✵ Featured Authors Get Together 2018 ✵

Full coverage from Day 10 of the Featured Authors Get Together (Including the winners for the TWO SPOTS on the Spring Featured List)

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by to check out the full coverage from Day 10 of the Featured Authors Get Together 2018! Whether you're here to see what you missed, or to leave a comment for a post, I'm happy to have you here!

Without further a due...

✵

Get to Know Fernando Fernandosimplyme
Soon to be published to the blog!

First off, welcome back to featured author! It's been awhile since we've seen you around. How have you been?
I've been good. I think the world is really turning my way. And it feels very good.

Let's get things going with something fun (something I usually don't ask our regular featured authors) tell us five fun facts about yourself!

I sing. I dance. (Let's count that as one.)

I love to make people smile.

I'm a macaroni and cheese aficionado.

I love kids, but only when they're like from 0-2, because if you haven't noticed kids are brutally honest, and it's really hurtful.

I LOVE GLEE!!!!!!!

What kinds of writing have you been up to as of late? Have you started any new projects since we last had an interview?
Well, I've been trying to rewrite FTTM and get the storyline to where I want it. And it's been going good so far, but I'm at the point where I have no more time for anything. New projects? Hmm, I started a youtube channel, very lowkey at the moment.

What's the favorite book you've written so far and why? Would you recommend it to our featured author readers?
My favorite book I written so far is the only one I claim to have written. I love Familia Translates To Family. I really recommend this book, even if it isn't the fandom of choice, it really has a great storyline about family, love, and navigating the hardships of being a family while getting to know each other at the same time.

Which of your characters do you feel you most relate to and why?
I can relate to all my main characters. Maya is the mother she has that cautionary feeling which I have. (I blame it on being a Capricorn.) Lucas, the father, and his paternal instinct to protect everyone. Matthius has trust issues and has a hard time letting people in. Mason tends to be the voice of reason, but no one listens to him because he's the youngest, which I can totally relate to. And Ciara-Ruby she is kinda like there for the ride. She's a go with the flow and happy all the time. (Which is a mood.)

Most authors tend to go through a change in their writing process during the course of their 'wattpad career'. Have you taken any breaks from Wattpad or changed your writing process in any way?
Yooooo!!!! I went through a GIANT ASS (If I can't curse, just erase the word, but it's there for emphasis.) break. When I mean GIANT, it's GIANT. I was gone for almost two whole years bro, and I was battling myself to come back. And my writing style definitely changed. I have written longer chapters, I'm giving my characters more of a thought process which I never did before. So, a lot has changed.

What's the strangest thing you've had to research for a book you've written?
I once researched for a loophole, like "how to adopt if the father is in the child's life?" "Can you argue that the child's father is the father if his name is not on the birth certificate?"

Are you reading any books at the moment? Which would you recommend to our readers?
Anything by Shay!!!!!!!! But recently, I went to the library and read an actual book. It was called Calvin and it's based off of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. And it's really well written.

Do you have any new projects coming up soon (new books, a YouTube channel, ect.)?
My Youtube channel you guys should check it out. Fernz Day. Shameless plug haha. But, I try to be funny and put out what people want to watch and what I want to put out as a creator. Also, I recently just started vocal classes because I like to sing.

Lastly - do you have any writing wisdom you would so graciously like to bestow upon us?
If you guys want to write something but your afraid of it people think you're copying someone just write it. Because chances are yes someone has written a story like that, but yours just might be better. For example, Wattpad's very own Ana Todd, plenty of people wrote a Harry Styles fanfiction but her's just so happened to be the one to get noticed and blow up. Just do it.

. . . .

First Chapter from jinglegerard
Soon to be published to the blog!

Hey everyone! I'm Caroline (or you can call me Drennie), and I'm a 14 year old fanfiction author from Cornland, aka boring old Iowa. I have two sisters and a brother and I've been on Wattpad since April of 2015 (damn it sounds like a long time when you say it like that)! I was featured author back in November of 2016 and have done a lot of stuff with Shay and featured author since then- I'm glad to say I'm lucky enough to see Shay as a writing mentor (and a v close internet friend of mine).

I'm most proud of my book Put Another X On The Calendar, but I've actually recently grown quite proud of a book that I'm currently working on that isn't on my page yet called State Of The Art. I'm excited for everyone to see it when I'm finished with it! I'm going to keep my introduction short as I think I've crossed paths with most of the other featured authors before, but I'm very excited to be helping out with the Get Together!

I'm going to be sharing the first chapter of a book written in free verse poetry format that I've been working on for a while called The Wild Youth as I'm not normally the best at free verse but I wanted some opinions on it!

