One Month, No Giveaways - WHAT!

Earphones are Awesome!

Hello! Another week gone, and a new one arrives. I did not post on Friday because there was nothing really to blog about. Anyway, let me get this going!

So, last week was not really my prime writing week, and that's okay. I guess I needed the break. Taking a break from writing never hurt anyone, and I think I will benefit from that. I've taken several breaks in past years, and they benefit the author's mind. Sometimes, the brain needs a break to clear the imagination chambers. *winky-face*

I managed to get myself a nice pair of earphone, since my laptop speaker died a couple months ago. I was sharing earphones with one of my brothers, along with several other people, and it was just getting to me. Most of everything I do on my laptop involves some sort of sound. I can't do anything without earphones. So, I think my $10 were well spent.

I pulled out all my old notebooks and have decided that it is high time I finished some of those amazing story ideas. It will change the pace and get me back into the swing of writing. I think they deserve to be put out there for people to see and enjoy. Especially the stories that are halfway completed, I just need to TYPE them up. *rolls eyes* I don't favor typing after writing it on paper. Which I do a lot, when I have a brilliant idea and I am not on my laptop. (When my sister uses my laptop, it puts a small pebble in the road.)

As I often mention, I am looking into CreateSpace for my sister. I have learned all the ropes and I think the final thing to do is actually utilize the online publishing platform, and send myself a hardcopy "draft" of one of my stories to see what it looks like. Having a hardcopy of a story that I wrote would be awesome.

Well, that is all for now. See you later! God bless!

PlAyLIsT fOr YoU

Hey guys!  As I am currently lacking inspiration for all writing, I came up with a playlist. I have been listening to all my favorites, along with some new/old ones. So here is the playlist for you guys to see what I am listening to, along with a playlist I made for my new story. There may also be some Latino songs in here, but if you don't understand Spanish, you don't have to listen to them. ☺(P.S. It took a LONG time to get the story playlist uploaded)

Let the Weekend Begin!

Hello everyone! At this present time, I am learning to market books, using what I have. This is to help my sister in self-publishing her memoir, and I will be assisting her in the process. I have been goofing around with CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing (as I have mentioned before) and I have been learning the tricks of the trade, learning the proper formatting, everything. I have not gone to the extent of testing the published side of the deal, but seeing one of my stories with an ISBN is really awesome.

I have tried to see what my readers on Wattpad would think if I published a book next year. I got one response and it was pro-publishing. Of course, this reader said "If I had the money" which means it would go fine, but I would need to work at getting the book out there myself. Which I am already doing and learning more each day.

I am going to be rather helpful to my sister when the time comes that she will begin the self-publishing process. I may not be her editor, translator, and/or cover maker, but I will be her formatter and marketer. Which is my area of expertize, as well being a graphics artist. But my style of graphic is not exactly what she is looking for, as I have tried repeatedly to give her some examples. She has the platform and audience. Once they know she is publishing this memoir, they will be after it. She just needs to see that.

So what I have been doing this week is learning those tricks of the trade. I spend most of m mornings doing that before getting into my regular routine. Then after lunch I am spending another hour learning about the trade, and then an additional hour to add some writing before I let my sister use my laptop.

My writing is going pretty well. This weekend I intend to try and get more writing in tonight, and on Sunday. (And my dog won't leave me alone. He keeps coming into the forbidden dining room area of the house.) I have been following the NaNoWriMo participants' progress, to see how everyone is doing. I might just jump into the game later on, but not likely. I like writing at my own pace, and I am doing quite well for now. If, in the future, I feel more confident to enter NaNoWriMo I will. But I am happy with my current writing/word building process.

Scarred Hearts was my test-subject for learning how to format a manuscript to fit CreateSpace requirements for review. I did not submit the complete project, because I do not know if that is the book I will publish first . . . Yes, I do intend to publish my books, now that I am learning this stuff I cannot resist. I have a completed wrap-around book cover that I made, which you can see here -

Might not be the final product.

Granted, it is not the best, but I followed the guidelines from A to Z. This would be a pretty decent size book. I sized it 6x9 and learned how to create covers on MS Word. xD Yes, there are tutorials to make PDF (print ready) covers, which I am watching constantly. I am also very happy to say that my skills are probably only for personal use at the present time, but I am still open to requests, should I ever get any. I have a new link in the page(s) section that will direct you guys to a nifty site I made to index all of my social-media. Which means you can find the link to all of my graphics examples.

