Okay so a quick recap on my month: School started and I’ve been having a hard time finding that balance between writing and school work. I have been able to finish writing a short story though which was very exciting.

Another thing of importance is that I’ve been messing around on the web for a bit and I’ve learned a few things from other writing blogs and decided to make mine like one of those. It would be a slow work in progress, but comments will be VERY MUCH Appreciated and hopefully my blog will start to spread.

My blog will contain advice to fellow teen writers (and I guess other more adult like writers if you want to listen to a 16 year old), reposts of other articles that I found, as a writer, very enjoyable, and other information so that it’s not just boring “Me, me, me” stuff.

Well, this post was short to introduce the change. Expect frequent updates from now on.

Summer vacation.

Relaxing, Chilling at home, and other non busy activities.... I wish.

I went to two camps (going to another in two days), but I did have a neat opportunity. At both camps there were talent shows that allowed me to read from my book. They recorded the talent show at one of the camps. I start at about 11:33 in the video and it is me reading the 5th chapter of my book. You might have to turn up the audio, but the background music created a really cool effect (especially for those in attendance). 

Besides that I'm making progress on Book Two. Oh, and I took a trip to London which included the weaponry at the Tower of London so I am full of new and great ideas for weapons to use in the upcoming books.

Well, I’m bad at blogs. The fact is out there, I really do enjoy it though so I found a way to make it work with my schedule AND still keep on writing whenever I can have time. My solution is that on the first of every month I will post up a new blog post. So my blog will be monthly, but consistent.

From my last post to this a lot has happened. My facebook page is up to date, but I will chat about everything on here as well! First off: I’m working hard on book two for everyone that is waiting for it!

Around the end of June I was able to do some publicity things. These included some presentations I made to the elementary section of my school. I presented to the 6th, 5th, 4th, 2nd, and 1st graders. I had fun creating my little presentation and some reading theaters for them to perform. I had a ton of fun and one of the teachers gave me some flowers as thanks. It was amazing, plus I loved answering questions and talking about writing. 

The kids who came were all so adorable. My friends were so sweet when they showed up with some flowers and bought a book as well. I had 32 and I sold out!! Some kids asked to have their picture taken with me, while others would brag to their friends about having a signed copy. It was just amazing!!

My friends joke around that I was like a mini celebrity at school with kids coming up to me. I loved it and every time someone tells me they enjoyed my book, I’m sooo happy. I write for people to read and enjoy so when someone enjoys what I write I feel so accomplished and just… happy. It is funny how, as a writer, I can’t come up with the words to describe this feeling. 

Having published a book is amazing

The feeling is one that is hard to put into the words. Even as a writer I don’t know where to start. The anticipation and worry if people will like it and the sense of accomplishment when you hold your own book in print is amazing.

 Finals are coming up in school, but I finally making some progress as an “Author”. I have my first Writer’s Workshop for the 4th graders at my school. Its only for 30-45 minutes on Wednesday, but Im excited and nervous. That Friday I have an Hour to an Hour and a half presentation for the 6th graders. Lastly, Saturday (15th) I am having my book signing.

Took me a while to figure out how to put up the collection of random sayings that I have..... so I was only able to put up the section of Sarcastic/Mean lines or dialogues.  They can be very interesting. Anyway, that is attached at the end. You will find it when you hit the 'read more' option.

Besides that, an update, I now have an Author Facebook page and a book signing planned (my very first).

Book Signing=June 15th at JFC Brunssum Library 

Facebook page= https://www.facebook.com/authornatasharayne

Now, I AM SUPER EXCITED and nervous. This is all such a learning experience for me and I feel so privilleged to be able to do things like this with my book. I love writing and I hope my story can bring a smile and arouse some emotions in the reader. I hope that my joy can come through with the writing style.

At school some kids will come up to me and tell me that they love my book and can't wait for book two. I can't even begin to say how much this means to me. One girl in particular told me that she read the entire book in one sitting and couldn't put it down. I later found her bragging in the hallway that she had gotten to read an early copy because her mother drew the map. 

I want to thank, once again, everyone who is supporting me as they join me on this journey of becoming an author. If you enjoyed the book, please, tell your friends! There is no better advertising than word of mouth. 

School…. One word can cause so many different emotions! But, positively, third quarter is officially over now and we are moving into the last stretch of school. Hopefully this means less school projects and more writing time… One can hope, right?

