews + a chance for my followers to get to know me a bit more.  Hope you enjoy!

As most of you know, music is something I hold close to my heart (right next to my books of course).  I'm constantly listening to it; whether it be on my iPod dock at work, in the car as I drive to & from class, or just around the house.  It's constantly on!  Here are some tunes that have gotten some much needed action on my playlists lately:

(If you can't listen to the embedded playlist below, here's a link to it on spotify)



I'm a HUGE fan of The Boxer Rebellion. They've been around for a bit, but their latest album Promises is probably my favorite. It's the type of album you can listen to from start to finish, and then repeat all over again! If you like what you hear, buy yourself a copy on iTunes.

 (If you can't listen to the embedded playlist below, here's a link to it on spotify)

Even though it's still pushing 100 degrees here, I am pretending that summer is over & fall is on its way.  When I think of fall, I think of PUMPKIN. It's not only my favorite scent & a favorite color, but I love the flavor too.  You best believe I went to Starbucks & got my pumpkin spice latte!

Because I don't have enough on my plate, I thought up a new story to write!  With school, work & everything else in between, my days are quite full -- but when you have the urge to write a story, you can't ignore it, am I right?!

I recently watched a movie on Netflix called Tonight You're Mine (original title You Instead), about two musicians who get hand-cuffed together for the duration of a music festival. Though their story is centered around them, their music, and falling in love; it gave me inspiration to write my own story set at a music festival.

So far I've been doing lots of plotting and I've written 1200 words.  It's not a lot, but it's a great starting point.  I even started a fictional set list of bands that would play at my music fest.  So fun, right?!  Anyway.. who knows how far I'll take this, or if I'll have the time to devote to it right now, regardless it's a fun creative outlet for me.