The Cat's Meow: Penned Con

I'd figure I better do a recap of my week in St. Louis, attending Penned Con. I had heard about Penned Con last year and knew that was going to be one thing I would want to do in the future. As it turns out I won tickets to go to Penned Con!

I was glad that I went after not being able to go to UtopYA this year so I did really catch up with some great authors that I had met the year before. If you don't know Penned Con is co-founded by husband/wife Amy Miles and Rick Miles. While I had the pleasure of meeting Amy, her husband was running around making sure everything was running smoothly.

I met some new and old friends along with finally meeting up with authors that I've been friends on facebook for over a year. I tried to pass out my blogger card as often as I could but it was hard among the chaos! I attend not just the two day Penned Con, I also attended Teen Day which was nice and met some new people during that. Then as you would know I drag my mom with me toward the end of Teen Day because there was a private book signing and I picked up most of my pre-orders books. To think I only started out only making three pre-orders I came home with a lot more.

NOTE: Invested in a rolling suitcase or a cart/wagon. Trust me your arms will thank you.

What I did this year apart from attending my first book convention was wearing my Cat ears, yes I wore Cat's ears that I had since elementary school and it still fit! People pretty much knew me on the spot without really having to look at my name tag.

Some advice that I learn from the authors on panels

"Write what you want to read . . . don't always follow the trends."

"Only you can write your story."

"Write . . . Write . . . Write . . ." 

Those key quotes I take to heart, because no one can write my stories. Trends? Why would I want to follow Trends where my books might only get minimal recognition? I want to be outside the box and outside of the Trends. I think it's best that no matter what our book consists of that it might have already been done by other authors, yours is unique in its own way.

I know writing is a craft and you can't rush it, while the book that I've been working on since late 2013? I've done two edits/revisions with it and gain about 5,000k during my recent revisions. I know it's not quite done but I'm hoping that it will be very soon and then figure out the plan after it "done". I am trying to work on book two of this book series I have but I'm still learning and plotting out what book two will consist.

I love being back in St. Louis, it's been 9 years since the last time I've been here and of course it is chaos like there were different bridge that we never took and our GPS couldn't find certain streets or we couldn't find certain streets. But we made it!

Out of all the authors that were there, Denise Grover Swank was the one I was most excited to meet. I love almost all her books and by what I mean almost I mean the books I haven't read yet by her. I took home the entire Rose Gardner Series (almost went home missing Ripple of Secrets but I got it!) Then towards the end of the event I brought the Off the Subject Series just because.

I had to track down Mindy Ruiz because she's KILLING me with the wait of Lying Cheating Heart the 2nd book of her Game of Heart series. But she told me that it's almost there! Coming out in September!

I have said this before leaving for Penned Con is that my facebook friend list will grow after Penned Con is over and it's still growing as authors recover from Penned Con, catch up on work and social media and all that other good stuff.

I love connecting with authors, readers, bloggers . . .  I love having a common interest with people because I don't often find it. I hope down the road that I'll meet someone that will love all the craziness that I have with my books and authors/blogger friends and know that is part of my personality.

The Cat's Meow: Christmas Wishlist

Well I know we all survive the big snow typhoon that coming from Alaska . . . So yes its only November but let's discuss Christmas Wishlist

I'm actually trying to limit my number of books since I actually get a better deal after Christmas but I'll pick out a few that my parents can buy me as a gift.

A lot of the book I picked were books that were released early this year or last year, but I've also notice a theme . . . I'm trying out Science-Fiction and some Crime/Suspense type of books because that is what I'm feeling to read and that is what is drawing me.

Here are some of my picks that will be on my Christimas List
The Taking By Kimberly Derting

  The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

My next thing on my List is Hallmark Ornaments . . .
I'm a crazy-obsessed Ornament girl, its almost as addicting to having a boatload of books but more expensive.






Next I'm on the hunt for the perfect NEW Iphone 4 case, my old one is wearing out and I'm also in a need of a new Ipad case. Now I'm not sure what direction I want to go for covers case for my Ipad. My current one is a Zebra cover and I've been seeing those bookish theme covers so you never know.

Then I want a Zebra heated blanket!!! I just saw this on one of my friend's FB.

