Coming up this April... in bullet points

April is full of bookish stuff, so I'm starting a new meme here at Let Me Tell You A Story where I get lazy and do a post that breaks down the upcoming month in bullet points. 

Grab your mug o' whatever makes you happy, and here we go...

1) The title of Cozenage #2 will be announced here, April 1st. If you want to know sooner, subscribe to the newsletter over there on the sidebar, because my newsletter peeps find stuff out first (I'm sweet like that).

2) The Spring #YASH (YA Scavenger Hunt) will be April 2nd through April 5th. Make sure to come here on the 2nd to check out the author I'm hosting and read their bonus content (and find your way to MY bonus content, too!) 

I talked to my local library and they're letting me bring flyers to tell allllll the YA readers about it and I am so excited! I just *might* be having an audiobook giveaway, too! (Maybe.) Find out more about YASH, HERE. (You can also search for them on Twitter and Facebook.)

3) The announcement of April's #JLBgivesawayanINDIE photo-a-day challenge + giveaway will be April 6th. I had a totally different book planned for this month, but we're switching it up because because because because becauseeeeeee.... because of the wonderful things she does... (Did you get my movie reference here? Also, yes that was a small clue... but I'm not telling you more until the 6th, so oh wellsies.)

4) #RocktheDrop is April 19th. I know you're thinking... But Jessica.... do you have to be an author to participate? Heck no ya don't! Just love books. Long to share books. That's all.

Find out more about Rock the Drop and download bookmarks encouraging passersby to TAKE the books (this really is a problem when I do it... it's like people think they're on Candid Camera and are afraid to take them), HERE.  

5) My author pal Cheyanne Young will be revealing the cover for the third book in her POWERED trilogy (EMPOWERED) later this month. Keep your eyes peeled for the cover on a future Waiting on Wednesday. WOOHOO!

Welp, that's it. Have a blessed weekend, peeps! 

So much writerly news this week, just come on over for coffee.

I'm alive! (Okay, I'm sure you already knew that, but I've refrained from doing the past few Friday writerly news posts because a) it's been crazy around here and b) honestly, I felt like I was bugging people with them!) 

I have lotssss to say, so grab something sweet and a mug, and get comfy! 

*pours you coffee* 

First off, Tiny and I are celebrating!

Please ignore Tiny's wig. We've been dancin' it up to
Meghan Trainor's Dear Future Husband all morning.

WHY are we celebrating, you ask? Well...

Writerly News: If I happened to be doing this post in proper, I'll-get-you-to-read-the-entire-post-first-before-giving-you-the-news social media fashion, I wouldn't share this until the very end of the post. But I know ya'll are busy and, if you're like me, skim because there's so much to read on the interwebs and (so little time to do it), so here it is....

I have a title for Cozenage #2. 




There are six words in the title, (yes, the title comes straight from a line in the book, as usual) and they totally encompass the storyline and I just can't explain how excited I am. *almost spills coffee* 

FYI, those of you who've subscribed to my e-newsletter (the subscribe link is over there to the right on the sidebar), you will find out a few days sooner. (I'll also be doing something different in regard to ARCs for book two via my newsletter: sending out actual advanced readers copies to about 30 people. ARCs won't be coming out for months from now, mind you, I'm just trying to plan ahead--so if you might be interested in reading/reviewing an ARC, I suggest subscribing, too.) The announcement will go up on April 1st, but do know that it is the real deal and I'm not pranking anyone (Tiny tried to talk me into it, but I gave him some peanut butter and told him to shut it). Normally, I'd put it up on Friday the 3rd, but the blog will be taken over for a couple of days. Which brings me to my next announcement... 

YA Scavenger Hunt: I'm happy to report that I'll be participating in the Spring 2015 YA Scavenger Hunt! There are a TON of authors participating (8 teams with 20 authors on each team) which = a TON of books up for grabs! I'm on Team Pink:

Yes, that's Cozenage, #1, Pity Isn't An Option, right there! Seeing it makes me even more excited about book two! 

I'll be sharing the other seven teams with you next week! :)

SCAVENGER DEETS: 2015's Spring YA Scavenger hunt is Thursday, April 2nd through Sunday, April 5th. To learn about how the hunt works, GO HERE. To find out the latest info as stuff is updated, follow YA Scavenger Hunt on Twitter HERE or Facebook HERE.

