Sharing Time- 8/4/14 (P.S Writing Contest Alert!)

Music and Videos

I'm not surprised this following video is from Canada, but in any case, its pretty adorable. I wish American banks would do this! Any chance I can get help paying off my schooling? 

Janelle Monae's "Cold War" music video.

"Do your bit! Skate to work!", New York City, 1940s pic.twitter.com/RPuJZ9O6dJ

— History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics) July 5, 2014

In the News
Coffee shop with no employees. - This article is kinda old but its a neat idea. This coffee shop doesn't have an employees because it runs on the honor system. People can pay whatever they want for the coffee and serve themselves.
Fail-This article deals more with design, but I thought that it can be applied to writers too. It talks about how its okay to fail.
What would you give up for world peace?- I thought this article was share worthy because it deals with "hive mind", the idea that we could share a collective mind- some animals like bees and ants have what is called a hive mind. In Night Lies, Faith joins a team where the team's leader has them join his hive mind.
25 free apps that help make the world a better place- Its a Buzzfeed article, so I take everything with a grain of salt on this site. I don't trust it, since they've been known to plagiarize, but it is entertaining and they share some pretty cool stuff regardless.


Writing/Book Articles/News
Double Standards for Journalists- This article deals with a topic I ranted about earlier. But it basically goes on to say that journalists need to treat social media like they do traditional journalism. Which includes fact checking and acting professionally. If they don't, they risk losing their reader's trust.
Unlimited Profit: The Math behind Kindle Unlimited- I'm not good at math, so I didn't fully understand this. But for the more math inclined brains out there, this article makes out the math behind Kindle Unlimited and how authors and Amazon stands to make a profit.
YA- The Changing Face of Marketing- This discussion I found during my marketing class. It deals with how authors in 2014 are marketing themselves and their books. Its pretty interesting and worth a look.

Contest Alert
Do you have a finished MG, YA, NA, or Adult manuscript? Looking to be published? Well Pitch Wars is going on and I thought I'd share. You can find the rules and mentors listed here Pitch Wars Mentors 2014.

Story Time
So I've had this story idea for a while now. But I thought I'd share it with you because its been going pretty well.

Beautiful Manipulation

Being against evil doesn’t make you good.

Rhielle Medley knew three rules. 1) When you got into trouble you called in your local superhero. 2) Superheroes can only be killed by their nemeses. 3) Don’t tell anyone you’re not perfect.

Since she was young, Rhielle, a fraternal triplet, knew she and her sisters, Sian and Ilvione were different. They always knew how to be perfect in public. Physically, socially, and personally graceful and flawless, the triplets could get away with anything and even a complete stranger would feel like they had known them forever. But on the inside, they are far from perfect.

When their parents' rocky marriage comes to light , suddenly everything seems to spiral out of control. Someone is killing the superheros, Sian is taking advantage of their power, manipulating everyone in her path, Ilvione keeps disappearing, and Rhielle just wants to finish her homework, and go to work.

But when their local superhero, Nest, asks her to help him find out who’s killing his colleagues, Rhielle will have to ask what’s the difference between good and evil? Can you still be good if you just stand by and do nothing? And if she, herself, is even worth saving before it becomes too late.

I'm not quite sure where I got the general idea from, but its a really fun story to write. I'm basing their power though off a Superpower Wiki entry though- Supernatural Beauty- and giving a new look to the power.

For more Beautiful Manipulation, you can check out the story at my Wattpad page or on my Pinterest Board. Also, here's a semi-depressing, but interesting article that I know Sian would use to her advantage- Being Attractive Pays Off.

Also, check out my friends' stories on Wattpad- Drunk on Love by natmarie, Clever Devils by EDcarrol, and The Dawn- The Aleron Chronicles Book 1 by Evelynn Grace.

Sincerely,
Sareh

Sharing Days! 6/13/14

Random articles, Music and Media

• A shipyard of cranes was turned into dancing oragami. 

I found a new (Its actually old but new to me) song by BOA called "Hurricane Venus".

• This post written by Lauren DeStefano about "manic pixie dream girls" and how girls can be girls and not an object to be attained. 
• A map that shows the entire world in stereotypes. 
• Studying is really hard when this happens: 

  

  If this doesn't illustrate studying, I don't know what does.
  Can she just absorb it for me and give me the knowledge?

