My Blog

The 4 days of Madness at VidCon and it's all-so-worth it!

6/26/2017

VidCon--The Anaheim Convention Center is transformed into a gathering place for all fandoms of popular YouTubers, Musical.ly, and Viners to join together and celebrate their favorites with meet-in-greets and performerances in one pleace for 4 days

Upon arrival at the Anaheim Convention Center, you're greeted with a row of food trucks ready to sell and serve delicious food (you may recognize a few from competitions on the Food Network channel)

This year, there was 25,000 people in attendance at VidCon and it was all-so-worth! VidCon delivered with a ferris wheel and a ball pit to keep the crowds entertained outside, but inside the convention was a whole different story...

Booths from vendors lined up with merch on display and products to sell. But it wasn't All fun for just the kids, the Parents Lounge had a bar and coffee stand so that parents can relax and wait for their child, and yes...wifi was available.

Book Tour: RECKLESS HEARTS by Heather Van Fleet

2/10/2017

Reckless Hearts banner

This is my stop during the book blitz for Reckless Hearts by Heather Van Fleet. This book blitz is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The book blitz runs from 7 till 13 February. You can see the blitz schedule here.

Reckless Hearts

Reckless Hearts (Reckless Hearts #1)
By Heather Van Fleet
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age category: Adult
Release Date: February 7, 2017

But First, An intro from the Author of Reckless Hearts, Heather Van Fleet:

Blurb:
Between boot camp and two TOD’s in Iraq, my buddies Max, Gavin and me have been through some serious hell. So the last thing I ever expected was to find the biggest challenge of my life back home.

My girlfriend died. I couldn’t even attend her funeral, let alone tell her goodbye or that I’m sorry I wasn’t there like I should’ve been.

But she left me a gift. The best and scariest one I could’ve ever asked for. One I didn’t think I could handle…until the day I saw her tiny blues looking up at me in that airport. Chloe.

Now here I am, raising my baby girl—with the help of my two best friends. Things couldn’t be better. Until she walked into my life.

All I wanted was a nanny. Someone to take care of my girl when I couldn’t. What I didn’t count on was Addison, the brown-eyed temptress with a body of sin, and everything I didn’t need, but suddenly wanted.

Dare tell me you haven't fallen IN LOVE with Collin yet?! Well you're in for a teaser!
Here's an excerpt of Reckless Hearts:

Project WildSong

12/28/2016

I first heard about Project WildSong on the Valentine Morning Show on 104.3 MyFm with Valentine, Jillian, and Kevin. I was intrigued because I've always loved Wolves and Hawks (after watching the movie Lady Hawk as a kid). I quickly went and found them on Instagram and Fell in Love with the Ambassador Wolves!

I've been wanting to meet the Wolf Ambassadors, Damu and Cael for a while now, so when I saw a post on Project WildSong's Instagram that they were going to be attending the Pet Expo at the Pomona Fairplex— I jumped! This was my opportunity to meet them! I gathered the familia and headed over to the Pet Expo (but left the cats at home).

Arriving at the Pet Expo, I immediately headed over to Hall 7, where Project WildSong was stationed and came face to face with Ambassador Damu. In awe, I Introduced myself and greeted the team. And you bet, I didn't arrive empty handed. Before the event, I checked with their humans and found out that the Ambassador's favorite snack is— string cheese. So I brought them cheese.

LACMA- Los Angeles County Museum of Art

9/28/2016

Los Angeles has lots to offer, from shopping, concerts, nightlife and amusement parks, but museums tops the list. A favorite one for many is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or better known as LACMA. You may recognize the museum from photographs of the famous Urban Lights (pictured below) and from it's popular Rain Room.

With something for everyone, LACMA works closely with artists to showcase and bring their exhibits to life. LACMA's most recent collaboration is with Director and Screenwriter, Guillermo Del Toro and his House with Monsters exhibit. I had the pleasure in attending the press preview before it opened to the public, and was able to sit in the Question and Answer session with Mr. Del Toro

The Las Vegas Monte Carlo Resort has a little Secret:

8/4/2016

I am currently working on a Travel Writing blog for Las Vegas, so I won't get into too much details here. What I do want to share is that the Monte Carlo resort in Vegas has a coffee lounge & espresso bar called Sambalatte. It's been a while since I last went to Vegas, but how did I not know about this wonderful coffee shop? They're one of the few that serve sugar free blended coffee frappe's.

I have type 2 diabetes, and the struggle is real when it comes to food and desserts. I admit, I love to eat. Thanks to the product Yoli-- it has helped me keep my blood sugar in control (if you have any questions regarding Yoli, please don't hesitate to ask).

But honestly, when in Vegas, one must eat at the Buffets! So naturally after feasting at the Monte Carlo buffet, I knew that a blended drink from Starbucks was Not a good choice. Fortunately for me, I stumbled into Sambalatte. Facing the Las Vegas Strip and inside Monte Carlo is a coffee and lounge wonder waiting for me to discover their sugar free blended vanilla frappe.

No need to adjust your glasses or rub your eyes, you read right... Sugar Free Blended Vanilla Frappe!

Social Media Trends

7/27/2016

Social Media is truly the new networking tool. With applications like Facebook, Twitter, instagram, youtube, vine, and others.. people are getting creative and expanding their brand and getting noticed. But Social Media isn't just working for businesses, the younger generations are getting involved as well. Show casing their talents and reaching from hundreds to thousands followers, the new generation is already prepared and one step ahead of technology.

Vidcon hosts popular Youtubers, Viners, and Musically guests every year at the Anaheim Convention Center. Fans can attend, interact, and meet their favorites here.

And at the end of the night, VidCon hosts their Prom for attendees. Everyone looks forward to this and they all have a great time dancing the night away.

