Maligayang Pasko + giveaway!

Ah yes, it's that time of the year when I am most excited, not because of the long holiday (okay, maybe a little) but because it's one of the most festive time of the year for me and my family.

I'd like to extend my greetings to all my readers, so I say Maligayang Pasko! It means "Merry Christmas" in my native language.

Wherever you are in the world, and whoever you may be celebrating this day with, may you all be filled with happiness and love. One of the best things during this time of the year, especially for me, is seeing a big smile on the faces of my family and loved ones as we celebrate the birth of Christ.

In the spirit of giving, I'm doing a quick give away to one of my lucky readers. I meant to give this away early this month, but I've been too busy with work and a lot of other things, so I'm taking this opportunity to give this away now.

Fill out the rafflecopter form and tell me: How are you celebrating this year? What gifts did you get? Did any of your wishes for the year came true?

CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY TIME! 

WIN A SIGNED COPY OF LEGEND BY MARIE LU & BOOKISH ECO BAG

Rules:

Open Internationally

Ends January 5, 2015

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Merry Christmas!

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Goddess Offerings (49) / Stacking the Shelves (31)

Oh my gosh, what a nightmare shopping for Christmas presents! Will add my video later. Sorry in advance for looking horrible.

Stacking the Shelves hosted is by Tynga's reviews! So leave a comment below and share your own haul!

For review:

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (ARC)
Idols (Icons #2) by Margaret Stohl
Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3) by Laini Taylor
The Last American Vampire by Seth Graham-Smith (ARC)
Golden Son (Red Rising Trilogy #2) by Pierce Brown (ARC)
The Here and Now by Ann Brashares (ARC)
Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga #2) by Jennifer Donnelly (ARC)

Revolution (Replica #3) by Jenna Black
Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater (ARC)


Won:
Gilded by Christina Farley (German edition, signed)

Bought:

Sublime by Christina Lauren
Real Live Boyfriends by E. Lockhart
Fall Like Rain by Ana Tejano

Thank you so much to Tor Teen, Hachette Book Group USA, Christina Farley, Scholastic Philippines, Penguin Random House and Hachette UK!

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Relish by Kate Evangelista Scavenger Hunt!

Welcome, welcome. *using my best Effie Trinket voice*

So you're here for the Relish scavenger hunt, yeah? You came to the right place. Now feel free to check the blog, or you can just scroll down below to see the next page of the story. (I'm Page 2!)

A fair warning: It's a good chapter. You'd want to keep on reading. So give it to the urge and continue with the hunt right after! You just need to click on the link for "Next Page" to find out what happens next.

~Page 2~

My breathing hitches. I open my mouth, but no words come out. Another twist just below my navel forces me into a fetal position, clutching my abdomen. It feels like something wants to crawl out, ripping me from the inside.

I opened my eye to the predawn darkness and gasped. Holy hell! Chanting? Fuckin’ chanting? Really? I swallowed down the bile rising up my throat. Tremors ravaged my sweat-slicked body beneath the thick comforters smothering me.

Since returning to my apartment, my dreams had taken on a creepy aspect. I must be losing my mind. It was bad enough I woke up to some strange man chasing me, now I had added a weird old woman performing some sort of sick ritual to the mix? Where were these images coming from? I must have a twisted imagination to come up with this stuff. I’d never considered therapy before—dismissing my dreams as nightmares—but now I came really close to giving in. Maybe sleeping pills could knock me out deep enough that I’d find myself in the land of no dreams like the time I’d gotten sick at Lunar Manor. I smoothed away the black hair I kept in a bob from my cheek, shaking my head. Not going there. Thoughts of that place only led to worse memories.

With each breath I inhaled, I did my best to calm my racing heart. My fingers groped for my belly. Beneath my fingertips I felt the sea of scars there, marring the otherwise smooth skin. The largest one ran from my navel down to just above my pubic line. Nothing wanted to crawl out of me like a creature from Alien. I was fine. I was fine.

