Etsy Shop Spotlight: Heart Felt Design

I'm always hunting around on Etsy for fun nerdy things and am amazed by the talent and creativity of some many shops I come across. One of my favorite past times is searching for Doctor Who stuff and that is how I came across this next shop.

Today, I'd like to feature Heart Felt Designs...

I feel for this shop because I think pillows are a lot more grown up looking for rooms than dolls or stuffed animals (though I have a few of those too). I just think that pillows are a great way to show off your nerdom without needing lots of shelf space. So I wanted to highlight a few awesome products from this shop that I would love to snag:

Harry Potter pillows ($30 each)

Made from top quality fabrics including anti pill fleece, allergen free fiber fill and eco friendly felt. All details are securely stitched on making this item safe for all ages. No fabric glue shortcuts here.

Anna and Elsa from Frozen ($30 each)

Supernatural's Dean, Sam and Cas ($30 each)

Link and Zelda ($30 each)

Harry Potter house ($35 each)

Aang and Appa ($30 each)

Sloth pillow ($30)

Hedwig pillow ($30)

As you can see, most of these in square and rectangular designs and are mostly $30. I think they are so stinking cute and would be perfect additions to my uber classy chairs. I can't have it too grown up in my writing room or it just won't be me.

What do you guys think of these fun throw pillow designs?

Etsy Shop Spotlight: KGkitten's Korner

So as you saw yesterday, I've been working hard to get our old office into top shape for a new writing room! I have most of the furniture finished at this point but I still need to get fun things on the bookshelves and on the walls. Though I'll be adding some of our papercraft shadowboxes, I also wanted to find some things on Etsy. I wanted to showcase a really cool shop I found... 

KGkitten's Korner

What drew me to this shop and my item spotlight is this gorgeous Doctor Who Melted Crayon Art which goes for $28-$38 depending on size...

The item is described as:

I know I'm not the only one who's had days or moments where I wish the Tardis would appear and take me away. Well this piece was inspired by one of those moments. When you really need an umbrella, The Doctor's got you covered.

*This is a made to order item and pictures are an example of what it will look like.*
Melted Crayon on canvas, with a glossy glaze finish.
14x18 inches

I think this is a classy way to display fandom because of the simplistic art. Plus, I love how the melted crayons look. I'm planning on ordering the larger canvas this week for my room!

But if Doctor Who isn't your thing, she also has two other cute versions.

Melted Crayon Art Girl ($20)

Melted Crayon Art Couple ($20)

How do you feel about the melted crayon art style? I think it could translate into a lot of cute fandom things like Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, Peter Pan and more!

Writing Room Refresh

My house has kind of become a war zone lately with our newest business. Papercraft has claimed our dining room, the room next to the kitchen and our extra bedroom. Chores have begin to slip through the cracks, especially right before convention time, and I've gone a little insane. Because of all this, it has become nearly impossible to write in my own house. 

When I sit down to write, I really need a clear head but how can I get to that space when there are cut paper kits sitting next to me that need to get done and sweeping? So my husband and I agreed that I needed to carve out my own little section in the house for a writing room.

Over the last few weekends, every moment of my free time has gone toward remodeling our office area into a calming oasis to write. I wanted to chronicle this journey since I am so proud of it!

The Bookshelves

The first thing I knew I was going to need was storage. I have two other bookshelves that are weighed down with books but I knew I wanted something to keep all my other things on. After searching the local thrift shops, I found twin tall bookshelves that were perfect. They costs me $75 for the pair (though since I got the desk with them, the whole thing only cost me $100) but they were pretty ugly. You can see what the looked like on the top left picture.

My best friend helped me pick out a color to spray paint them and then we decided to try our hand at wallpapering the backs. The top right photo is a picture of me laying the first piece of wall paper and the bottom left are the bookshelves just as my friend finished spray painting them. We brought them into the room, stapled the backs on and completed the first piece for the new writing room.

It took us about a day to finish sanding, painting and papering the shelves and cost me about $150 total. However, I think they look incredible and I imagine they would retail for a lot more than $150 so I am really pleased.

The Desk

In searching for a desk, it quickly became clear that the type of desk I wanted would need to be made. So after searching thrift stores, I picked up that mess of a thing in the top right and left corners. I really hated the black paint but I thought we could make it work.

My friend and I decided on a metallic silver for the desk because we thought it would make the room appear brighter. After sanding and spray painting it, we realized that there was a really big split in the front. If I had wanted the desk to face a wall, it wouldn't of mattered but I wanted the desk out. In order to hide the crack, we found some fun printed bird fabric and using spray adhesive, we cut the fabric to fit the desk panels.

