I'm Not That Fond Of You

Woahhh! Can it be? A post? From me?! Despite the fact that I have not posted in ages, it is really me! I have not posted in such a long time. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I'm going to address what has motivated me to post today. I'm being bribed by Mandy, we all are. On time posts from all of us for two weeks, and we get chapters from her story. I'm doing this, we all are, but revenge is sweet, gurrrl. Moral of the story: Don't bribe people, kids!

Moving on to my topic for today's post, what I like least about writing (which also happens to be the reason I haven't posted in a long while). I hate the ever-present speculation on what other's will think of it. I know that that is really not what I should be thinking about while writing, but sometimes I can't help it. It becomes so discouraging and it inhibits my writing to the point where I just stop.

In terms of this blog, I see the posts from my gurrrls and they are all so good and amusing and I look at mine and get discouraged because they aren't as good. This leads to me shooting down every idea I come up with to blog about, which leads to me not having anything to blog about, which leads to no posts from me. It is a very convoluted and self-destructive process.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who goes through this in their writing, but I think we should all stop. When writing, the most important person that needs to enjoy the writing is the writer. We shouldn't let ourselves get psyched out based on the work or the opinions of others. I'm going to work on this, and if any of you readers have this problem, you should work on it, too.

Hopefully I'll get my act together and get back to regular, weekly posts! Until then, may the odds be ever in your favor! Goodbye! (I am in a very Hunger Games mood right now, what with the movie coming out in a week after waiting for years and years. Sorry, Mandy.)

-Amy

Author: Cory Doctorow

The Savage Grace by Bree Despain Book Launch

Okay, in the spirit of my enjoyment of author signings and book launches, I'm going to talk about another launch party, this time for The Savage Grace by Bree Despain.

The Savage Grace is the third book in The Dark Divine trilogy following The Dark Divine and The Lost Saint. I first came across the first book when Bree was doing a signing at the movie theater during a midnight release of one of the Twilight movies. And, me being the nerd I am, had to buy it because it's a book and the synopsis on the back sounded pretty awesome.

So anyways, about two weeks ago, I got a text from a friend of mine saying "TSG comes out on March 13. We're going." Of course, we basically said the same thing to another friend of ours and that other friend brought another friend, meaning the four of us piled into my Mazda and drove to King's English. What makes these friends absolutely awesome is that there was another book launch by Brandon Mull, but they decided to come with me to this one.

Arriving at the bookstore, we decided to buy our books before going to the Gallery two doors down where the release was being held. Considering one of my friends has gone with me to a lot of signings and was only just purchasing The Dark Divine, shows you how much I had to bother her to actually buy something this time.

Me With The Savage Grace

So, going into the gallery, we were given a questionnaire with trivia having to do with the first two books. Unfortunately, my issue with double guessing myself reared its ugly head and I didn't get as many answers as I could possibly get. There were some awesome prizes for those who aced the trivia, though, such as a moonstone ring and a box of Chocolate Cinnamon Bears.

Bree spoke about what it was like to finish a series, about her kittens divine, and, of course, Taylor Kitsch. We were able to hear her read a part of The Savage Grace and even got a small summary of what her next series is about -- Fall 2013 can't come soon enough.

Compared to a couple other book signings we've been to, this line wasn't too long to wait in. We got our books signed and got some pictures with her.

Maegen and Bree Despain

Mandy and Bree Despain

I think one of my favorite things about going to Bree's signings, besides being able to say hello and have a new book, is the fact that there's always nail polish that goes with the book covers. I have them sitting on my dresser waiting for me to use if I ever get time to sit down and do it.

After the signing, we all went to Village Inn and literally sat for two hours just talking and playing Draw Something on my iPod, which Marissa can tell you about.

Here's a summary about The Dark Divine, because the summary of The Savage Grace does contain a couple of spoilers for the first two books:

Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared—the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in blood. But she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night really held. And when Daniel returns three years later, Grace can no longer deny her attraction to him, despite promising Jude she’ll stay away.As Grace gets closer to Daniel, her actions stir the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind Jude and Daniel's dark secret . . . and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it—her soul.