ICYMI:

In celebration of IceyDesigns settling on a business brand and starting up a blog, Hafsah, the creator of IceyDesigns (and co-blogger at IceyBooks) is throwing a pretty cool giveaway. This lady is mad-talented (she's designed all of my Flora and Cozenage series covers, and my entire blog, as well) and I send everyone looking for design her way, because she rocks! Read about how she created her brand and enter the giveaway to win either a $100 credit toward design or $50 Barnes and Noble gift card, HERE. 

I was going to tell you guys about the lack of a #JLBGivesawayanINDIE for March and what's coming up for April, but I think that's more than enough to read this week, so look for it next Friday. WHEW!

Have a blessed weekend!

This week's writerly news

First off, I'm just loving The Flash. Why-oh-why isn't it going to be on for a few weeks, now? :( Here's a gif from the karaoke episode from a few weeks ago. Anyone else watch it? I'm finding myself liking it more than Arrow!

This week's writerly news is small, but it's somethin'... The cover process for Cozenage 2 will soon be under way! Woohoo! (If only I could figure out the title... Hmmm.....) I can't *wait* to see what Hafsah comes up with! 

On that note, the lovely Madi recently read/reviewed Pity Isn't An Option (Cozenage 1), and I totally got a kick out of her ship name! (Yeah, not thinking it's going to work, either, Mads!) She's started posting reviews on her blog. You should totally add her to your blogroll!

This week's song I'm loving is Peter B. Allen's The Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands. Gracious, it's so beautiful. Couldn't find it on video for ya, but you can sample part of it HERE (listen to the entire sample because what I love so much shows up at the very end); or there's a longer sample, HERE, on iTunes. After *years* of our piano sounding like a confused whale, we finally got it tuned, and I wish I could sit down and play like this! It would be so wonderful!

Around the interwebs: Did you see that ST's Kristia and Ull from The Elsker Saga (yes, same series that's featured in this month's #JLBgivesawayanINDIE) won 2015's MFEO (Made For Each Other) Tourney for SWEET NEW ADULT COUPLE OF THE YEAR? Talk about awesome! Make sure to congratulate the lovely lady if you have a chance, and if you haven't entered the giveaway yet, what are you waiting for? ;)




This week's dish is Buffalo Ranch Stuffed Peppers and it was so. Stinking. Good,. Especially with fresh, homemade guacamole! Made it a bit spicy for Lovemuffin, but I thought it was awesome. 


Waiting on Wednesday this week was DUPLICITY. I am so, SO excited about this one. It's so different and sounds very intriguing!


Also: after a bit of a break, Reader Interviews is back Monday, so keep your eyes peeled for the lovely J from life_love_fandoms on Instagram... she'll be sharing her favorite book designs, quotes, and more! :)

Have a blessed weekend!

This week's writerly news: Olive Tapenade, Swing, & #JLBgivesawayanINDIE

Quick post because I'm a day behind... Don't forget that February's ELSKER photo-a-day challenge starts TOMORROW! (Get it HERE for free.) Woohoo!!! Here it is again for your convenience (and here's last week's post if you have any questions):

Quick note: the handles at the bottom are our INSTAGRAM
ones! Ashley & Anna do not have a Twitter; Rachel's is
@nerdherdreads, and mine is @coffeelvnmom :)

This week I'm listening to a lot of swing music... Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Django Reinhardt to name a few. Shout and Feel It by Count Basie is one of my faves... and because I know some of you probably won't be that into it, I thought I'd give you a more modern version as well. :)



Which version do you like best?

I can seriously eat the entire batch myself.

After running out of Christmas gift ideas for my dad these past few years, I've begun to do more food-ish ones. This last Christmas I made a gift certificate for one "Jar o' the Month", and for January, I made him olive tapenade. (We're still doing Whole30 over here, hence the simple-yet-delightful dishes.) If you love olives, you'll want to make tons of this! YUM! 

Waiting on Wednesday this week was SURVIVAL STORIES OF THE ALMOST BRAVE by Jen White.

And... that's all I have time for. Come back MONDAY MORNING to see the #JLBgivesawayanINDIE Elsker giveaway! There's going to be a lot of fun ways to enter!  (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S ALMOST FEBRUARY?)

Have a blessed weekend, everyone! 

