Fangirl By Rainbow Rowell

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Now that they’re going to college,  Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind? - Goodreads

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I've been wanting to read Fangirl every since I read and loved 'Eleanor & Park'. So basically forever. So, I finally decided to set some time out of the stacks of books I have to read and review to give myself this book treat. And let me tell you, it was worth every second I spent waiting and finally reading it.

When I was younger, I used to read and write fan fiction. Yep. I wrote one Twilight fic that I never finished, one Vampire Diaries story that was extremely fluffy. And finally I wrote a Titanic/Twilight crossover that I spent a year writing and that till today, is one of my absolute favourite things I've ever written. (Follow the links I've placed around this paragraph to read the respective stories).

So this book to me was extremely close to my heart. I could feel my inner fangirl/fan fic writer squealing with joy because this was my world. I felt so incredibly close to Cath. Cath is basically me. I was so excited to be finally reading a book with a character that I felt I could 100% relate to. I always read books with people with many friends and who go out to parties and things. It was so amazing to read a book that finally seemed to get me. The social anxiety, the strong desire to just be holed up quietly in my room, the lack of friends. The fear of going to the cafeteria because I'm alone. The fear of a relationship. Cath was me and I couldn't be more grateful to Rainbow Rowell for once again making me feel like there was someone out there who understood me. 

This book was simple because Rainbow Rowell writes simple but amazing stories. Nothing much exciting happens in the book. It basically just rolls Cath on a journey of self-discovery. But it was all about being part of a world that I felt was mine in every aspect. I felt so incredibly happy to be able to experience this book.

It just takes everything you've ever felt for the world and puts it out into writing so you don't feel alone anymore. That's really all I can say about it. I really recommend you read it and see for yourself what a marvellous piece of art Rainbow has once again produced.

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My Rating: 5/5
Purchase the books at The Book Depositary using my special link Here. 

Anything You Want To Post About

Hello guys! Welcome to the last day of my blogging challenge. Wow. September flew by didn't it? I'm actually pretty sad about that. I wrote a longer post this afternoon about this so you can check that out.

Today was a long day. My Instagram best friend and I spent the whole day fighting off bullies and hackers. It was exhausting but I think it brought us closer. I've always been a strong believer in standing by your friends and I'm glad I did that today.

Today I wanted to talk to you guys about Fan fiction. In particular, the ones that I have written. So today I was changing my blog layout and I was adding a navigation bar to make life easier for you guys. You can check it out but it's not all ready yet. The 'contact me' page is though. So I was adding the links and I decided to include my Fan fiction profile.

That basically led me down memory lane. I started reading the Twilight/Titanic crossover I did in 2012. Now usually when I look back at my writing, I will cringe in horror. But for this particular story, I found myself loving it and actually tearing up as I read it. I wrote it over the course of 11 months in 2012 and it was I think one of my best pieces of fiction writing to date. And coming from me, that's saying something considering that I am my biggest critic.

You guys can check it out here: The RMS Titanic: The Ship Of Dreams

I hope you like it. If you do, you can check out the two other stories I wrote by following the link to my profile. One is Vampire Diaries and the other a pure Twilight.

I know the stereotype is that fan fiction is full of sex (or lemons as we call it in the fan fic world). But that's not true. I never wrote sex into my stories. I wrote love in. I wrote cute romance. But never sex. A lot of people think that fan fiction is not real writing but I beg to disagree. It is hard work and it is just as much effort if not more to write a blog post or novel.

Now I'm going to go because I am basically 5 followers away from hitting the big 10k!

The Meaning Behind My Tumblr Name

Can I just say that both of today's blogging challenges are absolutely terrible. One of them was '7 Signs You're Into Someone'. I have never really been 'into' someone before so that topic was out. The second one was the meaning behind my Tumblr name.

 I don't know who came up with this challenge. I mean how much is there really to say about someone's Tumblr name? Maybe only a handful will have a really meaningful story to tell about their Tumblr names. But I shall keep to the challenge and write something however short or boring it might be.

So, I have two Tumblr accounts. My personal one and my Vampire Diaries one. So its twentythreeowls.tumblr.com  and omgobsessedwithvamps.tumblr.com.

