YA Highway RTW Sounds of the Summer

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.
This Week's Topic is: What music has been your summer soundtrack?

I'm not that into music when I write. I know I'm lame. I just haven't found the right sound yet. But there have been a few songs I've listened to on a daily basis.

The first song is "All That Really Matters (Poor Paul Theme Song) by Kendall Schmidt & Sean Michael Beyer. It's from this really awesome web series called Poor Paul and it's about hanging with your best friends. 

The next song is Girl Power from Cheetah Girls. I know it's childish but I worked on a dance with some girls for this program I volunteered this summer so it played constantly.  

With the release of my favorite video game franchise seventh installment. I've been obsessed with this song. The Japanese version and English version. This video is the opening for the first game. It's a remix. I like the original better but I couldn't find one with vocals.

 

Then there's this. My best friend and I danced to this a while back and on occasion I'd do this on my own...

Oh and this I've been obsessed with this song. Seriously who isn't?

Lastly I couldn't resist. Who doesn't like Gravity Falls?

These are the songs I've been obsessed with this summer. Not really a summer soundtrack. Anyway what do you like to listen too? What kind of music do you write too. Leave some suggestions in the comments.

Happy Reading!

YA Highway RTW: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This weeks topic: what is the best book you read in July?


Embarrassing story time. At the beginning of the month I read Cinder by Marissa Meyer. It was an audiobook, but I like reading along and seeing words so I bought the ebook as well. Sorry, I'm weird like that. I listened and read all night long and well into the morning. That's right I had no sleep. And it was a Sunday. Yeah... I finally finished sometime that day. HOLY CLIFFHANGER BATMAN! I could not stop thinking about it. What was I supposed to do until next year when Scarlet come out.
If you couldn't tell by my lack of sleep and plunge into despair, I loved that book. Every chapter there were twist and turns, I fell in love with the characters. And the plot, I love fairy tale retelling, but this was more than just a fairy tale. It was something deeper than "once upon a time" and "happily every after." You're just going to have to read it to understand. Check out the summery here if my words intrigued you. 
I basically described Cinder to my family like this. "IT'S CINDERELLA WITH ROBOTS!!!" And yes, I shouted it every time. But it's not really Cinderella with "robots" Cinder is actually a cyborg  and they have androids. But still. 

Now here's the embarrassing part. I wrote an email. A fan email. Am I ashamed of it? No. Will this come back to haunt me one day? Possibly. The email was kind of insane. I wrote it at one in the morning. Twenty Four hours with no sleep is one thing, I mean I'm in college so I do it all the time. But going twenty-four hours without sleep because of a book. It does something to you.. 
A couple weeks later she responded. I had a total fangirl moment and then went back to read the email. Yeah, it was really crazy. Seriously, I questioned my own sanity.  I did however give her several chances to stop reading. But she read it and her response was super nice and not totally creeped out. 

All right the story's out. Now it's your turn. Have you every written a crazy fan letter to an author or celebrity? Did they respond? Let me know in the comments.


Here are the links to Marissa's website and twitter.


Happy reading! 

I Need Your Help

Hey everyone. Remember when I started that Vlog? Remember when I had that "awesome" idea to start off doing a 30 Days of Vlogging? Yeah let me tell you the truth. It's hard. I'm not saying that I don't like vlogging, because I do. Thinking of a topic to talk about is very difficult, let alone 30 days worth. Monday's are easy, since I talk about Power Rangers. But lately my videos have been getting weird. So please.

HELP ME!

If anybody has any questions or suggestions for my next vlog I'll take them. I would love for them to be reading or writing related. Simply leave a comment below or at the end of any video. Here are a couple of my favorites.

And a random one about cereal. I like cereal.

Thank you all so much. I look forward to hearing your questions and suggestions.

Happy Reading!

WRiTE CLUB

On a whim I entered WRiTE CLUB the other day. Don't know what it is? Go here to check it out. I'll wait.
Are you back? Good. For those of you who didn't read the post I'll give you a brief rundown. Each WRiTER must submit one 500 word sample of their writing. Once a week two random entries will be placed head to head for a WRiTE. For each WRiTE members vote for their favorite sample. After the 12 week preliminaries the winners will go head to head with other winners until a final winner is chosen.
Everything is anonymous. All entries have pen names and the WRiTERS aren't allowed to tell people to vote for them. That's totally cool too it's good clean fun.
There are many more rules, but if you want to check it out you have to go here. If you want to submit an entry there is still time left. Also you have to register if you want to vote on entries. I hope you consider joining this awesome event.

Happy Reading!

YA Highway RTW: Leslie Enchanted

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic, to prepare for our Bookmobile chat about INCARNATE with author Jodi Meadows next Tuesday, July 31: 
If you could be reincarnated as any fictional character, which would it be?


This one was really hard to do. Not because I thought of too many, but I couldn't think of a really good one. So I just did the ultimate cop-out and chose Ella from Ella Enchanted. Ella Enchanted is the only books I've read over ten times. It never gets old.

My tattered copy

Ella is very strong, independent and a overall funny gal. Despite her curse she tries her hardest to stay true to herself no matter what order is given to her. (She not afraid to sock a girl in the face.) When she's sick of the orders given to her, she take her life into her own hands and sets off on a journey to find Lucinda, the fairy who cursed her. Ella also isn't afraid of all of the magic in her world. She shows no fear when it comes to giants, elves and ogres. I mean, the girl can talk a pack of hungry ogres to sleep. This girl doesn't need saving.
*coughcoughAnneHathawaycoughcouch*

Not only is she a strong person with a great personality,  but her strength and personality catches the eye of Prince Char. Oh Prince Char...next to Westley from the Princess Bride, he's at the top of my list of fictional crushes.

What characters would you like to be reincarnated as? And just for fun who is your fictional character crush?

Life Update

So this week I started a Vlog. Here's the video I made today. There are more. If you want to watch them all in order go here

I'm not getting as much writing in as I want to. But I did get a nice start. This week I am dedicating myself 100% to get 1000+ words in a day. I'll keep you updated.

Still haven't finished reading any books. Life's crazy like that.

I think I need to be on the internet less. That will solve 95% of my problems.

Skinny Cow Caramel Truffle=perfection

Too much math for one day.

Happy Reading!

YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic: When you need creative inspiration, where do you go?

Since I am home for the summer I have limited transportation to go where I want to go when I write. So most of the time I am stuck at home. Sometimes I'm desperate for a change of scenery so I move around my house. Sometimes I go to the kitchen. Other times I go to the living room. I rarely write in my bedroom. I'm boring I know.

One thing that really got my creative juices flowing was walking around the block with my mom. I talk a lot, but when I am at home no one wants to listen to me rambling about my WIP. When I am walking with my mom I finally have a chance to explain to someone what I'm writing, new ideas and how excited I am to finish. And she listens! That's all I ask for. Once I'm back in the house I can crank out about 1k. 

Sometimes for creative inspiration I go to my best friend. My current WIP is about two best friends and I basically take elements from our friendship (the good and the bad) and put it in my story. Whether it's through text, tweets or I have the rare chance to hang out with her, she always inspires new ideas for my WIP. 

Reading also inspires me. It reminds me of what I my ultimate goal is when I write. Sometimes I lose sight of that. 

So tell me readers, where do do you for creative inspiration? Who inspires you to write? Leave a comment below.

Happy Reading!

P.S. If you want to learn more about YA Highway and Road Trip Wednesday go here.