This week's writerly news: February's #JLBgivesawayanINDIE photo-a-day challenge + more

Howdy, guys! :) As promised, here is what's been brewing for a few months now: a new monthly meme/giveaway here at Let Me Tell You A Story, co-hosted by Ashley and Anna's For the Love of Books and Rachel at The NerdHerd Reads! :D 

I'm so excited! #JLBgivesawayanINDIE isn't just about a monthly indie book giveaway. It's about sharing booklove with fellow readers and sharing favorite books and expanding our book fan base and just overall booknerdery interaction. That's why, even though each monthly photo-a-day challenge will be loosely based on the book-of-the-month up for grabs, it's also broad enough of a subject that participants can choose to use the words however they see fit (bookish or not). Woot!

Participating will get entries into the giveaway, but they're not necessary. You can do the photo-a-day challenges just for fun and not enter at all! Whatever works! Point is, camaraderie, and support for indie authors and talk about ALLLL THE BOOKS. :) 

So... that's all I'm saying until February 2nd, when February's #JLBgivesawayanINDIE will officially begin (the challenge will begin on Instagram/Tumblr/Facebook/wherever you want to do it Sunday, February 1st, but the giveaway starts Monday, the 2nd). If you're curious about what's going to be up for grabs, check out Elsker (I believe it's actually free right now on Amazon), go over the photo-a-day challenges and see how the words coincide with the book (or how you could make them work for you in a different way) in your daily photos. I think we're going to have a great time, and I know ST is going to love giving one winner a book and some great swag. :D (And you will all love Ull! *swoons*) I'll be announcing the specific items up for grabs on the 2nd, so make sure to come back and check it out!

Moving on...

This week's song is one I've been totally addicted to by Sia called Soon We'll Be Found. The video is my favorite version of it (because her voice is sorta raspy), but you can also watch the official video (YAY! ASL!), HERE.

Also, I've updated my (very boring and plain-looking) YouTube writing playlists, so if you'd like to get a feel for the books or simply want some new songs to listen to, feel free to check them out, HERE! :)

Waiting on Wednesday: This week's WoW was THE BUNKER DIARY by Kevin Brooks (haha... in case you noticed, I somehow happened to choose two people with my same last name two weeks in a row!).

And... I guess that's about it. Do spread the #booklove about #JLBgivesawayanINDIE and the photo challenge, and have a blessed weekend! 

Jessica

This week's writerly news: this week's song + a #JLBgivesawayanINDIE sneak peek

It's Friday! There's a lot going on so I'm going to go straight to the stuff! Like... this #JLBgivesawayanINDIE teaser! 

I am SO excited, because we're officially READY for the first #JLBgivesawayanINDIE of the year! Make sure to come back next Friday (the 23rd) for a preview, because we're going to be doing a lot of fun, interactive things each month to go along with each book that will be up for grabs. A quick shout-out to bloggers who are participating, too... thanks so much, guys! If you want to showcase indie books once a month this year and share the giveaway/participate in other stuff as well, check out THIS FORM before it's too late! :D



Currently listening to:  WEEKEND by Verite. Lots of Cozenage 2 (yes, book two is still untitled... with this series I just have to wait until something jumps out at me, and it hasn't happened yet) plot stuff has been crashing into my head the past couple of weeks. There are so many different people and emotions and things happening in this book that it's a beast to contain everything with words at times, but... this song... it really makes me think of Logan and Jennifer Dawn. (Not sharing the "official" video, because it is *not* how I see the song at all, so here's a video with just the music.) 



Food: I have made these Breakfast Cups SO MANY TIMES. They're delicious. I swear you will not be able to stop thinking about them once you make them! 



Waiting on Wednesday: This week's was IN A WORLD JUST RIGHT.


And... I think that's about it. Did I miss anything? :/ Check out my Instagram (authorjessicabrooks) or Tumblr (username coffeelvnmom) because I got the most BEEEAUTIFUL illustrated copy of The Princess Bride, and I've been sharing photos!!! :D

Also, do wish Eugenia from Genie in a Book a wonderful birthday if you have a chance! :)

Have a blessed weekend! 

Jessica

This week's writerly news: new favorite writing songs + a #Whole30 recipe

This week's *actual* writerly news is... pretty much non-existent! ;D The girls have been on break for three weeks now, so the environment just hasn't been all that conducive to writing. I've gotten lots of *other* stuff done, though, so that's nice. Really looking forward into diving into some stuff Monday!