I'm not really sure what else I really want or what my parents can think of to buy me . . . I'm hoping to do a big thing for my birthday if I can because I'm determine to do this theme I have in mind.

So what about you? What's on your Christmas Wishlist 

The Cat's Meow: Mail Mices

We have Mail Mices!

I wanted to share with you some of my Mail mices that I've gotten the past few days, one was from Mindy Ruiz author of Enchanted Heart and the second was Chloe Neill author of Chicagoland vampires. 

 

Both mail mices came in large sizes, from a brown package to a large white tube . . . Yes a large white tube I wondering the same thing. 

 

Mindy Ruiz

I had won one of the prizes from Mindy Ruiz Enchanted Heart Book/Blog tour awhile ago and it wasn't the grand prize of cash prizes for Vegas since the book is taken place in Vegas. But here's a photo of what I won . . .

 

 

Prizes includes:

Water bottle with a pair of dices design and Mindy Ruiz's name

Key Chains of each house with poker chip

Two pins that says "Keep Calm and Date a Royal"

A Poker chip with an heart in the center

a Stick to place on a phone, it's has a heart shape diamond necklace

A Thank you card with an apology about a "Lost Prize" so that's where $10 Amazon Gift Card comes in

And last but not least

A Signed Book! 

Chloe Neill

Next is Chloe Neill prizes, how I came to win this prize was by a FB contest for Who should play the Characters . . . this one was for Ethan Sullivan. 

Now to be completely honest, I haven't read the books yet but picking a person to portray a character wasn't hard . . . so I went with Channing Tatum in a suit 

 

Prizes included:

A large Poster that you would see at a signing if the author was going to be present at a bookstore, she also signed it as well.

6 bookmarks consist of some chicagoland vampirs and her Elite series

Two little business cards both very different

A Cadogon  House Lanry 

A Cadogon House key chain (it's heavy!!!!) 

A button 

and a pen with Chicagoland vampires written on it

 

 

The Cat's Meow: Hiatus

Hey everyone,

So I will be going on  a blogging hiatus due to school starting up and these classes that I'm taking will required extensive studies.

If you didn't see my post about the Future is shining bright here's a recap . . . I was offered to take the Intro class for my program which I might be starting next fall 2015, this gives anyone on the wait list a chance to wet their feet in the program before starting the core classes.

I had already planned to take General Physics and I can't believe how much Math is involved! There's stuff that I don't even know because well one Math isn't my strongest suit . . . I can do basic math but all that algebra and such it's kind of where I've taught it once and then I don't ever use it and so I lose the whole knowledge about it. SO I'll be spending great amount of time in the Academics services getting helped.

I haven't been reading, I did read Opposition but I haven't posted the review because I'm still writing it and so I might have to read the book once more before posting it. So sorry for those that are waiting for that review of Opposition from me, you'll have to wait a little bit longer and enjoy everyone's else reviews. I'll be sure to promote my review largely because I know mine will be late/later posting the review.

Here's something New . . .

A friend and I are going to be co-blogging on a different blog title which we still have to discuss about what the title of our blog is going to be. We are sharing our conditions/diseases that we both share on many levels, you'll expect posts about our Ups and Downs, some of journey through life dealing with our condition. It will be fun and something new for me as well for her. But I'm glad we will get to share our stories to others out there.

So stay tuned for that! 

I will possibly be opening an Etsy account for some jewelry bead work that I've been doing this past couple weeks. But first I need to go all Business like to determine pricing and such, since a lot of these jewelry are one of a kind and limited. They will become unlimited if I earn enough profit to buy more supplies as well a little profit to me. So yeah that the other NEW thing that might be happening.

The Cat's Meow: Future is shining bright!

 

So today is not a day where I typically talk about books, today is a day where my future shines just a little brighter.

Since late 2012 to early 2013, I had questioned about my career path for Health Care Administration I never did question about the thought of changing a different path but with the focus that my local university had for their Health Care Administration program, I had to.

I was sadden from day one of orientation when the person I talked to said that their Health Care was focused solely on the aging population and how to provide and understand about the aging population where they would need more benefits and so on so on. But I did one semester of that program and if I wasn't already questioning about their route, it was the history classes and other non-necessaries that I did not need.

