Florida, Here I Come!

Yep. That' right peeps. in mid-July I'll soakin' up the sun in good old Panama City Beach, Florida! Gods, I'm so stoked!!!! I haven't been to a beach in over 10 years! I'm going to swim, make sand castles, get a tan, snorcal-oh yeah! I'M SO PUMPED! Sadly I'm a little pudgy at the moment so I have about 4 months to loose 20-30 pound. Gods, this will be impossible. But I am determined be healthier then I am now. I haven't gotten to do anything yet though-it sucks. Missouri is pretty unpredictable when it comes to weather especially in March. Like yesterday, it was bitter cold and today it rained nearly all day so I couldn't go out to walk. And our tredmele is....underseige, currently collecting dust in our basement. But hopefully my strong Daddy can bring it upstairs so I can start shedding pounds.

Now usually when I set a goal, I end up slacking off because I'm either A) Procaustinating or B) Lazy. But I am determined to stick to my goal since I already don't have much time to loose what I need. I just want to look good in a bikini. Is that too much to ask? But it will all be worth it a I show off my new bod in the nice beach house that my mom rented on our 60 ft stretch of private beach. *whimpers* oooooh....I want to go now!

"The Missing Symbols": NOW AVAILABLE!

The title is pretty much self explanatory. "The Last of the Demigods: The Missing Symbols"(book 1) is now available to be purchased online either at http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. I don't know why but for right now the book is only able to be purchased online. Hopefully that will only be temporary.

 I still dream that maybe one day this novel that I worked on for about three years with my best friend Jessica will take off and become as popular as 'Percy Jackson'. He inspired me you know. Rick Riordan is the very person that inspired me to realize that I was born to be a writer. I even thanked him in the acknowledgents for he started this whole journey for me. His voice called out to me, saying that this is what I was made to do.

"The Missing Symbols" first started out as a fanfiction for 'Percy Jackson'. But soon after I began writing it, I realized how great it was next thing I knew, I was working on my own novel. And I was only...16 I believe. Or 17. Ugh I can't remember. Anywho, after months of planning and writing, it still wasn't original enough. You don't want to know how many times I've re-written and re-plotted this baby. It was hard too. Too hard for something to do on my own. And that's when I called out for help from my best friend and now coauthor, Jessica Willis. She's the best! She's a true writer at heart just like me. It's our passion. Just like a musician's to play guitar or an artist to paint...it's what we were destined to do.

So no matter what people say, if you have a dream, follow your heart. Celebrities were once normal people just like you and me, having a dream to become and actor or singer. You just need to work at it and not give up.

Till next time...:)

Not Much of a Life...

That title is pretty much self explainatory. I don't have a boyfriend, I don't have a car and my book isn't out yet. Ugh.

Some life, huh?

I just turned 20 last Friday and I STILL never had a real boyfriend...well there was this one guy for ten days but he was a douche and only wanted me to get in bed with him so yeah, I don't count him. All that Allen ever got was my first kiss-that's it. That's all I had so far. Ugh. I'm just a lonely Aquarious wanting a boyfriend this year. So I was extra bumbed today since it was the most romantic day of the year but I shouldn't fret. I'll find someone soon. Or well that's what my friends tell me anyways. I made a new friend named Ayla and she's in the same boat: neither of us never had a real boyfriend so it's nice to talk to someone who you can share your misery with. It's just not the same when you talk to a friend who actually HAD or is IN a relationship even though they say they understand. It just isn't.

I apologize if this reminds you of your similar sad life(if it refers anyways) but I just have to get all this sadness out of me somehow so I thought a blog would be perfect.

But anyways yeah I just turned 20 yet I don't look 20. Whenever I meet someone new and they ask how old I am they usually reply with, "What? No way you're 20." Because apparently I look more like a 16-year-old. For example:

Last summer, I went to Worlds of Fun to go see Big Time Rush LIVE since I'm such a huge fan. While waiting for them to come on stage, I got to talking to this small group of girls that were sitting next to me. They were nice and we ended up about who we'd like to date out of the guys.

One girl went, "Oh I'd so date Logan!"

Then the other said, "It would never happen, you're sixteen."

Then I go, "Well I'm 19 so I could date of any of them."

You should have seen their faces when I said that. They just stopped and stared at me.

So yeah that's just another example of people believing that I'm younger then my actual age. But you know what my mom said about that? It was hilarious! After I told her about that that she said, "Well you'll love that when you're older."

That cracked me up!