If you get a chance to get your hands on The Dark Divine Trilogy you really won't be disappointed.

Now, I'm about half way through The Savage Grace so I'm going to sign off with a Happy Hump Day!

ehh...

Do you ever have those times when you just plain don't care? Yeah you do. Everyone does. Sometimes you just want to curl up in bed and sleep. That's how I have felt lately. Except with midterms, wedding, my cousin expecting to have her baby any day now, and everything else I can't just sleep. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and do the things you need to do. And as always I have tied this in with writing. My advice today is to create goals for yourself. Tell yourself if you do this much then you can do this. Create rewards to motivate yourself to finishing the tasks that need to be done. For example, if I read two chapters in my microbiology book then I can work on the nativity set I am making for my new baby cousin. You can use this both ways in writing. You can say you are going to work this much on your story before you can do this. Or you can say I am going to get this done then I can allow myself to work on my story. Either way creates an opportunity to get things done and to help you sort your priorities. And that is all I have today. Sorry about no posting lately. I will try to get back on schedule soon. Next week is Spring Break and I am doing nothing but going to the dentist and organizing my life. Sounds fun, huh? Well once I do that I am allowing myself time to read and see the Hunger Games. Can't wait!!

Author: Cory Doctorow <-- someone buy me this guys work! Oh wait...tax refund!! Yay! I'll let you know how I like it :)

Happy Birthday Sydney!!!

On behalf of all of us here at Tripppy, I would like to send a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of our favorite gurrrls in the whole world, Sydney! Hope you have the best birthday Syd! We all love you.

Sh*t Writers Say

Okay so I admit, I have no idea what to post today. Life's been so hectic that I've barely been able to write anything besides the review for the Sphinx Project. So instead of talking about things that make no sense, I leave you today with an awesome youtube video about writers and a promise to have a good topic next week!

Too Lazy To Come Up With A Title

I don't have anything particularly interesting to talk about this week, but I felt obligated to my gurrrls and whoever may read these posts to at least try to come up with something good. But what should I talk about? I could talk about how as I am writing this, I am on break from school, but have to go back to class in a little more than an hour. I could talk about how I woke up this morning and didn't want to go to school whatsoever. Any one of these would do. But for some reason, all I can think about right now is how I want nothing more than for March 23rd to get here, for the Hunger Games movie. And then after that? I want time to just whiz by in the blink of an eye, to where school is out for the summer, and I've got two amazing vacations to look forward to. I am so done with school right now, the only thing I can focus on when I go to class is how much I would rather be anywhere else. Sure, my friends make it a little better, but I can't take much more of this. College sucks. High school sucks. But soon enough, it'll be spring break, and I'll have a week of vacation. Things to look forward to.

Also, it is so windy outside right now that it sounds like I am going to get blown all the way down the street if I step outside. It's a little frightening, but whatever. Just one more "perk" to living in the Antelope Valley. Outrageous wind.

My Author: Cory Doctorow

Short and Sweet

Today's post will abide by it's name. I have no real advice for you today. A person can only give so much good advice before she begins to repeat herself. Let me live and little more and learn a little more before I jump back in. But I still wanted to keep you updated with my literary life. I am still working on the planning of my story. It will definitely take a while. However, I also recently bought two new books. They are rather mainstream and I feel behind on reading them. But I also believe that it is never too late to consume wonderful literature. I bought The Fault in Our Stars and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I am reading the latter of the two now and I am finding it hard to put down. There are so many beautiful words, sentences, paragraphs! It makes me really think about what I say, what I write, what I feel. I love the stories the sculpt your soul and I believe this to be one of them. So my advice: read. Read. Read read read and read more. Read until you feel the way that I do now. Read until it changes your life then find something else to read to change it again. Read.

Author: H. P. Lovecraft