Mailing list, youtube, twitch, and other news

I recently decided that I need to be more active with my online presence, so I made a mailing list. You can sign up for my mailing list here. I am only planning to use the mailing list when I release a new book, change the price of a current book, or have some other big news. I will not be posting about my youtube or twitch accounts there. Speaking of my youtube and twitch accounts, I haven't posted on them in awhile. I've had a lot going on and found that it's been harder than I thought to keep up with everything. I think I will probably start doing more posts once Hair of The Wolf is complete and for sale in the kindle store. I have been solely focused on my book and I know that's not really fair to the people who want to watch my youtube and twitch streams, but I swear I am getting back to that. Also, I have been saying for the longest time that I want to improve this blog, but I've had no idea how to. Now I am looking into youtube videos and websites to find what is important to readers. I am going to use whatever free time that I can muster to slowly change this blog, and when I am done with that I will have to take some lazy days to catch up on all the tv shows I've been missing. I've only seen the season 7 opener to the Walking Dead, and none of Supernatural or Scream Queens. Anyway, thanks for sticking through with this update and please subscribe to my mailing list!

Are there too many .99 cent books?

It seems like I post a lot and then disappear, which is mainly due to me trying to get my next novel out. I am going to correct a lot of mistakes that I made when releasing Zombie Bite. It's going to be a longer book, and I am also planning to send the file for my next book to createspace.com so that I can have an actual book that people can hold in their hands (and sniff because book sniffing is apparently a thing). It has always been my dream to write books, and now that I've actually written one I feel kind of underwhelmed. Maybe my dream was to make a living from writing books, which may happen. Zombie Bite has only been out for a few months and I haven't even released Hair of the Wolf yet. Honestly, Hair of the Wolf if more of the type of book that I enjoy reading. It's an urban fantasy about a werewolf who was just recovering from an abusive relationship when she accidentally reveals the existence of werewolves to the world. I've been writing and editing like crazy, but I did manage to stop and ask myself one question; are there too many self published books out there already? I must have a ton on my kindle that I got for .99 cents but never pick up. I thought it was just because I'm in a reading slump, but I think it's more likely the fact that I have trouble getting into self published authors. I know that sounds crazy, especially given the amount of work that I put into my own books. Why do I feel that way? I've read awesome books that were self published. Maybe it's just that no one talks about self published authors the same way they do regular authors. I used to talk about books quite a lot and no one ever brought up self publishing. We always talked about authors we liked that had easily attainable books. It was so easy to just go into books-a-million or barnes and noble and pick up something new. I feel like that issue is the same issue plaguing many people. Why pick up an unknown author when I already know that I'm going to like another author's book? Hopefully people will open up and start supporting local authors or small authors more.

Sometimes women are the ones who don't support each other

I guess I should start by introducing myself, because a lot of people will probably come to my blog for the first time today. My name is Jade and I am a self-published author, I am currently working on my second book, which will be a paranormal romance/urban fantasy. My first book was a horror book, which hasn’t been read by many. It may be because it’s a short novel (only 56 pages), or it may be because I’m female. I just want to start off by saying that I’m not a feminist, although I do sometimes share their point of view on some topics. I think that most people can find topics that they agree with or disagree with, and that’s normal. Today I logged into twitter and saw that some woman’s topic was trending. I clicked on it, only to be reminded of something that happened to me. From 2010 to 2012 I worked in the automotive department of a large retail store. I was the service writer, which meant that I had to sell services to the customers. I had to learn a great deal about tires and oil changes. I even learned how to perform oil changes and change tires and would do that sometimes. Well, I changed the oil mostly, sometimes the tires were too heavy for me. Sometimes when I was writing tickets for service a woman would pull up and demand to speak to a man. Men never did that to me, only women. Not all women were like this, but the ones who were decided it was best to be vocal about it. The woman would also make faces at me or say things about me if I would change their oil. They didn’t want to believe that a woman was capable of changing oil. There was one day in particular where I actually felt like commenting back. Everyone had gone to lunch accept for the new guy and two people needed to be in the shop at all times, which meant I was in there signing off on things. He wasn’t sure what he was doing yet, so I had to help him out. There were three ladies in the waiting room, all of them where pressing their faces against the glass. I had told them beforehand that we were short staffed and they agreed to wait for the work to be done. Finally, one of the people came back from lunch, which meant that I could go on break. When I walked back inside the building the ladies all said very mean things very loudly. Basically, they thought that I was flirting with the guy, and that I was causing the long wait. I was angry. I wanted to tell those ladies that what they said couldn’t be further from the truth. I wanted to make those women feel bad for the way that they had treated me, but I knew that I wouldn’t get through to them. If I would have said anything to them I’m sure they would have gone to management. I tried not to let it bother me, but to this day it still does. Those women thought it was okay to undervalue me. They probably would have thought that it was okay for the male cashier who worked inside and ignored most of the customers to get paid more than I did too. The point of me writing about this is because many of the people complaining about people not treating them fairly in the workplace are the same people who not treating others fairly. If you want to support women and women’s rights, why not start with being more understanding? This type of behavior is the reason that JK Rowling decided to write under a man’s name, the same reason that female books sell primarily to females. Anyway, I’m sorry for posting such a long rant. I just felt like the things I had to say needed to be said. Please go out and support a female author today. 

Why libraries are still important

One of the things that I've always loved doing is visiting the library. I remember my mom bringing me to the library all the time when I was younger. I used to pick out Goosebumps books and other books that I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't browsed. I used to read about five or more books within the week (Goosebumps books are small), and then I would go back the next week. Libraries were always important to me, and I always made sure to get a new library card whenever I moved. One of my favorite feelings is going into a library and grabbing a few books and movies. I'm more likely to read a new author if they are at the library, which sometimes leads to sales for that author. Libraries are actually a really great tool for authors, they sometimes even have events where self published authors can promote their books. In the past I've donated my old books to libraries. I believe it's very important to support libraries, but I didn't really see the impact of people's donations until recently. About a year ago I was working at a place where I needed a card to sell beer (I was working in a retail store). I got kind of excited when my now ex-boyfriend dropped me off and I saw that there was a library on site. I told him that I'd wait for him in the library, but I was disappointed when I actually got to the library. It was the smallest one that I'd ever seen. I don't think it even had a computer area. There was a small table to sit at, a single rolling cart filled with about eight dvds, and about three large shelves filled with books that were meant either meant for children or erotic (there was no in-between). I had planned on looking through the shelves and finding something good to read, but I found myself more disappointed than anything. I ended up sitting at the small table for the rest of my wait. While I was grateful that the library had a lot of books for children, I was also disappointed that it was so small and didn't have a range of different books. It's so easy to overlook the importance of libraries with sites like amazon offering plenty of free books, but being in a place like that really showed me the importance of supporting your local libraries.

