Growing Up...

It's been a while since I've written a proper discussion post so here we are... existential crises and personal anecdotes just the way you like em ;)

And the topic is... growing up (which you probably already guessed from the title)
I turned 18 in January and I've had a startling realisation that's kind of sad to think about. Yes, I'm talking about the existential crisis of growing up.... but I'm relating it to books!
I've loved books from a very young age and have naturally always read books with older protagonists (generally 16 or 18). And when I was, like, 10, these characters seemed so much older and cooler than me and I aspired to be like them- they were my role models. And now... I'm realising that I'm the same age or even older than all the characters I used to look up to... which makes me feel relatively boring and unremarkable, to be honest (if you haven't slayed a dragon or fought demons before the age of 18, what are you even doing with your life?).

I saw Heathers at the West End!!!

This was a super quick decision. With Hamilton, we bought the tickets fifteen months before seeing it. With Heathers... it was more like a month. Heathers is currently playing at the Royal Haymarket Theatre in the West End but it's only showing for a really short run (September-November). So, there was no time like the present and, as I became obsessed with this musical over the summer, it was now or never.
I was particularly excited to see this version of Heathers because Carrie Hope Fletcher is playing the lead and I'm a huge fan of her YouTube channel. She posts tonnes of vlogs of her and the cast backstage and behind the scenes which meant I was a fan of all of the cast before even seeing them live.
I will be doing a completely separate review of the West End Heathers similar to what I did with both my Hamilton 'Vlog' and Review, so stay tuned for that (because I have a lot of opinions on some of the songs they added and some of the songs they cut).
It's also been announced that there's going to be a Heathers West End Soundtrack which is awesome because then I'll have a CD will all the cast I got to see live which will be such a special thing to keep and remember this performance by.

Naming Pets After Fictional Characters?

I'm fully aware this isn't really a tough debate because I'm sure everyone thinks it's a-okay to name pets after their favourite fictional characters and, if I'm being brutally honest, this post is just an excuse for me to show off my family's adorable new kittens and their names are the only way I could link it to fiction.

We've named our kittens Arya and Sansa (after Game of Thrones characters) because my whole family loves Game of Thrones and they were the only names we could agree on. Honestly, I was trying to push Marvel names like Scarlet (Scarlet Witch) or Carter (Peggy Carter) but I'm still happy with what we settled on.

And the best thing is that they're character names fit very well personality wise. Arya is very much the more hyper and energetic one while Sansa is more reserved and content to just sit and be left alone. Arya is very much as daring and physical as her namesake and Sansa is just as reserved, quiet and contemplative as Sansa in Game of Thrones. They're both so adorable and, like I said, this post is just an excuse to show you guys how cute they are!
They look super alike but they're actually not related at all. They were just odd kittens from their litters than nobody else wanted and they became best friends that did everything together.

Arya

Sansa

And I have to say, having kittens is like having kids. Whenever you hear a noise in the other room, you have to check to see if they're okay. They constantly want food and attention (Arya more than most). But they're super adorable and I love them to pieces already... let's just hope they don't destroy any of my books, though.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe

Author Interview with Shannon Greenland!!

I've been lucky enough to interview Shannon Greenland, author of Shadow of a Girl among many amazing books and I'm very excited (I'm struggling very hard to keep all of my fangirl in right now but I'll apologise for the excessive number of exclamation marks I'll likely use).
I received an ARC of Shannon's newest release Watching You (and loved it!!) while also getting the amazing opportunity to ask her a few questions about it and writing in general. This was such a great experience because I've been a massive fan of Shannon's work ever since reading Shadow of a Girl back in 2016, so I'm super happy to be posting this!!
Without further adieu, enjoy...

Shadow of a Girl Book Talk

Watching You Book Talk

Interview with Shannon Greenland

Many authors put aspects of their own personalities into their characters. How much of yourself do you think you've put into your own books?

I think every character I write has a little something of me in them. This holds true for main characters and secondary, too.

I saw Hamilton at the West End!!!