I repeated the mantra several times, wiping away the cold sweat on my brow with still shaking fingers. At least the tremors had subsided some. It sucked balls. Just when I thought I understood my dreams for what they were, new information threw a wrench in my acceptance, sending me back into a spiral of unnecessary panic. What were my dreams trying to tell me?

~Next Page~

Title: Relish (Vicious Feast #2) by Kate Evangelista
Release Date: January 12th 2015
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press

Summary:

I left Lunar Manor broken, seeking comfort in the hands of Laurel “the Dragon” Hardy, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Gossip. Okay, I may have used him to ease the pain He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named caused by his confession of loving someone else. On New Year’s Eve! Granted, he was drunk off his ass, but still! I stay with Larry mainly because the dreams are getting worse. Worse enough to wake me in the middle of the night needing the touch of another to save me from losing my mind.

Unfortunately, the handsome bassist of the uber successful indie rock band, Vicious, is never far from my mind. I thought I was rid of him once and for all only to have him show up at my hotel in London. Luka Visraya’s power over me is intense. No matter how far I run, I always end up circling back to him.

If you think my story is just some romance about two lovers getting back together, think again. Little did I know that returning to Luka meant I’d be plunging myself into a world more familiar than I ever thought possible. Trust me when I say I didn’t believe it either when the truth finally came out.

About the author:

When Kate Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department and never looked back. Today, she is a graduate of De La Salle University - Manila with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature. She taught high school English for three years and was an essay consultant for two. Currently she writes full-time and is based in the Philippines.



Links:

Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Instagram | Wattpad

Raise your hand and so a happy dance if you're excited to read Relish! Because yeah, I AM. *does the Happy dance* Big thanks to Kate for letting me be part of the scavenger hunt!

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Signing recap: Lang Leav PH Book signing! #LangLeavinPH

For a very new reader of poems like me, her pieces struck a chord in my heart countless of times, from her first book Love and Misadventure and then Lullabies, Lang Leav has been very much in my radar. (You should see my IG and tweets about her poems, seriously) That's why I was so excited when I found out that she's coming here. Finally! Who says I only read YA?

Despite the gloomy weather, I arrived early with a friend at the venue so we had some time to kill. And by that I mean figuring out how the coffee machine works, what kind of coffee there was and deciding whether we should have tea or not, all while we chat and catch up with each other.

Lang arrived around half an hour later and that familiar nervousness when you meet an author face to face was back. Despite having an early start to her day, she was still all smiles and said hi to everyone and was so excited to talk to us!

What a pretty smile!

The question and answer part started and I've always loved this part of a blogger's event. We get to find out more not just about the book, or the inspiration behind them but also something about the author in the process and it was a very fruitful encounter between Lang and the bloggers with the questions coming in one by one.

Needless to say, I found out a lot of things about Lang, her art and her poems in those 10 minutes we were talking to her.

When asked what her techniques are in writing such simple but emotionally deep poems:

Lang doesn't have much of a technique as she writes from instinct. Over the years her writing has developed in which she tried to make her writing more compact but to leave all that emotion still, which has been something she has been honing for the last few years and now it almost comes naturally to her.

How Lang is able to balance her time for her several passions such as fashion, art and of course her poetry:

Lang thinks there's a common misconception that she is doing all of it at once. She did fashion many years ago and got into the arts some years ago as well but the last few years has been about the illustrations for her books and she's been focusing on her writing projects. Writing has really taken over for the last couple of years for her.

When asked what her writing process is like and the inspiration for her poetry, especially for both Love & Misadventure and Lullabies:

Lang doesn't really have a writing process. She writes when she can and when she feels like it, which is generally at night (which is more for creativity!) but she doesn't really have a set rule for it. As for her inspirations, because she has spent a couple of years with her poetry online and interacting with all her readers, it comes from all the stories they have told her. She gets a lot of sad stories, and her inspiration comes from that.

With the success of Love & Misadventure, did it make writing Lullabies easier for Lang:

Yes, it did. Because by then Lang already has a publisher and she didn't have to go at it alone, like when she self-published Love & Misadventure. In terms of writing, she was already writing anyway, as she likes putting out new material for her readers and pretty soon she had enough material for another book.