My lack of Halloween

I usually post things for Halloween, like my favorite horror books or my favorite horror movies, or I at least try to post something scary. This year I didn't. I didn't post on youtube or stream to twitch. I didn't tell anyone happy halloween on facebook and I didn't take pictures with the cute pictures on snapchat. I barely even watched any horror movies. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I remember when I was a kid how I used to watch Goosebumps during the holiday season and sometimes even watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special. This year, I didn't feel the way I usually do about holidays. I guess it's because I had such a rotten holiday season last year. I let one person completely ruin everything for me because at the time, I loved him. I can't help but wish that I hadn't gone through that, but it has influenced my writing. I am currently editing a character that I would have never been able to before. I wasn't able to understand what she could have been going through, but now I can.

Maybe I need a website?

Yesterday I was very understandably angry about what happened to my YouTube account. It was later determined that my account did nothing wrong and it was given back. I have never used my youtube account for book related purposes (other than watching book reviews), but I was still angry to see it go. The incident did get me thinking about promotions and blogs vs. websites and now I am wondering if I need a website. I know many authors have both blogs and websites. Blogs are usually used to write their ideas in and talk about things that matter to them, while websites are used to promote their books and inform about them. I think one of the areas where I'm lacking is informing people about myself. I'm bad at talking about myself, and never really know what to say on my author bios. I also think that a website would be a great way to introduce myself to a new group of people, but I'm still not one hundred percent sure.

Cover Reveal

Although I am not releasing my next novel just yet (still editing it), I have decided to share the cover.

As you might have guessed from the title, the novel is about werewolves. I will try to put the blurb up soon, or at least give some kind of summary about the novel soon.

Fivver for cover art

I'm just starting out as an author, so I can't afford much when it comes to cover design. I found a website called fivver in my search for a cheap cover and instantly joined it. I liked that I was able to search through the projects until I found one that I liked. I purchased the gig without thinking much of it. I got the cover back the same day, probably about an hour after I had placed the order. I was content with the finished product, but didn't think much about the cost. When you do a five dollar gig on fivver, you only end up getting four dollars after the gig is complete. If I could afford to, I wouldn't use fivver, but I do think it is a good tool. Before everyone starts getting angry and thinking that I am cheating the artist by using fivver, think of this, a new artist trying to start a business. I'm not saying everyone on there is a new artist, but they can use the site to help themselves build a following. They would also have covers to show later on when trying to get more work. I can see both sides of fivver, the good and the bad.

Cover models

They say you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I often find myself doing just that. If there's a model on the cover I usually picture the main character in that book to look like the cover model. Today I got the cover for Hair of The Wolf, which included a cover model. I was a bit shocked at her appearance and my eyes lingered on the cover for awhile. It took me a minute to figure out what was wrong, I had pictured her differently. I had pictured Anyssa to have soft features, like a slightly chubby face that was friendly. I realize that when I read a book I may not be picturing the character the same way as the author did, but now I find myself wondering if the author is always happy with their model. I know that traditionally published authors have no control over their covers, but what about self published authors? I would like to hear more from people about their experiences with book covers and cover models. Did the cover always turn out as expected?

An Idea that won't go away

I have this idea that keeps coming back to me, but it's not for a book. One of the things that I have always wanted to do as an author is connect to other authors and readers, and it's possible with social media, but I think there could be a better way. If I knew how to build websites I would build one where authors and readers could interact on a different level. It wouldn't be like good reads, although it would probably have some elements. Authors would be able to search for reviews with ease and vice versa. The website would allow people to search for categories that they enjoy reading in, and allow other authors to connect with each other for promotions, book cover quotes, and allow them to recommend books besides their own. Maybe I haven't been looking in the right place for this, but I would love a website like to this exist. I wish I had the tools to build it.

Why can't we get a decent female superhero movie/tv show?

Recently I commented on a youtube video about a Black Widow movie. I said that I was not in favor of it, which sparked a debate in the comments section. People went crazy, until I put my reasoning. I don't think Scarjo can carry a movie. I've seen Lucy and thought it was a decent movie, but I wouldn't have gone to the movies to see Lucy. I also don't enjoy the way the character was treated in the comics. I also think that she's not the best comic book character to get a movie. Her story has been told, and she's also better as a supporting character. Something else that really gets on my nerves is that female superheros usually have to have female villains. While their rouges galleries are smaller, I'm sure the producers have their pick of great comic material to work with. Why not pick a good story and improve on it? Story means a lot to me when I go to the movies, as I'm sure it does most people. Is the movie industry afraid to give us a female character who might not make it out alive? I came across an article when I first started writing about how you need to put your characters in danger if you are writing fiction. No one wants to read a book about a heroine who faces no risks. Anyway, sorry if I was rambling.

My first author interview

As a self published author, I am always looking for new ways to reach readers. One of the things I couldn't wait to do was an interview, so after seeing a post asking for authors to do interviews, I reached out to another blogger. The interview can be found here.

The Newspaper

Someone once told me that one of the late shows has one of those segments where they show newspapers from around the world. The newspapers shown are horrible. Most of them have bad grammar, or just don't make sense. I lived in a small town with a newspaper like that for five years. I remember one headline saying something along the lines of, "he had fifty pounds of weed and a reel fast truck". For five years I avoided the newspaper, which is a big deal to me because I have always wanted a job working for the newspaper. The grammar errors got to me more than I thought they would (the guy who wrote for the newspaper was also kind of a jerk). It kind of makes me wonder how people see my little blog. I don't check for grammar errors in my blog, but I would like to think I sort of have a grip on that. Even if it's a small grip on grammar. I would hope that people don't turn away from my blog just because I misspell a word or misplace a comma. I don't check my grammar and spelling in my blog, I just write. Sometimes I write about things I'm passionate about, and other times I just write short blogs.

This year I'm going to do it!