Last weekend I was the luckiest person in the world and finally got to see Hamilton at Victoria Palace at the West End!! We got the tickets in January 2017 so I've waited over a year but I was definitely willing to wait for it. It was so worth the wait and will always be my favourite ever show.
I decided to document the whole day but I will be posting a full musical review soon where I go into depth about my opinions of the casting, choreography and the songs.
The entire day was so much fun and, even thought I was shattered by the end of it, I loved every second.
If you ever have the chance to see Hamilton at the West End, I'd immediately say go for it! Do not throw away your shot! The West End cast were amazing and it was a surreal experience getting to see it live.

They day started with a long long train journey but I was so damn energised!! I went to see Hamilton with my mum and, as she'd never heard the musical all the way through and only knew snippets of what it was about, I gave her a "quick" summary on the journey over. This got me super excited to watch it and... I think you can tell how excited I got.

World Book Day Baking with Kaitlin!!

World Book Day is a momentous occasion for all book lovers so me and my lovely friend Kaitlin (Liber Amoris) always decide to do something to celebrate. In 2016, we went to a Rachel Caine book signing, meeting one of our favourite authors and getting our books signed and pictures taken with nervous energy. And in 2017, we went on an epic journey to the local shopping centre (admittedly not that epic) dressed as some of our favourite characters, all while getting odd looks as we took photos of our brilliant cosplays.

Now, you may be thinking, how do we top that? And the answer is: we don't.
This is what happens when you live where no author wants to come on a book tour and you have no money or travel to get you anywhere cool. Nevertheless, me and Kaitlin still managed to do something book related and we had a lot of fun doing it!

See all the pictures in the Gallery!

We decided that we'd bake some cupcakes and decorate them with bookish designs! Maybe not the most unique idea in the world but it was a lot of fun and actually was pretty successful (we were totally expecting it to fail epically).

Forever Fictional's Second Birthday!!!!

Another year has gone by and it's been a great one! A lot has happened over the past year and I'm gonna go over my personal highlights and favourite posts! Thanks to everyone who follows, comments and supports my blog!!!
(Links to each post are on subheadings)

Mystery Blogger Award
I was nominated for this award not once but twice and I appreciated each nomination so much!! I did two different posts answering questions and it was a lot of fun to complete.

Forever Fictional #Rebranding 
Maybe the biggest change for my blog during this past year was that I changed the name! Fictional Fetish became Forever Fictional and I'm so glad I followed through with the change despite my anxieties. It took a long time to change everything in terms of other social media and all the links within posts but I managed to complete the transition and I'm so happy with it.

Bookish Pick up Lines
This was one of my favourite posts to write because I love books and I love puns... it was a match made in heaven. I had a lot of fun creating it.

Publishing Interview with Eliza Stopps

Recently, I've been in contact with Eliza Stopps (author of the Leslie Kim Serial) and she was kind enough to answer a few of my publishing orientated questions. As an aspiring author, I'm always looking for more information about the industry and, while Eliza is self-published, she gave me some insightful facts about the publishing process.
Now, I'm nothing if not generous, so thought I'd post the interview on my blog in case there are any other budding authors intrigued about how they might publish a book one day!
I must say a huge thank you to Eliza for taking the time to answer my questions and I hope you guys enjoy!

How many literary agents would suggest sending your synopsis and manuscript to, per time?

I think this depends on the agent. Check on the literary agent's website for the answer to this, because some agents would prefer you don't submit to more than one agent at a time. If that is the case, just send it to one agent and wait for their response before moving on. Otherwise, you can do it in batches.

For me personally, I write in a variety of genres. I might be submitting a children's book, poetry, and science fiction short stories all at the same time. I usually submit to 1-3 agents per manuscript at a time, just so I am personally familiar with each agent. If you submit to like 100 agents all at the same time, you will get your name out there but that in itself can be a negative. If you submit to 3 agents and they all return with feedback saying that your book isn't right, it might be a good idea to read over your synopsis and query and see if there is any way you can improve before sending it to the next batch. If you send it out to many agents at the same time, you will have less time to improve between queries.

Ultimately, it's a personal choice for each author. My advice would be to do enough queries that you get over the anxiety of writing them but not so many that you feel overwhelmed and frustrated by the process.

What are the pros and cons of traditional publishing?

