October 13, 2015

Quotes

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I’ve always collected things. Chocolate Frog cards, coins with the states printed on the back, souvenir cups from the movie theater, and quotes.

It’s amazing how a single strand of words can speak to you on a visceral level.

I used to carry around a notebook in my purse that had my favorite quotes in it, adding on whenever I found a new one. Eventually the notebook filled up, and I wanted another place to display my collection of words. There was a space above my desk in my dorm room that seemed really bare so I decided to fill it with quotes that were funny, thoughtful, and inspirational.

There are so many of those sentences and paragraphs that I can relate to, but there is one I’ve found recently that seems to really encapsulate me and my passion for writing:

 

“I write for the same reason I breathe – because if I didn’t, I would die.”

– Issac Asimov

 

I can relate to this so much. I feel like I was born to write, to share stories, to make something out of words. When I have writer’s block, or I don’t feel like I have time to write, I feel like I am drowning, and it’s the worst feeling ever.

Are there any other writers out there who feel that same way? Let me know.

Also, do you have a favorite quote? Feel free to share

Thanks for reading!

September 9, 2015

Revisiting Old Ideas

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It’s funny as a writer when you look back at when you first start a story and how it’s gone a different route than you were expecting.

Take one I am working on right now. It was the first novel I ever actually started writing. I’ve always wanted to be an author, always dabbled here and there with different story ideas, but at the age of 16, this one actually stuck.

The original story was going to be sappy, cliché, your typical young adult contemporary that would be considered a light, guilty pleasure read, nothing groundbreaking.

Now here I am, 21, already finished with a different novel and making great headway with a second, and this idea decides to appear once again, only it has taken a new turn.

The characters for the most part are the same, with the exception of two characters whose names have been changed. The setting is the same, the situations are more or less the same. But it’s a totally different story, a totally different angle. Because what I thought was important (in life and in a novel) are not the same now as they were 5 years ago.

It’s been fun to revisit this old idea, picking out what scenes to carry over and which to say good-bye to. And although some of the descriptions and dialogue are really cringy to read, it’s a reminder of how far I’ve come with my writing.

Remember to look back at your old works. Who knows? They might have just needed a little more time to think about where they were going.

August 6, 2015

Summer Beach Reads 2015

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Hey y’all! I just posted a new video to my YouTube channel!

I filmed this back in July when my family went to the beach. With school starting back up again soon I’m really missing the sand and the sun and how perfect that weekend was, especially because it meant lots of time for reading. These are some of the books I took with me and that I think are perfect pool/beach books.

What books do you like to read at the beach? Let me know 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Love always,

Lauren

August 5, 2015

Favorite Book Covers

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I am the type of person who gets really excited when I finish a great book and feel like I need to share its amazing-ness with the world. However, I never really had any close friends who were as enthusiastic about reading as I was when I was growing up. They would listen politely as I talked about this book I thought they would enjoy, only for them to reply with, “Sounds interesting” or “That’s nice” without another thought.

One of my best friends has been a great book buddy. We have the same tastes and would share books and discuss the things we liked in each one back in our high school days.

While I love that bond, I wanted to talk with more people about the novels I was reading, the worlds I was exploring, and hopefully learn of stories that would become new favorites.

Then last April I stumbled across this wonderful little community that I didn’t know existed on the Internet.

That community was BookTube.

Here were people sharing their opinions on books and getting all hyped up over their respective fandoms. And something told me to give it a shot.

I did try to film a video back during Labor Day weekend last year (which was forever ago), but I got so nervous and camera shy that I put it to the side.

I’ve figured, “Okay, it’s a new year, time to give this another shot.”

So while I work on overcoming the camera shyness, here’s a quick little video of some of my favorite covers. I’m curious to know what your favorites are so please share them in the comments either here or in the comments on the video 🙂

 

 

Love always,
Lauren

August 5, 2015

All the Emotions

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So I recently finished my final edit of my first book (at least until I send it to an actual editor who will tell me whether it sucks or not). I am currently a mess of emotions. Excited. Relieved. And a little worried.

When I started this book, it wasn’t like all the other stories I had started before. This one really pulled me in. It was like the characters were real and that I was actually with them, following them around, hearing all their jokes, experiencing the events of the book with them. Especially with my main character. She spoke to me so clearly that it’s hard to imagine her not being a real person with real problems that needed to be fixed.

I have plenty of other ideas. In fact I’m working on my second book now (not a sequel, but features a few of the characters mentioned in Book One). But I wonder if I will ever feel like that again, have my entire world wrapped up in a character, a setting, a story…or is this a one-time thing?

I really hope not. Because that feeling was amazing. To be swept up in a world, to actually interact with the characters, see the things they were seeing, feel the things they were feeling…it’s addicting.

Are there any other writers out there who feel that way? I know there must be.

If you are writer (whether it be published, fan fiction, or for your own enjoyment) and have felt something similar, please leave a comment below. I would love to talk about it with you.

Have a great week, lovelies!