I think that my first published work will be Pictures of You, because it is meeting my high-set standards much better than I expected. I need to complete the novel, reach my goal of 80K+ words (because I am pushing my limitations and boundaries with this novel). By doing this, I will know my estimated page-count, word-count and will have more statistics for when I go to start creating the paperback. (Yes, the paperback will come first, because I love print books.) I am working on e-book copies as well, those projects are test subjects as well. 

Anyways, that has been my week thus far. Keep your eyes open for more updates from me. I hope to share more soon. Check out my FB page, you will get notifications from me. You will get my tweets, my GoodReads updates, my blog posts. Everything! I have it all figured out. Also, you will get links to giveaways that I entered or that I am hosting/sharing. 

Have a splendid weekend and I will see you all on Sunday!

My Book Finally Came!

Okay, well technically it is still sitting in my post office box, but I got the email confirmation that Prophet by R.J. Larson has finally arrived to Invisible Island! It should have arrived two weeks ago, before A Noble Groom, but it was in transit from Florida for three weeks so I assumed it got lost. Nope, it is in my post office, waiting for me to go get it.

I would have went two days ago, when I got the email, but my family was without a car. O.O No worries, my dad worked on it for two days with his mechanic friend, and now we are back in motion. My mom is currently using the car to get groceries, so I could not convince her to go across town to get my mail. o.o

Well, I just wanted to update you guys on that. Lots of writing to do this weekend! Remember, God made you special and He loves you very much! Bye!

Sunday, Fun Day. For Writing, Of Course!

Good afternoon! So, it is Sunday again. I am just sitting down to start my writing (and whatever else I end up doing), after eating two LARGE portions of lunch. I think this post will inform you what I have partially planned for this week and give you a little insight on what I did over the weekend.

Firstly, it poured rivers of rain yesterday. So much, that the streets of my city(I am not going to give that location away at the present time) were full of water. I think it was just under two-three feet. Literally, it only took about ten minutes to get that flooded, because it was that much rain. My family's property is in the mountains, so we did not really see the flooding until later when it was shared through friends FBs. But our street was covered in water, that was flooding off the mountain as it passed our house. Yeah, it was a lot of rain. But thank the Lord because our garden needed the rain after crazy drought a couple months ago, and we have only had maybe . . . six major days of rain. So the dry earth is finally returning to its usual moist state.

I have always mentioned that 10 of my younger siblings form a choir. On Thursday, K and C (two members of the camera crew) came over to re-film a campfire scene for the choir's next cover video they are doing. Remember the week that the choir and other select members of my family were not in my house with me? Yeah, one of those filming days needed to be redone, that's why the campfire scene was redone.

My writing is still going very good. I now have several chapters ready for their appropriate posting dates, and I now have half of another chapter going. I have been receiving a few comments on Pictures of You, so I am extremely motivated to keep going. I have my idea(s) journal in my lap, open to the page of my "Harper Collection" so that I can remember what I am doing and where I am going next.

I do not remember if I mentioned this, but I am looking into CreateSpace for my sister. I am also looking in KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), probably for myself. Just to experiment and see if that is something I want to do. I am even setting up a PDF file of some of my books to see how I would like them to look. I really like what I did with Scarred Hearts and PoY, because I am making them sort of similar.

To add to both topics I have just explained. the "Harper Collection" is not a series. It is just a selection of m books (both the complete and the unwritten) put together as a set. Like I said, I was inspired by EntangledPub's imprint CRUSH. So I do not mean to steal anything from them, I just really like the way they did that. So I am borrowing that idea with the "formatting" of the book content. Here is a sneak-peek at what I mean.

This is still just an IDEA, but I really like it! I am even adding my personal twist of making the chapter titles have blue/orange hearts and font. Alternating the colors for both characters. This is what it looks like for Ebony, and then Merick is the same but the opposite. The blue becomes orange and the orange becomes blue.