In all, the desk took about half a day to transform. I'm still planning on getting a cute lining for inside the drawers but for now, I am really pleased with it. I wanted something big with lots of storage and this really fits the ticket. 

In a few weeks, I will order this to go on top of the desk exactly as it appears in the picture with a cute vase!:

Book Ornaments by Meiorigami

The Rest

After snagging a lighting fixture I'd already ordered and purchasing a rug and two chairs, my writing room is mostly complete! I'm still looking for fun decorative things on Etsy to fill the room with my personality but I am so pleased with the way it is coming out. Check out my awesome before and after picture:

The top left is before, the top right is during and the bottom two are after. Here is a photo of all the fun things around the room including my light fixture:

And here are two close ups of the room and the desk with the fabric panel on it.

The only things left to do are to get my computer set up and find a chair for the desk. I want something comfy, compact and stylish so I have a feeling I'll have to do a little looking. There is still some clutter on the other side of the room that we need to ship off but it is only a few sweeps away from being perfect. I am so proud that I was actually able to make this vision come true with a combination of purchasing and re-purposing. The bookshelves and desk have become my favorite parts!

Do you have a place where you go to read or write?

Some of the Reasons I Write and Read YA

Hey, I never claimed to be a whiz at titles...

Lately, I've been thinking about why I write YA. I know it's a question a lot of YA authors are asked for one reason or another and it's something my co-workers and people around me have starting asking me too. And when I explain what my book is about, I get this reaction:

"Oh, you wrote a book for teens? Isn't that nice."*

That reaction coupled with the fact that my husband and I have been on a nostalgia kick lately, really has me thinking what drew me to YA so strongly. But I guess to discuss this, I want to reveal when I found YA.

I've been writing ever since I can remember. The first thing I ever actually wrote into completion was a play for my third grade class about the planets. With the help of my classmates, we transformed the classroom into a space station and traveled space for a day. My classmates would read from a script I wrote when we arrived at each planet and I knew as I saw my words come to life that I wanted to be a writer.

I didn't seriously start writing until I was 15. I began writing this epic fantasy for 4 years that totaled about 400k words. When that book didn't pan out, I was kind of lost. I knew I wanted to write and I loved books like Maria V Snyder's Poison Study series. But I had no idea where to find them. One day I was walking up and down the bookstore aisles, trying to find something with magic and the exuberance I found in the pages of Garth Nix's Abhorsen series when I saw a book that caught my eye from across the store.

It was like love at first sight, like the powerful, overwhelming stuff I was soon going to be reading about in my books. It was a first.

That book was A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and what was underneath that beautiful cover was even better than I'd hoped for. I found passion, magic, and a hunger I hadn't been able to find in "adult books". What's more, I found the newness of firsts. First loves, first kisses, first parties, first drinks, first friendships. And I was hooked. I'd finally found a section in the bookstore I was passionate about.

The reason I write YA is because of all the things I mentioned above and one more. It goes back to that nostalgia kick I spoke about.

I'm going to make a statement: YA is fiction.

But that doesn't mean all fiction is made up.

I met and started dating my husband at the same age I started seriously writing. At 15, I knew I had found my soul mate, the person I was meant to be with. But no one would believe me. I saw the look in my parent's and other adult's eyes when I told them I loved Brian, that he was going to be around forever. They didn't believe me because we were young so we couldn't know, right?

Young Love by FDLphoto

I write YA fiction because I believe in it. I believe that a girl and a guy can see each other across the room at age 15 and know that they are in love, that they are meant to be because I lived it. Those feelings are powerful and hypnotic and I love reliving them. I love knowing that every time I write a good teen romance, I'm proving my parents and those other adults wrong. Even if the leads don't stay together, they have that time together and those feelings are real.

I write and read young adult fiction because it speaks to me and it makes me remember what it was like to experience firsts with a wild abandonment, unburdened by bills and paychecks and Important Adult Decisions. It allows me to fall in love over and over again for the first time.

I feel so honored to be part of a community that is so passionate about what they believe in and unabashed to show it. The YA community is one of the most supportive, kind and amazing communities I've ever experienced and I can't wait to continue reading and writing and living more firsts from all different types of protagonists.

Why do you love YA fiction?

* It should be said that this isn't always the reaction but I've been getting my fair share of it already.

Query Kombat 2014

I wanted to post a link to this writing contest that I found on Michelle4Laughs. I entered the manuscript that I found an agent with in several contest last year and though I ultimately didn't find an agent with those contests, I learned a whole lot about my writing. Contests are also a great place to meet fellow writers and hone in the ever elusive query letter.

