Enter to win an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (WiFi)! Check out the Rafflecopter below to find out how.
Thank you to all my friends and amazing followers for making this happen. You have until June 30th to enter. I know that seems like a long time, but this is a pretty big giveaway and I want to make sure everyone has time to enter. I'll announce the winner on July 1st. Good luck!
Remember a few months back when I said I wasn't giving up on writing? Yeah. I almost gave up. I went through a dark phase where I was just too emotionally drained. It's kind of scary how that could happen to you, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. You cry for no reason. You sit there staring at the computer feeling sorry for yourself. You completely stop writing and feel even worse. You feel completely at a loss and don't know how you're gonna make a comeback. Everything seems kind of pointless.
Most people don't realize how much of yourself is invested in your writing. They don't understand all the time and energy and passion you put into those words every single day, every hour. People are like: "It's just writing." No. No, it isn't. IT'S MY LIFE.
It's when you want something so bad, you'll spend days, weeks, months working on something that earns you no money. That keeps you up all hours of the night. That becomes the constant thing on your mind no matter where you are. Most people comment on the fact that I spend all this time and nothing ever comes up it. How can you spend all that time working on something for free? Because I love writing. It is everything to me. And because I want to say one day: "Yep. That's my book."
I don't care about the money. Sure, who doesn't want to quit their day job and become a full time writer? OF COURSE I WANT THAT. But what I want more than anything in the world is to hold a book in my hands that I wrote and know that I did it. I made my dream come true. I'm a published author and this is only the beginning. I don't want to stop at one book, or two. I want to write for the rest of my life, because I've never been more passionate about anything.
So when I hit that rather large bump in the publishing road, I very nearly gave up. I wasn't sure, and I'm still not, whether I'm going to get another agent. I don't know if this book or the next is gonna be the one. And you know what? That scares me more than anything. But what I do know is this:
I love to write.
And if this is all I ever do––if all I do for the rest of my life is write one manuscript after another and nothing comes of it––I'll at least know that I gave it everything I got. And to me, that's all I can ask of myself. I win either way.
Okay. You guys have been super awesome, so I decided to announce the giveaway early. YAY!! I really want you guys and gals to know how much I appreciate you. You've been beyond supportive of me since the beginning and I seriously couldn't ask for better friends. Thank you for being so amazing. Seriously.
To celebrate your awesomeness, I've decided to have a giveaway at 1900 (the critique) and at 2,000 Twitter followers. As most of you know that giveaway will involve a Kindle. Say WHAT? IKNORITE?
Enter below to win a 25 page critique by me! You have until Monday at midnight. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Hello, lovelies! I know I've asked this before, but being that it was on Twitter I've lost all the mentions. So it's no secret that I'm writing a YA gothic horror retelling. (Well, the story it's based off of is a secret. muhahaha) Anyway . . . It's my first go in this sub genre and I'm seeking your advice. I'm a huge fan of horror, obviously, but gothic horror is proving to be much different than I anticipated.
Here's where you come in. I want to know what it is YOU love about gothic horror. What is it about the world and mood that you love so much? I want ALL THE DETAILS. I want to be able to look back at this post and really grasp what it is the readers are looking for. So how about it? Tell me what you think!
So. Some of you already know, but for those who don't, you may have noticed my lack of Twitter presence and writing time. I'm usually very upfront about everything and I've been feeling like I should just come out and explain what's been going on.
First off, I left my job of eight years due to the fact that business was extremely, extremely slow. I've been struggling financially for quite a while now and it was a really tough decision to part ways with my hair career. I'm not just leaving behind a career that I've worked hard for, but I'm also leaving behind a family of people that have made a huge impact on my life. Even though I've been struggling with my loyalty to hair for a while, it was the people that kept me going. To walk away and start over has been beyond difficult. Going back to makeup is exciting, but sometimes it takes change a while to actually see the bright side.
That decision alone has really changed me in a way that I've just been kind of sad about it all. But don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to start on this new path to makeup and I'm hoping for some amazing things to come of it.
Now here's the truth about my writing hiatus. About a month ago, I parted ways with my agent. Out of respect to everyone involved, I'm not going to get into the reasons for why I made this move. Although it was amicable it has left me feeling jaded about my career as a writer. Things like this are never easy for anyone involved and sometimes it makes you question pretty much everything about a career in the publishing world.