 And it is raining again! xD Praise the Lord for the rain. (The thunder and lightening sounds like on Disney's Aristocats)
So, yeah that is what is going on at the moment. I am still waiting for a couple books to arrive in the mail. I have a few bookblitz-posts going live this week, so keep an eye out for those. Both have giveaways, of which one I am hosting and announcing the winner to the author. I am happy to say that I am getting the balance that I was looking for, and I intend to keep that balance. Well that is all for now. God bless you all and see you soon!

My new favorite song!

What am I reading? - More Book Covers

So, one of my book orders arrived yesterday and I am already at page 248 of A Noble Groom. I love it. I keep telling my sister(s) and my mom not to let the cover fool them. Because the story is much more than "romance", which is what they think. I plan to have a full review posted on my book blog, if I get the time to sit and explain it.

I am working very hard on Pictures of You, and I L♥VE how it is coming out. I am also studying up on Create Space for my sister, so I am thinking about that for myself as well. I have been coming up with other stories to start when I finish the other ones I am working on. Here are the covers to get me motivated. Most of these you have already seen in my header of this blog. But now I have a few new ones.
Also, I do not have the time for NaNoWriMo, so I am just going to write during the month in my own time. Maybe I will finish another book next month. -Shrugs-
Well, enjoy the covers and I will see you soon!

  

 

  

8 Books Before The End Of September? What?

"First we're in a blender, now we're saving lives? What?" (Dually quoted from the movie about two old guys who want to work at Google)

I am writing this post the night before, because there are some guests outside the window, playing a board game with some of my siblings, and I know that I am going to get to bed late. Iwill probably add more in the morning anyways.

Anyways, I did not realize how many books I had to read before a deadline in September. I thought I had four or five, not eight! I mean, I keep finding new ones in my email when I check in the morning. I am quite forgetful when it comes to what books I request to read, because half the time I expect not to be selected to read them! I had to pull off all of Jenni James' books so that I did not overwhelm my currently reading list on Goodreads. I read one, but it only goes so far. (Added later - make that 9 books)


I was right, I would be adding more to this post this morning. I am just enjoying my sandwich (runny egg and avocado. don't till you try it) and I'm tired. The game from last night lasted until around 11pm.

I've gotta get a head-start on those books. Keep an eye open for my book blog. I've got some cool posts coming up! Ciao!

I Don't Know About You, But I'm Feeling 22!

I friggin' love turkey! Turkey all around!

Well, this makes four posts today. But let's make it a bit punny, yes?

So like, my friend's been telling me that you've been sleeping with my sweater. But you see, I can't wake up from living a nightmare that keeps playing over again. This is the clock upon the wall. This is the story of us all. Don't break my heart before I give it to you. Don't tell me 'no' before I ask you to. You're gonna have to take him away, 'cause he don't wanna leave. Some say that love, it is a river. Saturday morning, jumped out of bed and put on my best suit. Have you ever felt like everybody's watching, waiting for you to lose?

I've gotta heart, and I've got a soul. Believe me I use them both. Who's that shadow holding my hostage? I've been here for day. Hold on 'cause I'm letting go. I'm gonna lasso your heart, like a rodeo. Going out tonight. Changes into something red. Her mother doesn't like that kind of dress. You don't go with the crowd. You go your own way. You don't play after dark. You light up my day. Midnight; you come and pick me up, no headlights. Tell me you believe in love. It's not an illusion.

Words, like a loaded gun, shot out like a fire tongue. If you forget the reason that you're singing, and it's hard to find the song that holds your soul. He said 'let's get out of this town. Drive out of the city, away from the crowd.' I'm lost in a world that rattles my brain. I'm cleaning up my life from the mess you made. Cause, baby, now we've got bad blood. You know, we used to be mad love? So take a look at what you've done. Cause baby, we've got bad blood.

I was at an all time low, that night you walked in. You were just close enough to smell whiskey on the breath. I don't know you, but I want to. I'm like a crow on a wire. You're the shining distraction that makes me fly home. They tore my high school to the ground, and put a new wing in the east lot. In my old parking spot. The snow glows white on the mountain tonight. Not a footprint to be seen. Do you still sleep without your pillow, in the house, on Cherry Street? The light goes down and the night is calling to me and I've figured it out. I've figured it out from black and white. He's mercury in retro gray. Or is that the excuse that I've always made?