I came up with twentythreeowls for my Tumblr first then I decided to make it my blog URL. So I love owls and my birthday is on the 23rd December. So twentythreeowls.

For my Vampire Diaries Tumblr page, I wanted it to be obsessedwithvamps just like my Instagram fan page. However, that was taken already so I went with omgobsessedwithvamps.

So yes. That is the boring story of how my Tumblr names came about. I checked and tomorrow's topics are really interesting and I'm pretty excited. It's going to be a struggle to pick what to write. Isn't it strange how one day you can have two completely crappy topics and the next you have two wonderfully complex and interesting topics? I might save one for another double boring day in the month.

P.S. Follow my Tumblr accounts and we can fangirl about stuff together. Okay? Cool.

How To : Create A Successful Instagram Fan Page {Part 2}

Welcome back to to part 2 of my ongoing series, How To: Create a Successful Fan Page. If you haven't seen part 1 then I'm sorry but 

Go check out part 1 if you haven't basically. The link is here {http://twentythreeowls.blogspot.sg/2014/07/how-to-create-successful-instagram-fan.html}

In this edition, I will be talking about the popular (basic) acronyms that are used on Instagram and KIK. 

So let's get to it and I'll explain why it's important to know these things later.

SFS: 
Shoutout For Shoutout. This is exactly the same as a PFP (Post For Post). It's when someone KIKs you a shoutout picture and caption and you send yours and both people post it and leave it up for 10 minutes unless otherwise discussed.

Screenies:
This is similar to an SFS but it is not done on KIK. It is done on Instagram directly. You simply take a screenshot of the person's account or edits and post it saying 'Follow @obsessedwithvamps', for example. Again, you leave it up for 10 minutes.

Group Shoutouts/Shares (GS):
This is where your nice people skills come in. This is also the place where you meet friends and network with people. Basically in a GS, someone will say 'Drop names'. You then post something like this:
Cam 1 
Someone will then gather the names and put them in a list. Then, by the order of the names, you send your SFS picture and caption and everyone will post. Then the next person will go and likewise till everyone is done. This can be fun but sometimes, when you have people who are not active, it can take a long time and be very annoying. So make sure you have time to remain active in the GS before agreeing to be in it.

TIP: Try to be first or second. Sometimes GS's breakdown after one or two people go because of inactiveness. Try not to get last because sometimes people don't post. That said, don't go bat crazy if you do end up last. Just deal with it. Not everybody doesn't post. Also don't leave if you do end up last because it is 

Megas:
This is similar to a GS except when someone says 'Drop', you type your username like this:
@obsesedwithvamps 
Then someone will gather the names to put in a list. REMEMBER. If you are the one gathering, you have to send your username as well. Then you gather according to who dropped first. Don't shove your name on top simply because you gathered or because you are hosting. It's very rude. Then, someone will make a caption and someone else will post a mega picture. Then everyone posts and leaves it there for 10 minutes. Pretty simple.

TIP: Try to get your name on top as much as you can without being rude or cheating. People sometimes like to follow the top person only. If you can't get on the top, try to put your name last because it's just as good as getting a top place.

Ultras:
This is pretty fun as long as you have active people and good coordination. These things don't happen often though because it takes 20 people and some people just don't want to deal with that 'ish. ANYWAY. An ultra is basically when you have two full KIK groups (so 20 people) and you have one person who is in both groups. Then, you drop your usernames, someone will gather it and the person that is in both groups will combine the names from both groups and then it will be like a mega but with 20 people. I've been in good and bad ones so be careful. If it looks like its falling apart, leave. Don't waste your time.

CWD:
This means 'Comment When Done'. Pretty self-explanatory. 



So that's it for part 2. It is super important to know these things because it is very annoying when you have someone asking you to explain it. You most likely think I'm being bitchy here. Let me explain. Majority of established fan pages have what they call SFS time. This is an allocated time when accounts will do a lot of SFS to gain followers. That means that it is highly likely that a person will be in 3-4 megas, one GS and a couple of SFSs all at once. It's hectic obviously and the last thing you need is someone asking questions. So don't be that someone. 

I hope you guys liked this post. Stay tuned for part 3 which will have more tips!

(P.S. Just a note, just like part 1, when this post hits 100 views, I will post part 3)