So when you look at it, I not only went backwards with my hair career, but also with my writing career all at once. I've been in such a slump lately that I find it extremely difficult to get out of this hole I've put myself in. I haven't given up completely and I feel you should know that. As of now, I'm currently querying THE GATEWAY THROUGH WHICH THEY CAME. I still love this story and have hopes that it'll get me where I want to go, but for now I'm left in this strange place where I feel like everything in my life is sort of at a standstill.
I just want to thank everyone for their support as I go through all of this. Everyone that has known from the beginning have been absolutely wonderful and I'm lucky to have them in my life. I hope to be back at it soon and I promise to keep you all updated on my progress. Cheers for now!
For those of you who don't know, I'm part of the group blog The Secret Life of Writers and we're taking part in this awesome event with The Mod Podge Bookshelf blog called: A Game of Secrets. Consider it a game of Clue. We each tell our side of the story and YOU will help write the ending. Only one person with the best ending will win the prizes. Sound awesome? Let's get started!
Name: Emery Chase
Age: 17
Hometown: Silverlake, California
About: I've been around the record industry since I was a baby. Loud music, gorgeous musicians (some not so much) and playing every instrument you could imagine. When my parents told me we were moving to a remote town to get away from it all, or what they meant to say: To get me back on the straight and narrow, I knew shit was going to get ugly, quick.
As if being around a bunch of wannabes and goody goodies is gonna make me drink less. My parents have a whole other thing coming. I'm supposed to be making "friends." Yeah, right. This cookie cutter town doesn't know what hit them. I'm like a tornado of black clothes, knee high docs, enough facial jewelry to make any mom squirm, and long, black hair for days. It isn't exactly the kind of girl this town is used to seeing. But back in my hometown of Silverlake, this was an every day occurrence on the streets. I don't think much of it. I mean shit, I'm not trying to be an outsider. This is just who I am. Mom says I should try a little harder and attempt to wear some color, something inviting. I tell her she's crazy.
The only friend I've made is this girl Mouse and I'm pretty sure it's just because she's intimidated by me, or I'm all she has. Either way, I like the girl and I'll protect her from these assholes any day. So when we got the invitation to the "party of the century" I was like: Why would anyone invite us? Mouse wants to go, of course. She never gets invited to anything and I'm not going to hold her back. But I'm sure as hell gonna stay by her side in case shit hits the fan. You never know with these jerks. Anything could happen.
I haven't posted in a while, so here I am! As most of you know, I recently moved and found myself near a pretty awesome library. Where I lived before had a library that was located in the heart of downtown and the parking was atrocious. For the longest time people kept saying: "How do you NOT have a library card?" Well . . . that's why.
Before we moved, I was searching online for the closest library in our new town. I was thrilled to find one just down the street with, and get this, PARKING. This is seriously one of the biggest reasons why I was anxious to move. Not because we'd have a beautiful new apartment. Not because the town is clean and safe. Nope. Because of the library. (Don't tell my husband that.) Anyway, the first thing I did once we were moved in was high tail it to the local library and sign up. I walked out of there with some awesome books and feeling like I was on top of the world. This, my friends, is where the madness began. I cannot for the life of me stop going to the library. It's become my favorite place in the world and I find myself going at least once a week.
Can we talk about how absolutely amazing these things are? I mean free books. Let me say that again. FREE. BOOKS. I try to buy as many books as I can, but financially I'm stuck in a rut. Though I'm hoping to change that soon, it's left me completely dependable on the library. I'm not exactly complaining, but it does make me feel a little bad that I can't support my friends and favorite authors all the time by actually purchasing the book. But you know what I can do? I can tell you guys ALL ABOUT THEM.
I've seen people complain about libraries recently (IKNORITE?) and I think we can all agree that the complaints are B.S. What those people don't realize is, yeah, okay, people aren't buying the books, BUT those people can help sell them by word-of-mouth. Isn't that the best way? So basically, I'm here to encourage you guys to talk about the books you love and share them with everyone that you possibly can. You see me on Twitter talking all about them and praising the authors that I admire. This is my way of giving back, and I hope that someday people will do the same for me . . . and you.
So cheers! Go support your local library and your fellow writers. You bet I will. xo
