Emma Graham's Blog

It has been awhile since I’ve been on here.  Last year and the beginning of this year has been a crazy time for me.  There has been so much going on and I’ve been busy.  I know that’s a lame excuse as far as excuses go, but it’s the truth.

After the last time I updated my grandmother’s health got worse.  For those of you who don’t know about a year or so ago, my grandmother went into cardiac arrest and then had two strokes.  We didn’t think she was going to make it, but she did and she lived for about another year.

Unfortunately, she passed away last month.  My mom is taking this very hard because in August of last year she lost her brother.  My mom is the last one left, both her parents and siblings are gone.  So I’ve been helping her as much as I can.

In happier news, I’ve begun querying for a book I’ve written and I’m very excited about this next journey in my publishing career.  Fingers crossed that everything will go well on that front.

Other than that I can’t give you any other updates, and I can’t say when I’ll post again though I promise to try and be more diligent about keeping up with this website.  Thank you for sticking around and I will try to update soon.

I hope you all are having a wonderful day or evening where ever you are in the world.

~ Emma G

From November 1st to November 30th writers hole themselves away and try to write 50K words in one month for National Novel Writing Month.  It is a challenge that I have only ever beaten once in my life.  All the other years I was nowhere close to finishing.

I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo for about four years now.  For two of those years I was in high school so of course it was a bit harder to finish, I had more responsibility back then.  But last year I wasn’t in college so I had more time to work on my novel and I managed to complete the 50K challenge.

You’ll hear me complain about it because it is hard to do.  The first year I did it I was thinking that it would be so easy to do.  50K didn’t seem all that bad to me, but I was a naive sixteen year old who thought she knew everything.  I think I made it to 15K and that was all I had time for.

Last year I was determined to beat it, I was determined to reach the goal.  And I did, which shocked me, but I was proud of myself.  I sat in front of my computer for an entire month and managed to write 50K words.

I would highly recommend doing it.  If you’ve been wanting to write a book but didn’t know when to even begin this is your chance.  Sit down and just start typing.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, first drafts aren’t, you just need to write.

If you want to check it out I’ll leave a link to the website below.  And if you don’t complete the goal don’t be down or upset with yourself because there’s always next year.  You should just be proud that you started that novel you’ve been wanting to write.

Here’s to us writers who are about to give social activity for a month in order to complete NaNoWriMo.

National Novel Writing Month Website

This has to be one of my favorite songs off her album ‘Break A Little’.  The first time I heard it I immediately had ideas for a scene flowing through my mind.  It was just one of those songs that you hear and an idea just smacks you right upside the head.

For this song it gave me the perfect idea for a scene I was working on for my newest project about Hades and Persephone.  I was trying to write the scene where they say ‘I love you’ for the first time.  Up until this point I was having trouble with the scene.  I didn’t know how I wanted it to start or how to end it, but as I listened to this song I could see the scene unfolding in my mind.

It was a godsend really because that scene is one of the most important scenes in the book.  Both Hades and Persephone are letting go of their fears and finally accepting that they do feel something other than friendship towards one another.

I honestly love this song to death, my mother is tired of hearing it because I had it on repeat so much when I first heard it.  I couldn’t help that I had it on repeat so much, it’s just every time I heard the song I could see a clearer image of how I wanted the scene to go.

I would definitely recommend this song and all the other ones on her album ‘Break A Little’, there are so many beautiful and catchy songs on there.

October has always been one of my favorite months.  The weather is cooling down, the trees are changing colors, and it means that there is only one month left until my birthday.

As a kid I enjoyed it because on Halloween I got to dress up as my favorite characters and get candy from random strangers and then the following day getting birthday gifts and cake.

Over the years my love of Halloween has only grown and autumn still remains to be one of my favorite seasons.  My mother hates Halloween, she doesn’t like being scared and just isn’t thrilled with the idea of having a holiday that tends to run on the scary side of things.

Me, on the other hand, I don’t mind being scared every once in a while.  Like the other night my dad and I went on a haunted walk together.  I practically dragged him through the thing.  I have a horror movie type scream and every time someone jumped out at me I screamed and they would laugh.  At one point someone yelled, “Get out!” and I responded with “I’m trying!”.

My dad was cackling the other time because he wasn’t scared at all.  My dad isn’t afraid of anything, well he’s scared of snakes but that’s the only thing.  I remember one year we went on a haunted walk and a guy came out with a chainsaw and my dad looked at him and said, “‘Sup?”  No I am not kidding, he actually did that.  The man has no scare reflex.

You’re probably why wondering why I wrote Samhain (pronounced So-wen) instead of Halloween.  Well let me explain why.  I have been celebrating Samhain since I was sixteen.  Samhain is considered the pagans new year, it signals the end of the harvest and the festivities go from October 31st to sunset on November 1st.

For me it’s a day where I celebrate loved ones that have passed as it is said that the veil between worlds is the thinnest.  I have lost several people that I hold dear to me and I like to believe that they can come back and visit on these days every year.  I also see Samhain as a new beginning each year.  I let go of my past struggles and try to move forward with my life.  It’s a rebirth if you will.

