Category Archives: tags & awards

the candy book tag

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve been tagged for anything, but gosh, I do love tags. They’re so… so sweet. And this one happens to be ESPECIALLY sweet (har-har). If you don’t have something yummy nearby, better grab it ’cause this tag’s definitely going to make you hungry.

emily

Thanks to Izel for tagging me in the candy book tag! I’ve seen it around on other blogs and love it. So first off, the rules…

  • When you are tagged, please thank the blogger who tagged you! (Check! Thanks again, Izel!)
  • No one is obligated to participate, even if you are tagged.
  • If you decide to join in, please answer the questions and tag 5 other bloggers.
  • Please notify the people you’ve selected when they are tagged!

Let’s get started with the questions!

rocky road – a series or author that you have a complicated (er… rocky) relationship with

I’ve got two authors for this one. First off, Morgan Matson – because I loved her book, Second Chance Summer – it was sweet and sad and summery and SO DARN CUTE. But then, unfortunately, I was thoroughly disappointed with her other two books even though I really wanted to love them. And then there’s Sarah Dessen… *sigh* Again, I *want* to like them (I read one of her books in the 6th grade, mainly because I got sucked into it)… but they’re rather inappropriate for me, albeit easy to get into. Ugh.

laffy taffy – a book that stuck in your mind long after you finished reading it (or in the case of the candy, stuck in your teeth)

I’m going to go with The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. I only finished it last week but I already know it’s going to stick with me for a long time. Definitely a new favorite book! (Pleeeeaaase go read it!!)

mint chocolate – a book that everyone loved, but you didn’t

Well, about a year and a half ago, when I first started blogging – everyone was reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. At the time I didn’t follow many blogs who read books was into (aka: cleaner books) and thought “why not give it a try?” Aside from the dirty content of the book, I hated the main character, Cath (who was an “introverted,” uber shy bookworm – or fangirl) and I DNF’d it. It just wasn’t for me.

sugar-free candy – a book that just didn’t make any sense

Hmmmm… this is a tough one. Truthfully, I don’t really know of any books that didn’t make sense. I guess I don’t even bother with those types of books. (Just like I don’t really bother with sugar-free candy, LOL!)

sweethearts – a book that made you go “aww…”

I always feel warm and fuzzy when I read The Mother-Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick. It’s reminiscent for me to read the books (I’ve re-read them again and again for about four years now!) and the girls are just so adorable. Also: The Selection series! I wouldn’t necessarily label it as a “light” book, but Maxon and America are SO CUTE I want to squeal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes that called for that many exclamation points.)

kit kat – a book that everyone needs to read

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak. It’s definitely a book I’d recommend to anyone – boy, girl, young, old. Markus Zusak’s writing is so rich and unique. The book is a tad confusing in the beginning, but it’s one of those books that comes together so beautifully in the end. Here’s the movie trailer, but promise me you’ll read the book first! Thank me later, okay?!

snickers brand mixed nut bar (coming november 2015)… a book you are excited for

The Golden Braid by Melanie Dickerson. You all know I’m an avid fan of Miss Dickerson’s books, and this one hits shelves November 17th. I’ve got it on my Kindle as an ARC, but unfortunately I don’t think I’ll have time to read it before the 17th. Most likely I’ll still end up buying it, because I own all of Melanie’s books and I definitely want to read this!

TAG YOU’RE IT: Madi // Trisha // Ana // Katie // Grace

I hope everyone I’ve tagged can participate!

so, bloglings. what is YOUR favorite candy? (reese’s fan over here!) and tell me a book that’s similar to the candy listed above!

Emily

behind the scenes writer’s tag

Hello, everybody! It’s been a while since Katie has tagged me to do this, but finally here it is! You may or may not know, but I love to write – just as much as I do reading. (Even though I don’t write as often as I read… which I really need to change.) I don’t share my writings online very much (I get nervous sharing my writing and I would like to have a book of mine published someday, so I don’t want to put anything out there without knowing what I’ll do with it) but I still love doing writing tags and talking about it! So here goes nothing!

is there a certain snack you like to eat while writing?

I don’t usually eat while writing, because I type or use a pen or pencil and don’t like getting my hands greasy and everything. Pluuuus crumbs and all that. But chocolate always inspires me. Just sayin’.

when do you normally write?

I typically write in the afternoon, after my schoolwork’s out of the way, and before dinner/shower/TV time. 🙂 (I have my routine, and I like to stick to it!) I write the stories I write for fun, the story I send to Rachel Coker for writing lessons, and blog posts! Oh, and I can’t forget journal entries! (I write a LOT, okay?)

where do you write?

I start out my desk… but then everything starts hurting from sitting in the chair so long annnnd I end up in my bed. (I love my bed. It is the comfiest bed in the world, I promise you.) If nobody is in  the living room or dining room (we have my favorite arm chair in a corner of the dining room) and it’s pretty quiet I’ll go in there, too.

how often do you write a new novel?