I've been doing Whole30 for almost two months now, so the yummy sweet recipes I usually shared before taking a break from the writerly news posts are a thing of the past for now, but I am TOTALLY in love with this Grilled Chicken Shawarma (and the Israeli salad, too) at the moment. So fresh, and natural! (And the shawarma seasoning works great on steaks, as well!)



Moondust:


Moondust (Stripped):


I'll Be Good


Currently listening (over and over) to Jaymes Young's I'll Be Good and Moondust (Stripped & also the original version). Jaymes Young's voice is like velvet. Got so many great scenes in my head now! *melts to the floor* 


ICYMI:

#JLBgivesawayanINDIE: Next month I'll be starting up #JLBgivesawayanINDIE. I'm very excited about the photo-a-day challenges and giveaway (and just highlighting authors in general), so if you're interested in participating as a reader/blogger, feel free to check out THIS POST and sign out the form before it closes.


Waiting on Wednesday:

This week's WoW was Unlikely Warrior: A Jewish Soldier in Hitler's Army. I'm a sucker for WWII YA (I mean, hello, CODE NAME VERITY, ROSE UNDER FIRE, and TAMAR: A NOVEL OF ESPIONAGE, PASSION AND BETRAYAL are some of my favorite books), and knowing this story is true (click the link and read "about the author") just made it even more special. Also, I was just approved to read an e-ARC of it, so YAY!

Ships and OTPs:

The Flora characters have recently been listed in a few places, which I thought was cool (thanks, guys)! You can check them out below:

* OTP of the year (!!!): Rowan and Dahlia at Genie in a Book

* BRO-TP (ha ha): Briscoe and Rowan at life_love_fandoms

* Friend"ships": Dahlia and David at life_love_fandoms 


Have a blessed weekend! :)

"For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love.” ~John Steinbeck

Photo taken by me :)

I'm back! You probably didn't even know I was gone (I'm not one to announce that my house is vacant for a week, if you know what I mean), but the fam and I took a last-minute trip last Wednesday to MONTANA! The drive from here in Cali to there not counting stops is over 20 hours, and aside from a two-hour nap on the side of the road in Oregon on the way there (with semis blowing by so fast our suburban shook) and a three-hour stop at a hotel in Reno on the way back (getting Lovemuffin up after that one was a bit difficult), the longest pit stop we had was probably about ten minutes. We spent a LOT of time in the car. (Considering the fact that all three of my high school girls were with us and Lovemuffin did pretty much all of the driving, I'd say the trip went pretty well. :D)

These trees were everywhere and so beautiful. (Kinda like
Shaver Lake here, but prettier.) Some lose their top
 "layer" of needles in the winter, hence the different colors. 

Anyway. Thought I'd share a few memorable things about the trip. Montana is absolutely gorgeous, and has so much WATER (something we are severely lacking here in the Central San Juaquin Valley), so it was great to get away for a few days. 

After the 24-ish hour drive from California, we checked into our hotel in Columbia Falls. We probably looked like complete rugrats (by then our eyes were red as sun-ripened tomatoes) when we checked in, but no one was in the lobby to see us in that state, thank goodness. Having pity on us, the receptionist suggested we go into The Back Room, the back of a bar/restaurant where huge pieces of chicken and other yumminess is served. Once there, we sat down and skimmed our menus (a few of us actually set our heads on the table, because ZZZzzzz), noticing one of the sides mentioned was called "fry bread". In our state of mental DUH-ness, we looked at each other, curious. "Maybe it's put under the broiler or something?" I said.

Fry bread. Y-U-M.

Shortly after, the bread of amazing, fried deliciousness came, with sides of honey-butter (think Marie Calendars, but better). It was dense, and awesome, and tasted better than any bread I've ever had. Even though we all had huge sides of chicken on our plates as well, I think I can speak for all four of us gals when I say we would have been perfectly fine with only eating fry bread for dinner. And breakfast the following day. And every other meal for the rest of our lives. (Problem was, we were so tired, we could hardly chew. Also, there were tons of people in that restaurant, but it was so QUIET! Is that a Montana thing? A Back Room thing? It's loud EVERYWHERE here. Sometimes we have to almost yell at each other to be heard.)