This year I am going to do National Writing Month. You can find my profile here.

Writing a real character

A few years ago I started working on a novel that I planned to self-publish. I decided to title it Hair of The Wolf, but I stopped working on it to work on other projects. I decided to revisit the story after I had finished with Zombie Bite. I was surprised to find that the bones of a great story were there. I began rewriting passages and changing things and adding more details. One major thing I decided to do was make the character struggle with anxiety and depression. Why was this an important part of the story? Well, she’s a werewolf, but not just any werewolf, the one who exposes the existence of supernatural beings to the public. She didn’t do this one purpose, but she still has to live with it. She is forced to live in an apartment where she is always monitored. She has no freedom, but if she did most of the wolves have decided that they would like to cause her harm for exposing them, so she is understandably changed by this. It made sense for this character to be struggling with depression and anxiety. I love to read, yet none of the novels that I have ever read have ever featured a character struggling with these issues. I’m not saying that there aren’t books like this, I just haven’t read any ones that deal with werewolves/vampires/zombies. It doesn’t make sense in some cases. I’m a huge fan of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, but she always gets herself in some kind of trouble that normal people wouldn’t be able to handle. Shouldn’t she feel at least a little anxiety around these supernatural creatures? I just feel like it makes sense and is more realistic for my main character to have these problems.

Writing Advice From Twitter

I joined twitter when I first decided that I was going to write a book. I wasn't writing Zombie Bite yet. I was writing Hair of the Wolf, which I still plan to publish. I knew the time wasn't right to release Hair of the Wolf. I honestly needed to go through more and learn more for that novel, which I am currently working on. I want it to be better than Zombie Bite, and longer. I want it to be a full length novel and I want to see it in paperback as well as hardcover. I want to be able to hold that book in my hands. However, I wouldn't have even gotten to where I am now without the advice I got on twitter. 

1. Don't make every tweet about writing. No one wants to follow someone who is only talking about their book. You should promote your book, but it shouldn't be every tweet. If your twitter feed is bland I will assume that your book is as well. Tweet often, and about things not related to writing or your book. How about starting a discussion about a tv show you like or a movie you recently saw? You'd be surprised at how many people you can bond with. 

2. Post Quotes from your book long before the book is published. This is a great way to draw interest. Your characters say interesting things, so why not post those quotes on social media? It can cause the reader to relate to your characters long before the book is even out.

3. Don't be afraid to share parts of your writing. When I first started I was afraid that people would steal my writing. I know that it's silly now, but I was. It's likely that no one will share your writing and if you post a chapter or two it can help to get people hooked. 

4. Don't spend money to promote your book until you have at least three books written and published. This one I asked a writer about. I didn't know much about promotion and I asked him when I should start buying for ads (like the ones on facebook). He told me that it was pointless to put an ad in when you only have one book. If someone enjoys your work and you have more than one novel they will be able to download the next one as soon as they are finished with the first. I have done this with books so it made sense to me and I haven't paid for ads yet. 

What inspired me to write Zombie Bite?

In my last post I wrote about my new book, Zombie Bite, but I didn't really shed to much light on it. I started writing it the night after I watched a movie called Stake Land that I saw on the Syfy channel. Stake Land is a bleak movie about vampires who roam the earth like zombies. The movie caused me to wonder what the world would be like if zombies actually existed. What would the people actually be like? I'm sure quite a few would have gone insane, and the others wouldn't be in a much better state. What would life be like after some time had gone by? What methods would people use to survive? Who could they trust. I found myself writing a rough draft about a young woman who was driven to help people after an event made her unable to face the survivors in her camp. For the longest time I wasn't sure how to end it. I sat on the novel for awhile, unsure of what to do with it. Did I want Eli, the main character's husband to survive? Did I want him to die? I wasn't sure so I wrote both outcomes and picked the one that seemed to be the best fit for the novel. I also ended up changing quite a bit, including the incident that drove Zoey away. It's strange how much changes when you convert from rough draft to finished piece. I kept some of the ideas for another novel. Honestly, I may write a whole series about those survivors. I had planned to when I started writing them. I was going to write a sequel that featured Zoey and a few other books about the other people living in the hotel. Maybe a prequel showing how everything started, how they came to be living in the hotel. Do I still have plans for those things? I'm not sure. So many new ideas have come to me lately that I don't know what I'm going to write next, but I know I'm going to put my all into it and try to make it better than the first.

Looking for a Halloween read?

Zombie Bite is a great Halloween read about a woman, named Zoey, who stumbles upon some infected survivors and attempts to save them. Things go wrong in her attempt to save them, and they end up infecting her husband. Zoey's heard whispers of a cure and she knows that she can't just leave him to die.
 Check out the book by clicking here.

Want to give me some input on something new I'm working on? Click here

Weekend Review, Halloween Edition: Scream the tv series

It's back! Weekend reviews are back! I know I usually write about books, and hopefully I will be back to reviewing (and writing) book soon, but I also watch a lot of movies, tv, and play a lot of video games so you might see a lot of that thrown in here as well. I have decided to try to post about only scary books/movies/games/tv shows for the entire month of October. The first tv show that I am going to review is Scream. Now, I haven't gotten to watch both seasons, in fact, I haven't finished the first. This show was on tv at the time that I was living with my ex and it was one of the shows he didn't want us to watch so we didn't watch more than the first episode. Now that I am away from him, I started to watch it again. At first I wasn't sure if I would like it. I am a fan of the original three movies (I watched the 4th but have no thoughts on it), and I didn't like how they changed the killer's mask. I also didn't like how some characters seemed to be rip offs of other characters, like Noah being a rip off of Randy. I pushed myself to keep watching and found that it was entertaining. The story was different, which is why there is a different mask. Everything seems to still link to the mother, which I honestly wish they have changed, but the show itself is entertaining. The blood wasn't cut for tv, and the show does feel like it exists in the same universe as the movies.