If that isn't enough to convince you, yours truly will be a judge! You can meet all the judges here.

I think this contest is going to be really cool because it isn't going to be just one person that will decide which queries are going to go onto the next round. It's going to be multiple people that vote and the winner of each round will advance.

Also, we'll all be chatting on Twitter with the tag #QueryKombat.

Here are the basics on how this contest works straight from Michelle4Laughs blog post:

Query Kombat will host 64 kombatants in a single-elimination, tournament style query-off. Entries will go head to head (one on one) with one another until only ONE entry remains. There will be a total of six rounds in Query Kombat. 64 entries in round one, 32 in round two, 16 in round three, 8 in round four, 4 in round five, and 2 in round six.

As we said, some things have changed. We’re doing away with tournament brackets this year. Instead, Kombats will be matched up based on target audience and genre. We'll continue grouping that way until it's no longer possible. 

If you secure a spot in the tournament, your query and the first 250 words of your manuscript (to the end of a complete sentence) will be pitted against another query and first 250 words. Judges will read each match-up and vote 'Victory' on the best entry. Remember, this is subjective. Considering last year, votes may come down to personal tastes. 

The entry with the most ‘victories’ at the end of the round will advance to the next round until only one champion remains.

One of the biggest changes we’re implementing this year is doing away with the mentor round. Why? Because we're moving up the agent round. Yes! You read correctly. This year the agent round will be held right after the first round. That mean 32 entries will make it into the agent round. 32!.

The submission window opens May 22nd AT NOON and will close at May 23rd at 11:59 or until they received 225 entries.

If you have a completed and polished manuscript, you should definitely consider entering. Not only could an agent see your manuscript but you can get lots of advice on how to make your query stronger.

Have you ever entered a writing contest before?

The Pros to Beta Reading

I've been stuck in the editing cave for the last few weeks. Not only have I been working on my own novel but I've been lucky enough to beta-read one of Katie's (over at One Page At a Time YA Books) manuscripts as well. I'm a very slow reader so sometimes it's easy for me to become engrossed in my own work and forget to read other things. Going through this other manuscript has reminded me why it is so important to read stuff besides my own words. I thought it might be nice to share a few things I've learned.

1) Gaining a fresh perspective- I know that a lot of the time, I get stuck in my own head. That means that I only see situations from one side. Naturally this bleeds into my characters and sometimes they react in predictable ways. Instead of looking at a situation from multiple perspectives, I opt for the one I think about first and assume that is the natural reaction.

Not so.

Beta reading has helped remind me that people react differently to every situation. Just because I would assume one thing doesn't mean another person would react in a different way and that's good. All my characters have different backgrounds and should see situations in different lights.

2) Admiring another writer's strengths- I know there are things I'm not great at. We all have flaws when we write and sometimes seeing how someone else handles things we are bad is a great learning experience. I'm not saying to outright copy what that writer is doing but it is interesting to break down how they handle a situation that you are bad at.

MissMimee

3) Allowing your mind to think about other plots and characters- I find myself daydreaming about this book I'm reading like I would my own work. I think about how I would write certain scenes and where I would take the novel. I play the guessing game and see if I'm correct in figuring out where the plot is going. This gets my mind active and I find that when I return to my own characters and stories, they are richer for it.

4) Having fun- This kind of goes hand and hand with the last one but I find that I have a lot fun beta reading. I think it is because I get an inside look at how a story takes shape and sometimes I can help make it better. It doesn't hurt that I don't have to do all the work that comes after. =P

Do have you beta read for someone or are you thinking about it? I haven't done it too much because I'm such a slow reader but I think I need to start doing it more, I'm really enjoying it and I'm learning a lot along the way.

What are some of the things you learn when you beta?

Etsy Shop Highlight: NiftyNeat

I've been working on redoing my library and changing it into a writing room. I want a place where I can walk in, close the door and just write. So I knew I wanted to be surrounded by stuff that will inspire my creativity. I redid some bookshelves that I'll post about in a few days but I wanted to highlight a shop I found on Etsy that I plan on ordering from shortly.

The shop is NiftyNeat and I found it because I was looking for something adorable to hang from my ceilings. Then I found these:

Book Mobile 1

They are made from books and this shop is selling them for a very reasonable $32.00. How cute are these for a library/office? 

Here are a few others from the shop that I love:

Book Mobile with Hearts $35

Book Mobile 2 $32

Rain Cloud Mobile $35

Rain Cloud Mobile w/ Mint Drops $60

As I mentioned, I'll be ordering two of these in the near future to hang from my ceiling. I think they are going to look adorable. Would you considering snagging a book mobile or trying to make one yourself?