So tomorrow I hope everyone has a happy Halloween and a blessed Samhain.  Stay safe out there and have fun with your loved ones.

*If you have any questions about Samhain I am more than happy to answer them.

‘Serendipity’ by BTS

If you know me then you know I love languages.  I’ve had a love of languages for many years now, and it all started when I took Latin in the seventh grade.  Up until then language classes had kind of bored me because I never felt like I was learning the language, but then I started taking Latin and I felt like I was actually learning something.

So it isn’t a shock that I will listen to music in something other than English.  And sometimes these songs inspire scenes for my writing.  ‘Serendipity’ inspired a scene for the book that I am currently working on based around Hades and Persephone.

When I first heard this song I was going through a severe case of writer’s block, but then I heard this song and ideas for scenes just came flowing out of me.  Jimin’s voice was very relaxing, and I just kept picturing this one scene that I wanted to write.  Another song he did actually helped me write a scene I’ve been trying to write since I was sixteen, but I’ll get to that one later.

I know songs in other languages are not everyone’s forte, my mom isn’t a big fan while my dad doesn’t care.  I would highly urge others to listen to music in another language from another culture.  It doesn’t have to be Korean, it could be Spanish or Italian or Arabic.  And don’t be afraid of what others will think, if it makes you happy then just listen to it.

If you would like recommendations for music in other languages then please don’t hesitate to ask, I’m always open to sharing songs that I love.

On Friday the 13th my dad and I went ghost hunting at The Exchange Hotel in Gordonsville, Virginia.  All my friends thought I was crazy because of the day we went.  I wasn’t scared, it was just another day to me.

My dad and I are big fans of the show Ghost Adventures and when we found out that somewhere near where we lived offered ghost tours we jumped at the chance.  We got there an hour early (we were a little excited) and we had to wait outside.  Now I’ve been to the Exchange Hotel during the day two times before, once was when I was a child and the second time was about a month ago.

When we went a month ago my dad and I walked around and did recordings on our phone.  My dad caught a disembodied voice and I caught the piano playing, we didn’t hear any of this with our own ears.  Unfortunately the other night we didn’t capture any noises but we were in a group and it was hard to decipher the others from possible ghostly sounds.

After everyone had arrived they took us around and told us about some of the experiences that they had had there before.  They caught a woman crying in one room, heavy footsteps in the War Room, and multiple people had been touched or seen apparitions.  They told us that one time some people were there during the day and had a conversation with a man in full Civil War regalia, but they didn’t have anyone there that day in full Civil War gear.

We were split into three groups and our guide took us to the train depot first.  Well, we weren’t getting a lot of activity there.  A flashlight came on, we heard some talking and knocks on the walls, and just as we were about to leave a train came through and that’s when things got interesting.

In the train depot there was a table and on it was a white box that you could see from the glow of the lights outside.  Well, when the train came through human like shadows started to pass in front of it.  One time something even stopped and blocked out the light.  I saw the glow of lanterns inside this place and I kept getting chills.  And before you say it was probably cold in there let me inform you that it wasn’t.  I had to roll the sleeves of my sweatshirt up because I got warm, but when these shadows came through the air changed and I got chills and became cold.

After the train had left we headed for the main house and we went up to the third floor.  There wasn’t much activity there.  My dad did get dizzy and was pushed, and I felt like someone was touching my thigh (the person that used to inhabit the room used to be frisky).  As we were leaving we did get the word ‘Hate’ on the Ovulus X.

We went down to the main floor to relax while we waited for one of the groups to finish in slave kitchen and I saw these light anomalies coming from the War Room on the TV monitor.  We stood there for a good five to ten minutes watching these anomalies.  One lady even saw a shadow by the door.  My dad had gone to the bathroom during this time and when we were on our way home that night he told me that while he had been in the bathroom he thought he heard me in the hallway saying, “My dad’s in there” but I was nowhere near the bathroom and neither had anyone else.

Finally, we went to the slave kitchen and the woman told us about her buddy Cornbread.  Cornbread wasn’t his real name, but it was the nickname he had.  The lady that was doing the tour said that back then slaves couldn’t look at white women and one day Cornbread was on the street and a white woman pulled up and she was wearing the prettiest dress that Cornbread had ever seen, well some soldiers saw him and called out to him.  Cornbread ran to the slave kitchen thinking he would be safe there, but they caught him and hung him right there.  And as she was telling this story it was like I could see it playing out in my mind and an overwhelming sadness washed over me.  Cornbread had done nothing wrong, but he was killed for it anyway.

I think Cornbread liked me because as we were sitting in the kitchen the flashlight came on and it kept blinding me.  We asked him to dim the light, but sometimes it would just get brighter.  One time it went dim but then blasted me again.  I actually have a video of this happening.  Finally, I moved and the flashlight activity slowed down.

That was basically the end of the night for us.  As my dad and I left I looked back to the slave kitchen and shouted out, “Bye Cornbread!” and waved.  I just felt compelled to tell him goodbye.