Posts from Around the Web about Books

• Maggie Stiefvater's post about our apparent misconception and points out that books don't make you smarter.
• This post arguing that genre fiction can be just as good as literary fiction. 
• Lauren DeStefano's tumblr rant about the "Ugly Snobs of Publishing."
• A post about how your local bookstore is a privileged. 
• This post about what happens when kids see only white kids in books.

Articles Dealing with Amazon's Bullying

• A post that deals with Future of Publishing and how Amazon vs Publishers can change who sells our books.
• Amazon's battle with Hachette was a big discussion at BEA 2014. 
• Amazon's Battle Against Hachette Escalates.

Articles dealing with YA

• My friend Rae wrote a wonderful post, Shameless: Reading YA, in response to an article in Slate about, another adult, arguing that there's something shameful about adults reading YA.  (If you may recall, another similar post was written a couple years ago that I wrote a heated rant about and then later turned into a speech that eventually won 6th place at a speech competition.)
• So Twitter and I guess the internet exploded this week when author, John Green, mistakenly said something offensive and misguided about a shot in his movie. Well an article was written about why "Our Fault in Our Stars" is not the savior of YA fiction.
• The Real Story Behind the War on YA.

In the News

• Here's a weird news piece that a friend showed me. Child Found Dead in Fridge, weighed 17lbs. And another one about A hospital patient lost for three days, later found in a stairwell.

P.S I know I'm posting on Friday the 13th, but you guys believe in any superstitions? 

Sincerely,

Sareh

Sharing...Sundays! 5/25/14

So I couldn't...post on Friday because I was on vacation, but I took some lovely pictures I'll be putting up on my portfolio on Devinart.

Music and Media

• Here's a wonderful Ted Talk about domestic violence. 

And while we're talking about domestic violence, I saw this video on Buzzfeed about domestic violence in public and how people react, when its guy-on-girl/girl-on-guy. 

The video is presented by the Mankind Initiative which aims to help men in domestic violence situations. 

• To hear the kind of music I've been listening to for my story, Those Crazy Years, check out these Spotify playlists.  In Full Swing & Electro Swing. Also, some classic 1920s,  Flapper Jazz Dinner Party.
• I created a "research template" for writers. Here's the PDF version. I can also send it to anyone who thinks it might be useful. Let me know what you think and if I can improve it! 

Articles From Around the Web

• Check out my friend, Rae Slater's blog! Here's some of her articles on commercialism and on what to do after you finish a draft.
• Check out this post on how to know if you're a book nerd.
• This NY Times article on putting warning labels on classic literature for students. 
• This post detailing more of the battle between Amazon and Hachette. In short, Amazon is basically trying to gain more control of the publishing industry (despite already owning a large portion of e-book sales) and is punishing publishers, authors, and customers in its quest for dominance and money. 
• How to support an author's new book.
• This Contently post- Is Beacon the Netflix and future of freelancers and journalists? 
• Another Contently post on how freelance designers are using social media to fight plagiarism.  
• New York Times' interactive calculator on whether its better to buy or rent a home.

Websites to Look At

• Who Pays Writers? tries to figure out how much writers make and offers tips and suggestions to writers. They also have a magazine aimed at helping writers as well. 
• Old Magazine Articles- They have tons of free old magazine articles available online. Writing historical fiction and trying to find out something from a particular time or era? Or just curious? Well look no further! 
• Crisis Textline- is a free crisis hotline aimed at teens with help and support available 24/7. 
• Perdue Owl offers lots of hints and suggestions not only for research papers, but for researching as well for fiction writers (well you can take it that way). 

Sincerely,

Sareh

Sharing Fridays! 5/16/14

So I kinda forgot yesterday was Thursday (I blame summer break), so I'm sharing things today.

Book Contests

• Lori. M. Lee is having a cover reveal and an international book giveaway! Check it out here.
• Beth Revis is having a huge giveaway and you have to check it out here.
• Jay Kristoff is having a cover reveal and a giveaway too! You can check it out here.

Media and Music

• Ted Talks to Inspire and Learn
• 10 Talks on Graduation and What's Next
• Unlock the intelligence, passion, and greatness of girls
• Why Domestic Violence Victims Don't Leave
• What We Learned from Five Million Books
• How Photography Connects Us
• Check out Peter Hollen's rendition of Brave by Josh Groban. 