So I move on from that path although I do hope that down the road I might find the right match for Health Care administration and use my skills and knowledge towards people that struggle day by day health problems.

So what do I do now? 

That was the big question . . . I search programs at my Local technical college where I earn my Associate's degree in Business management and found Ultrasound or (Diagnostic Medical Sonography in their terms) might be the next path.

I have always that motherly instinct for as long as I can remember, and kids are a big future for me so I wanted to possibly work in an area where I am partly a part of a couple's beginning finding out their pregnant, the progression of the pregnancy and so on. What's great about my technical college is that they offered and plan their program to dabbed in many areas where ultrasound is needed and I'm excited to venture in that area.

The downside? 

The wait list . . . I was told that I couldn't start until 2018 that was five years from now! and Today I get a call from my advisor saying that I've been move up on the waiting list to the point where I could possibly(CROSS YOUR FINGERS) Start my Core Program in Fall of 2015!

And that's not even all of it! This year they decided to take in some students that are on the wait list to take the Intro Course limited of course and because I was within the 10 people limits list that she offered it to me to take the class and of course I said yes!

By taking this class, that will get one class out of the way for when I start . . . I actually did some crunching numbers and realizes that I could possibly get my degree in DMS in two and a half years. That is saying I take at least 14 credit load and I think some course you have to take at the same time so EEK I'm excited!

I'm one step closer to starting, and one step closer to going after my career . . . 

So with that being said I pretty sure that I'll need to find a balance to blog/read/work/school/writer.

The Cat's Meow: New Look

 

As you can see . . . SassyCat got a new look! There's a blonde(me) avi, there's a zebra lounge couch which I love and the numerous options for backgrounds so far I'm head over heels on the zebra (pink or white).

So how did I end up changing up the look without notice? Well it better to be surprise then spew out a few words that there were going to be some changes done. However Rachel of Parajunkee Design hosted a giveaway on FB for a free Blogger Template $50 dollars worth. All you had to do was like comment and share and I did all out of the two (I believe) and I actually won it! 

It was a much needed thing for SassyCat, even though the look I was going for or wanted requires custom designs and the money which I don't have. So that dream and idea is put on hold, for now I can ogling on the new look that actually in many ways suits me as a person. So I might be in trouble when figuring out how far I want to go for customization. 

So I like to thank Rachel of Parajunkee, for actually putting it up because my laptop wouldn't do a single thing and I couldn't figure out on the main computer because the files were Zipped. So I just had her do it and she got it done in seconds! Like really in seconds after I made her admin and talking to her via FB. 

But I did figure out how to unzipped the files on the main computer (thanks to a little feature that my laptop doesn't have) so I saved everything on there, now I might switch to black and white zebra print or change the font colors, gadgets colors. You never know so don't be surprise if you see a little changes here and there. Also I'm so super excited about the avi and having it as my twitter profile and my google+ profile. I have raters and a FB cover however I still have to set up a FB page, the the one I love that I have always wonder "how the heck do they get that?" Is the book description box. Now that I have that feature don't be surprise to see that more often. 

So again thank you Rachel and now I need to make it a goal to set up that FB page.

The Cat's Meow: Playin Hide & Seek

Well this is my version of peeking from a corner like a Cat, as you can see my post today is about the fact that I'm playing Hide & Seek. Really I am in my own way, so I'm still hungover from UtopYA Con. The books haven't found a place on my bookshelves (they still remains in the bags) and I'm still sorting all the swags stuff.

Part of my reasons for not being active on my blog is simply LIFE, there's a few things going on.

• One is helping my friend plan her wedding or give her tips anyways. Her wedding is in One month from now and I'm also a bridesmaid!

• Two I had relatives in town when I had return from my trip and was spending as much time as I could with them before they left. 

• Thirdly as many don't know this and I have no problem sharing the fact but its hard for anyone to understand or grasp the concept of the fact. I have a medical condition and while I've been pretty healthy, my platelets are acting up so right now my doctors are trying to figure out why they're being this way and this problem just occur the week before I was leaving for my big trip. So everything had to be dealt and figure out after I came back and so I did. Now it's just a waiting game. 