More often than I like! I hate to admit it, but most of the time I’ll start a novel and get about 6-10,000 words in and get another idea in my head and start that! I have a ton of ideas floating around and tiny alter-egos of myself in my head. I just can’t stick to one!

It’s like this in my brain all the time.

do you listen to music while you write?

YES! I use Rainy Cafe  a good majority of the time if I’m in the zone and the words are too distracting. But if I’m in the mood for music, I’ll end up listening to the 2005 Pride & Prejudice soundtrack (even if you haven’t seen the movie, the music is BEAUTIFUL – go listen to it!) or the Speak Now album by Taylor Swift. I don’t know. Somehow it just… speaks to me.

Hahahahahaha. I just HAD to.

what do you write on? laptop or paper?

Laptop, usually. I write my ideas for stories in a notebook and I use my diary. But I do love my laptop because I can type faster. And it’s my baby!! LOL. Best Christmas present ever, thanks mom and dad. 😉

is there a special ritual you have before/after you write?

Special ritual? Ummm, not 100% sure what kind of special ritual one would have. Does cracking my knuckles and making sure I’ve got water and used the restroom beforehand count? Yes, I do that. I’m going to be there for a while, right?!

what do you do to get into the mood to write?

PINTEREST. Seriously, it inspires and gets me all hyped up in NO time. If you’re a fellow writer and have not discovered Pinterest as a #1 writing source, GO. NOW. Flock to the all-mighty, beautiful, wonderful thing that is PINTEREST. Here’s one of the boards for one of my WIP’s (Work-In-Progress) I’ve been writing.

what is always near the place you write?

A tall glass of water, like I said. Also a blanket to cuddle up in and a ton of other pages open on the computer!! Pinterest, Goodreads, the blog, the ush.

do you have a reward system for your word count?

Well, I’m copying what Katie said, ’cause she said it pretty perfectly. “Honestly, I’m not sure how I would reward myself. I mean, I already waste enough time on social media, so I don’t want to give myself more time with that. I think the reward is just being done. :p”

is there anything about your writing process that others might not know about?

Sure, tons. Like, for instance, I use WAAAYY too many adjectives. I don’t title any of my stories until I finish them. So I just title the story on my computer the name of the main character. I have several documents named “Emma,” “Catherine,” etc. And I’m also a total panster. Meaning: I don’t plan out any of my stories. I usually have a basis for the story – name of the characters, overall plotline – but most of the time I have no clue what I’m doing. My fingers just roll with it!

Thank you so much for tagging me, Katie! Go check out her blog, everyone, it’s a gold mine. 😉

And I tag….

Audrey @ The Measure of a Book // Amanda @ Scattered Journal Pages // Daisy @ A Bookish Flower

Hope all of you lovely ladies can answer these questions and do the tag on your blogs!

And YOU! Can’t wait to see all of your tags! 😉

i’d love to hear about YOUR writing process! anything and everything, just comment below! 🙂

Emily

 

the name game & social media book tags

Most of you know how much I love doing tags. (And if you didn’t know that, now you do!) I love getting tagged, and they’re my favorite posts to read on other people’s blogs. Recently, I was tagged by Madi to do the name game book tag and Daisy to do the social media book tag, so I thought, “Why not do both at once?” Twice the fun, right?? Thank you so much, Madison and Daisy, for tagging me! I got both in my email at the same time and it made me day! 🙂

emily

the name game book tag

The rules of this tag are simple: for each letter of your name, recommend a favorite book that starts with that letter. It looks pretty cool, but I have no clue what I’m going to do for E or Y… or I!

E: Every Soul A Star by Wendy Mass. Well, that just popped into my brain! Not as hard as I thought! I read this in fourth or fifth grade. I was a HUGE Wendy Mass fan back in the day! Her switching perspectives are the bomb, and this one is particularly hilarious.

M: Matched by Allie Condie. Stealing this one from Madison’s tag! She’s the one who got me to read this book, and I can’t wait to see how I like the next two books in the trilogy. I love talking about it with her, though we’ll have to agree to disagree on who Cassia is supposed to be matched with, haha! *swoon*

I: Interrupted: A Life Beyond Words by Rachel Coker. Can we just take a few years to recognize the AWESOMENESS that is this book?! It is by far one of my favorite, favorite books of ever. It’s a WWII love story/Christian fiction/girl-becomes-Christian book… it’s just sooo good, alright?

emily

L: Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Stargirl and Love, Stargirl are both under appreciated books by Jerry Spinelli, and I loved them both! I have to admit, though, I much preferred Love, Stargirl – even though it’s the sequel, which is rare for me.