Introduction/Schedule || ACOWAR WEEK

To mark and honour the fact that I've read A Court of Wings and Ruin (finally!) after waiting for all my exams to be over, I'm commemorating the occasion by creating my very own ACOWAR WEEK.
Starting tomorrow (Monday), I'll be posting an ACOWAR related post every single day for the entire week. This pre-post is just to let you guys know what's happening and what I've got planned for each day.
If you haven't read the ACOTAR series by Sarah. J. Maas, I'd seriously recommend getting on that. I mean, it must be good if I'm dedicating a whole week to it.

Schedule-

Monday- A Court of Thorns and Roses BOOK TALK (First read)- I previously wrote my review on paper because it was before I even started this blog but I'm typing it up for you guys!

Tuesday- A Court of Thorns and Roses BOOK TALK (Re-read)- ACOTAR is one of those series that, after you read the sequel, you have to re-read the first book because you have totally, polar-opposite opinions on everything. Hence why I'll have another review from when I recently re-read the first book having read sequel and changing all my views.

Wednesday- Favourite Fan Art- The ACOTAR fandom has a lot of amazing art, so I wanted to post and promote some of my favourite pieces by some amazing artists.

The Liebster Award 2017

What Is It?
'The Liebster Award 2017 is an award that exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. The earliest case of the award goes as far back as 2011. Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.' -The Liebster Award Blog

I was so kindly nominated by Sofia over at Book Inklings- I'll link her amazing post here for you guys to check out! Thank you so much for nominating me!

Rules 
I've taken these from the Liebster Award Blog and have summarised the rules a bit but you can go here for more information on it.

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. Display the award on your blog- include it in your posts and/or displaying it using a widget or gadget (you can find the logos on the Liebster Award Blog linked above).
3. Write a 150-300 word post about your favourite blog that is not your own. Explain why you like the blog and provide links (mine is below).

GALLERY OPENING!!!

I've decided to make a page on this blog that's purely dedicated to having a collection of photos on it. So far, there is a collection of when me and Kaitlin went to meet Rachel Caine in March 2016 (it's doesn't feel that long ago!!) and one of our more recent trips- a cosplay adventure when Katniss Everdeen met Emma Carstairs. All of those collections are available for you to look at now so, if you click the link at the top of this blog, you can check them out!

Each collection has a brief overview and for a full page of all the photos, you can click on the 'SEE MORE' link for each collection. I'd really appreciate anyone looking at them- they took a long time and I'm really pleased with the outcome!

In the future, I hope to add to it and end up having a nice montage of memories to look back at in the future,
Future collection will include further Cosplay Adventures and I may also add a section for when I see Hamilton at the West End next year! But, with each new collection, I'll create a normal blog post to tell you guys about it (just so you don't miss anything).

Thanks for reading! feel free to comment your thoughts! Stay amazing!
Chloe

Cosplay Adventures #1 with Kaitlin!!!

In honour of World Book Day 2017, I partnered up with Kaitlin @ Liber Amoris to overcome public anxiety and showcase our book pride in the name of reading... and look awesome whilst doing it!





Starring (drum roll, please):
Kaitlin as Katniss Everdeen
Chloe as Emma Carstairs 

Kailtin as Katniss Everdeen                                         Chloe as Emma Carstairs

I'm going to see Hamilton!!!!!!

Last year I went to New York and desperately wanted to see my favourite musical ever on Broadway: Hamilton. But, the show is ridiculously over-priced and most shows are sold out. Yes, I was super heart-broken. Yes, I made my family traipse around Broadway to find the Richard Rogers theatre so that I could take pictures outside.
Knowing how gutted I was that I couldn't see it, my amazing parents got me West End tickets for my birthday to see it next year!!
I know it'll be a little different- I don't get to the see the original cast!- but it's the next best thing and I'm super excited and grateful that I get the opportunity to see it on stage.
I've already technically seen the original cast anyway- if you count a crappy film of a live show that was on YouTube for a while.
I'm seeing it in April 2018 so it's a long long long way away but I'm still looking forward to it so much.
I'm planning to post an album review of the two acts soon so stay tuned for that!

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts! Stay amazing!
Chloe

Meeting Rachel Caine

Last week I had the exciting pleasure of meeting Rachel Caine, the author of The Morganville Vampire series and The Ink and Bone series. This was such a great experience for me as I have never met an author before and Rachel Caine is one of my favourites.
Me and my friend drove down to the Waterstones shop that hosted the book signing and we were so excited! I could not wait! I was hyperventilating!