Category: Uncategorized

2020 Reading, Blogging and Writing Goals

Hi everyone. I am setting some goals this year that I hope to reach. Here’s my way of trying to share what I want to work on! I’m using a bullet journal to track these. We’ll see how well this goes. I’ll give an update for these come July. ~Reading~ 100 Books – My Goodreads goal is 100 once again, this goal is no issue given my audiobook listening. I’m really interested in seeing how many I’ve listened to by July. Physical Reading – I want to read at least one physical book in a month. Reading has been really, really difficult for me and I want to actually do the physical act. Note-Taking – In addition to that, I also want to write notes after listening and reading books. They really do help when writing reviews. Classics – As usual, I want to try reading classics is my standard goal that I never seem to do. I’m aiming for listening to just one a month through audiobooks. eARCs – I currently have, I believe, eight out and I want to get those read and reviewed. ~Blogging~ Consistent Blogging – I’m aiming to blog a lot more this year. I’ve missed […]

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Posted January 14, 2020 by Amber in Uncategorized / 600 Comments

Shattering Stigmas 5.0. – Wrap-Up!

Hi everyone! I meant to have this post up days ago but you know how life goes. This month has been absolutely chaotic AND amazing. Mostly amazing. Mostly because I co-hosted this lovely event which I love so much! October is not even over yet but it’s coming so fast! The past two weeks have flown by, I say that all the time, but it seriously feels like everything came so quickly. Taylor (the fantastic host), Shannon, Mari (the amazing fellow co-hosts) and I have been working on this since August. August seems so long ago even though it was barely a month and a half ago. I’ve made some big changes since then! Some directly involved with co-hosting this event so they were unexpected surprises! It gives me another reason to love Shattering Stigmas. I started therapy, I did some re-connecting, I had great people on my blog, I was able to read so many fantastic posts and help fight against the mental health stigma. What is better than that? I always love the chance to reach out and help with mental-health related things. Doing Shattering Stigmas was such an honor. I had a small but lovely group of […]

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Posted October 22, 2019 by Amber in Uncategorized / 764 Comments

Shattering Stigmas: Understanding Her Mental Health by Kimberly Canady

Today for Shattering Stigmas, Kimberly is sharing her story with mental health and what she’s learned about herself. Hi everyone! My name is Kimberly (she/her) and for the Shattering Stigmas event I’ve decided to discuss with you all my journey with mental health, both in a general sense and based on my own experiences. I’ve shared bits and pieces across social media about my anxiety and experiencing anxiety/panic attacks but not about how I came to learn about this part of myself; today I’d like to change that. During high school, I didn’t really fit in with my peers. Sure there were people I would’ve considered my friends (though this wasn’t exactly consistent throughout the time I was in school) and they weren’t negative towards me in any way, there was just this feeling in the back of my mind where I knew I was never going to be an essential member of a friend group. There were times when I spent lunch on my own and that made me feel really lonely. The way I found I could get through these feelings was by watching YouTube videos. I would say around a year after getting into watching […]

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Posted October 9, 2019 by Amber in Guest Posts, Uncategorized / 614 Comments

Shattering Stigmas 5.0 – Introduction Post

Hi everyone! Welcome! I’m so excited for October for so many reasons, besides the Fall (Winter?) weather coming and it also being my birthday – Shattering Stigmas! It’s here once again!! I cannot believe this it’s fifth year. How did this even happen? In case you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, I will share below. Shattering Stigmas was created by Shannon at It Starts At Midnight in 2015. Here’s the archive where you can read past posts on her blog. It was made to shatter stigmas and bring more awareness to mental health and mental illness in the YA bookish community. Since it’s creation, there’s been many co-hosts over the past year. It is an amazing event and I’m so lucky to be able to help out this year! The other lovely co-hosts are Taylor, Shannon and Mari. I will link their Twitter accounts and blogs below so you can follow along. We will also have a couple giveaways going on. To be honest, I’ve wanted to participate in co-hosting since it’s second year. I was ridiculously excited when Taylor let me(!!) be a co-host. I love the message behind this and it’s overall such an amazing, inspiring event […]

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Posted October 6, 2019 by Amber in Uncategorized / 494 Comments

Shattering Stigmas 5.0 – Seeking Participants

Hey everyone! It’s August which means it is almost time for Shattering Stigmas. Shattering Stigmas is a two week blogging event for readers, authors, bloggers, etc. to come together to help destigmatize mental illness. It was first created by Shannon from It Starts At Midnight. She co-hosted with Inge and Kayla. Since then, others have co-hosted the event. This year it’s co-hosts are Taylor, Shannon, Ben, Mari and I. Yes, that’s right. I finally get the chance to help co-host the event that broke down the walls between my mental health and the bookish community. During Shattering Stigmas in 2016, I posted anonymously on Shannon’s blog. I suppose my posting anonymously showed how stigmatized mental illness and mental health really is, even in an event trying NOT to. Shattering Stigmas takes place October 6th-October 19th. I need participants! It is also my birthday month if that’s more of a nudge. 😂 Participants have pretty free rein here. Here are some ideas: Personal post about your journey A discussion on mental illness Write about a book that helped you see yourself or maybe see something ghoul hadn’t before. A book review An interview between me and you The only goal is that […]