Chapter One

the broken boy walks

back

and forth

back and forth

back

over over

and over

he was scared he told me

scared of oblivion

he never stops walking

the boy

i don't know his name

he mumbles when we pass each other in the hallways

but he's just the boy upstairs

he's nobody

nobody special

not to me

at least

he has a sister

she comes over at odd times

3:42 AM

and i can hear them screaming at each other

they don't get along

her name is nicky

if i remember correctly from what

i hear him

yelling

screaming

crying

breaking

mom tells me to move out if he bothers me

but i like my apartment

it smells like home

and old alcohol

the scent is comforting

and it has room for my photos to cover the walls

my landlord tells me to lake down the photography

over over

and over

he says the sticky tack will ruin the walls when i move out

and the next person who has my apartment will complain

so he won't get business

but i don't take them down

because i'm not moving out any time soon

the photos of a shirtless dallon making seductive faces at me

kenny and dan

spencer and jon

and brent

even a few of sarah and hayley

but never any of me

i don't like my face

so i hide behind my camera

so no one sees me

that's why i don't perform anymore

people don't tip people with ugly faces

so i moved behind the camera or a telephone

no one would need to see me

that's what i tell myself

but the boy upstairs sees me

so i hide in my room and leave when he's not around

but he waits for me

it seems

the first time i ran into him i was going up to the roof

up

and up

he was coming down

i don't know what he was doing up there

i just tend to my plants on the roof garden

and then go back into my apartment like the hermit i am

my apartment isn't that big

i've seen the inside of his one time while passing

it's larger than mine

cluttered

he'd left the door open and i could hear him singing on his bed

he played guitar, the boy

he has a nice voice

at least when he's singing

he drinks a lot

i wonder if he smokes, when you walk by his

room it smells like cigarettes

sometimes weed

sometimes i hear him laughing with

someone

maybe he actually has friends

or maybe he just talks to himself

he cries more often than the average person

from what i can tell

i wonder if he's okay

actually, i don't

i don't care about him

i don't.

. . . .

First Chapters from xanabanana66x
Soon to be published to the blog!

Hello!! I'm so, so excited to share my first chapter of a collab story with you guys! Oh, and by the way, I'm xanabanana66x from Wattpad and was featured in the month of June 2018. My favourite book to have written is Winter Has Come, which can be found on my profile.

Below is the first chapter of a story a friend and I are working on (shout out Star10203!!). It's untitled (we were going to think of a name once it's finished. If you read it and suddenly come up with a brilliant idea, I'm all ears. Just PM me).

Enjoy!!

Chapter One

Watching him was like being in my own little heaven. Even if it was only for a few minutes every day, it was still so easy to get lost in myself, caught up in my thoughts and fantasies because Luca Watson was perfect.

The only thing was, however, that he was way out of my league.

Bethany Katherine Morris was no match for the beautiful Luca Watson.

I stood on one end of the corridor, staring at a few safe metres in front of me where Luca was by the lockers, talking excitedly with his friend. Dylan listened patiently, nodded a few times, and then stared pointedly across the corridor at someone.

If I had been cleverer than I was already made out to be, I would have stopped my gawking and turned with Dylan to see who was striding through the hallway. But that's what Luca Fantasies do to you. They make you stupid and your brain turns to putty, unable to function.

Unfortunately, I did not see the slim body, the long legs, the blonde mane. Nor did I see the perfect face, pouted lips or the baby-blue eyes. Because if I had seen the figure of Micaela O'Riley purposefully making her way towards Luca, I would have legged it all the way to Australia.

But no. The Luca Fantasy held me there (I was dreaming about his gorgeous floppy hair and his radiant sunshine eyes). That is until Luca too turned and stared at Micaela.
She flicked him a smile, a friendly nod at Dylan, but she didn't head for them. Instead, she kept walking.

Walking. Walking. Walking.

Shoes clomping on the floor.

Towards me.

Without intending to, I made an animalist noise at the back of my throat. I could have signed up for the local farm if I wanted to because I could make a pretty good chicken impression.

"What were you doing?" asked Micaela, voice clear and crisp.

Another noise. This time more like a goat.

"Excuse me?" she demanded. "But I'm asking what you were doing. Staring at my boyfriend like that?" She shook her head and tutted. It made the bile rise up in my throat. "God, you should really grow up."
She paused, eyes like dagger's points digging into mine.

"Now, hurry along," she snapped. "Move your skinny ass, Bethane."

I swallowed before realising the book corners in my hands were poking into the insides of my elbows. It still scared me that she called me by that name. 'Bethane' had been founded by Micaela and the class a long time ago in Chemistry after we'd learned about methane. My love of the subject and the fact I always sat at the front didn't help soothe their jeers.

Obediently, I ducked my head, gripped the books tighter in my arms, and scurried away. Behind me, I could hear her giggling, a weird sound; like a cat being strangled. I blocked out the stream of abuse she called after me, though. Learning to do that had come during the first week of her mockery.
Picking up my pace, I pelted up the stairs, refusing the tears to come down. Crying, I told myself, would just mean Micaela had won. And I couldn't let her see I was upset. I couldn't let her see the pain she had caused.

