Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Cover Reveal: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Cover of Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
Photo courtesy here

The cover reveal for Passenger, the latest from Alexandra Bracken, has arrived, and I am so happy!!

I read and reviewed Darkest Minds late last year and adored it! I haven't been able to get a hold of the second book in the series, Never Fade, but I plan on finding it for the summer. This novel has been haunting me on Twitter, and this cover is absolutely stunning.

Monday, April 20, 2015

#WritersLife: Expanding as a Blogger and Reader


#WritersLife - The Blonde Writer


#WritersLife highlights my writing career and ambitions (I promise I will find a tagline that sounds good before the next dystopian apocalypse). I've been dabbling in other areas of book reviews, and I want to spend some time on that to better explain why there haven't been as many reviews up on the site as there should be.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

#WritersLife: Working as a (Creative) Writer


#WritersLife - The Blonde Writer

#WritersLife follows my escapades as a writer (duh). For this installment, I wanted to share some news about one of the businesses I work for, and for you guys to better understand it I needed to share some of my writing career past with y'all. 

Amber's Career Summary in 3, 2, 1!

Working after College


I graduated in May 2014 with my Bachelor's in Creative Writing, and I imagined I would just find some little job while I worked on my latest masterpiece before I was magically picked up and lived my life in a log cabin writing. Needless to say, I still thought life was more similar to Disney than Pixar.
I had some sense knocked into me by my good friend Eric and found some work before I graduated. Over the course of the next year, I would write copy (advertisement) for a sneaker company and a wine decor business, tutor writing to students in community college, start a blog, and intern for a literary agency reading YA/MG manuscripts.

While none of these jobs involved writing fiction, they did require my creativity and willingness to share the love of writing with others. In fact, writing things other than what I love is what has allowed me to appreciate fiction writing that much more. I'm still aiming to be a bestselling YA author, but in the meantime I'm loving the marketing and publishing aspects as well.
Now, to get to the matter at hand...

Wine Decor Business Progress!


I work for a wine decor business called Beth's Wine Designs, which was founded in October 2014. We focus on up-cycling wine bottles and various other types of alcohol bottles (which are donated and not consumed entirely by us) into beautiful art pieces for homes, offices, or celebrations. My work includes writing product descriptions and managing the social media pages. 

I am very excited to announce we just got our first reviews on Etsy and it feels AWESOME!

Screenshot of Beth's Wine Designs Etsy storefront
Aren't these the most stunning reviews you've ever seen?!


We have been on Etsy for months and have made some sales in person, but these were our first official Etsy sales. We had a squeal fest when the reviews came up. 

This is the other part of being a writer that is just as rewarding as seeing your work published. I may not be weaving stories, but my work has allowed my boss to see her work "published" in the sense of it being posted, seen, and adored by her customers. Writing has always been about bringing people together, and marketing is no exception. 

Working as a creative writer doesn't mean you're writing fiction or poetry; sometimes, it means you're working writing jobs in a way that still show off your creativity.