But anyways my birthday was okay I guess. I envited that I guy I like, James but guess what? He never showed up!!! So I was kind of grouchy after that. Bowling helped though. I just took out my anger into the bowling ball and it felt good watching it roll and slam into the pins. I thought, Ha! Take that pins! Feel my wrath! But after the bowling I got to unwrap my presents which wasn't much but I loved what I got. I got a Barnes and Noble giftcard from my dad's friend, Mike and his wife Cristy; then I got yet ANOTHER gift card for Barnes and Noble from my good friend, Zachary Love AND book one of "The 13th Reality" series by James Dashner so I was like, YES! I love James Dashner! Zach introduced me to his most popular, The Maze Runner trilogy which is in my opinion REALLY GOOD! Book 2 is The Scorch Trials and book 3 is The Death Cure which is what I'm on now. If you read them then you know who Minho is and he's my favorite after what happened to Chuck....okay wow I spent way too much time on that.

*clears throat in the awkwardness* oooookaaaay, back to my birthday.

So yeah Friday was the party and at my house on birthdays, we alway go out to eat wherever we want and as usual I chose Olive Garden because I just looooove Italian. The food was really good that night because it was busy so it was all hot and fresh.

Even though my birthday was on a weekend, we stopped celebrating after Saturday. I got some birthday money from some relatives and I was planning on purchasing a wacom tablet and photoshop but it was too pricy which really pissed me off so I have to wait a while until I have enough money saved up. Boy, did that piss me off. I didn't even get to to Barnes and Noble!

Ugh.

Well that's it for today.

Later viewers!

Ramblings

Out of all the times during the publishing process for my book, it's finally dawning on me now that my dream of becoming a published author will be coming true; and to make it even feel more unbelievable, I'll only be 20-years-old. So if this takes off and will be the next Percy Jackson, I could be settled for life(well I hope that will happen anyways).

From as long as I could remember, I've always been into mythology whether it's Greek, Egyptain etc, it has always fascinated me. And when you love it and want to become an author, it just opens so many doors on what you could create. Like "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" for example. It has so much originality to it! As you can see I'm a BIG Percy Jackson fan and I'm totally obsessed with it. Rick Riordan is my hero, the person who made me realize that I wanted to become a writer. I even thanked him in the acknowledgements. Yeah, that's right. So if he ever read "The Last of the Demigods: The Missing Symbols" and said it was amazing? I think I would die from shock.

But I certainly write more then just mythology though I have a lot of fun with it. It's my comfort zone if you will. I love fiction whether it's mystery, sci-fi etc. I don't do much reality fiction though because it was always too boring for me; I always had to put some kind of twist on it. In my writing, it's humorous and mysterious, enough to keep you turning the pages. I love shockers and backstabbers, things that keep books come alive and have you say, "Whaaaat?!" *laughs* I also love writing in 1st person, like this post for example. I find it more enjoyable and the reader feels closer to the protagonist. But I have experimented and I don't mind writing in 3rd person. My friend Jessica though LOVES it. We even wrote "The Missing Symbols" in 3rd person. But I think as a solo author after this, I'll mostly write in 1st.

Now besides "The Last of the Demigods" that I wrote with Jessica Willis(my best friend), I do have other writings that I'm working on to keep me busy. Like for example I have this novel in progress called "Egyptain Blood" where a New Yorker kid gets kidnapped from an evil Ancient Egytpain ruler and is sent back int the Ancient times. That's all I'm giving away for now but so far that is the only really book that I've gotten the farthest on. My good friend Zach read all of it so far and he absolutely loves it.

I'm Aquarious and our kind always has more fun when we got stuff to do and due to writer's block, I haven't worked on "Egytpain Blood" since September but I have come up with so many ideas it got to the point where I couldn't keep track on what to work on.

I miss that feeling though. I miss knowing that when I'd stop working on one book, I'd have another. I don't know if I have ADD or ADHD but sometimes I can't stand working on something for too long. I think maybe that's why I come up with so many ideas so I could always go to something else. But I don't care. I love how I am. I love my big awesome brain. I'm so creative and I love how easily inspired I can be. It also helps thinking that famous series such as Percy Jackson or Harry Potter all started out small, just from one simple idea. If you're a writer and always keep that on mind, it's just enough to kick you in gear to create something amazing.

So whoever reads this post PLEASE purchase, "The Last of the Demigods: The Missing Symbols". It is truly amazing with original characters and more. We don't have the release date yet but don't worry. When Jessica and I find out, I'll let you guys no ASAP!!! I have a pretty good idea though that it will most likely be out sometime this month. To know more about the book and see my art, go to my DeviantART page:

/http://perjacksonlover4ever.deviantart.com/

So until my next post, I'll be training at Camp Half-Blood!