My 'beef' with magazines

Lately I have been submitting articles to magazines with the hope that they will agree to publish something and I can get my name out there while also making some money. This means that I've been looking at a lot of magazines and also going to their websites. After seeing one of my friends post something on Facebook about the amount of ads in a magazine I realized that I had a problem with magazines. Now let me start by saying that I don't have a problem with every magazine, just the type that you'd be likely to find in a hair or nail salon. The type that the hospital I used to work at carried. Magazines that are full of more ads than articles, and the articles they are filled with are trash. Sure, I love to read gossip magazines every now and then, but I would rather read something with substance. Why can't the hospital carry magazines with articles about people who have done great things, or lived through something that the average person may never live through? The closest thing they carried was people magazine, which is aimed at both men and women. Why do magazines aimed at women have to be about cooking or pleasing their man? Why do the magazines aimed at us have to be full of ads for things we can't afford or that we don't need? I don't mind a small ad every few pages, but most magazines have full pages with bored looking models or stinky perfume samples. Honestly, I would pay more money for less ads and more decent content. Now I'm sure there are tons of magazines out there for women that are actually great, but they aren't as easily accessible as Cosmo. Part of me wants to make a kickstarter for a magazine that I want to read, but the other part wants to find magazines that I would read and promote them. 

Art in Writing

I remember when I went to elementary school and I took an art class. It was a lot of fun, but one thing the teacher told us has always stuck with me. She said that every artist puts a little bit of themselves in every project. I found myself thinking about that recently and it hasn't ever been more true for me than it is now. I find myself relating to the characters that I write more than ever. I wrote one who worked in a shoe store at the time that I was working in a shoe store with the same inner thoughts as I had. I also just started writing about a character who distances herself from most people, someone I find that we can all relate to. No, I don't think the average person is anti social and ignores others, but I think we've all faced times where we've felt alone. The character that I am writing now is a werewolf named Anyssa, she's someone that I find myself relating to more than I've ever related to any of my other characters. She's been through a bad relationship and does her best to avoid getting into a new one, but sometimes things just happen. Although it's not a romance, it has elements in there like a love interest. A good story is more complex than just going from point A to point B. The reader has to enjoy the ride or they won't pick up anything else that you've written. In a way, your reader knows you better than anyone. They are reading something you put time and effort into, something some people might say is part of you.

Love Geek Fuel and Steam?

I have decided to partner with Geek Fuel and bring you an incredible deal. If you sign up using my link you not only get a box full of goodies, you get three steam games! 

Steam 3 Game Bonus Pack in your first box! 

I realized that I can't take Supergirl or any other show/comic/game that does this seriously

I haven't watched Supergirl yet. I am actually very behind on the shows that I want to watch, but today I was scrolling through my newsfeed and I saw something that I just had to write about. Her arch enemy is Lex Luther's little sister. I haven't read the comics, so I don't know if she is one of the villains in the comic, or if she even actually exists, but I hate comics, tv shows, books, and video games that do that. It's almost like they are too lazy to make up their own villains, and I would have preferred that she just fight Lex. I don't see anything wrong with that, she's supposed to be a strong character so she should be able to take on anyone. I do realize that Supergirl was created the same way, but I feel like she's been around long enough that she is now her own character. It doesn't just bother me that they create a female version of a male character, but also when they create another version of the same character, like Subzero in Mortal Kombat, he's just the original Subzero's brother. Don't even get me started on Frost though. She was meant to be a female Subzero, they just gave her a slightly different storyline. I can excuse older video games, since they had no choice but to reskin some characters, which is why MK has so many ninjas. It just really annoys me when a character is created just for the sake of being the same character.

I'm a writer, but that doesn't mean I'm perfect

I'm a writer. I wrote a book about zombies, but that doesn't make me or my writing perfect. I make typos. I misspell things in tweets. I don't use proper grammar and spelling in my blog. It doesn't bother me that I'm not perfect. I'm not trying to be. When I use my blog I'm normally writing about things that I care about, and when I'm tweeting it's mostly to have fun. I don't use spell check everyday and most of my blogs are short (as I'm sure this one will be), but that doesn't mean that I don't take my actual writing seriously. I think of writing as something that will be my career.

Why I decided to write about one of the worst things that ever happened to me

I came across an article recently asking for personal essays that involved any stage of romance, and since I am not doing so well financially, I decided to write an essay. I sat for awhile, just staring at a black screen. Anyone who's written anything in their life can relate to that, and also how annoyed they get writing the first sentence and deleting it over and over. I usually write fiction since my life isn't that interesting. Finally I thought of something, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to go there. I wasn't sure if I was healed enough to write that particular article. Would anyone even want to read what I had to say, or would they think that I was just trying to shame my ex? I thought about some of my favorite authors and started to write the article. In the past I had cried whenever I thought about the event, but this time I didn't. This time I flew through writing the article, even finding things to add when I was finished. When I was completely done I sat there, staring at my computer and thinking about what I had written. Should I submit it under a pen name?After some debating I decided to submit it under my name. While I hated what he had done to me, I knew that he had only made me stronger. I'm not sure if the magazine will publish me or reject me, but I really hope that it publishes me. If it doesn't I plan to revise the article and try again.

How 2015 killed my inspiration

Much like I imagine an artist does, I spent most of my life finding inspiration everywhere. I could watch a movie and get a completely unrelated idea simply because one of the characters had a red bike. It felt like I couldn't go anywhere without a notebook to jot down what inspired me, but now I don't feel the same. When I watch a movie it's always just a movie. I could even find inspiration in the worst movies. I used to have to pause youtube videos to write a scene in my novel or pull out my cell phone mid-conversation to write notes on whatever had inspired me. Now I don't do that anymore. In 2015 I had the misfortune of having my cell phone ripped from my hands whenever I took it out for any reason.  I think this ruined an aspect of note taking for me. I also had no time to write and all I did was watch movies and I didn't bother to look any deeper into the movies that I was watching. I also stopped reading, and my writing suffered as a result. I am always second and third guessing my grammar. It makes me sad that I can no longer hear a song on the radio and picture a character interacting with it. I honestly don't know how to get back to where I was.

Why I almost gave up writing...