So, we left on Wednesday afternoon, arrived Thursday night, crashed, and the following morning, Friday, we were still recovering from our tiredness. Lovemuffin found some great coffee, and then we met with an amazing realtor named Linda who devoted most of her afternoon to taking us all over tarnation (mostly in the outskirt areas of Whitefish) to look at stuff. She was great, and fun, and such a blessing to our trip. After more driving, we went back to the room and ordered pizza. (Bread kinda became the theme of our lives in Montana.)

Saturday, we drove to Whitefish to check out the shops, including a coffee shop I'd found via Pinterest, actually (I now also stalk them on Instagram, too), called Red Caboose. (I was so excited about being able to pin our town on the "visitor" map until I saw SOMEONE ALREADY HAD!) Pretty much everything inside the shop, decorative-wise, is restored, so it had a great rustic feeling to it. And a fireplace. I love when coffee shops have fireplaces!

One of our favorite shops that we hit up after Red Caboose had the most darling (think hipster-ish) stuff... including these Mistaken Lyrics cups, which had the older two girls and I in stitches. 

The clouds on the way to Glacier National Park! For some reason, my comp compressed this and isn't
playing the actual video.  I'm also kind of sad that you can't hear the rockin' music. :(

Sunday, we went to Glacier National Park. Lovemuffin asked Google how to get into the park, and Google maps proceeded to take us some random way that took quite a while, but gave us great views. (Come to find out, we came in some sort of unknown, back way. Oh well!) The clouds were practically right in front of us as we drove, and I had to capture it on video! According to the news, the Polar Vortex was moving in fast, which meant that by Monday night (no later than Tuesday morning), we were going to have to hit the road and head home to beat the crazy weather. It was already raining the entire drive up, and by the time we made it inside the park, it began to snow. 

"It's SO CHRISTMAS!!!" -us, over and over

We were so excited! (We've all gone to the snow at least few times here in the mountains, but it's not the same as when you get to watch it snow. And Montana is just so beautiful.) By that time, we were so far into the park, we were starving, so when we came across this little place, we had to stop and grab a bite. It was quaint, with a tired old black cat curled up on the counter, guarding the cash register, a bucket to catch the dripping water leaking from the ceiling, and the game was on a big TV next to our table, which made Lovemuffin happy. (Did you know that Montana has no sales tax?)

Sunday night, it snowed a lot. The patio of our room butted up to a golf course, so the girls bundled up and took off into the darkness to make snow angels and run around in the snow. 

Monday morning, the storm was a' comin'. We went with Linda to check out a few more properties, and by the seventh one, it was snowing pretty well. Some of the directions were very vague (or flat-out confusing), and in our rush to see the last one before getting back, Lovemuffin drove up a tiny driveway. As we reached the top, we noticed a Do Not Enter sign. This was obviously not the place. Lovemuffin backed up, and we heard a weird noise. I thought we'd driven over a branch (can't see anything when everything's blanketed by snow), but lo and behold, we had actually driven over a pile of rolled up barbed wire. Which had tangled alllll around the axel and something else (no idea what it's called). 

We tried to move the long, wound-up piece of wire not stuck on the car out from beneath it. It caught on my pants, the junior's gloves, and Lovemuffin's gloves, pants, leg, and jacket. (UGH.) Once it was finally out of the way, Lovemuffin couldn't get underneath the suburban, but thank GOD we had a flashlight in the car, so he could at least see what was going on. It was SO tangled that the only way to solve the problem was finding a way to cut the wire. 

Course we didn't have anything that would do something like that in our car, so down the little hill Lovemuffin went. It was snowing, we had no cell phone reception, and he was gone for a while. I was just getting ready to head down the hill to find him, when he came back. No one had answered the door at the nearest house, but their shed was unlocked. No wire-cutters, but he did find pliers. 

Yes, you read that right. Pliers. All I have to say is that the Lord gave Lovemuffin superhuman strength, because I have never seen a man cut barbed wire once, let alone THREE TIMES, with pliers. It was insane. Even Linda was laughing. It was like Lovemuffin turned into the Incredible Hulk! 

After that, we still had to unravel everything. But we were on a hill and there was pretty much no space between the undercarriage and the ground/snow. The sophomore tried to help, but it proved quite difficult, so the freshman ended up doing it, her ear centimeters from the hot muffler as she worked. Most of us stood around feeling as though we weren't of much help... The junior decided to take a few pics with her Samsung (which took better pics than even my expensive Nikon).