When I'm fat and old, and my kids think I'm a joke, written in these walls are the stories that I can't explain. All I know is that there's something about you. Got me feelin' like I can't be without you. There's a storm coming up and I've gotta prepare myself, 'cause this feeling's getting strong every day. I know you said that you don't like it complicated it, that we should try to keep it simple. But love is never simple, no. Hard to find a way to get through. It's a tragedy.

I drew a broken heart, right on your window pane. Waited for your reply, here in the pouring rain. If I close my eyes, and imagine you are here. Turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit lonely, and you never come around. I used to bite my tongue, and hold my breath. I know you have been kicked around, searching for some solid ground. For all of the moments, and good times, I think I'm gonna lose my mind. Something deep inside me says I can't give up. 

I used to wanna be living likes there's only me. And now I spend my time looking for a way to get you off my mind. I didn't want to say I'm sorry, for breaking us apart. Hello, I know its been a while. I wonder where you are, and if you think of me. I'm gonna pick up the pieces, and build a lego house. You warned me that you were gonna leave. Never thought you would really go. It's been a while, can't ever get it right. Baby, come on over. 

See what I did there? LOL xD Okay, all I did was put my iTunes library on shuffle and I added the first couple lines from each song. I have so much more stuff in my library, but I fear that if I were to keep going, you would be here reading for another three months. This just gives you a brief idea of what is in my music library. Can you name the songs/artists used in this post? Let me know in the comments! Some are more obvious than others. . . .

Harper Art, Hard At Work, And Carbs!

Hey peoples! Well, Harper Art is running again. It has been a while since I did any graphics, and I am not talking about the one I made for my art portfolio. I mean an actual book cover. Well, the cover(s) I am making is not going to go anywhere at the moment, they are just to give this author an idea of what I can do for her book. Which she is planning to publish soon, and she asked me to make a few samples for her. The book is a memoir, so it needs to reflect the content in her book. That is something to look forward to working on.

Who does not love pasta? I LOVE pasta, and I can never get enough of it.

Meanwhile, I've got this AWESOME book review tour coming up. Tomorrow, I have either one (1) or two (2) reviews that I will be posting. Both are part of a series, but they are separate authors. Both are very interesting, though I prefer one over the other. You will see why in my reviews when I post them tomorrow morning.

Be prepared for an extravagant review tomorrow. This will be the longest, most detailed I have ever done. SPOILER: I am even going to the extent of making visuals of my favorite characters. ;D I might even post it tonight, if I can get through writing the review, and finish reading the book. Which I am reading right now because I cannot seem to get away from it. ♥

I will end this post here. Have a blessed day, and I will see you all tomorrow! Ciao!

100 BLOG POSTS!

Well, I did it! I have made to 100 blog posts!

I could not think of anything to do for this post, so I resolved to change the theme of my blog, and "upgrade" the layout a little bit. Notice my lovely pages in the header? Is the shade of blue not the prettiest you have ever seen? Also, notice there is a page linked to the magazine blog? I think I mentioned that before . . . right? Whatever, check it out anyways.

Anyways, I added all of my links, and a few extras (and adding more as I go along). I literally spent an hour or so pulling all of it together, to fit who I am as a blogger. I felt it was necessary, instead adding all my links at the end of my blog posts, which I had stopped doing a while back.

Well, here it is. My 100th post. Not very extravagant, when you think about it. However, spicing up the theme did help me to celebrate. So that counts.

I hope you are all well, and see you all next time! Ciao!

Girl Needs to WRITE!

Hey guys, its been a slow writing day for me. My laptop upgraded so everything is acting a little ka-pooky, and it has been freezing randomly when I have more than one flash-drive connected. So, I have not done anything to work on updates yet.

I will say that I have been busy reading a series for my review blog. If you are interested in knowing what those books will be, check my review blog tomorrow morning, because that is when I will be posting the first review. I have one more book to read in the series, and I am waiting to see if I can read the next one (if I can get a copy of it). The strange thing about it is that this is a book series I would have never picked up before this past week. My reading preferences has expanded slightly, and I have been keeping an open mind about it, just because the covers are what intrigued me most. The descriptions were interesting, but I did not realize exactly what it meant until I actually started to read the book(s). So, that just goes to show that I should have been a little more informed of what I was getting into. In the end, I got a set of free books. Good on all accounts. I still have my personal restrictions when it comes to reading, but now it all depends on whether I think I would like the book or now.