My feet led me to where they always did after something like this happened. I burst through the door and into the quiet area beyond. The library, I found, was like my sanctuary. A place I could call home.
Mrs Reynolds looked up as I entered. She nodded at me; I didn't need telling twice for I already knew what I had to do. Being a student librarian for the past five years, I'd earned her trust.

After I'd dumped my bag on the floor, I returned the books I had been holding. Then, I went to do my daily sweep-up of the library; collecting books and replacing them back onto shelves.

It was only when I was lingering around the P's that I saw her.

She was a girl about my age with hair dyed a dark red that lightened in the fluorescent light above her. She was slumped against the wall, legs out in front of her, scrolling on her phone with an expression of pure boredom on her elegant face. That was not the only thing, though. Jiggling slightly when she moved, were about twenty bangles. They clanked on her arm, an array of bright colours that stood out so boldly in the dullness of our grey uniform.

They mesmerised me. For a minute, I swore I was back in a Luca Fantasy again.

Then I heard a noise behind me. Mrs Reynolds clucking at some other girls who were trying to sneak their lunch into their mouths. I turned back to the girl; she was still on her phone, boredom still plastered to her face.

Then I did something I'd never done before.
"Um," I squeaked. Yes, I had the mouse part done. "Mrs Reynolds really doesn't, uh, like..."

I trailed off because she looked up. It was this moment that I remember the clearest. Her eyes shone like caramel and they lit up when she saw me.

"Doesn't like what?" she prompted, but not in a mean way. It made my heart swell to think that she wouldn't pick on me like all the others.

But my nerves were still there, stronger even. "Well, uh, Reynolds doesn't like..."

"Phones?"

"Yeah, that's it," I agreed dumbly. "Phones."

Now her face brightened. She smiled a smile that looked real and, stealing a glance at Mrs Reynolds, who was still tutting at the crumb-mouthed girls, slipped her phone back into her pocket.

"You two all right there?" Mrs Reynolds had now wandered towards us.

"Yes," said the girl with a smile like an angel. "We're perfectly fine, aren't we?"

She gave me a quizzical look and I couldn't help but nod. Mrs Reynolds, like me, nodded in satisfaction and ambled her way back to her desk again.

"Thanks," the girl said to me. "I didn't want to get fried on my first day."

Because of the embarrassment I had caused myself earlier and deciding that I couldn't trust my vocal chords, I simply nodded again. Her eyes were twinkling with gratitude now.

"What's your name, by the way?"

I paused.

"Bethane," I stammered before I realised what I was saying.

At this, the girl threw her head back and laughed. It sounded like she was trying to get something out of her gut.

"Yeah, yeah, funny! But seriously. What's your name?"

I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks.

"Bethany," I spluttered. "But Beth for short."

She nodded again. "Cool. I'm Zoe."

She struck out her hand. The bangles bumped together in protest. Gingerly, I took it, letting her pump my fist a few times without yanking my arm out of its socket.

A few seconds later, the bell rang. It sounded too clear, too loud and crisp.

"Well, see ya, Beth!" Zoe called as she gathered her things and ran for the exit, adding a quick wave before she was out of the door.

And I stared after, dumbfounded, feeling like I had been in a Luca Fantasy all along.

✵

Thank you everyone for being here for the Get Together! I cannot wait for next year's!

And a special thanks going out to the following authors (Including your 'awards');

MGHayesWriter
Your award for this year is best interview(s). You have never failed to entertain me with your incredible behind the scenes looks and vast vocabulary - and I couldn't not be happier to have gotten to know you EVEN better this last month!

360crush
Your award for this year is best unpublished chapter. Alone Together has been one I've been waiting for and is sure to be my obsession going into 2019!

Fernandosimplyme
Your award for this year is most original post. Though it was short and sweet, your ideas post for Flashback Friday stood out with originality, and I would have loved to see some of those stories from you!

jinglegerard
Your award for this year is best overall post(s). I could not have been happier to see what all you came up with for the GT (of course your Flashback being one of them), and I can't wait to read State of Art!

xanabanana66x
Your award for this year is MVP of the Get Together. As I divulged, you were the first to get in a post and I was utterly captivated by every one of them!

tyragathers
Your award for this year is most anticipated debut. I could not be happier that you're stepping out into publishing and I wish you all the luck with He Promised Me Forever and Always!

xoxSophixox
Your award for this year is best flashback. War was one of my favorite additions to the Get Together and I was so happy to be able to read an original Sophi fanfic!

✵

S p r i n g F e a t u r e d L i s t

...GIVEAWAY...

In honor of the Get Together - I gave away TWO SPOTS ON THE SPRING FEATURED LIST! The giveaway is now closed and our winners are...

To be announced! All winners have been contacted by email!

Keep reading to find out who our Featured Author of 2019 is!

.