 

July 27, 2015

Band Geek Book Recommendations

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Music is a big part of my life. I started playing clarinet when I was ten years old all the way until my second year of college. You can’t spend nearly a decade of your life doing something without it affecting you, especially when six of those years were dedicated to marching band, the most nerdy and intense activity on the planet.

Music is also what led me to meet my best friends in the entire world. This can be said for any group/organization, of course, whether it be drama or lacrosse or what have you, but with music you are connected by something so unbelievably powerful.

Like all band geeks who are/were ever deeply involved within their band program, whether it be marching or concert only, I used to get very excited about all things band related. Even now I sometimes still do. Old habits are hard to break 🙂

The biggest thing I got excited for was when I stumbled across several marching band themed novels and poetry books targeted for young adults. As band camp is kicking off around this time, I thought today I would share with you a few of the books that I enjoyed back in my high school marching days.

 

Band Geek Love – Josie Bloss

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This is the very first YA marching book I ever saw. The title reached off the shelf and dragged me in.

Band Geek Love follows Ellie Snow, a senior who is the section leader of her band’s trumpet section. She is also a soloist for the upcoming season. Band is Ellie’s whole life; nothing can distract her from it. That is until a sophomore named Connor transfers to their school and joins Ellie’s section. Ellie fights her growing feelings for Connor to avoid any bad breakups and awkwardness in the section, but is it worth it if the price is denying herself a shot at love?

The sequel, Band Geeked Out, continues Ellie’s story and shows her struggles with deciding if she should go to the university close to home and study music, or go off and explore new things.

 

Notes from an Accidental Band Geek – Erin Dionne

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Elsie Wyatt was born to be a French horn player, just like her father and her grandfather. Wanting to one day be as great a player as her father, Elsie wants to attend a prestigious summer music camp, but in order to qualify she must broadened her musical repitore and join her school’s marching band. Elsie’s journey is not easy; she struggles with making friends, learning to play a mellophone, and not tripping over her feet, but as the season goes on she learns to have a bit of fun, and begins to wonder she should focus on being another family legacy or simply be Elise.

 

 

 

 

majorcrushMajor Crush – Jennifer Echols
Ex-majorette and pageant princess Virginia Sauter gets rid of the glitter and auditions to be drum major of her high school marching band. She wins the slot, but has to share with Drew, a boy whose family has held the drum major position for generations. The two do not see eye-to-eye about anything, but as they start to spend more and more time together, they realize that maybe they share more than just the title of drum major.

A friend lent this to me a few years ago. I planned to read it as a joke because it sounded super cheesy and hilarious, but it turned out to actually be pretty good once you get past the description.

*This particular book is no longer in print, but you can get it as an eBook.

 

The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren – Wendy Toliver
siren

Roxy desperately wishes she could get the cute guys in school to notice her, but being a band geek isn’t exactly the most alluring thing in high school. On her sixteenth birthday, Roxy’s grandmother reveals a secret: she is a siren. With a few notes on her flute, Roxy is able to snag dates with any guy she sets her sights on. But there are two rules if she wants to remain a siren: don’t tell anyone the secret and don’t fall in love. Keeping the secret is simple, but can Roxy really stop herself from falling in love?

 

 

 

Band Nerd series – DJ Corchin and Dan Dougherty

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Get ready for 152 pages of marching band stereotypes and general geeky goodness summed up in rhyme. DJ Corchin paints a great portrait of what it’s like to be in the band, whether you are in it now or were a member twenty years ago. Any band nerd will love it.

A third book was released in October 2014 entitled Band Nerds Confessions and Confusion, which no doubt contains even more silly anecdotes and quotes of general geekiness.

 

Three more band related books that I personally have not read, but do have on my eReader are Major Pain, Confessions of a Teenage Band Geek, and The Line series, all by Courtney Brandt. I don’t know too much about them apart from Confessions and The Line being about a girl on the drum line. I really want to start these soon as they appear to be quite quick reads that I could knock out in a day or two.

I hope my fellow band geeks enjoy this little list! Even if you were never in band, you should think about picking up one of these, if only to give you a look into what exactly makes band kids so amazing and wonderfully geeky 😉

June 15, 2015

E-Books versus Real Books

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Ah, the age-old discussion of which is better: hard copies or online copies.

Everyone has his or her preference, of course. Some people like having the physical copy to hold and display proudly on their shelf once they have completed it, like it’s a literary trophy. Others like the convenience of having twenty books stored in an online library that you can pull up with the touch of a button and you don’t have to cart around a heavy hardback in your purse.

In the grand scheme of things, I think both are acceptable mediums. I don’t think that eBooks are going to make physical copies obsolete, though there certainly are people out there who think that.

I do personally prefer the physical copy of the book because it looks pretty on my shelf, and there is always something so wonderful about actually turning a page instead of swiping on a screen. Hey, that’s just me.

Also, it’s kind of hard to get the smell of the book from an eReader. That should be the next feature for eReaders: a little euphoria jet that sprays the scent of the paper and the ink.