I'm sure this will be a hard blog for me to write. It's hard for me to even think of a life where I don't write. Maybe every author goes through a phase where they almost give up on the art. For my entire life I had always envisioned myself as a writer. I always wrote in journals and kept lots of notebooks near me for when I got an idea for a story. I usually filled notebooks with notes and little bits of dialog that I intended for my characters to say. Sadly, I spent most of 2015 away from my keyboard. My ex and I were sharing an apartment and for some reason we spent all of our time together. It was probably just hard to manage being together all that time. Our time together had been special prior to being together all the time and there we were, in each other's faces all the time and getting on each other's nerves. Even if I had been granted the chance to go in the other room to write it would have been hard. I'm not used to writing when I can hear others talking/moving around and he was noisy. He probably didn't think he was, but he used to curse at his video game whenever he would lose (which was often). I would have heard him even if I closed all the doors. We had a patio and I guess I could have gone outside to write, but when I started to hear others it would have halted whatever progress I had made. I really wanted to be able to write around him, but I didn't think it would have been fair to ask him if he could keep it down and I also wasn't sure about sharing my writing with him. In early 2016 we broke up (due to his friend saying I was too ugly for him), and I still found it hard to write. I already had a story written and it just needed to be edited (Zombie Bite). I found myself uninterested in writing and for the first time I found myself wondering why I had even been drawn to writing in the first place. I've wanted to be a writer since I was a child. I was beyond sad, and sometimes I couldn't even bring myself to turn on the computer. I think my writing just sat untouched for about three months while I tried to pull myself back together. I know a lot of people are thinking that I should have just pulled out the computer and wrote to make myself feel better, and I did try that sometimes, but life is hard when you allow yourself to get attached to someone and then they throw you out like a moldy box of strawberries. I was dependent on him, since he had cut off all my other contacts and insisted that I would be friends with his friends. I didn't want to do anything for awhile, not even work. I went to work like a zombie. I smiled and tried to be the person I had been before, but on the inside nothing made me feel better. I went through a period where I would only eat once a day (because he made me feel fat and made me feel like I was worthless). The men who flirted with me during that time were all better looking than him and they all had better jobs too, which should have made me feel better, but didn't. I really did feel like a zombie and sometimes I still do, even though I don't want anything to do with him. He's not a nice person or a good person, and he's really not the person I thought he was. I had goals, not just writing goals but school goals and housing goals and I gave them up because of this person. I beat myself up for it a lot. Anyway, I finally managed to start writing again, but other worries plagued my mind. I am now always worried about bills and my job and how I no longer know what I want to do with my future. I want to be successful, but I don't think I want to be a journalist anymore. It used to be my goal to be a journalist and I wanted nothing more than to be able to write for newspapers or go on the news and talk about current events. I know I could do those things using youtube, but it doesn't feel right. I feel like I lost part of my personality. Sometimes giving up writing still crosses my mind. I keep thinking that I'll never sell books and no one will care to read what I write. Am I right? I don't know, but I'm going to keep pushing myself, at least for now.

Comic books and angry women who don't understand them

Normally I wouldn't bring attention to something like this, but I am so annoyed with this video and many others on this woman's youtube channel. I wish I could just write her a quick comment getting my point across, but she has her comments disabled. I'm talking about this woman:

She clearly doesn't read comic books, but feels ok talking about them because she's seen someone else's youtube video. Oh, and she says Fable 2 is a video game in which you are forced to play as a male getting revenge for the death of a female family member. The funny thing about that is that I have that video game and I play it as a FEMALE character. In this video she talks about all comic books being so awful to woman because a lot of females die in the comics. Well a lot of males die too, and not only that both male and female characters frequently come back from the dead, most of the time stronger. Jean Grey is the perfect example of this, since she comes back as the Dark Phoenix. Gwen Stacey is back as Spider Gwen. This woman also keeps referencing the Killing Joke and Barbara Gordon being shot by the Joker. Yes, she does get shot by the Joker, and she does later become the Oracle (which many people look up to as a strong female character), but she also later gets to walk again and even takes up the mantle of Batgirl again. What about comics where female characters don't die? Does this woman even know there are comic writers who are FEMALE? This woman also claims that many of the male characters who died went down fighting and the female characters did not. Elecktra dies by fighting Bullseye. Just about every female who died in the Walking Dead died fighting, and I know a lot of bad things happened to some of the women in that book, but I believe that the Walking Dead portrays violence very accurately. These are things that actually could happen to people if they were in the same situation. There are many others who have, and yes some woman in comics were killed in very unfair ways, but there are many different genres of comic books and to just group them all into one genre is unfair. One of my dreams is to create a comic book. Sorry for the rant, but it's clear this woman was just looking for something to be angry about. If she happens to stumble upon my blog I would like to advise her to do research next time before posting an angry video.

It's Here!!! Zombie Bite!

I've finally published Zombie Bite on kindle. I've never been so excited about something as I am now. I'm so excited that I can't even express it so I am just going to leave the link! Click here to check it out.

Quote from Zombie Bite!

A lot of writers like to leave quotes and things leading up to the release of their novels. I realize that I have never done that, so I decided to today. Presenting the first quote from Zombie Bite:

“The world’s been bad for so long that I can barely remember what it was like when it was good. Maybe it will be better that I go now before all the people I love are gone.”

            I sighed. “I don’t think the world was ever good. We just pretend that it was to make ourselves feel better about the way it is now,” I responded.

Slump

I know that I haven't updated my blog in a long time, and that's partly because I haven't been writing, or editing or anything. I only have to do a few things to the ending and then format my book for kindle and then it will be ready, but I haven't let myself do that. Today I am forcing myself to do so. To be honest, I hate being in slumps, and no this slump has nothing to do with my ex that I've written in here about before. Also while being honest, I was forced to get over him by his behavior when he insulted my family members and then went on his facebook and talked poorly about me, a girl he claimed he had loved enough to marry one day. It should have been a big clue to me that he didn't care about me when one of the first people to reply was a girl named Alicia B that he would have deleted if our relationship had meant anything to him. A girl that was out hunting for a new man while pregnant for another man's baby (maybe this behavior is the reason you can't keep a man and you really need to go get some metal help). While putting so much time and effort into someone who clearly didn't care sucks, that hasn't been important to my life for quite sometime. Part of the reason is because of school. Awhile back I wanted to be a journalist, but no one at school wanted to give me any direction or tell me what classes I need to be in. I ended up assuming that I needed to take certain classes because there is no one there to guide the students, or at least not anyone there to guide me. I ended up getting fed up with the school for this and because of one of the people who were supposed to be there to help me and she instead dropped me from classes because she did not process my paperwork soon enough. I honestly didn't want to go back to school and I haven't enrolled for this semester. I don't know what I want to do about school. I know that I have to get an education to be able to do just about anything now so I have been dwelling on that. What do I want to do with my life? I really don't know.

Weekend Review: Pokemon Go!

