...And OFFICIALLY joined ANOTHER FANDOM! *Initiate?*

I've been very busy for the past couple of months because of endless research works and loads of assignments being given to us in class. Fourth year college - is really a very tiring phase. I tell you that. Those were the reasons why I haven't read a book for a long time now and I have gone HIATUS in my blogging activities *missed it A LOT, shout outs to my ROBSTEN DREAMS FAMILY*. 

My hands and eyes were literally itching to read a book and get to fangirl again with the story and characters in it. Well. I corrected that error already over the weekend. Guess what I read? Uhmmm. Does Tris and Four ring any bell? 

Guess you figured out what I read already. DIVERGENT it is! Hoping that I'm not that late yet to party with you, guise! Blame school for not allowing me to read this one in an earlier time. Boo. 

But, this book didn't disappoint me. I immediately joined the FANDOM upon reading the first book. 

It was so good that I finished it in one sitting, gosh what a page turner we have here! The pacing of the events in the book would not leave you bored to death and wait for an epic scene to happen. BECAUSE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK IS EPIC! ASDFGHJKL Fangirling really hard. Divergent is not just some typical dystopian book out there, it really lets your mind work and work and work. Especially that we're seeing it in Tris' Point of View. 

I really love reading books with romance in it and this book didn't fail me in that aspect too. The ANGST AND ROMANCE in Divergent is totally in BALANCE. Angst not overpowering ROMANCE. Balance balance balance.  

What would you expect from me after reading this book? Haha! 

TADA! I PROCEEDED IN READING INSURGENT. As usual, read it again in one sitting for only a couple of hours. I just can't seem to put this book down, feels like it's already glued to my hands until I really finished it. 

The world Ms. Veronica Roth created is just .... AMAZING! I can't think ... AAAAH! How everything is weaved from simple information to another. How detailed everything is. From the names of the FACTION to the PERSONALITIES/ATTITUDE one should have in a given FACTION. *Names of the FACTION - is really really COOL* Whoo! It really is a good read and I enjoyed it so much! 

I guess, I can't wait for the last book ... dying to know everything. What a tease in the ending of Insurgent.

I'm also so stoked for the movie adaptation of this one! After reading the book, I already jumped into the "Shailene Woodley is perfect for Tris" boat. I can see her already in character and with the recent MTV interview she did from Sundance, yes totally fit for Tris. 

Now. The Dilemma is - who'll be the -perfect FOUR/TOBIAS? Uh-oh. Haha! I have several names in my mind. *Tapping my fingertips* Please announce who'll play Four already. *dying to know* Haha! 

So. That's it for now. 

This is another post from ME: the FANGIRL of ALMOST ALL OF THE FANDOMS!

Bye! xxx

- Amanda <3 

[FEATURED] Wendy Higgins, Author of Sweet Trilogy

Hello there, guys and gals! 

It's been a couple of days already since my last post and I'm sorry for that. I've been juggling everything that I'm handling - from the classes that I'm taking up (senior student in college over here, we're getting thrown with LOADS of stuff) up to the Facebook pages (Uhmm. About five-six pages, I think) that I'm managing. So yeah, I'm terribly sorry.

But not to worry. My blog post tonight is for BOOK JUNKIES, WENDY HIGGINS and SWEET EVIL fans out there. Yuhoo! Where are you, guys? Come out, come out where ever you are! I'm sure you will love this one! 

Just my luck again. For I was given a chance to interview Ms. Higgins and was also given a simple treat by her. You have to check and read through this whole post before you see what she gave me. No peeking at the bottom first! 

Well. I'm stopping myself from this point and will just give you everything that I asked her on our "email" kind of an interview. Enjoy reading through her answers!

Let's get started with by knowing more about Ms. Wendy Higgins.

Q: Can you tell us more about yourself? 

A: I'm ordinary for an author...boring, even. :) My first priority is my family, namely taking care of my two children (Autumn-6 and Cayden-4). I'm married to a veterinarian and I write from home when I can, which is not as often as I'd like.

Q: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

A: I adore Jennifer Armentrout. She writes a perfect mix of action, intrigue, and romance, plus she's great to her fans.

Q: What books have most influenced your life?

A: Gosh, I think every book that I read leaves some sort of mark, big or small, good or bad. But I'll go with: The Poisonwood Bible, Twilight, Good Omens, Angela's Ashes, and The Bible. 

Q: Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? Any person who inspired you in creating your own line of books?

A: Just always loved writing stories, from the time I learned to write at five. My mom was not a big reader or writer, but she encouraged me every step of the way.