Anyway, I am still new at this sort of thing. Not blogging exactly… I had a family blog (sniderstravels.weebly.com) which has bad spelling/grammar on my part because it is just documented changes from my original ‘normal’ (for me) life in Arizona to my new life in the Netherlands/Germany/Belgium tri-border area.

The move was definitely a big change in my life and I am glad I moved over here. (STORY IDEAS) My series…. Reader, you have much to look forward to.

Now, back to what I was originally talking about… but got distracted: I don’t know what to put on an Author Blog (New author here) or how to publicize my book. I am so thankful to the help I am getting from Coach Padron and my friend Raegan. Expect a facebook page soon and maybe more!

For the blog…. I know! Next week, I am going to put up some of my favorite lines. Either quotes from famous people or shot sarcastic quotes that I have heard from time to time.. Included might be some possible dialogues as well!

The rest of my break was pretty calm. 

I will be honest; I don’t know exactly what I should be putting up here so I was snooping around the interweb at other Author blogs. I gathered a few ideas. I basically collected the information that they give advice to fellow writers and beginning writers as well as I have seen a few ‘current reading list’. I thought to myself: “Hey! I can put the books I have recently read down with what I though!” So that is what this post is. 
 
Usually I read super Fantasy books. You know, different world or different creatures but recently I have been reading books about normal humans that are skilled. These skills tend to create spies or thieves!

Hello fellow reader of books,

This week has been my first week of Spring Break, which means no school. Usually on breaks from school I would read a large stack of books, but relatives flew out to visit us and we have been travelling around and visiting places. 

I call it research!

Monday we visited a castle in a forested area of Germany which had an amazing weaponry full of all sorts of medieval weapons. Man, I would have loved to have taken a whole bunch of reference pictures for possible weapons for Hope to use, but no pictures were allowed to be taken inside of the castle. 
 
I still got a lot of information though. The Divine Leader’s  castle in my story is based off of a small sixth grade unit we did on castles.  That was seriously about all of the information I had besides typical fairy
  tales and what-nots that tell of Princes living in amazing Palaces. One of the projects had the class split in groups of some number around five and construct  a castle out of old toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, cereal boxes, and  whatever trash we could find. 

That castle that my group completed (finished with paint and  little statues inside of it) is the model of the one in my story. Now that I  have seen a few real castles I am able to describe more details about it besides the typical: Moat, Drawbridge, statues, and large doors. 
 
On one of my ‘research missions’ (my family would call them  vacations) we meandered about the Louvre. The place had amazing ceilings and
  one of the artworks on the roof had a picture of a fire breathing dog on it!
Writing this blog post has made me remember that I was going to look the dog up
to see if he had any special symbolism. Who knows, one of my upcoming stories
might mention a fire breathing dog.


Today we are heading out to one of my favorite local castles
  because it is unpopular and they let us touch everything! They have games set
  up in the courtyard that Medieval children would play and the experience is
  super neat. Hopefully on the next post I can add a bunch of pictures of
  randomly-not-so-random things!



Till next time,


Natasha Rayne

I am now published!!!

The excitement and happiness I feel can’t even begin to be put into words; and I have spent quite a while figuring out how to put a lot of different things into words. This week has been absolutely amazing and totally just, MY WEEK. I turned 16 Tuesday and the very next day my book was released for both paperback editions and e-book editions.

I know I have an acknowledgment section in my book and all that good stuff, but I wanted to say one more thank you. I want to thank everyone who helped me finish writing and tacking on such a huge project and stick with me. I need to thank my cover artist for listening to my rambles about what I wanted and helping me out with having cover art considering I am no artist (seriously, you should SEE my stick figures). I would also like to thank my Map artist. I have the big version framed and hung in my room!

I have to thank my lovely Aunt/Editor as well. I am not great at grammar or spelling actually. If I didn’t have word to back me up, my book would be very hard to understand. Everybody has a week point, mine happens to be commas and homophones.

What else is there for me to say? Thank you all of those that are supporting me by buying my book (either e version or paperback). If you bought the paperback version, I will sign it if you get it to me somehow.

Can you believe it? I am a published author at 16, albeit I did self-publish… but still. To join the rank of those I have always admired as I read books quickly and escaped to different worlds; I am happy to share my world with many readers!

Sorry for the shortness,

Natasha Rayne