Articles to Look at

• Snapchat isn't protecting your privacy
• (To make you smile) 100 Best Dog Photos
• Young People want Equality but Struggle to Discuss Bias
• Worst Ways to Begin Your Novel According to Literary Agents
• 31 Confessions Any Book Lover will Understand
• Why We Need to Care more about Library Funding
• My post on how to help show you care to the families of the kidnapped girls in Nigeria and websites to check out about ending human trafficking. 
• A high school student not only graduated from high school at 15, but he also did it with four college degrees. You can check out the story here.
• How Writers can Make Money on Etsy
• 11 Ways to Write Authentic Historical Fiction
• 7 tips on How To Writer Historical Fiction
• 8 1/2 Character Archtypes you Should Be Writing

Websites to Look at

• The Brits have established a website chock full of literature and other documents from the British Library's collection on Romantic and Victorian writers. You can check it out here.
• There's an awesome website you can buy books from for REALLY cheap. You can check out Book Outlet here. 

Sincerely,
Sareh

Sharing Thursdays! 5/8/14

Welcome back to this weekly post of random stuff for me to share from around the internet!

I got a Twitter! 
So follow me for everything interesting, randomness, and for the fun of it and I'll probably follow you back!

https://twitter.com/SarehLovasen

Web Posts To Take a Look At!

• This Contently Post introduced me to this new thing Facebook is trying called Facebook Newswire. Apparently its trying to compete with Twitter as a place for breaking news and the like, and wants to attract more companies to it. 
• This post  discusses the if Buzzfeed really knows the secret to getting things viral and other ways that Buzzfeed is changing the way we see news and media. 
• And as much as I all know we don't like taking finals at school, don't be like these college students who ordered a hit on themselves in order to avoid their finals! 

Music and Media to Think about and Listen To

• These Ted Talks for you to enjoy!
• The Way We Think about Charity is Wrong
• Does the Media have a "Duty of Care"?
• How to Seperate Fact from Fiction Online
• If you haven't heard of Lindsey Stirling, check out her youtube channel now! She's an awesome violinist who can dance and play the violin at the same time! Wow!
• Here's a new song by her that I just discovered! "Shatter Me"! 

Websites and Other Randomness to Look at

• Wasn't exactly sure if this counts as a website yet or not, but there's a kickstarter program called Storium that kinda reminds me of a role playing game or Dungeons and Dragons. But either way, you can check it out for yourself by clicking here.
• If you're a graphic designer or an artist, check out AIGA- the professional organization for artists and designers! 
• There's a website devoted to books that work on paper and wouldn't work well as ebooks. You can check out Wink-Books by clicking on its name (<---). 
• This picture about the opening ceremony of Woodstock! Wow, that's a lot of people!

Opening ceremony of Woodstock, 1969 pic.twitter.com/VGhEg8ACuv
— Historical Pics (@HistoricalPics) May 8, 2014

Story Time!
So I also recently posted a revamped story on Wattpad, called Those Crazy Years, that I'm really excited about! Its an exciting story about an alternative universe of the 1920s filled with magic, international intrigue, mobsters, spies, and mystery!

It was fashionable, you see, to kill.

In high style of the day, the Skylarks of New Haven have taken the city by storm. They were the bee’s knees, the big cheese, and everyone wanted to be just like them. They could sing, dance, act, anything they set their mind to, these girls could do. Everyone loved them and no one dared breathed a bad word about them. They seduced everyone and were called the “It” girls. Sexy, smart, fashionable.

But like everyone, they each had their own secrets. And sometimes secrets have a nasty way of revealing themselves. Its been over a year since James Royston disappeared while on a mission to save his kidnapped bride, and now his sister Juliet is determined to find them no matter the cost. But it could very much cost her life.

Thrown into a dangerous game of international intrigue, lies, forbidden romances, magic, and crime lords, Juliet will have to keep her wits about her if she’s to save her brother. But Juliet’s new friends have dug themselves into a deeper hole then anyone could imagine, and it might just take an outsider to save them. In those days it might have been fashionable, but now they call it, those crazy years.

You can check out the story here on Wattpad and take a look at my Pinterest Board for it.

Well that's all today! If you have more you'd like to share (whether its a new book you just discover, got published, music you want to share, an article, pictures, whatever) just let me know either in the comments or through the contact form underneath the author page!

Sincerely,
Sareh