Now we go to the part where I asked her questions about being an Author and her book SWEET EVIL. 

Q: How did this book, Sweet Evil, came about? How did you come up with the title?

A: I was bombarded with inspiration, thoughts of angels and demons on earth, their children, what life would be like for them, and how a young girl would handle being torn if she were both angel AND demon. It was all very sudden and rushed. I'd never been more intrigued by anything in my life. I originally called it Angel Prophecy because I suck at coming up with titles, lol. The publishers are the ones who suggested the title Sweet Evil. :)

Q: When did you start writing this? Is there any dream behind it (just like the birth of The Twilight Saga) or any inspiration for this? Are the scenes in the book somewhat based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

A: I began writing as soon as I got the idea in late August 2009. It took 7 weeks to write the first draft of 85,000 words. I don't think I could ever do that again - it was crazy!  It's not based on a sleeping dream. It was more like a daydream and nonstop brainstorming. I was inspired by all aspects of my life, but it's all fictional. Nothing in the book is based on true events.

[FEATURED] Jodi Meadows, Author of the INCARNATE Trilogy

Hello there, my blog readers! 

Bookworm. Raises my right hand and automatically shouts "PRESENT!". Ever since I was a kid, I already have this fervor in reading. The evolution of my reading materials went from children's book to educational books, Harry Potter series to The Twilight Saga and then I fully ventured in other Young Adult books and series. 

Reading is actually my addiction, these books that are published daily are just to die for stuff. That's also why I'm following authors on my Twitter account, I love to be updated on what they're currently doing. 

In this blog post, I'm just so lucky to be given this chance to interview a very witty and fun author - Jodi Meadows. I really love this interview that I did with her because her answers to my questions are so precious. You'll have to read everything below this introduction that I'm doing, for you to get what I mean! 

Well, enough with me and let's proceed with the Jodi Meadow Blog Interview. 

The first part of the interview is for you to get to know more about the author.

Q: Can you tell us more about yourself?

A: When I was little, my sister and I used to go to this forested park in Texas. At least, it seemed very forested to us. There was a river, which we could cross on stones, and a shallow cave on the other side. I wanted to live there. At least until my hands got dirty and I wanted to wash them.

Q: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

A: I have lots of favorite authors! Trying to pick just one or two causes incredible guilt in my soul region. So let's just say lots and lots of favorites, and an author usually becomes a favorite because they consistently write characters I become attached to, worlds I yearn to explore, and prose that captures the mood of the piece perfectly. Basically, my favorite authors are amazing.

Q: What books have most influenced your life most?

A: A few books that really influenced me early on were THE BLUE SWORD (and prequel) by Robin McKinley, WILD MAGIC (and series) by Tamora Pierce, SABRIEL by Garth Nix, THE GIVER by Lois Lowery, WINTER OF FIRE by Sheryl Jordan, and WAIT TILL HELEN COMES by Mary Downing Hahn.

Q: Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? Any person who inspired you in creating your own line of books?

A: I've always loved telling stories, but the first time I realized that one could tell stories -- write books -- as a legitimate job was when I was 11 and my teacher read WAIT TILL HELEN COMES to the class. I got out a spiral notebook, wrote several pages of a story (that was eeeeeerily similar to WAIT TILL HELEN COMES, and declared myself a writer. A year later, I did the same thing with WILD MAGIC. I hadn't yet read widely enough to know there were more stories than those, but I was on a path and that path involved an obsession with books.

ABOUT BEING AN AUTHOR AND THE BOOK INCARNATE

Q: How did this book, Incarnate, came about? How did you come up with the title?

A: I stole the idea from ninjas, obviously. The title used to be Erin Incarnate -- I liked the sort of play off "evil incarnate" -- but Erin's name changed to Ana and my publisher wasn't keen on a person's name in the title. So we just shortened it to INCARNATE, which worked fine for me.

Q: When did you start writing this? Is there any dream behind it (just like the birth of The Twilight Saga) or any inspiration for this? Are the scenes in the book somewhat based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

A: My dreams are never very linear. They'd make terrible stories. I honestly don't know what exactly inspired the idea, but there are aspects of the book that are similar not just to my life, but to a lot of people's. The feelings of being new, or being alone, or being different: those are pretty universal feelings. When Ana's learning how to play the piano and she needs soooo badly to be good at it: that's something I struggle with when it comes to writing, but I've also dealt with it in music and dance.

[FEATURED]: Interview with Iko - Talks about the band, The Twilight Saga and fans!