Y: I DON’T KNOW I CANNOT find a book for this one!! Any ideas?

Thanks again, Madison! This was a lot of fun. Except for Y. That one is super hard.

the social media book tag

This is a pretty self-explanatory one, so I’m just going to delve right in.

Twitter: Your favorite short book. I’m copying Daisy over here by picking the first book in the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. It’s when the main characters are five, so it’s an easy one!

Facebook: A book everyone pressured you into reading. I’m going to go with… Cinder by Marissa Meyer. At the time I’m writing this, I HAVEN’T read it yet, but everyone I talk to who has read it loves it and they’re practically at my feet begging me to read it! So I shall!

Tumblr: A book you read before it was cool. Hm. I’m going to have to think about this one. I read a lot of less popular books, but I can’t really think of one I read before it became popular. Maybe… The Book Thief by Markus Zusak? I read it a good while before the movie was even announced, but I don’t know.

MySpace: A book you can’t remember if you liked or not. This is a tough one. I have an elephant’s memory. Really – even without book reviews, I remember nearly every book I read. I’m going to tweak this one and make it “A book you don’t know why you liked.” Lol! Annnd I’m going to say The Gossip File by Anna Staniszewski. I reviewed it last February and gave it three stars… but still… I don’t remember it even being that good.

Instagram: A book so beautiful you had to Instagram it. A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd! I’m reading it right now and I think I may just marry this cover. I love it so much!

YouTube: A book you wish could be turned into a movie. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein OR The Selection by Kiera Cass OR The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen! The last two are currently being considered for movies and you have NO idea how excited I am!

Skype: A book with characters you wish you could talk to, not just read about. Are you kidding me?! Is this even a question?? I would love to this with all the books I read. BUT if I had to choose just one… I would probably go with either The Mother-Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick (because Emma Hawthorne and I are one-in-the-same) or The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen *spoiler alert!* (because I’m secretly dating Jaron and I need to talk to my boyfriend, duh.) *end of spoiler!*

Goodreads: A book you recommend to everyone. The Book Thief. Code Name Verity. The Ascendance Trilogy. The Selection series. All of Ann M. Martin’s books. All of Rachel Coker’s books.

who do i tag?

YOU! You’re it! If you decide to do either one of these tags (or both!) let me know in the comments. I can’t wait to see your posts, everyone!

Emily

 

infinity dreams award

Hi, guys! Recently, Audrey nominated me for the Infinity Dreams Award, and it looks like a lot of fun. I love doing tags and awards because – hello – who doesn’t love talking about themselves?! Audrey has some lovely questions, and then I’ll be nominating a few of my favorite blogs with some questions for them!

Rules:

-Thank the person who nominated you (thank you so, so, so much, Audrey!)

-Answer their 11 questions

-Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 questions (I’m going to only nominate three or four people, if that’s okay.)

Now for Audrey’s questions!

1.) You get to meet and spend the day with one of your favorite authors. Who is it?

Rachel Coker. I love Rachel’s blog posts, her books, and her GORGEOUS Instagram feed (her photography is stunning!) In June, I was originally supposed to go the Rachel’s dream factory workshop, and I was STOKED. Unfortunately, it got cancelled, but I would still love to meet her one day. (Hopefully at the next Dream Factory Workshop!) 🙂

2.) What are some of the books on your TBR (to-be-read) list?

Oh, gosh… there are so many. I have 60 or 70 books on my Goodreads want-to-read list, but you’re welcome to check those out here. THESE are the books I own and haven’t read yet…

emily
Fun fact: Half A Chance & Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, & The Good Luck Circle are signed! … making me even more guilty I haven’t read them!

Hopefully someday I’ll finish them… today (August 8th when I’m writing this), I’ve got about a hundred pages left in Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters, which is a book I’ve had for several months and haven’t read – and I LOVE IT! (As I knew I would!)

emily

3.) How do you like to store/display your book collection?  Why?

I’ve always loved the idea of organizing my books by color, or something more decorative like that, but I really like the way I have them now. All of my books are organized by genre, and then if I have multiple books by an author, they go together. (But not in alphabetical order by an author’s name.) I like it organized by genre so that I can easily find the type of book I’m looking for. You can see my bookshelf tour here. It has changed a bit (the binder and notebooks have been moved underneath my bed – in a neat stack, I promise!), but as far as the genres and what’s on each shelf – it’s pretty much the same.

emily

4.) You get to jump into any fictional story…  What world are you going to join?

Ooh, goodness. (I’m looking at my bookshelf right now trying to decide!) Probably Pumpkin Falls from Heather Vogel Frederick’s Absolutely Truly, or the kingdom of Illea from The Selection world. Pumpkin Falls is just so quaint and cozy, and there’s a cute little bookstore! And Illea… well, I’d probably make a beeline to the castle to tell Miss Snooty-Pants Eadlyn what’s what. 😉

emily

5.) Once upon a time, you did something really stupid a really long time ago, but you still think about it to this day.  What was it?