I want to go back and see if I can get any EVPs from Cornbread or any of the other spirits there.  But if you have a chance to go, I would highly recommend it.

Friday Music Inspiration will be a new, weekly blog post where I share music that has inspired scenes, why I like the song, and just talking about music in general.

Music is a very big part of my life and I would love to share what I like with you and how it has inspired me.  Today’s song is: ‘Sparks’ by Neon Hitch.

I stumbled across this song when I was on Spotify one day looking for new music.  I needed inspiration for a scene I was working on at the time, and I just couldn’t find the right song that would go well with it.  Well as I searched I stumbled across this one and while it didn’t give me inspiration for the scene I was working on it did give me inspiration for another idea I was just starting to form at the time.

I’m working on a new project that I want to keep secret for the moment because it’s something that I’m still currently working and to be honest I’m not quite sure how to describe the story without giving away too much.  I’m going out of my comfort zone with this new book, but I’m very happy with how it is turning out.

But what I can tell you is this song sort of goes well with the whole book.  It’s the book’s theme song if you will.  There are certain scenes where I listened to this song on repeat as I wrote them.  There were other songs that I listened too, but I always seemed to come back to this one.

I’ve used this song for several other projects as well when I needed a romantic song to listen to, but it will always belong to the book that this song inspired so many scenes for.

This is also one of my favorite songs by Neon Hitch, it’s very laid back compared to some of her other work, and I love how the song starts off slow with the piano playing but then as you get into it the tempo picks up.

I highly recommend this song whether you’re looking for inspiration or if you just need something new to listen to.

As you can tell I’ve been radio silent for a while.  I’m more active on Twitter, Instagram, and my personal Tumblr.  Trying to remember to update my website with my crazy life can be a challenge.

I’ve been working on new projects and trying to wrap up the Wonderland trilogy.  Plus I have been helping my mom, juggling learning two languages (Korean and Italian), and trying to figure out if I wish to go to college or not.  There are a lot of stressful things going on around me, but the one thing that hasn’t changed since I last posted has been how much I write.

I write every single day.  Writing is the one thing I will always be sure about.  Most people search their whole lives for the one thing they are passionate about and I was lucky enough to find mine.

Life as a writer can be crazy, especially a self-published author.  I knew when I decided to self-published that it wasn’t going to be an easy road.  There are so many things that you have to think about like cover design, marketing, editing your book, etc..

I can tell you editing is one of the hardest things to do as a self-published author.  Some authors pay an editor to look over their book and make sure everything is spelled correctly and that the grammar is correct.  I did not have that, the reason being is because I can’t afford it.  I’m still finding mistakes in my book (which I will go and edit).  So if you read a self-published book don’t judge the grammar and spelling too harshly because not everyone can afford an editor.

The other most stressful thing for a self-published author is finding that perfect cover for your book.  Hiring a cover designer can be expensive, and once again I could not afford that.  I was lucky enough that my friend designed the first cover for me for free.  But when the second book came out I found two covers that matched and I chose to go with them and rerelease the first book with the second book.

You can also buy a premade cover, which is what I did.  But the thing about buying pre-made is trying to find the one that fits your book.  Also trying to find a cover that will draw people in.  Let’s face it, we judge books by their covers.  So you want to find a cover that fits but will also draw people in.

But despite all the frustrations and heartaches that come with writing a book and publishing it, there is nothing like the feeling of seeing people reading your book and liking it.  I’m incredibly grateful to all the people who read and review my book.  You work hard on your book and you’re afraid no one is going to like it, but then you are proven wrong.

Sometimes writing can be frustrating, sometimes you can beat yourself up, but I wouldn’t trade this life for anything.

Lucky Strike and Into the Shadows are on sale for 0.99 cents on Kindle!!  The sale starts now and goes until the 9th of next month.

Go get your copy before it is full price once again!

I know that I haven’t been active since December and that is because of my grandmother’s condition and a few personal matters that I have had to deal with.

My grandmother has been in a nursing facility since October of last year after having a cardiac arrest, and then after a week of being in the nursing facility she had a major and minor stroke.  So my family and I have been dealing with that and I have been my mom’s support system through this all.

For the past month we’ve been cleaning out her old home trying to get it ready for a family friend to move in because my grandmother can no longer live there by herself.  We have found a permanent place for her and we moved her in about a week ago.

I am now getting back into the swing of things.  I haven’t been writing as much, but I hope that changes over the next few weeks as I have started working on a new project.  I am also working on book three of my Wonderland trilogy and will hopefully have more news on that in the coming months.  I hope to have it out later this year.

Thank you to everyone that has been supporting me these past few months and that has been there for me and my family.  And to the people who have bought my book thank you.  I really hope you are enjoying it and stick around to see what happens.

I hope all of you are doing well and I will have a special blog post coming out soon.  I will try to work on it tonight or tomorrow while I am with my grandmother at her new home.  I’ll try to show her how to work the internet, it should be interesting.

Anyways I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and a wonderful week.

Emma G