If there was ever a time when she had to make a choice between artwork and poetry:

In terms of choices, Lang has always gone with her gut feeling and what she felt was working for her. When her writing started taking off, it became clear to her that that was going to be the forerunner because the response that she got with her writing was much, much bigger than what she ever had for her artwork. And it's great that she has done the two as she likes to put them side by side and she thinks it's really complimentary.

And a question from bestselling author Ms. Noreen Capili, where she asked Lang if there was ever a time when she finished writing and she felt like she has written it before (a line or a poem) and if she did, how does she reinvent herself without compromising her distinct voice.

When you write a poem you do get that feeling of deja vu sometimes, according to Lang. She just had to weigh it up and down and sit and think if it was something she had ever said or done before or if it's something someone else has said before. She just has to find that balance, looking at it and making a call.

What can we expect from Lang in 2015:

Lang has another poetry and prose book being published in 2015. She's also halfway through a novel but she doesn't know if it's going to have a 2015 release date. It's just some of the things Lang is working on, but there will definitely be a third installment of a poetry and prose book from her.

What Lang feels when someone reads her poem and comes up with an interpretation far from what she means:

She really loves it! She thinks it's fantastic how someone can take a poem and look at it in several different ways. That is the beauty of poetry. You are the protagonist. You can put yourself into that poem.

If there was ever a specific person or a moment that inspired Lang to start writing poems:

It's just something Lang has always done. And it's normally if she's going through a hard time. Before her poetry went viral, writing poetry was just a way for Lang to get her feelings out. She tends to be more prolific when she's going through a tough time. As an example, in 2007 her best friend's mother passed away and that was a really tough year for her, so she drew a lot from that for the sadness, as that person was like a second mother to her.

If there was a piece of art or poetry she most attribute to her success as an artist and poet:

It's a combination of a lot of things. Her most popular poem ever, Souls (the one about "goodnight") was something she really liked now than when she first wrote it. Lang was also surprised by its popularity. She wrote Souls when she was still in a long distance relationship with Michael (Faudet) as he was living in New Zealand and Lang was in Australia and every time they spoke on the phone, after they hang up there was always this horrible silence and a void and that was the inspiration for it.

Lang's favorite saying or wisdom that she always bring with her:

There was a time in her life where she was writing and she didn't feel like herself. One day, a lot of things happened all at once and everything just came crashing down and she just sat inside her room at her parents house and started writing again for the next six months, poem after poem. It made Lang feel like she was herself again. So she always say to people: Words are your power. Never forget your words.

You can listen to the whole thing below:


Amazing answers from Lang. I think I fell in love with her works just a little more with this awesome insight in the inner workings of her brain. Wow.

And as always, my blogger friends and I took time to take photos with each other while we wait for Lang to sign our books.

Afterwards, we went to the public signing to check how many people were there. There were only 500 slots for this signing, and imagine my surprise when we saw the state of Powerbooks. There were so many people, and technically it's not even store hours but the place was already crowded!

We met a few friends along the way, and we had to ask for permission to get a photo (we had to circle around the crowd to get a good shot of the place). It was around half past 10 am and my friend has already spotted someone with a number in the 300's which was amazing.

Short and sweet, that's how I will describe my experience for this signing. It might be because the day was early, but weirdly enough, it felt like a "full" experience. Lang Leav is such a mesmerizing person, not just because of the stories she shares, or the poems she's written. It was a swift and quick meeting but I'm glad I was able to see her. And we had a really short conversation too because of the photo in the upper right of your screen. So cute!

@amaterasureads sneaking in a quick nap 😁 hehe, lovely to meet you x
— Lang Leav (@langleav) December 7, 2014

I say thank you again and again to National Book store for a memorable signing to cap off this wonderful year. You guys are the best!

Check out other recaps from awesome book bloggers:

Jesselle of The Lifelong Bookworm

Leslie of Bibliophile Kid

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