Hey there, my dear readers! 

I'm so stoked about this blog post that I'm creating. Guess what? I'm super lucky because I got to interview ... IKO! I know, I know a now familiar name, especially to the Twilight Saga FANDOM. Come on. Heart of Stone. Who wouldn't know and love that song included in the Breaking Dawn Part 2 soundtrack? 

This photo was attached on the email that was sent to me! :)  

After the official release of the track listing for the soundtrack, I immediately followed all the artists' twitter accounts. Hey. I would not want to miss a chance to get noticed by them. A fangirl's gonna do, what a fangirl's gotta do! 

Anyways, wondering how I scored this interview? THE POWER OF TWITTER! Just this December, I think during the first or second day of Christmas vacation, I tweeted @ikomusic if I could do an interview with them. Testing my luck there. As you can see, it ended up positively. Because when I checked my twitter account in the morning I saw a tweet coming from that account and yeah. Thus, causing me to fangirl really hard. *jumping up and down* *yelling around the house* and all those kinds of stuff. 

Well, enough with that. Let's just start with the interview already. 
Here it goes. 

Get to know more about Iko 

Q: To get started with, can you at least tell us more about your band?

A: We are Iko from Devon, UK. Founded on myself and Neil Reed as writing partners. We write songs about heartbreak and have recently been on the Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 soundtrack.

Q: How did you get started?

A: Neil and I met when teenagers who have been in other bands, but Iko was started by us after our first band dissolved. We were working long hours doing temporary jobs and this inspired our first album 'I Am Zero'. We wrote an album over about 4/5 months and recorded it in 10 days.

Q: How did you come up with the name, Iko?

A: We wanted something simply and sad to fit the mood of our first album so Iko, which is Japanese for 'orphan' or 'one outside/an outsider' felt appropriate.

Q: Who do you consider as your musical inspiration/s?

A: The first band I ever loved were The Smashing Pumpkins. But we have a variety of influences. Neil grew up classically trained so things like Rachmaninoff have influenced his piano playing, and for me it was Radiohead, Death Cab for Cutie, The Cure that made me want to write songs and make records.

Q: What makes you different from all the other musicians?

A: Well maybe the mixture of classical and popular is reasonably unusual. But people say my voice sounds unique, and a little like a woman so I suppose it's that.

Q: Name at least one musician you'd like to work with in the future.

A: I'd love to sing with Bjork. I think she's amazing.

The Twilight Saga and the song Heart of Stone 

Source

Q: Were you already a fan or have already read the book even before being linked to it?

A: Yes we already loved the saga before we were even involved. We'd both seen them all. Just made it extra exciting to then have our song chosen. I read the book before writing the words because I wanted the lyrics to be strongly influenced by Stephenie's words.

FEATURED: Kyla LoPresti, Author of FlashBack

Kyla LoPrestiSource: http://flashbackseries.com/

My dear readers, I had the opportunity to interview a lovely young lady named, Kyla LoPresti, author of the FlashBack series. 

How did I came to know about her? Twitter is the answer to that. I was checking my friend's twitter account (who's an avid reader of YA books, just like me) and saw her account. I was really curious about her, why? Because a part of her twitter bio says this one: "13 year old Author, I published my first book when I was 12! ..." AMAZING! Yeah. Like who else gets to publish a book at the age of 12? For me, I certainly don't know any one. Then I checked her website, saw the preview of the book and liked it. That's the time I decided that I want her to be featured on my blog. 

I tweeted her about the blog interview, she followed, replied and DM'ed me, there you go. Communicated and all those stuff I needed to be able to send her the interview questions. Waited for a couple of days. Then, I'm here blogging all about it. Not to keep you waiting, here's the interview!

Get to know more about Kyla: 

1. First and foremost, can you tell us more about yourself?  

- My name is Kyla LoPresti.  I am in 8^th grade at Bailey Middle School in West Haven, CT.  I live with my parents, my little sister Zoey and dog Cole.

2. Who’s your favorite author?

- My favorite author is Cassandra Clare

3. What kind of music do you prefer?

- I like different kinds of music. My favorite artists are Christina Perri, Green Day, Monsters & Men, Lincoln Park, Ron Pope, Ed Sheeran

About being an author: 

4. How did you end up becoming an author?

- I didn’t always know I was going to be an author.  One night I had a dream about the character in my book and I woke up and just starting writing about her.  It started as a short story and I decided to make it longer and add more characters and ideas.