We then left, drove back to the house to return the pliers (along with a little thank-you note), and the owner of the house pulled in behind us, like, What are you Californians doing in my driveway? 

Lovemuffin explained the situation, handed back the pliers and thank you note, he told us we hadn't driven far enough up to find the property (UGH again). We headed back to town.

Fast forward to us taking off the next morning at 8:30. By then, everything in the ice chest in the back of the car was frozen solid. It was FAH-REEZING outside--colder than I've ever experienced. I seriously had to put a blanket between myself and my car door because the cold was insane. Ice hung off the Suburban everywhere. Our windshield wiper fluid was frozen solid (Californians obviously do not sell the kind with anti-freeze in it), so we couldn't really even use the wipers. All of the roads were icy. The further south we drove, the colder it got. Not long before reaching Idaho, I HAD to snap the above pic of the temperature. (Like my phone cover? Ha.)

It got even colder as we drove, getting to zero. About two hours in, we stopped for a bathroom break at a bar out in the middle of nowhere. The weather by this point said "feels like -16 degrees", but you really couldn't even fathom the cold while you were standing in it because it was a dry cold. It was crazy. The owner had this gorgeous dog (I've tried to figure out the breed--thought it was an Akita but those don't look right--these dogs are HUGE and solid and have really long fur), and the girls just had to meet it!

The freshman. Don't let the little bit of visible snow
and my crazy, jacket-less kid fool you--it was
downright FREEZING.

And... that's pretty much the gist of our trip. We drove, we ate, we slept, we looked at things. By the time we hit Nevada, it was still only 20 degrees. I think the final temperature as pulled into our hometown was high 50s, and it was so funny, because in what we'd normally be complaining about being cold (you know, grabbing sweatshirts and whatnot), we were all like, "Ahhhhhh this feels SO GOOD." LOL!

In summary, road trips like this are, in my opinion, not meant to be taken very often. I will say that we are super-blessed, because though the girls (and Lovemuffin and I) did get into it a couple of times, it could have been soooo much worse. We had great scenery, a great realtor, and an overall great trip. Next time we feel like checking Montana out, however, I'm pretty sure we'll fly. 

#Giveaways, movies, music and more: this week's writerly news

A reader's life motto

Howdy! HAPPY NOVEMBER! Real quick before I forget, the #JLBbirthdaybash ends tomorrow, so if you're wanting to increase your chances of winning the Carpe Read 'Em mug and notebooks and such, don't forget to click the giveaway in the sidebar!


Well, after a couple of Fridays off, I'm back! *passes out mugs of steaming hot coffee* Between doing The Princess Bride for the #JLBgivesawayaDVD (it'll be up Monday), the LOOP giveaway, the Goodreads OPEN THY HEART giveaway, the awesome WoWs coming up (did you see Wednesday's???) and other stuff, I'd say November is going to be a great month! :D

And now for the most recent happenings on my end...

1) It's official... I will be having two women's fic books coming out early next year. I'm very excited. They will have a very different look compared to the YA ones, but I'm quite happy with the results, and can't wait to put them up on Goodreads. *does little dance*

One for you, one for me! :D Aren't they
SO PRETTY next to my owl bookends?

2) If you tried to enter the LOOP giveaway and had issues with the free entry, I fixed it. Had something wonky in my setup, but now all's well--you just have to answer a question so that Rafflecopter will let you have the free entry. :)

Yes I did have to do the vinyls photo.
Because. *adds to Christmas list*

3) I'm currently IN LOVE with Sleeping At Last's Yearbook Collection album, and trying to find a way to buy ALL THE SONGS. (The digital album is like $27, that's how many songs there are. But, I mean, really, all of the albums rock. Not just this one.) *stares longingly at vinyls*





4) Mandie, Tabitha, and I are watching Catching Fire in honor of Mockingjay's upcoming release for November's #nerdherdmovienight this Sunday, November 2nd at 6:00 PST. Feel free to watch it along with us on Twitter! 

5) Most recent enjoyable recipe made: these Crispy Smashed Roasted Potatoes. So simple, yet so yum!

6) I'm sure most of you have seen the Insurgent moving 3D posters by now, but I'd love to know what you think. (I haven't read it, so I'm not really affected in that way.) 