• Fouth I need to start job hunting, like really I have to . . . it's time and I'll be focusing on that and cross fingers that I find one. 

• Fifth I'm still a student, my semester starts up at the end of august and August is pretty busy for me where I have my friend's wedding, (still Debating) attending a JLA Oppression Book Tour nearby, and whatever else comes up.

I have like a gallion things to do related to blogging and you can say I'm overwhelm . . . I'm lacking creativity and writing when it comes to blogging.

• But I am making a goal to have SassyCat's Books Review as a Facebook page but I'm still figuring that out.

• I have three books that I plan on reading before school starts up, so as far review requests go I will be posting it on my Review Policy about if I can review or not which I still have to work on.  

• Anything else like Reviews I'm just slow and late on just because I got myself hooked on reading series books which now I find lacking and ultimately failing at that goal. 

I can't think of anything else right now but just know that my lack of blogging is because of what's going on in LIFE. 

~ MEOW

The Cat's Meow: Stacking the Shelf

Armchair BEA/BEA Expo has come to an end,while I didn't win anything from Armchair BEA like last year but that okay. Actually life took me away from doing much participating this year, I'm prepping for my upcoming trip in two weeks and there's a lot to check off and To-Do List. 

So happy book hauling all those beautiful ARCs Bloggers/Readers, they all look pretty and there's a lot of MOUSE WATCH for me :-) Trust me those ARC are Mouses. 

Moving on . . . 
It's been awhile since I've shared some books that have made it to my shelves, a couple won and purchase books. Some of my purchase books were for my trip so I won't say what they are until I have everything that I got from UtopYA Con. 

You know those pesky Goodreads Giveaways? Well after entering god knows how many, I finally won one! 
What book was it?

Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

She even signed it to ME of SassyCat's Books Review per to my request, I thought why not? Blogger often get books that are signed with their blog title and name. 
Also isn't the inside beautiful? the light air/sea blue that highlights the book so well, now from what I know it's got MERPEOPLE and I've never read anything with that theme.

NEXT is my favorite WON book ever! Kristin Miller and I have such a great reader/author relationship, I fell in love with her Seattle Pack from the first pages of Gone with the Wolf and I stuck with her series! She had gotten these pretties in paperback and decided to host a giveway and much to her response and mine was in AWE and Shock that the randomizer picked my NAME!

I have said to Kristin that I would love a paperback of her Seattle Pack series & she said if she ever get any I'll be the first one to get it! So it works in a very funny FATED way. 

I did get bookmark of Gone with the Wolf and Four Weddings and A werewolf, but they are still inside the book . . . These are so pretty that I never want them to wear and tear, so minimum pawing/opening the pages

I finally got my copy of TMI: City of Heavenly Fire,

and WOW it's a pretty thick book! I won't be reading it anytime soon since I'll be on my trip and am planning to bring a light book. So now I have every book of the TMI as well the TID which I have yet to start.










Another book to add is ORIGIN by Jessica Khoury, 
her book in Hardcover was in the discounted section in my store since that is the only area I'm allow to shop for now since my trip will have my biggest book haul that it will be like Christmas/Birthday all over again. 

Plus did you know that you actually save more money if you wait until after Christmas day? My family and I found that out when we were shopping on my birthday which is 3 days after Christmas. So if you don't want to break budget before Christmas try to wait out on buying them after Christmas Day.

The Cat's Meow: Countdown to UToPYA

24 Days 

WOW where did the time go? We're under a month to go before it's UtopYa Con Time! 

I'm so excited to be coming and attending, I can't wait to meet everyone face to face now I know some are arriving Thursday don't worry I'll be there too! I really look forward to a lot of things Thursday night but I'll be sad at the same time . . . If many of you don't know I'm taking two trips. 

Before I come to Nashville I will be in North Carolina to visit my dear & very pregnant friend, it so exciting but nerve-wreaking because she will be close to her due date when I see her so pretty much she could have her baby when I'm there to visit her!

So what have I done so far in prep for UtopYa Con? 

well I've done many things, routing/mapping the direction to Nashville as well to NC. My mom and I will soon be booking our hotels that we're staying at in NC and Springfield, IL (did I mention I'm traveling by car & my mom and I are going to see Abe Lincoln museum first before our big driving trip)

I have pre-ordered some books through the group page and the Pre-order doc that I created to make everyone's life easier and to track down all authors that are offering pre-orders. I'm still working on some more pre-order but I'm fighting the budget as well...

