Meeting Nicholas Sparks

I've been reading Nicholas Sparks' books since I was in my early high school years. I remember when I came across The Notebook. I was perusing through my high school library in search of an actual good book to read. I loved reading back then, but I was notorious for never reading assigned books for class. It probably stems from the fact that I like reading at my own pace, and enjoying it while doing it. So there I was, checking out The Notebook and telling myself I would just get the sparks notes on To Kill A Mockingbird and watch the movie. I would do just fine on the daily quizzes. False.

This first Nicholas Sparks book drew me in. The connection that you build between characters makes you feel like you know these people and are a part of their lives. You're transported to these picturesque small towns, the ones you would love to live in but don't believe actually exist. Soon I was reading as many of his books as I could. During these first few years it wasn't hard to read all of the titles written by him, he was still a new author. New books would always come out in the fall. I began putting whatever book had come out that fall on my Christmas list each year. 

This year I started to look around when I saw Mr. Sparks advertising his new book on Facebook. On a whim I decided to look at his website to see if he would be doing a book tour. If you don't know this author, you don't know that he's a lover of North Carolina. All of his books are set somewhere in that state. I bring this up because he doesn't get up to my parts very often. More of an East coaster. To my surprise he had a date scheduled to visit Seattle on his tour! I grabbed tickets immediately.

The event featured a talk between Nicholas and an interviewer, a Q&A, and then a meet and greet with pictures. I haven't been to many of these events before but I learned quite a bit and was very pleased with it. Nicholas offered some great insight to his writing and to those trying to become writers. One thing he mentioned about writing was that you cannot be a great writer without reading a lot. You learn how to write by reading the works of others. He offered to those trying to write similarly to him that in order to do that, they have to read what he has read. He further discussed writing by explaining his own approach to the types of books he writes. You cannot put his books into one category, he explained. They aren't just romance like some people think. There are multiple types of genres going on. What's more important to him is having his readers experience a whole plethora of emotions when reading his books. He wants them to feel happiness, love, sadness, loss. Everything. That way when you've completed a book, you have felt connected and moved by it. As he said: "Every great love ends in tragedy". Even if the relationship is great, we all die at some point. Sounds kind of morbid but when you think about it, it makes sense.

Overall, it was an extremely refreshing experience. This man is very down to earth, and appears to be just the man you would expect him to be when you read his books. His wife is one lucky lady.

Something Old

Happy last day of Blogtember!



For our final prompt of the month we are to share a picture of something old. I have been so fortunate to have received family pieces from my mother that came from both sides of my family. It's hard to choose just one to share about because they all bring so much happiness to me. To see the history and to bring it along with me as I go through life. One Christmas my father framed the picture above along with one other framed picture. They both are of my grandfather. My grandfather was one of the most wonderful men I have ever known. I am so fortunate that I got to enjoy being around him for twenty of his ninety some years. Without this man I wouldn't of had the opportunity to go to the University I chose. He set up an educational fund for my siblings and I when we were very young because he knew the importance of an education. The man didn't go to school himself, but ran his own business for many years. I think he saw more for his grand kids though. He saw that in this day and age education is a must. He didn't want us to be burdened by money issues when thinking about what we wanted to do with our lives because that sadly happens when it shouldn't. I am forever thankful for his generosity and support. When I walked across that stage on graduation day, and when I started my first day of training for my career, I thought of him. I wished so hard in those very moments that he was there to experience them with me. To know that without him, I might not have the wonderful life that I live. The two pictures my dad gave me sit up on my dresser so that everyday I have a little piece of him with me to remind me of where I come from and how fortunate I am.

I love you, Grandpa.

Dear Facebook Friends...

Ok, So I'm a little late on this post but during the past few days I've realized that I really need to do this blog prompt, even if it is late. Also, this isn't really a letter to my Facebook friends but more to those "friends" who drive me nuts yet I don't delete them because they kind of make me feel better about myself. Am I going to hell for saying this? So here goes:

Dear Facebook "friends"-
I'm writing you to thank you for giving me entertainment. Sometimes when you post statuses like this one

I really have to pause for a minute and reflect on a few things. First, how did we ever become friends on facebook? Because I dated someone you knew from back in the day and therefore thought it was appropriate to friend request me, and then I for whatever reason at the time thought it was a good idea to accept? I'm too nice? Second, I cannot believe you are comparing two really awful things and making it sound like one is better than the other. Is one really better than the other...I'm just seeing two real bad situations that I don't ever want to be a part of. Congrats on staying out of jail and getting placed on house arrest instead. A great life accomplishment.

