Fun Facts and UtopYA Con Sale :)

I really wanted to keep my Fun Facts this week, so I decided to write this post a day early. This week my fun facts are about my experience with:

 UtopYA Con

1. This is my second UtopYA. Last year was amazing, so I immediately bought tickets for this year's convention. This year will have double the amount of people as last year, so it should be interesting.

2. At the convention last year, I got asked for my autograph for the first time ever. MY autograph. It totally surprised me. I'll always remember that.

3. I'm a total fangirl. Last year, I kept seeing Shelly Crane, Samantha Young, and Misty Provencher just walking around, having a jolly ol' time and I could do nothing but gawk. I was in the same building as them. It was very strange for me. I got the courage to talk with Amy A. Bartol after one of the panels, and I almost cried. She (though she didn't know it at the time) helped me make the decision to self-publish my own novels.

4. I'm really awkward around new people, so I hope no one comes up to me. Haha If you are coming to the convention and you do find me...well, I'm sorry for any weirdness that comes from me. I can't help it.

5. Book conventions are extremely fun. You're surrounded by people who are just like you, and everyone makes you feel welcomed. If you have a chance to go to one, don't pass the opportunity up! You won't regret it.

6. I'm really excited for this year's convention. It's going to be way different than last year, and I can't wait for what's in store! I'll update my blog early next week about this weekend :)

Since I'm currently in Nashville for the UtopYA Convention, I've decided to put all my books on sale for the weekend. Considering each book is usually $2.99, I'd definitely get the books now if you haven't read them yet! They probably won't go on sale again for a while. These prices will stay until Sunday night.

Because my WiFi connect is very sketchy, I'm going to post this early. I have already changed the prices, but I know they won't be available for a few hours. Keep checking throughout the day!

Book Sale Links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

If any of you are at the convention and you want to find me, look for a really short girl (shorter than Ryanne!) with nerdy glasses and long, messy wavy hair. I'm 20 years old, but apparently I look younger than that. I'll probably be standing or sitting in the back of every room I'm in, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

That's all I have for right now. Thank you for stopping by my blog, and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

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Fun Facts #1: Inspirations

I asked the lovely people on my Facebook page if this would be a weekly thing they'd be interested in reading. I'm trying to update my blog more often because I've only posted one blog entry a month lately. On Fridays, I'm going to give "fun facts" about book related stuff and non-book related stuff. I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up or what I'm going to talk about each week. If you have anything you want to know about, let me know! I'm up for whatever!

This first week, I'm going to talk about: 

Inspirations

1. My biggest book inspiration is MUSIC. I always listen to music when I write. I get into this zone when I'm writing where I just close my eyes and let the music move me. When I get into that zone, I can easily knock out 5K-10K which is a good amount for a day. I create playlists on Spotify for each book I write. I've been thinking about making them public, but I haven't decided yet. 

The Prophesized Series

2. The initial thing that inspired me to write was sheer boredom. During my junior year of high school, my creative writing teacher told me that my short story would make an interesting YA novel. I didn't think much of it until after I graduated. During that summer, I was really bored, and remembering what she told me, I decided to try my hand at writing.

3. Dreams. I tend to have really weird dreams. Maybe I eat too late before bed. Maybe I just have a really weird/vivid imagination, I don't know, but I tend have strange dreams. I wrote a few of those dreams into my novels. 

4. Conversations I've had with friends and family inspired a few of the scenes in the Prophesized Series. All of the movie arguing (Evans vs. Hemsworth) is based on real arguments that I've had with people. I love the Marvel movies, Harry Potter movies, etc. so I really wasn't that creative when I wrote those scenes. haha

5. I love the outdoors (when it's not freakishly hot). There's a fort near my house where I go to walk the trails. Being surrounded by all the trees and animals helps me think. It clears my mind and lets me sort out plot details when I'm stuck. It inspires me. Because of that, the Prophesized Series has a lot of forests scenes.

Besides that, I have no idea what inspired me to write that whole series. I just sat down at the computer and wrote for days. I annoyed my family because I wrote that series before I had a laptop, so I was literally hogging the family computer, but I couldn't stop. I just wanted to keep writing. I wrote BlackMoon Beginnings and Scorching Secrets within two and half months and started the third book when I went off to college. 

Redeeming Lainey

6. I get on Pinterest a lot. I create boards for all my projects. Sometimes I create them after I finish writing, but I tend to create them while I'm in the process of writing them. I like the visuals. However, for Redeeming Lainey, a picture inspired the entire book.

"Silence Now" by Yell Saccani

I don't know what it was about this picture by Yell Saccani but I wanted to know that girl's story. I wanted to know more, and the longer I looked at the picture, the more I started to think about it. Thus, Redeeming Lainey was born. I gave Victoria from Whit & Ware Designs that image when she was designing my cover. :)

To be completely honest, I'm not sure what inspires my stories. I hear a line in a TV show and a scene flashes before my eyes. I hear a chord of a song and imagine a setting where I would hear that. I see a picture online of a character and I know their backstory. I don't look for inspiration anywhere, because inspiration is all around me. It strikes randomly and when it does, you just have to go with it. 

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