5. Any person who inspired you in creating your own line of books?

- I like reading series.  I thought I could make my book into a series too. My parents inspired me to keep writing and share my ideas with others.

6. When did you start writing this? Is there any dream behind it (just like the birth of The Twilight Saga) or any inspiration for this? Any hardships you faced in getting this book published? 

- I started writing my book a week before my 12^th birthday. I wrote it just for myself because I had a dream about it. I started telling friends and family about it and they were really interested in reading it. So, my parents helped me make it into book format and publish it. I self published my book so there were no hardships of being turned down or people telling me it wasn’t good enough. I am lucky to have people to so support me and are excited about reading my book.

7. How many books do you plan to write for this series?

- I plan on writing 5 books for the series.  I already have them planned out and named.  But I will keep that a secret for now. :) 

HOLLYWOOD PORTAL, REALLY GOES INTERNATIONAL!

Yes. You've read the blog post title correctly. INTERNATIONAL IT IS. 

You may now be questioning me on how did I manage to do that, am I right? Well, the answer is staying up late and being on Twitter for 1,2,3 ... I don't know hours. 

Even before I started this blog, I already had this game plan on my mind to have a "FEATURE" an artist or an author portion here in my blog. But I don't have that much time to look for potential interviewees because of too much school stuff going on. That's why I grabbed this holiday vacation as an opportunity to take time and focus on this part of my blog. Well, it turned out pretty fine because I already received a couple of responses from artists and authors! Wohoo! I'm so stoked to craft my individual blog posts for them! That's about it, everyone! :)
- Amanda xxx

First MUSIC VIDEO for the BREAKING DAWN PART 2 SOUNDTRACK, DEBUTS!

With the much anticipated epic finale of The Twilight Saga, it means a new set of artists  enlisted to be on its soundtrack. Soundtrack producer, Alexandra Patsavas is pretty much well known on picking out the best among the rest artists and songs for the saga. 

During the past Twilight Saga soundtracks, I can honestly say that I was clueless on the artists that were chosen to be in it. I just heard their names and band names because they were involved in this humongous movie series. But upon researching and listening to their songs in the album, plus other songs sung by them, I totally got hooked into them. Every single artist has a cool, different vibe and a very distinct take on music. I'll be raising my hand and can say that I'm a fan of those artists, uhmm Florence + The Machine, Metric, Imperial Mammoth, Cee Lo Green are just some of my beloved artists. 

Well, this year Alexandra Patsavas did it again and I'm so happy with the set of artists picked out for the soundtrack. The Boom Circuits, Iko, Passion Pit, Ellie Goulding, Christine Perrie (who's back again for Part 2) with Steve Kazee, Paul McDonald with Nikki Reed (our dear Rosalie Hale) and Green Day are just some of the lucky 14 artists. 

It's the time of the promotion period wherein a music video from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 soundtrack debuts. Not to keep you waiting, here it is The Forgotten by Green Day. Heads up, snippets from the movie are all over the music video. Enjoy! 

   

Source

NEW SONG! Little Things - One Direction

  Source 

One Direction - Little Things - 4 Days To Go

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With Live While We're Young leaked on the internet days before it's proper release, the release for this song gave the 1D Management a reason to tease the fans. 1DHQ revealed a couple of lines from the song on their FB Page and Twitter account. In know, they're such a tease. But that really psyched the fans and got our minds worked up for the possible next lines of the song. 

*FAST FORWARD*

When the time of its first RADIO PLAY came ... 

Loads of fangirling, tears streaming down our faces, worshiping the lyrics, hyperventilating because of the emotion-filled voices of every single member. 

Every aspect of the song is perfect. Lyric wise - GENIUS, with Ed Sheeran writing it. How it was sung by the boys - FLAWLESS. Every single emotion needed to be shown was out there. That's the reason why ME, US, the whole One Direction fandom (DIRECTIONERS) can't stop playing and listening to it. 

Personally, I can't even remember how times I played this song on my phone, laptop and mp3 from the moment this was released. The song is just pure HEAVEN. The tune, genre or whatever you want to call it - is quite far from the other songs they did on their debut album. But still, they didn't fail the expectation of the fans and the audience. They EXCEEDED it.'Cause maybe other people just thought that One Direction could only do upbeat songs and the likes, but this song just proved them wrong. They could possibly do anything and everything. 

NOVEMBER 2 - Puhlease come faster. LITTLE THINGS MUSIC VIDEO will be out on this date and I'm pretty sure it's going to be on replay for millions of fans. Can't wait. x

Read more for the lyrics of the song ...