Held at The Grove of Anaheim, is DigiTour. A lot smaller than Vidicon, but the venue is perfect and not too big, giving fans a more intimate vibe.

The TLG Tour is next in line for us, but not the one here in L.A., we'll be driving out to Las Vegas for this one. VIP meet n greet is a Must in order to 'meet' your fav person.

I will continue this post asap when we return from Vegas.

But one thing's for certain.. Today's generation is way ahead of our times with technology and they're advancing and over taking the social media world. This of course is a good thing, because 10-20-30 years from now, They'll be the ones benefiting from all of this.

My generation is barely lucky enough to catch on to what we have now. I still remember driving and pulling over to find a payphone to make a phone call.

We had no cell phones, no apps to connect to others around the world. Heck, Pagers barely came out.....

Hiking to the famous Hollywood sign

6/27/2016

Hollywood-- the place for celebrity sightings, shops, and where Anything can happen. There's a lot of historic sights and landmarks throughout Hollywood and the famous Hollywood sign is no different.

Family and friends joined the Sherwin Williams team in a hike to the Hollywood sign. Now, It's been a while since I've worked out or walked... but hike? It was my first time, and Let Me Tell You..I struggled. If you've never done it before, I highly recommend it!! But just be advised that the hike going up is a tough one. Wear sun block, shades, a hat, and hydrate! Water-Water- WATER!!

But, we DID IT!!!!!!! and it was a lot of fun!!

Reaching the Hollywood sign, I stepped back and took a moment. Few know of the tragic story of aspiring actress, Peg Entwistle. Her body was found by a hiker in 1939, and later it was determined that she jumped off the letter "H" as she plummeted to her death. They say she was depressed because she couldn't find work in the movie industry, and the day after she committed suicide, a letter arrived stating that she was accepted for a role.

If you do decide to take the hike up to the sign..a word of caution:
Watch- Where- You- Step!!

The Little Mermaid

6/14/2016

Everyone that knows me, knows that I'm a huge fan of The Little Mermaid. So it was no surprise to my family when I bought tickets for the Live show at Hollywood Bowl.

The last Little Mermaid show that I really enjoyed was years ago in the late 90's when Disney came out with The Little Mermaid on Ice. This 1989 classic is a favorite to many and one of the last Disney films that was done in the original animation style.

The Live show included the talent of Sara Bareilles as Ariel, Glee's Darren Criss as Prince Eric, Rebel Wilson as Ursula, Tituss Burgess as Sebastian, and John Stamos as Chef Louis.

Despite fighting L.A. traffic, we arrived at the Hollywood Bowl right on time. There was big screens where they showed the movie, and the 'live' characters came out to sing.

It truly was and felt like a magical night. From start to finish, the musicians and performers did an unbelievable job, which I wouldn't expect any less from Disney. I must admit that at first, I wasn't so sure on the choice of Rebel Wilson as the magnificent Ursula.. But, I was proved wrong. Rebel did a Fantastic job and was even a bit funny with her Ursula 'persona'.

The Hollywood Bowl was jam pack for it's first opening night [Friday, June 3, 2016] with a full crowd, and Disney delivered with a fabulous fire work show at the end.

Everyone in the audience stood up as the cast came out at the end, and applauds erupted as one by one, they lined up. The best part (for Me) was when Sara Bareilles introduced the original Ariel herself, Jodi Benson !!!! I must admit, I was upset when I found out that Jodi would be reprising her Ariel role on an added night, but before Sara introduced her, I had a strong sense that it was going to be Jodi Benson herself. And for once, I'm glad I was right!

The crowd froze as "Ariel" took the stage and sang her famous Part of Your World. The audience raved, giving her an emotional standing ovation at the end. She then brought out Mr. Alan Mencken who is Disney famous for the music in many movies, and Director, Ron Clements.

Here's a clip of Part of Your World...

For the Glee fans:

I had So Many "Hearts" and Retweets after I posted a picture of Darren Criss on my Twitter, that I've decided to add a small clip of him singing. ENJOY! :)

April 12th, 2016

4/12/2016

I'm a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) member and attended my first conference this year.

I learned a lot at the conference and met fellow children's writer L.R. Pinto.

She published a magical and adventurous children's book called Amanda Apple, and it's available through Amazon. If you're not following her on twitter, you should be!

I've been following Writer/Illustrator Debbie Ohi on twitter, and finally meet her in person.

Her seminar on Social Media For Authors & Author/Illustrator was very informative and interesting.

You can also follow her other twitter account here

Author Robin LaFevers was also in attendance, and she too gave a great seminar.

You should definitely check out her books, like her Theodosia series.
I couldn't leave without buying book 1

Agent Brenda Bowen's seminar was extremely fascinating! The advise and "behind the scene" she shared blew my mind.

It was definitely a fun learning experience for me, and hopefully not my last seminar.

The Travel and Adventure Show

4/12/2016

This is late, but I'm posting it anyway. I was having problems getting the pictures from my camera

The Travel and Adventure Show came to town in Long Beach, and I decided to take the family for a day of 'adventure'

It was a Fun and great day seeing all the destinations and possibilities for future vacation spots. There was something for everyone, including taste testing, shows, rock climbing and segways..or as my daughter and her friend call them- Sagways, ...Oh, and giant hamster balls too. Also, I grabbed some pretty cool freebies while there and NOW I WANT TO TRAVEL THE WORLD!

Meeting Travel Channel's Samantha Brown was the highlight of my day! She's so awesome and I loved seeing her in person. She was friendly and greeted everyone with a warm smile, and gave really great travel tips that I will use when I go to my favorite destinations!!

If you're not following Samantha Brown on Twitter, I suggest you do. She gives great tips on travel, and her adventures are always entertaining.