I haven't even logged into my blog in a long time, so it surprises even me that this is the topic I've chosen to write about. I haven't been writing or editing lately either. I just haven't been in the mood, which upsets me because I thought writing was my dream. I was also just about to release Zombie Bite. Anyway, this blog post isn't about that, it's about Pokemon Go, but I do promise that I will try to pull myself out of this funk. Anyway, I've been a huge fan of Pokemon since the release of the first American games, so I was thrilled to learn that there would be a mobile Pokemon game. I remember telling my now ex boyfriend and he complained about how it would take up his time with me. Now that I know more about the game I would have said that we could have played together. The game does make me want to walk around more and go to places like the park or even the hiking trail near my work. It's a fun being surprised by the different pokemon that pop up in odd places, but it's no match for the other pokemon games. It does share a lot of the same elements, and even adds some social aspects to the game that weren't there before (I met a cute doctor while playing the game), but there's something about the games and visiting the different parts of the world that can't be beat. I also love trading pokemon and the story aspects of the game that are missing on this mobile game. I miss getting to beat a gym and get a badge and then move on until being able to fight the final four, In pokemon go the winner of the gym battle takes over the gym, but if it's your team you get to put a pokemon there as a defender. I don't really like the combat system on pokemon go either, but that's probably because I don't understand it. Lastly, it annoys me that people are blaming their own stupidity on a game. A game that clearly says to be aware of your surroundings. A girl got hit by a car and her mother claimed the game forced her across the street. While it's sad that the girl got hit (she didn't die), the game isn't the reason she got hit. If she had been paying attention she would probably be fine. Also, people are claiming that they are being robbed because they are going into bad neighborhoods to catch pokemon, When I play the game I only go to places that I know. I just wish that more people would do the same and play with caution.

Jurassic World Lego Review

What's after Zombie Bite?

I'm not going to do a weekend review this weekend. I've only played video games and that's not fair for the people who come here to read what I have to say about writing (or read book reviews), so I thought that I would share something that's been on my mind for a little while. I have been working on Zombie Bite, getting it ready to publish and wondering what book bloggers to send it to when it's finally done. I decided to add a short story that I originally wasn't going to include. A very short story, which was going to be a chapter in the next book. The survivors in Zombie Bite live in a hotel and I was thinking of writing a series about them, each one told from someone else's point of view. At this moment I am not sure if I still plan to do so. I am working on getting a kindle, nook, and physical copy of Zombie Bite so that everyone can enjoy it. I also have been thinking about my next writing project a lot, and I think it's time for me to go back to something I was planning to release a long time ago. I posted a lot when I first started this blog about a novel I was writing called Hair Of The Wolf, at the time I even posted a writing sample. I gave up on it after awhile because I didn't feel my main character had the right voice. I wanted her to be emotionally scarred, and I wrote a character based on one of my ex-boyfriends. That ex-boyfriend had just been a jerk and wouldn't have caused her to have some of the reactions that she had throughout the book. I have since been in a relationship that could only be described as abusive (I have a lot to say about abusive relationships and may write a blog post on it later on). I want to rewrite parts of that novel to give her a relationship similar to mine so that she can be scarred enough to get to the place she needs to be in the book. It will take awhile to whip the book into shape, but I know that I can do it.

Weekend Review: The Walking Dead season 2 video game

First I would just like to shamelessly self promote my YouTube channel, which I am still trying to figure out. I play video games on it. You can view my walking dead playlist by clicking here.

I have a YouTube channel where I play games, and that means I get to try out a lot of games that I haven't before. I haven't really been working too hard on the gaming channel, but I plan to change that soon. I just need to set aside some time to do so. I also have been busy with school, which is why I didn't read a book this week for the weekend review (I am honestly thinking of doing one day with a game review and the other book review). Anyway, I am really getting into the walking dead season 2, just like I did with season 1, but I do find some actions a little...unnecessary. When Clementine was patching up her arm it seemed to take forever, and you also need to click on every single thing, which drives me a bit crazy. Everything else has me interested, the story is great, the 'combat' is the same as the first game. It's a great game. I can't wait to play more of it.

Your dreams won't come true unless you push yourself

I am about to publish my zombie novel, the one that I had shared an unedited first draft chapter a few months or so ago, and I couldn't be happier about finally wrapping that up and putting it out there. I feel like I've worked harder on that than I have anything else. I plan on working on some other old novels that I have on here after that. I know that I wouldn't have gotten that far if I hadn't pushed myself, but there was a time that I wasn't pushing myself. In 2015 I had just about given up on writing. I got to do it every now and then, but my ex made it clear that my free time belonged to him. He was a person who didn't push himself. He wanted to be an artist, but it seemed to me like he only wanted to sell his art to his friends and family (people who were safe and wouldn't say that his art sucked). I often pushed him, even saying that we should write a children's book together where he could draw and I could write. There came a point where I gave up on motivating him because nothing that I said stuck with him. I became kind of mean towards him, but that's a story for another day if at all. One thing that I have not been pushing myself towards is the let's play channel that I made. I plan to do more with that soon. I'm considering playing the second season of the walking dead, since I haven't yet. The let's play channel isn't my dream though, it's just something fun to do. I already like playing games and it's fun to record myself playing them. Anyway, the point of this blog is that you can not be successful unless you push yourself to be. You need to put in the effort, work towards your goals.

Weekend Review: Awkward.

I recently posted about this show and I honestly didn't think that I would again. Maybe I have a lot to say because I've been in Jenna's shoes recently. I hoped the writers of this show would decide that it was time for Jenna to grow past the love triangles and her undying love for Matty, but they haven't. I'm actually not here to talk about Jenna and Matty in the romantic sense though. The thing that's been bugging me lately is Jenna has an unpaid internship at a place called Idea bin, basically she's writing articles for a website. On the last episode she wrote an article that ended up on the front page of Idea bin, but that article also hurt Matty. I mostly write fiction, but sometimes I write nonfiction in my blog. Anytime you write your version of the truth someone will get their feelings hurt, I know this from experience. Some of the blogs that I wrote about my ex hurt them, but at the same time every word was true to me. He may have thought that he was fighting for us to stay together and be happy, but it couldn't have been my truth because I wasn't living it. I'm kind of on the fence about the article itself. I haven't taken down the articles about my ex, even though I know it hurt him. The articles may have hurt him, but they also helped me to grow as a writer. I may take them down in the future, but I'm not sure. I didn't write the articles with the intention to hurt anyone, the articles were the truth as I saw it at the time that I saw it. I don't even think he reads my blog anymore, although he claimed to read every new entry in the past (after we parted ways). Sometimes you don't like seeing the negative impact that you have on other people, but at the same time you should use the experience to grow into a better person. I honestly don't think she should have gotten her article taken down.