Ohhhhh lord, there are SO many stupid things! 😀 Lol. I’m the worst at thinking up things I did four or five years ago late and night and regretting them… even though I was only in second or third grade. Let’s see if I can think of one that’s not too embarrassing to share. Alright, I think I’ve come up with one. It IS very, very embarrassing, but it was six years ago… so it’s not too recent!

I was in first or second grade and I remember being in the gym during P.E. SOME how or another, I sort of… wet my pants. I don’t even remember how, or why – maybe I laughed too hard, or didn’t go to the bathroom in time?! I DON’T KNOW. Either way, I was MORTIFIED. My pants were soaked, so I told my teacher that the water fountain splashed me (a lame excuse, because how is the water fountain supposed to soak the backside of your pants?! I’m pretty sure she knew the truth.) I ended up sitting in the front office and the lady at the front desk asked me if I had an accident. I told her no, of course, but again, most likely they knew the truth! I’m just hoping my other classmates didn’t notice. Luckily, my mom came with a clean pair of pants. 😀 I can still feel my face heating up at the thought of it! I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed since then – well, that might not be true, but I’ll share some more recent stories in five or six years when it’s not quite as recent. Ha!

6.) What are some books you love that you wish had larger fandoms?

Well, definitely Rachel Coker’s books (Audrey started a board on Pinterest called the “Rachel Coker Fandom Board” here! 😀 ) But also Ann M. Martin’s books. She doesn’t even have a website! D: I love Miss Martin’s books sooo much, and they’re exactly the kind of books I’d want to write. (Not so much The Babysitter’s Club Books; although I do love them, they’re not my favorite by Ann M. Martin.) I especially love The Main Street series and The Family Tree series. 🙂

emily

7.) Tea or coffee?

Coffee… with lots of creamer!

8.) Cake or ice cream?

Ice cream! (Moose tracks, please! … and in second place, I’d take butter pecan, as well.) 😉

9.) What do you want to do when you ‘grow up?’

Write books… probably within that 12-15ish age group; similarly to Ann M. Martin’s books. (PLEASE go read them! They’re so good!) And it’s also a dream of mine to open a bookstore. I’ve even picked out the little square I’d want to open it – it’s the prettiest place ever with cute little shops, but it DOESN’T HAVE A BOOKSTORE! Those two things I definitely see myself doing… and I always see cute little kids in the picture, too. I want to be a mom, for sure – SOMEDAY! 😉

Best. Movie. Ever 🙂

10.) Do you write?  If so, tell us a little about one of your characters.

Yes, I do! Um… alright, let me pick one. 😉 One of my favorite characters actually isn’t a main character in a story I’m writing; she’s the older sister of my main character. Originally, her name was Faith, but whenever I typed her name, I would accidentally type ‘Fate,’ and auto correct kept wanting to say ‘Fate,’ too. (WHY, I don’t know… auto correct never makes sense!) So I changed it to Fate because I rather liked it, and it was a little different, but still close to the sound of Faith. She’s more reserved and quiet than her sister (Rowan), and she likes to paint – something I envy, because if I could draw, or paint, or anything artsy, I’d love it! Even though she’s quiet, when she does talk, she’s very… eloquent, and knows exactly what to say.

11.) What is your favorite part about blogging?

My favorite part of blogging is talking to everyone in the comments! I love discussing books and bookish things with other girls my age, because it gets lonely not having anyone to talk to about books offline. It’s sort of like a virtual book club. It’s so much fun. I’ve made lots of good friends from book blogging… plus it’s easy to be more outgoing online! Come on, don’t deny it. 😉

You said it, Darcy.

Thanks again, Audrey, for nominating me! These questions were a lot of fun. 🙂

Now for my nominees and questions!

I nominate… Ana at Butterflies of the Imagination // Jillian at Jillian’s Books // Bella at Ciao Bella!

Here are my questions:

1.) What are some of your favorite childhood books?

2.) What is your dream career?

3.) Chocolate or fruity candy?

4.) What is one thing you love about being a bookworm?

5.) What’s your favorite type of music?

6.) Who is someone that has inspired you, and what did they inspire? (Author, parent/relative, book character, anyone!) 🙂

7.) What is one item in your room that you value most?

8.) Favorite past time… aside from reading! 🙂

9.) Do you have any pets? What are their names/what are they like? And if you DON’T have pets, what kind of pet would you like to have?

10.) How do you organize your bookshelf?

11.) Sweatpants, jeans, or skirts? 🙂

I hope Ana, Jillian, and Bella can join in the award!

feel free to leave a comment answering some of my or audrey’s questions! tell me a little about yourself!

Emily