I don't know how many of you have been following me since the beginning, but as you guys know I have a second Wattpad account, where I post stories that are not Christian-based. That is where all of my non-Christian fan-fictions are. I do keep them to a safer degree of writing than most non-Christian stories, because I do fold in prayers and other Christian content, without adding too much. Because all the people that read those stories just . . . I won't talk about it. But that is one of my reasons for having two accounts. I do not know if I will continue with my previous plans for those other stories. I think that once I get them finished, I will jut leave them up, but not post new content.

I have big plans for the Rescued series, like I keep saying, and I mentioned on Wattpad last night a little bit about that. If you missed the message, here it is again -

OKAY! VOTE TIME! This is going to have massive impact on posting schedule I have laid out for Falling Slowly. You, my lovely readers, will have a say in this: I have more than half of the letters written, some are already typed into drafts. What I want to know is:
1) Should I wait for the rest of the letters to be in drafts before posting the first one?
2) Should I start posting and add the letters as they are typed (the way I have done with the other stories)?
3) Should I wait for all the letters to be in drafts, and post them all in one go?

COMMENT below what you think I should do. I value, and appreciate, your feedback. This will be a massive help to me, so I am asking that you pause and take the time to help me with this. Thank you. :) ♥

If I can get some outside help on making this decision, I would truly appreciate it. If no one gives their opinion, I will just go forward with what I think will work best for me.

Thank you so much guys! See you all tomorrow!

"You Are A Winner!"

So, last night I was browsing around all of my Net bookmarks, when I came across a giveaway I had been entering every single day for a month.  I won! Well, I am one of the several winners. Here is a screen-shot of the BIG prize list (because there were more on the list, but these were the bigger prizes). I blacked out the names of the other winners.

Now, I did not notice this until a moment ago, but I spelled my name wrong in one of the entries that is what Haddasah H. looks a little strange, LOL.
For the past twelve hours (with the exception of sleeping for nine hours), I have been pulling together a cart FULL of books to spend the $25 A. Gift Card on, for when the gift card is sent to me, which will be this week. Which means I can film an Book Unboxing/Haul video? Hmm . .

Also, to top the AWESOME day off . . . well not really. My mom and I are going to bring the "unclaimed" puppies to the mall to find homes for them. (My dad already had a home for 4 puppies, and then 8 came, which we were not expecting.) I have not spoken about them in a while, but I guess I was grieving? I love dog and puppies, and I do NOT want to give any of them away. BUT I live in a very LARGE household, and we already have the three BIGGER dogs.
Well, that is all I am going to say for now. I have to go change out of PJ's so that I can leave. Blessing to you all, and I will see you later! Ciao!

Rescued Series - Updates, Website!

Good morning everyone! I know, and I am sorry for not posting in a while. It has been a busy week or so, and I have been doing a lot of work on my review blog.

The reason for this post is simply to make you all aware of my upcoming plans for The Rescued Series (short stories). I have already made this announcement somewhere, but I am going to announce it again.

I am thinking about working to get this miniseries published. (Hold your horses! I'm not done yet.) And I would have all the stories in one BIG book, which would be called Rescued. The title is significant, you will see why later in the series. Yes, that is what I have been thinking. I have been listening to this cool pod-cast over the week, and it has been very helpful. Nothing set in stone . . . YET.

You all know that I have been working very hard to get the stories in the Rescued series going. Well, the other day, my creative mind decided to have a brain-fart, and I went and made a whole website, surrounding the series. There I will be posting updates, sneak peeks, and maybe even a few spoilers . . . *sinister grin* Yes, that is what I have done. If you would like to check it out, please CLICK HERE

You know that I go graphic(s) crazy when I am inspired. Well, I have just spent most of the morning making a book-jacket for the series, of what I envision it to look like, should it ever be published. Of course, it is JUST AN IDEA, because of permissions and all that, but yeah.

I am not quite solid about the description, but it is an IDEA.