I never really wanted a Kindle or a Nook when they first came out. I think that if I had been introduced to them at an earlier age I would have saved my money for one or asked it as a big gift for Christmas or my birthday, but by the time they had been released on the market, I was too attached to the physical copies and didn’t see too much of a point. I did get the Kindle app on my phone a few years ago (because it was free) in order to have a few books accessible at all times. You never know when you are going to have some time to kill.

Like I said, I prefer the physical books. However eBooks certainly have their pros.

Obviously, convenience is the big thing. You can pull out your eReader or your phone and pull up a novel no problem whether you are in line at the post office or waiting for a class to start. They are also great when you want to read in the car when it’s dark outside.

My favorite thing about having a Kindle or a Nook is that you can usually access a book that is no longer in print. There have been a few books on my To Be Bought list that were taken off the market, and I wasn’t willing to pay fifty dollars for a 250-page mass market paperback from some independent seller on Amazon. The books in question, though, were available fairly cheap as eBooks so I went ahead and bought them. Would I have rather had the actual paperback? Sure. But for five dollars or less, I have no complaints with having the eBook.

So which do you prefer: Real Books or eBooks? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!

February 28, 2015

Audrey Hepburn

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I, like most of the world, adore Audrey Hepburn. She is one of gorgeous and sophisticated icons that you can’t help, but admire. I recently watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s on Netflix and thought it was really good. I don’t know why I had not seen it before, but it has definitely made a place on my list of favorite movies.

I’ve noticed that Audrey’s name has started popping up in the young adult section of my bookstore, so I picked up two books, and thought I would share my thoughts on them with you.

Oh Yeah Audrey –Tucker Shaw

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At five a.m., a cab pulls up to Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue dropping off sixteen-year-old Gemma Beasley in full Holly Golightly attire. No one would expect less from the co-founder of popular Tumblr blog, Oh Yeah Audrey. Gemma plans on meeting the other bloggers who share her love of the lovely Audrey. But her plans are suddenly changed when a handsome boy steps in and offers to play tour guide. Gemma is whisked away in a New York adventure.

What grabbed me right off the bat was this cover. I absolutely love it for a couple of different reasons. The first is the color. I absolutely love the Tiffany Blue shade of the dust jacket. (Got to stick with the theme.) The second thing I like is the fact that it is a pop-art-style cover. I don’t see a lot of those kinds of covers, and it’s very eye grabbing.

The set-up of the book was also really cool. The chapters were set up differently, where it told how much time had passed between each event of the day (like Gemma waiting outside Tiffany’s at 5:30 and thinking about her life, then fast-forwarding to her meeting her friends at 6:10 in the morning for breakfast).

The overall story was pretty interesting, There were a LOT of Breakfast at Tiffany’s quotes. At the beginning Gemma says you have to go and watch it to understand everything, but you don’t have to worry about that while reading this. Anytime one of the characters made a comment about the classic movie, there would a little afterthought from Gemma saying “That’s a quote from Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” or an explanation as to what scene it was from. It was nice, but it got a little tedious after the tenth time Gemma had to point this out. I wish the author had been able to mark a quote from the movie without having to constantly repeat these lines over and over again.

The two characters I liked the most were Gemma and Bryan. They had a solid friendship, you could tell. Trina came across to me as the stereotypical kind of mean girl who toes the line between sassiness and rudeness.

Apart from those things, I greatly enjoyed this. The chapters were quick, and Gemma’s strong voice had me captivated with the first sentence. This was a one-sit read (or it would have been if I had not had to go to classes), and I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a new kind young adult contemporary book.

 

Being Audrey Hepburn – Mitchell Kriegman
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When Jersey-girl Lisbeth is seen wearing the black Givenchy ball gown famously worn by Audrey Hepburn at a gala event, she is mistaken as someone of wealth and sophositication. Lisbeth is suddenly whisked away into the world of the Manhattan elite, hanging out with blue bloods, pop stars, and trust funders. While it’s all fun living it up with the young and privileged, Lisbeth wonders if this is the life she truly wants, and if it’s worth giving up her old life.

I initially liked the story. I thought Lisbeth’s story was interesting enough. It kind of came across like the beginning of a Sarah Dessen novel (minus the Southern beach town). The glamorous events that Lisbeth was attending were nice to read about as well. However, I wasn’t as impress with this novel as I thought I would be.

Unlike Oh Yeah Audrey, where I was flying through the pages and felt a little disappointed when I had to set it down to go to classes, this book didn’t hold my attention. I mean, sure it had its positives, and the first thirty or so pages set up who the main character was and what her life was like, I found myself slowly losing interesting, and was okay with reading a few paragraphs before setting it aside to pick up something else.

It seemed as if the author was trying a little too hard to portray what he thought the average high school/early college-aged girl would act like. This was really made clear to me through all the little winky faces he added to the texts Lisabeth and her friends would send to one another. It made her seem more juvenile than someone who was said to have graduated from high school.

I would have to give this a 2.5 on GoodReads. It really wasn’t the worst novel I have ever read, and it was quite entertaining at some points, but, like I said, it didn’t impress me as much as I thought it would.

 

Have you read either of these books? If so, what were your thoughts on the story and the characters? Let me know in the comments!

 

Love always,

Lauren