PS: No wait. Scratch that. I'll be at Hogwarts.

PPS: uhhh..nevermind. Damn it....now I can't decide! Ugh!

Let Me Introduce Myself...

Hello y'all!

 Now usually when I just want to say something I either post it on my Facebook or DeviantArt profile but since two of my best friends have a blog, I thought, "What the hay?" so I created this one, seeing that it wouldn't hurt. I'm no stranger to blogs and since I'm going to be a coathor soon, I thought a blog would be a great way to get the book out there and gain an audience.

So I should probably introduce myself. My name is Tracy Holman, a young girl livin' in the state of Missouri which explains my slight southern writing voice-I never really noticed it before but now that I'm a serious writer and pay more attention, I've been seein' it in my writing. Anyways, I wrote a book called, "The Last of the Demigods: The Missing Symbols" with my best friend, Jessica Willis. It will be out sometime next month for it only has a few steps left before it hits the shelves. It's a trilogy but there will also be a part two. The both of us are VERY excited to seeing are dreams coming true. But it wasn't all fun and games.

Now I don't know who will read this blog but I thought I'd share my wisdom over publishing a book just incase you want to do the same.

Every author has a story so I'm goin' to tell you mine:

 A few years ago, I picked up a book called, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" written by Rick Riordan and from page one, I fell in love it with it. I devoured that book in a matter of days and instantly became a fan. From then on I knew I wanted to become a writer. Rick Riordan inspired me. He opened my eyes to make me see my true passion in life. Now when I told my parents I wanted to become a writer, they said that's great but I heard the false enthusiasm in their voice. At that time (and now) I didn't have a job or a life so I had all the time in the world to write a novel, silently deciding that I was going to prove to them that I WOULD be an author. I was seventeen then so of course I never wrote one before but I have read tons of books. So I got to thinking. Soon I came up with an idea but it wasn't original enough from "The Lightning Thief" so I decided to turn it into a fanfiction. Over the following weeks, I came up with characters, a plot and so on but after plotting everything out and writing a few chapters, I realized how great this fanfiction was so I decided to take out everything Percy Jackson related and turn it into my own novel called, "The Missing Symbols". Once everything Percy Jackson was taken out, I began to re-write what I've already written but not too long after that, it dawned on me how hard this was. So I decided to call up my best friend, Jessica and ask for help. Then next thing I knew we were writing a novel together.

That took over a year-probably three once I think of all the times we've re-written it, including the publishing process which is about finished. Also in those years, we've written the other two sequeals but when we decided to change "The Missing Symbols" from first person to third, we had to do the same for the other two. So once the first book was all re-done and cleaned up, Jessica and I finally dived into finding some publishers in our area.

Now that it's the 21st century, we were hearing how a large portion of authors are doing what's called, "self-publishing". Once we did our research and found one that sounded nice in our ears, we both agreed to self-publish our very first novel.

Boy, were we wrong...

No way in Hades will Jessica and I ever self-publish again. You don't want to know all the hell and arguments this journey had boiled between me and my mother. The company we chose was awful. In the beginning it sounded nice but as we drove further down the road, we knew that we had to spend money to make money but our company's prices were just rediculous. They had all these fees and hardly anything was cheap. In the end, we've spent more money then we wanted to but I just kept telling myself, this will all be worth it once I hold the book Jessica and I wrote in my hands. But a while ago, the two of us agreed that we'd NEVER do this again. From now on we're going old school. It may take longer but since our first book would already be out by then, maybe finding publishers for book 2 won't be as hard. Who knows, maybe some publishing houses will come to us.

Right now you're probably wondering what this book is about. Well, let me tell you.

"The Last of the Demigods: The Missing Symbol"

Ben Erringtone and Paul "Stain" Austin thought they were just two normal teens living in San Francisco, California until they arrive on a mysterious island, ignoring Mr. C.'s orders to stay on the boat. When they come upon a cave where torches light up themselves, they knew something was strange and after they stumble upon a snake-haired lady named Medusa, she tells them something that they just couldn't believe: they're demigods.

Being the first to survive her stare, Ben demands from Mr. C. who confesses that she was right. He and Stain were demigods. He explains that the gods on Olympus need these symbols in order for the great prophecy to take effect and that Ben and Stain are the last of the demigods, the only ones who could even accept this quest. If they don't then the world would be doomed.

Well I think that wraps up this first blog post. I'd love to hear from you all on what you think of the book so don't be afraid to comment!

Until next time...

:) Life's good