Weekend Review: Mario and Luigi Paper Jam

I was planning to start reviewing books every weekend, but I didn't read anything this week. I am considering a book review and a movie or some other type of review each weekend. I think it would be fun, and I am always checking out new things. I am currently considering watching that movie Maggie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie where he has to protect his zombie daughter. Anyway, I am trying to get a video gaming youtube channel off the ground and to do that I have to play lots of video games. I love Mario games and have loved them since I was little. I also love to share them with others, as this video shows. One video game I would not recommend picking up is Mario and Luigi Paper Jam. I already knew about the negative reviews of this when I decided to check it out. I love Paper Mario, although the last one on the ds wasn't that great. I remember playing the first one on the N64 and really loving it. Mario and Luigi paper jam is basically about catching Toads. I hate Toad. Whenever I see Toad I know that something stupid is about to happen. Toad is probably the most helpless character in any Mario game. Also, in the very first Mario game why do Toads just randomly hang out in Browser's castle? Anyway, the princess is kidnapped, but you have to find and catch Toads so they can make things out of cardboard for you. I never get game rage, or almost never do, and this game made me very honestly annoyed.

My Dream Office

Last night I had this really amazing dream that I was at a video game and comic book store with a friend of mine. For some reason I dream about video game stores and dvd rental places a lot. Anyway, in this dream the video games were all older games and they were displayed on the most beautiful set of shelves that I had ever seen. One of my dreams as an author has always been that I could get my own office with a beautiful bookshelf, where I could display not only my books but also the books that I love to read. I also would love one of those cool ink pens with a crown on the top, and some super nice work space for my desk. I would have a dry erase board in the office. I love dry erase boards, they help me when I am working on a novel. I would also have assorted artwork. I have never really owned any artwork, or had any artwork that I was in love with displayed in any of my homes. I guess that my dragons could count as artwork that I loved, but I also want artwork done by other people. It amazes me what other people can come up with and I have always been an art lover. I would also have some things in there which display my nerdy side. I love funko pop vinyls and had started to collect them. I had four of them Stitch from Lilo and Stitch was my first and Raphael from TMNT was my second and they would go in there for sure (the other two were the TMNT van with Mikey driving and Leo from TMNT, but I gave them back to my ex so I would have to rebuy them). I would want a few disney ones as well and some comic book related pop vinyls. I would get the ones from Supernatural and the Walking Dead as well. I would also make sure the office was very colorful. I love colorful things, they fuel my creativity. I would have at least one dog bed in my office because my dogs like to go wherever I am and I am sure they would want to be in the office with me. The dog bed would probably be pink because my dogs are girls and I also really like the color pink.

Cursing in novels

I've been seeing a lot of articles online about whether or not it's good to have characters curse in novels, so I decided to put in my two cents. One of my all time favorite novels features a character with a potty mouth (Deb from Dexter), so I'm not against a character cursing if it is part of who the character is. People curse in real life, so it makes sense for some characters to curse in a novel. There does come a point where the cursing is too much and it becomes distracting. I, personally, don't have that much cursing in anything that I've written. I only use profanity to build character. Well, that's my take on cursing in novels. :)

Weekend Review: Persephone by HP Mallory

I don't know if I started to do a review on this book before. I started to read it and then stopped because I was in the process of losing my boyfriend. I only got to read it in short bursts when he was in the bathroom. I found that this book made up for the last book being so short. I loved the first two books, but this one seemed to drag on just a little bit. I feel like this one had a lot more action than the last one, but I think it could have been shortened. This was also kind of a give or take novel. I feel like it really did nothing for the series. I do still plan on picking up the next novel, which I know is already out.


I also wanted to add a note that I am trying to get more focused on reviewing books or book based movies for the weekend review. I will still review other things, but I think maybe I could squeeze in two weekend reviews, one for books and one for other things. I also have been working on my youtube channel, so please check that out, the username is Geezenstack444 or Jade Plays Games (I'm not sure which, but I will try to add the link to my contact page). Thank you to everyone who enjoyed my '100 word' story. I might try to do another one sometime in the future.

One Hundred Word Story

Last night I started to write a one hundred one story, but realized when I was finished I realized that the magazine I planned to submit it to charged a reader's fee. I added a bit more to it and put it on fiction press. It's based on an Asian urban legend. Let me know what you think. Short Story: Bus Stop

Forum

I decided that it would be best to make a forum so that I could connect with readers better.

http://authorjade.proboards.com/

Weekend Review: The Final Girls

I love horror movies, but I was hesitant about picking up this horror comedy. I have only enjoyed a few horror comedies, like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, but I am glad that I picked up The Final Girls. The Final Girls is about Max, who loses her mother and gets somehow sucked into the horror film that her mother is best known for. I love how the movie mixed modern horror with 70's and 80's horror. Parts of it reminded me of Friday the 13th. The horror film characters were all stereotypical, which added to the fun of watching the movie. The killer even had a backstory: he took too long in the bathroom so some mean kids set him on fire. I really enjoyed the Final Girls, but it was not without flaws. I kind of felt like something had been cut out of the movie, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. The movie was still great, and I would suggest it to anyone looking for a light horror comedy.

Newsletter and Blog

I just made a newsletter. I decided it was time to do so because I plan to have a book out soon. The info for the newsletter will be on my contact page as soon as I get a chance. I will be redoing my blog soon as well, and would like to take this as a chance to ask for advice. I want to know what changes you'd like to see on my blog, as well as things you would like to have included in the newsletter. Please let me know in the comments.