Please feel free to comment your thoughts, and tell me what I can change, or anything! Those kinds of comments are always helpful to me.

Well, that is all for now. If you are a new reader, click my follow button. I update my blog weekly, if not three or four times a week. Be sure to check out the Rescued website, and my review blog (which has bee hopping, because I post a new review every few days, as well as book blitzes, book-blog tours). I will see you all next time. Ciao! God bless!

I might not be around for a while . . .

This week has been very busy. so much so, that I have rarely been on any of my blogs, or anything. This morning was a little slower, so I have been able to catch up. Do not be alarmed, I shall return later this week, and my schedule will be back to normal. 

Many thanks to everyone who has been reading and passing by my blog(s). Thank you, you're beautiful, and don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise. :)

Imagine . . .

Imagine you are having this conversation with a guy. He can be anyone (a guy best friend, a BF etc.). What would be going through your mind at that moment? How would you respond? Would you go? I made this a couple years ago, with intentions of making it into a short story. Which I never got around to doing, because I felt that I needed to have actually experienced it in order to write about it. But in truth, if this were an actual book, I would totally buy/read it. I like books like that. I think that is what I was aiming for, because I write stories that I want to read. I don't really look at the ratings/numbers. I just like to write, and I write to improve. Well, I hope you liked this little spark of inspo, I will see you next time!

The First Time I . . .

Be truthful! You know you only started read this post because of the title ;D LOL. Well, I just thought I would share what I am currently reading. My sister (you know who you are!) has owned Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me? book for a LONG time, and I decided to try and read it. . . Again. You see, the first time I read it, was when I was . . . sixteen, and I NEVER read books that were adult-themed. At that time in my life, every time the subject arose, I would drop the book and never go back to it again. The content made me uncomfortable, and I just felt it was better to stay away from it. Now, nearly five years later, I am running out of books to read. I don't want to re-read my 'middle-grade' books, and I want something new. I took a look at my sister's metal book shelf, and it was staring right at me. 'Might as well,' I said to myself, and I picked up the book. I asked my sister to loan it to me, and I am just passed the midway point. I do not remember anything about the from the first time I read it, so this has been quite the experience. And spoiler, I am relating to the main character's mother and her dogs! \o/ Dead serious! It's a nutty thought, but I totally relate to her. Anyways, back to the book. I will be posting my thoughts on this book (maybe) tomorrow, because I have not put the book down until now. Well, that is all for now. Happy reading!

It's That Time Again . . .

I just finished the final part of my short story (prequel) Believe, and I am starting the next short story. I was going to call it 'Found', but then I heard this song for the first time, and I realized it fit. Yes, I only just heard 'All Of Me' by John Legend, but I heard the cover by Collabro. I see the song as and audio version of what my new story is, and I already had the layout before hearing the song. So, with that in mind, I take my leave. New cover for the story, which is below. God bless you, and see you next time!

Sneak Peek At My Next Book Review!

 Last night I was at Costco with my parents, and a few siblings. While waiting for my parents to meet back up with us, we were reading some of the books. I was trying to see if there would be anything interesting for me to read, and have it in mind when I got home. 

This book was too good to put down, and I had the money on me. So I bought it, and I am really enjoying it. It has been a long time since I last read any thrillers. So, think of this post as a sneak peek at what is coming to my review blog this week (or whenever I finish reading, because I have not been able to read for longer than ten minutes). 

Who doesn't love a book about conspiracies and men in uniform? ;)

[This post will also be live HERE]

New Bookstagram!

I have thought it over, and I have created myself a bookstagram! - https://instagram.com/haddies.haven/ - I figured it would be necessary, as long as I only posted everything related to books, writing, and my review blog(s). I don't know how often I would be able to post, considering I borrow my parents' phones to make the posts. But I am sure that there is an iPod Touch in my near future. Then I will be able to read all my Kindle books and post on instagram! I am planning a new book review this weekend. I do not know when I will get around to it, but I have already started to read the book. I am also trying to get an ARC for this book that will release in September. I hope to hear from that publisher/author this week. But that is if I am one of the bloggers chosen to receive it. If I don't receive it, that's okay. I still have 450+ books on my Kindle app I could review. 

Well, that is all for now. I will see you next time! Ciao!