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Posted August 18, 2019 by Amber in Uncategorized / 914 Comments

Poetic Justice: Blessen Brocke

Hi everyone! It has been such a hectic month for me. I needed to put Poetic Justice on a hiatus which lasted longer than anticipated due to that. I am back though and I’ll be sharing what’s been up with me at a later time. Now, let me share Blessen’s interview. You can also see their previous post here. Poetic Justice is a month long event, beginning April 1st to April 30th in honor of National Poetry Month. Throughout April there will be interviews, guest posts, excerpts and other poetic posts. I hope you will follow along. To read the introductory post, you can find out more here If you read fiction aside from poetry, how does that affect your own writing? It forces me to think in opposition to avoid unintentional copying (in my mind at least). I don’t apply that to romance (or a lack thereof) or deep emotional experiences. Where do you gather inspiration to write? I people watch, and create hypothetical situations or draw from my own limited experiences. Do you ever deal with writer’s block and if so, how do you deal with it? I walk away, trying to force anything isn’t useful or genuine. […]

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Posted April 30, 2019 by Amber in Interviews, Poetic Justice, Uncategorized / 242 Comments

Poetic Justice: Featuring Mahayla Bainter

Hi everyone.Happy Friday. It has been such a long week for me even though it feels like it went by pretty fast. If you follow me on Twitter, you know a bit about my dad being in the hospital and in need of surgery soon. Throw work in there and I’m so tired. This is why I’m so excited to have Mahayla on my blog today for Poetic Justice. She’s going to be sharing a poem. You can read the post she submitted last year as well. Poetic Justice is a month long event, beginning April 1st to April 30th in honor of National Poetry Month. Throughout April there will be interviews, guest posts, excerpts and other poetic posts. I hope you will follow along. To read the introductory post, you can find out more here Exultation Delightful, delicious, decadent All the words I use to describe you To describe us We triumphed over our families Their belief that we are too different to be together They were so raptured in the dark They didn’t see the walk across pedals With the sun setting at our backs About The Poet: I am a mid 20’s paralegal with a love […]

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Posted April 12, 2019 by Amber in Uncategorized / 527 Comments

Poetic Justice: Featuring Luna

Hi everyone. This post is going up a little later than anticipated because of some technical difficulties, but it’s up now! I’m so excited to share this amazing interview by Luna. I hope you find some useful information here and maybe some new poets to discover as well. You can read Luna’s previous interview for Poetic Justice here. Poetic Justice is a month long event, beginning April 1st to April 30th in honor of National Poetry Month. Throughout April there will be interviews, guest posts, excerpts and other poetic posts. I hope you will follow along. To read the introductory post, you can find out more here. Poetry has meant so much for me since I was a teenager, what does poetry mean to you? I have this philosophy, this belief of sorts about the word beautiful: it means nothing without intent. It’s the same thing with poetry. It needs intent, power, conviction because poetry to me is power. The power to move people, to drive them home, to give them hope for something. Poetry is nothing unless there’s intent behind it. Is there a writing topic that you will not write about? I have certain people I will […]

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Posted April 4, 2019 by Amber in Poetic Justice, Uncategorized / 695 Comments

My NaNoWriMo Journey Thus Far

If you have seen my Twitter, you may know that I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo. It’s my first year and I’ve been doing pretty well so far. I would go as far as to say extraordinarily fair considering I was someone who never I could actually write a novel. Here I am though with over 33 thousand words and we’re not even halfway through the month. Here are some interesting tidbits that have come up for me: Supporting Characters: I had no idea that supportive characters could just appear out of nowhere. Hello, party-thrower with the cousin who’s a necessary character now. Plot Expansion: Everything would be so much easier if my two main characters could just live in a bubble and only interact with each other, then again, that would also probably be weird. This ties into the first answer because wow, I have two supporting characters that show up all over the place. They’re both the best friends of my MCs but still. They’re around a lot. Fiction Imitates Real Life: I may or may not have taken my entire book from real life experiences. I have an MC with a similar family issue that I have gone through […]

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Posted November 14, 2018 by Amber in Random, Uncategorized, Writing / 107 Comments

Poetic Justice: Interview With Lexi Vranick

Hi! This post is a little late going up today. I had a bit of a Veronica Mars marathon last night, which is no surprise if you have seen my Twitter. Anyway, welcome back to the fifth day of Poetic Justice! I hope you have been enjoying the other poets’ posts. I know I have. Poetic Justice is a month long event, beginning April 1st to April 30th in honor of National Poetry Month. Throughout April there will be interviews, guest posts, excerpts and other poetic posts. I hope you will follow along. To read the introductory post, read about my poetic background as well as the schedule for the month, you can find out more here. Today I have an interview with Lexi Vranick. I love all of these answers, but a specific few I love a ton. Check them out! Poetry has meant so much for me since I was a teenager, what does poetry mean to you? For me, poetry is the way I understand. It’s the way I process emotions. Putting words to my feelings, no matter how dark or confused they might be, and turning them into art helps me understand myself and the world […]

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Posted April 5, 2018 by Amber in Uncategorized / 1331 Comments