Weekend Review: Pokemon Yellow

I remember playing Pokemon yellow when I was younger. I was hooked to my game boy color until I beat the game and caught the legendary Pokemon. I was so excited when I heard that yellow, red, and blue were going to be available for the ds. I knew that I had to get yellow. I love Pikachu, and every pokemon game has had me hooked for days or weeks. I thought they would remake the game and improve the graphics, but it is just the same game from the gameboy color. Gameplay is the same, since it's the same game. I love playing the old game, and had forgotten how hard it was compared to the newer ones. It's the same game that I fell in love with, I just wish they had at least upgraded the graphics. Despite that, the game still looks good, just not as good as the newer pokemon games. I may purchase red as well, but I am undecided. I would give pokemon yellow a 9.5 out of 10.

2016 Reading Goal

I don't log into goodreads often, but I did this morning. It surprised me to find that I hadn't met my reading goal last year. Last year I had only read a handful of books, and most of them I hadn't finished. Once I started living with my boyfriend I was only allowed to read or look on my phone when he was in the bathroom, which had an effect on my reading habits. This year goodreads asked for my 2016 reading goal and I put 10. 10 books. I only feel that I am capable of ten books. I know that may seem pitiful, but only being allowed to read when my boyfriend was in the bathroom hurt the way I read. I can no longer pay attention and get bored after a few minutes of reading. I would like to read more, but I think I need to get back into the swing of things.

Book inspired video games

I've recently been watching a lot of YouTube videos about Silent Hill (the video game, not the movie), and how it was influenced by Western horror writers like Stephan King. I'm such a huge nerd that things like that interest me, and it made me want to play the game. Sadly I do not own the game so I wasn't able to. I may consider doing a series online that is devoted to games inspired by or based on books, since I have a capture card and I'm not doing that much with it. I want to find a use for it other than selling it. I see a potential to make great content with it.

Happy Easter

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Easter.

Weekend Review: Izombie season 1

I was so excited when I learned that the guy who created Veronica Mars (Rob Thomas) was making a zombie show. I remember making another post reviewing the trailer for the show, and with that being said, I thought that I would get to watch the show a lot sooner than I did, but it just so happened to come on during the time my ex boyfriend used to come home from work with a need to be fed. I thought that I would have time sometime after the first season to watch it on netflix, but that didn't happen until now. The show does remind me of Veronica Mars in many ways, a blonde who solves crimes. Even some of the clothing choices the characters make remind me of Veronica Mars. I always found myself wanting to raid Veronica Mars's closet, and now I want to raid Liv's. I do think Veronica Mars is the darker of the two shows, where Izombie still has some lightness to it. Izombie seems more upbeat and fun to watch, despite it being a murder of the week type show. After each episode of Izombie I found myself wishing for the next and I was disappointed after I'd watched them all. The only character that I don't like is Major. He just seems bland and boring, the kind of guy a girl like with goals like Liv's would have been attracted to, but it seems like the chemistry between the pair doesn't exist.

Writing interesting characters

Sunday I was watching the Walking Dead, like I always do, and I realized that none of the characters are really "good guys". That doesn't mean that they are "bad guys" either, it just means that they aren't written the way superheroes are. They want to protect their own, and sometimes that comes at the cost of someone else. The characters have all gone through a lot to get to the point where they are now. The characters have grown and changed over the course of the show. They each have their own personalities and interests. The characters are interesting, if they weren't people wouldn't tune in each week to see what would happen on the walking dead. The characters in the walking dead are the type of characters that I would love to write about. Characters that people care about, that people would go out of their way to read about or watch on tv. Characters that people cheer for, even if they aren't the good guys.

Changes

I feel part of writing a successful novel is to have the characters go through changes. To be able to write about changes you have to go through them yourself. Right now I'm going through a lot of changes. Like I said in a past post, my last relationship taught me a lot about life, myself, and what I'm actually looking for. I don't want to dwell on that relationship any longer, but it did make me start changing myself for the better. In many ways that relationship changed me for the worst. Before I started dating him I was very into foreign movies and learning about different cultures, something he was not into. I also really liked video games, but I felt that I couldn't play them with him because he always felt that he had to be the best (he would also rage quit Halo). I always felt the point of playing a game was to enjoy it. I didn't care about winning or beating the game. I just wanted to play something fun. I wanted to have fun with him as well, but I was afraid he wouldn't be happy if I wasn't good at the game. I sat out playing the latest Batman game because of it. I also didn't go back and do all the missions that I wanted on Dead Rising because of it. I also stopped going to school and the gym while with him, things that I should never have done. I'm doing those things again, and rediscovering who I am and learning new things about myself. I'm trying to change in good ways this time, and I'm learning a lot about change and myself along the way.

Why having a back up plan is important

Writing professionally has been my dream for as long as I can remember. While I know writing is what I want to do, and what I aim to do, I also know that I may not sell a single book. I, like everyone else with a dream, need to go after that dream while also working on a back up plan. I want to be able to support myself, even if I can't do it as a writer. I will also be happy writing even if I can't support myself. I will always write, even if it's just for me. In reality, most writers don't make enough to support themselves. It takes a lot of hard work to get your books out there and get reviews and sales. I'm truly happy for the people who have gone after their dream and do make enough to support themselves and are able to write full time, but that is not the average person.

Weekend Review: Deadpool

I love comic book movies, so I couldn't wait for Deadpool. I have enjoyed Deadpool in other media, but for I just found this movie to be ok. I felt like all the funny moments were in the trailer. I don't remember laughing the entire time that I was in the theater. The biggest problem that I have with this movie is that it is a love story. I know many other Marvel movies feature a love story, and that works for those movies. My favorite comic book movie of all time, The Crow (while not a Marvel movie) is a love story, and it works. It doesn't work for Deadpool, He never even had that much of a relationship with Vanessa in the comics, so it's odd that they paired him with her. I would have much preferred a movie with no romance. Why couldn't he have just wanted his face fixed? The movie was enjoyable, but not as much as I thought it would be.

Weekend Review: Warm Bodies

I had planned to do this review back in May (there was a draft of this from May), but for whatever reason I didn't. I was probably too busy searching for jobs or just dealing with life itself. I had also planned on comparing this to the movie, but I didn't get very far through it. I only read about half of this, and I do intend to finish the book. The book is divided into sections, and the first one is basically where he meet Juliet. I like the character of R, but not so much Juliet. She's different from the Juliet in the movie. She does drugs and does other things to abuse herself, she's even a cutter. R is different from who he is in the movie as well, instead of a hoodie he dons a business suit. The book is a good read, but it's been almost a year since I picked it up and I'm not sure what else to say about it, but I can't wait to finish it.