I've order books through Barnes & Noble that I will be bringing along with me, plus I will be bringing books that I currently owned as well. Let's say I'm bring books with me but I'll be bringing a lot more books home with me :-) 

I'm sure you heard of the Reader Abduction Party Thursday night, the tickets went out fast but don't worry I snagged one for me and my mom, but if she doesn't want to go with me then I will ask someone who didn't get it and I know two contender already. 


Are you ordering Brag Book? It's For YOU to get so that way every single authors attending will sign your brag book even though you might or might not buy their books. At least you would get every single Author's signatures :-) Here's the link http://www.lotusopus.com/#!product/prd1/2169086445/%23bragbook

Let's talk PACKING! 

I'm not even close to packing, let's say I'm even 100% sure what clothes to pack! Plus I want to be sure that every outfit that I may/may not wear between now and before we leave will be washed. So clothes will be taken care of the week of our departure. 

There's some stuff that I want to buy before hands because one I really need some more pairs.

My mom and I are from Wisconsin, so we will be bringing our own cheese (no we didn't make them it will be store brought from a local cheese place) We're bringing our own beers and some food for the road . . . We are preparing for everything.

So how about you? What have you done so far and are you ready for the best time of your bookish life?

The Cat's Meow: Shine Series

 

This is my second series read of 2014! Sadly I'm getting so drawn into the new releasing books and I've gotten a couple ARCs.

Jeri's Shade series have been sitting in my TBR pile since early 2012, I can't recall how I came across hearing about her books or if someone recommended the books to me. I know I wasn't on twitter(at least I think) But I had gotten a chance to meet her . . . Way back in May 2013, I can't believe a whole year has gone by!

Jeri became my second official Author that I have met, I've met Andrea Cremer multiple times but it was nice to finally get to meet someone new.

SO onto about her Shade series, Shade was focused around where people that were born after the "SHIFT" could see and talk to ghost, and then there were others that was born before the "SHIFT" and were called Pre-Shift, not always able to communicate with the ghosts or see them.

Aura was one of those that could see and talk to ghosts, most time she chose to ignore it until they start screaming at her in the face and while she is trying to live as much of a normal life as she can, but Aura wanted so badly to not speak or see ghosts until . . . her boyfriend dies. Then it seems that she didn't lose him entirely but it was getting harder to face what was real and what wasn't real.

Aura's boyfriend Logan was the most cliche boyfriend I have ever read, the musician boyfriend . .. The pressure of becoming famous. Then it became hard for Aura to let go of Logan and facing the reality of real life and Zachary.

Did I mention that this is taken in Baltimore? No . . . Maybe? Well here are some photos I have from my trip to Baltimore.

Some of my Favorite scenes and passages,

SHADE

I love the day Zach and Aura spent together at the pier, it took me right back to my trip I had in Summer 2013 and I even did a tour of historical ships, the only one I miss was the lighthouse but we started getting some bad weather. I even love the part where they run and hide from the DWP and they share their first kiss only to get caught by Zach's dad.

SHIFT

Running from the DWP in the woods all by themselves, those scenes were sweet but also adventurous the very first time they ever spent alone for one night.

I love and hate the prom passage, first it was the most sweetest thing and then it became the most worst thing. First Aura couldn't decide if she could go to prom with Zachary when she still had envision going with Logan until he die. Of course Zach is heart broken, feeling that he's competing against a dead guy. Then aura wants to go to prom with Zach but is rejected and Zachary prom date was the girl Aura always had been bullied by and Zach's date had other plans and thought it would be nice to try and rubbed it in her face via phone dialing.

SHINE

Everything of their alone time in a castle bed & breakfast, and touring Ireland was my highlight of the book. I love when characters are sent to other places in the world and that makes it more intriguing to make me travel to those places like Ireland.

I love when Aura finally learns about her father since he was a missing piece of her and a missing piece to her mother. It gave Aura a peace of mind knowing who he is and what he was, realizing that he was the key to what made the SHIFT happens.