I think we all have a few "friends" on Facebook that provide us entertainment, and sadly (or not) you are one of those "friends" for me. I wish I knew that I'd be writing about this on my blog one day because I would have been documenting your status updates a little bit more so I could share my laughs with the blogging world. Sometimes I don't know if you realize how you look to the world when you post these statuses. Maybe I'm being too mean, but I really don't need to know about your child's potty happenings. That's just going too far.

Bottom line: I'm not going to delete you because I get a good laugh at you and your status updates make me feel a bit better about myself when I'm having a rough day.

Sincerely,

PS. I hope I didn't offend anyone with my facebook "rant" :-) I promise I'm not mean.

Writing in the Coffee Shop

Blogtember! We're almost done..

Today's prompt tells me that I need to go to a coffee shop and write. Just write. This is hard for me to do since I normally don't know what to write about, hence why I jumped on Blogtember for the month. I have to tell you something. I'm not at a coffee shop writing this. I'm at home. On my couch. I wanted to go to a coffee shop, and had all the intentions to. However, life gets in the way and I'm left with not much time and definitely no time for a trip to a coffee shop. Shoot, I'm just happy that I'm typing up a post at all so lets pretend I'm sitting in the coffee shop pictured above (Which I was, about six months ago).

Let's talk about blogging. Am I the only one on here that feels like they need to attend Blogging 101? I have loved writing in my blog and have loved reading others blogs even more, but I feel like I'm missing out on things. For starters, how do I reply to people's blog comments so that it gets sent to their email and not just posted on my blog? Does that happen automatically? I would love to learn how to manage my side bar so that if I ever decide to take on sponsors, I can easily put their pretty buttons on my page. It would even be cool to eventually learn some blog design stuff. I don't even know if any place offers a basic blogging class, but I feel like it's probably offered at the learning annex and will be filled with senior citizens. I would love it if anyone out there has any great tips or blogs/posts that they can throw my way to help with my situation. I'm not super tech savvy, but I feel like some of the things I'd like to do are pretty basic.

So there you have it, the ramblings of a wannabe blogger trying to be a better blogger. I hope I actually make it to a coffee shop soon to write, maybe it will give me better inspiration.

Goodnight.

At Least You're in Tuscany..

I've been meaning to do a book review for a little while now so I am happy to see today's Blogtember! prompt. It is as follows: Review a book, place or product.

A month or so ago I learned about NetGalley. Have you heard of it? If you love to read books on your kindle/iPad/e-reader, but get annoyed at having to pay money to read then look this site up! You can request books from all sorts of authors. They either deny or allow you to download and read their books. It's a good idea to fluff up your profile and mention things that a publisher would like to hear. Tell them you'll do a review on your blog or review it on Amazon.com. I'm not very quick on my reviews, but I still do them. The first NetGalley book I read was so-so. I ended up only doing a review on Amazon. I liked the book I'm about to review more than the last one so I figured it was deserving of a blog post :-)

At Least You're in Tuscany is a story of a real life attorney turned writer who up and leaves her life in New York city, packs up a few belongings, her dog and heads to start a new life in Tuscany. The book chronicles the ups and downs (a lot of downs!) of what it entails to move to an entirely foreign country that speaks a different language than you, and has different customs and traditions. What I loved the most about this book (besides her way of writing) was the lack of sugar coating what was really occurring while she was on this adventure. I think it would be very easy for her to make up a beautiful story about how she lived in a cute little cottage, fell in love with an amazing Italian stallion, and lived happily ever after. I appreciate the honesty and reality of her situation. She had struggles. It took Jennifer a long time to secure employment, and part of that was the difficulty with getting her citizenship in order. She found romance, but realized it wasn't the kind she wanted. She had to patiently wait and work hard to sharpen her Italian language skills. I felt as if I could relate to some of the things she was going through. Those make for the best books.

There were at times some slow moments, and I did struggle with not finishing it as fast as I wanted to, but as I mentioned-this was a true story. There was no hyping it up to make the story better to try and get more readers. It has always been a dream of mine to visit Tuscany so that was what drew me to this book in the first place. In reading this, I definitely still plan on making it to Tuscany one day. 

Even if this book doesn't interest you, still go check out NetGalley. It's pretty stinkin awesome to be able to score free books to read.