Welp, that's about it! :) Have a blessed weekend everyone, and happy November! 

Kitchen safety class, yummy recipe, book song + more: this week's writerly news

Heyguysit'scrazyoverheresoI'mgonnasharethisweek'sstuffrealllllfast. (Only not that fast, because you can barely even read that.)

1) Found this nifty recipe and can't wait to try it next week (Chungah's blog is quickly becoming my very very favorite): Buttermilk Banana Blueberry Bread

2) Flora series exclusive content: Along with hosting an author on their blog during last week's YA Scavenger Hunt, each participating author also had to contribute exclusive bonus content to their host/hostess. I realized I'd shared my bonus content everywhere *but* here, so here ya go: David and Dahlia's lovely uh, safety class.

*insert tons of laughing emojis here*
Also: we're going to pretend that a) I can draw
and b) I actually know how to spell forest.

3) This happened on Instagram the other day and I thought it was absolutely perfect because if you've read the Flora series you know Ambrosia is not very...erm... modern. :D (Make sure to read my comment first, then @life_love_fandoms' response)

4) I don't know why, but I never share my WoWs on Friday's posts, and I totally should...
 
about Jennifer A. Nielsen's upcoming Mark of the Thief!


5) ICY(somehow happened to)MI: This All About the Bass, No Trouble re-do is great for #booklove peeps: 




and last... 

6) Here are the winners of the OPEN THY HEART release giveaways and the exclusive YA Scavenger Hunt on my blog:

OTH's US giveaway: Cali W. (woot!)

OTH's international giveaway: CCm from the PHILIPPINES!!!! *applause*

and

The exclusive Flora giveaway during #YASH: Laura C.!

YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! (So many Cs!!!!) I'll be getting in contact with ya'll over the weekend and sending over what I need to send if I haven't already!

Have a blessed weekend, everybody!

Paper #dahlia tutorial, Ambrosia (the food) + more: this week's writerly news

Me, at the start of OTH's blog tour this week. Which is way
calmer than I was at IF I SPEAK TRUE's back in January.

Today's the fifth day of OPEN THY HEART being out! 

*pumps fist* 

*passes out brownies* 

It's been a bit crazy around here, but I still have a few things to share for my Friday writerly news, so here goes:

Enter to win this in the US
OPEN THY HEART giveaway! 

1) Katie's journal is gorgeous and the leather is soft and she even put all of the pages in herself (some have FOXES on them!). I totally think of Clementine from BSaC but even if you don't know who Clementine is yet, you will totally fall in love with this gorgeous journal I've added it to the US Rafflecopter. The giveaway continues until the 5th of October, so you have plenty more chances to come back and enter! :D

2) IF I SPEAK TRUE is up to seven reviews on Amazon! (Thanks, Rachel!) I only need four more and I can share it being 99 cents with a whole lot of people. (If you missed it, here's what's going on.) If you've already posted one on, say, Goodreads, or any other site, consider copying and pasting it to Amazon, too (not just for me, but all authors). Not all promotional sites consider Goodreads a proper source (as nothing is sold there), so it's nice to have something else to fall back on. Thanks, guys! 

3) Yesterday, a friend of mine shared this on Facebook. I am one of those weirdos who can't mix my fruits together because EW, but I still had to share it because, HELLO: It's AMBROSIA.

4) Music: I'm finding a couple of weird songs to add to Cozenage 2's playlist (it sure will be nice when I figure out the title of that book), but what I've listened to most this week is an album that dropped on Tuesday (and I just "happened" to come across on Instagram). So. Good.

5) I've wanted to make a huge paper dahlia for months now, and in the past couple of days two people have shown theirs off (Kaitlin and Madi!). Aren't the fall-ish ones above gorgeous? I LOVE them with the lighting. Here are my favorite two tutorials (including the one above). 

Paper Concrete Wreath at The Paper Cottage

Fall Plume Wreath at Urbanic Paper

If you make one, I'd love to see it!



And... that's about it for this week! Have a blessed weekend! 


P.S. I just came across this  and I am SWOONING. (I don't even want to share a photo because you MUST see them all together. Must! Spring! Fall! Winter! Summer! ACK!)  The talent. The art! I HAVE NO WORDS. 

Here's Kouichi Chiba's Instagram.