Overall thought on the series?

I like it because it was different, it didn't fall under the norm of what YA been bringing and I hope that more author might be interested in writing more YA ghost/paranormal/Spirits aspect. I think there could be more expansion of where ghosts and spirits can become YA or even NA. Can you imagine reading Aura and Zach in an NA genre? Would the theme and pace be different or would it ruin the whole innocence of the characters? 

The Cat's Meow: Prepare for UToPYA Con

There's is only 50 days until UtopYA Con!!!!

This will be my first ever biggest book/authors/bloggers event where tons of bloggers and authors are under the same roof. So much is going to happen that I'll be surprise if I can sleep!

What is UtopYA Con?  for writers of supernatural YA and NA fiction and their fans! and if you want to check out more on it here's their website click here 

Prep for UtopYA Con:

• Know who going to be there
• Know which books the author have published  
• Join the community group (invites only) or unless someone else has an open community page on FB
• Bring children's Books for the Fan Invasion Signing Night otherwise it's $5 admission

 Budget 

• Save every little money you can
• prepare to use Cash 
• Ask the authors how much they are charging for their books, some have deals
• Ask yourself "How much are you willing to spend?" 
• Make a list of books you want to buy and price them 

Book Buying 

Questions to ask yourself

• How many can I buy? based on your transportation methods (I know some of you have a plan in set)
• How many books do I want from each author?
• Which books will the Authors bring with them? (Be sure to ask around, they might have to order some specific ones)
• Which one do I have to bring/ purchase early? 

Stay tuned for more posts leading up to UTOPYA Con

The Cat's Meow: Divergent

So this is out of the norm for The Cat's Meow regular feature, but today I wanted to express and share my thoughts on the movie Divergent. Now yes I'm very well aware that it's based on Veronica Roth's books and I know you probably think that I should have read the book first . . . well there's two side of the story.

 

I'm that kind of person that would go either way with Books to Movies and Movies to Books . . . If I had an interest in the book long before the idea of a movie came then I would see it. If there was a movie based on a book that I haven't read, the trailers are what has to impress me in order to see it and when I see it Would it be enough to make me want to read the book?

Well for Divergent it was both ways, I had read Divergent last summer but it was also the time that I got into a bad reading funk and reading Divergent didn't make an impact on me. But then I heard about the Movie and thought that perhaps I should read the book. But I still didn't but I kept being drawn in those trailers and cast talks so by the time the first official trailer not the teaser came I was hooked on seeing the movie.

So now I'm eager to read the book (again) and give it another shot because really you can't enjoy any book even your favorite when in a funk. 

The movie was filled with Action and a new look of Chicago but more importantly, there was a story behind it. The whole thought of having 5 factions and choosing to live in one of those for the rest of your life is such a futuristic society that could happen. The Aptitude test that defines who you are and where you should be in society. I've heard how hard the cast had to work for their role/character and being a dauntless can be a challenging task.

The Female Protagonist and the Male Protagonist

I love Shailene Woodley, she is such amazing young actress who doesn't let fame identify herself for who she is in life. I've watched her on the Secret Life of American Teenager, watch her grow into a young woman and then seeing her in The Descendant. You can tell she plays the role as if it was her that was dealing with that character's problem. She became the character and not just an actress that plays a character.

Now I've only seen Theo James in Underworld: Awakening and thought he's pretty decent but also guys with accent just takes me away. Well when I saw him as Four somehow he just became hotter and I was super excited to see him play this Four character who he was only briefly in my mind but I also wanted to know FOUR.

 

 

Tris and Four ready to take a stand

 The famous knife throwing scene: Believe it or not that is one of my favorite scene aside from the ferry wheel, and I'm sure there are other parts but there's a reason why I chose these scenes. One Four starts to shows compassion towards Tris and starts becoming kind to her. Four knew that there was something different about Tris and he was determine to find out.

Also can I add that Theo James/Four is just so damn HOT!!!! I mean his character is just swoon worthy and it make me wish that I had given the book a chance the first time around but thankfully books can't hate me unless I've done some poor damage to it but I can't wait to read Four in the book.

