Through book events, poetry, and creativity, we dive a little deeper into humanity.
Author: adoramichaels
I'm a happily married mother of three girls who lives in a small town. I love writing fantasy and hope my books will reach those who need an escape from their world and help people learn to accept themselves.
If you want to visit a place with underground roads that snatch away your GPS signal before guiding you into a maze, visit Chicago.
If you want a beautiful view of a sunlit city blocked by a giant, diagonal, black beam in a window, visit Chicago.
If you want to be chased down by the musically inclined in the night, visit Chicago.
If you want somewhere with heart and passion in their art, hundreds of restaurants to enjoy, and to get together with a thousand people cheering as iced coffees and donuts race, visit Chicago.
And if you want somewhere to wake your blood every few feet while being surrounded by blaring metal boxes, visit Chicago.
A wonderland of beauty that keeps you on your toes, our dear beloved Chicago.
Disclaimer, I love Chicago, and I love these little things that make it fun and unique. Chicago wouldn’t have the personality it does without its little quirks and its love to scare and irritate its visitors with the little things. This was a fun little travel blog exercise I did recently.
I had such a great few days in Chicago at Let’s Just Write! This was a very honest conference with very respectable people. The last panel was absolutely amazing because we obtained a real, hard look at the industry. During this conference, I connected closely with more people than I have at other conferences. And the best part is that most of these people are close to home for me! My favorite thing at this conference was getting kicked out of the dining room because two other people and I were talking well past hours, even after everyone had already left. That conversation was amazing. I learned so much. We discussed generational differences, culture, media, and how everything ties together.
I love this community so much that it’s hard to explain. Being able to discuss everything in life back and forth and deeply is such a win for me and something I have always craved. There was not a single person at this conference that I ran into who wasn’t respectful, caring, and empathetic. It was great to learn I can be respected for my mind and me as a person and it was great to be surrounded by people who just want to help make the world a better place and who love to write.
The organization also did amazing with the structure of this conference. You could tell they really cared and wanted to keep us all together. There were only two panels that were not master classes each other, which was great because then, during meals, we were able to discuss what someone may have missed that was important. Also, by the end of the conference, we were comfortable enough to have lunch with other people outside of the hotel after having been with them nonstop for multiple days. Not only that, but we discussed topics that I had never thought to dive into before, like personal essays, I finally took a class on back blurbs, which I have been looking for, and learned more about social media.
I am very thankful that I went to this conference and cherish the friendships and memories that came from it. It is amazing what can happen in just a few days!
Colin Moore Alvarado created the concept art for this creature belonging to the Kasverse, called a Yelluk. It is a giant worm on the planet Delloc and appears in our book Unredeemed, where our main character, Airya, deals with it. I made this creature because I wanted something to up the tension and pacing for Airya while she was in Nokia, on top of wanting her to do something to gain respect from the king and queen there.
I just realized I never introduced the main character of our standalone Unredeemed. Everyone meet Airya! Colin Moore Alvarado made Airya’s art, which we love. We decided for this picture to put her in the attire she acquired from the King and Queen of Nokia. She is a Yellow Eye and is the only one left of her kind. From Ausrine she obtains powers that let her travel to other worlds. Traveling to those other worlds with her owl companion, she learns about colonization and opens her eyes to what happened in her own kingdom.
I have received great comments from readers about how much they enjoyed Airya and her character growth in Unredeemed. If you want to read more about her background and everything attached to her history, please click the link below. It will take you to a page full of information about her!
This year was the first time my husband attended a writing conference with me! He arrived the day after it started and definitely left an impression, at least on my heart.
This is the third conference I have attended and it was vastly different than any of the others. This conference was not just for writers but also for readers, which made it so much more intimate and cute. It was also the smallest conference I have been to so far!
Some of the amazing activities that they provided was a Murder Mystery Event! You can see above that my husband came dressed for the party just like he had for the pajama party. Along with those two events, where the authors participated greatly to entertain readers, they had a bestie night, author lunches, alone time, and a signing event where my husband and I bought so many books. The authors’ participation really had our appreciation and love for them growing.
This conference was also right on the ocean, so I had my first experience with the tide, which was terrifying!! I didn’t really understand or know how the ocean could be so close to the hotel in the morning and then crawl so far out at night. It definitely made me more terrified of the ocean.
But anyway, this conference was such an eye-opener. We learned so many things about relations and just how feeing writing can be in general. Honestly, I came away from this realizing that I can be more of who I am than I already am. I can fully explore myself and the real me without being afraid. I can finally welcome my true self to the world.
With that, expect our writing and business to not take a turn but to branch off. The branches later will be called Kasverse in the Dark and Lockdrest in the Dark. Those stories will still take place in our universes but the stories will be more adult themed. There will also be another branch later that we will be calling Kasverse After Dark and Lockrest After Dark, where I will be putting stories you cannot find elsewhere that are a little too mature for the eyes.
After this conference, I signed up for two more conferences I will be attending this year on top of the two I have already signed up for. One will be to train me to write our ‘In the Dark’ and ‘After Dark’ pieces of our universes correctly.
I have many more pictures and a video posted on my social media accounts if you want to check out more that this amazing conference had to offer. I am very thankful for all the authors, writers, readers, and staff who put this amazing event on for us. It gave us many memories, friends, and helped us make life-changing decisions in order to grow.
Hethei is the sidekick to the main character Airya in our book Unredeemed. He is a cute little owl with special powers that match the main character’s. He is adorable, lovely, and is very opinionated.
The whole reason that Hethei exists is because of my youngest daughter, Dawn. She would not speak or make a noise when she was a baby. It was then that my crazy imagination went, “Hmmm, what if she can only speak to owls?” One night after this thought, I came up with a princess who had an owl companion. The story didn’t end up being a type of story where the princess can only speak to owls, instead we went with a deeper narrative on colonization. But Hethei wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that spark of thought, thanks to my youngest.
Colin Moore Alvarado made this beautiful piece of art for us that we greatly adore.
If you want to dive into Hethei’s tragic backstory, feel free to click on the link below.
Hethei is also on our Unredeemed bookmark that you get for free if you order a paperback directly from us. We also have a cute pin of him, which I listed!
Let’s start this off by saying that this beautiful piece of art is by Colin Moore Alvarado. Creating this piece of art was a challenge for both of us, but Colin never gave up, and this is what became of many weeks of hard work. The biggest challenge had been trying to capture this magnificent viewpoint.
This is Nokia. A kingdom where a brother and a sister rule as the Brillia King and Queen. If you want more information on the kingdom, the link is below to take you to a page all about it.
I would love to say that Nokia came from a particular idea, but it came from many random ideas I had that I put together. Then, while in the kingdom, I let my mind roam. It was fun creating this. What brought about this kingdom, in general, was needing a place linked to a particular item that the main character needed to find that also brought her to a place that was a little different from her world and challenged her heart along with her beliefs.
If you want to dive into the fantasy aspects of this kingdom where a brother and sister rule as the Brillia King and Queen, click about Nokia below. If you want to be taken to the book where this place is adventured, we attached the link to Unredeemed. Also, there is a link for a mug we made of Nokia with Colin’s signature and also a tumbler with the same concept. 🙂
Regaining Lost Aspects: Mind and Soul 