Don't worry I'll be seeing it again on the big screen, now my only hope is that they will release it in a short time like 3 three months rather than 6 months because I can watch Theo and Shailene over and over again.

The Cat's Meow

Man I've really been lacking on some of my meme posts that I was determine to do once a month but as you know January came then February came.

Some of my books that have been added to my shelf are books that I have won, Ive won pretty much every month this year So 2014 is starting out good

Defy by Sarah B Larson curtsey of Rockstar Book Tours and Scholastic Press



ARC Resistance by Jenna Black curstsey of Tor Book



ARC The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski curtsey of Bekka from Great Imaginations

Omens by Kelley Armstrong the paperback version curstsey of Kelley Armstrong

 

All the while I brought in my new book shelf that been sitting on the porch, its got 6 shelves and I can place two books deep so I was able to shelf more books than I could with the 3 shelf bookcase. So now my top shelf of my 3 shelf is now stock with books that I have won. It's getting full but I'll never stop wanting more and I can separate that from my other books.

The Cat's Meow: Turning ONE!!

 

WOW I can't believe a whole year has gone by! It seems so unreal to me sometimes, at first I just only started reading and placing my review on Goodreads but now having to retire from a previous blog that I just no longer had any interest into it. But I didn't want to give up my reviews and narrow it back down to only Goodreads so then I heard Blogger was a great place to do all things blogging so I bit the bullet and created SassyCat's Books Review.

I change my Twitter title from my name to my blog name, and I made the first step putting my blog's name out there.

So a few Milestones to look back at . . .

Author Requests
My first author request, I read the The World Is Your Litter Box: Deluxe Edition: A How-To Manual for Cat. Yes that was my first ever where an author reach out to

me asking for a honest review. Even my cat seem to approve of the book as well

 

Author Events

I've attended two of Andrea Cremer's book events, one was for Rift and the other was for a pre-party release of Rise. It was truly an exciting time for me, she's really great and being that she "live" or is from  nearby city so close by that traveling isn't a problem. Also at one of her event I came across another author! Heather Anastasiu the author of Glitch series but I haven't attend one of her book event yet. 

Andrea and Heather

My next author event was going to be Barry lyga's books but due to my unfortunate sickness I was dealing with I couldn't go but did get both of my books of  "I hunts Killers" signed by him and the crew at Addendum was so nice enough to send me a pic of him signing it. 

The next author event was a spur of a moment and because I was in the area, I went and meet Jeri Smith-Ready and I barely knew her as an author but I was aware of what books she wrote. But she did talk about how much technology and social media have changed for authors and fans together and it was really a great discussion. So she signed my books Shade I had already pre-own and purchase Shift and Shine at the event. 

My first ARC hard copy

Wile I havent figure out how bloggers get ARCs and I'm sure there's a trick to it, but there are two ARC hardcopy that I was super excited for. One was winning Jennifer L Armentrout upcoming book White Hot Kiss and out of 800 entries I was one of the three that won the ARC book! 

Then the next one was really unexpected, but this is where my first real hard copy ARC comes in . . . the day Fire and Blood enter my house. It was about two week before Christmas and I know my parents do some online shopping but trying to keep it from me when it seem left and right I'm expecting something in the mail and then when I saw a yellowish package I wasn't sure what to expect because I couldn't recall winning anything but opening that and seeing that ARC line on the bottom of the book I was elated.

What the Future for SassyCat's Books Review?

Well right now I would love to revamp the blog, get all of those buttons/avatar and other goodies but I can't do that yet. So I hope that I'll be able to revamp SassyCat.

Another thing is Facebook page, I'm pushing and pushing back on creating one because I just don't know if I'm ready yet and I would like to have the time to sit down and process the whole creating the page and such

Booklikes . . . yeah I'm going to wait on that, I do have an account but it's so annoying to understand and it doesn't follow my goodread very well. 

Tumblr . . . I have one but again don't use it very much, every once in awhile I will use it but not all the time so for right now it not important that I span SassyCat's to Tumblr. 

As much I would love to do a giveaway . . . I can't afford it right now, but maybe when I reach Two I'll be in a place where I can do giveaways and such. Right now all I can give are my honest reviews, quirkiness on twitter and posting endless photos of my cat Buddy.