Mundie Moms

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Mundie Moms Most Memorable Moments of 2013


Wow, that an incredible year 2013 has been. Looking back on this year, I feel truly humbled about all the things that I was able to do this year. I never in my life would have thought many of the things that happened this year, would ever happen. From traveling to CA & NYC, attending the TMI movie Red Carpet/Premiere, and meeting so many awesome blogger friends and publicists I've worked with for years. Not to mention I finally met my other half, SOPHIE!  2013 was definitely been a year us Mundie Mamas won't soon forget. It's been a year of many blessings, triumphs and health scares. I have definitely realized just how lucky I am to have three amazing women, Sophie, Shandra and Em, (each of whom help me out with MMs), as my dearest friends. I don't know what I'd do without them! I'm also grateful to all the authors, publishers, and you, our readers. Thank you for being so supportive of us, and most of all, thank you for your friendships and taking the time be apart of Mundie Moms.

Here's a look back at some of 2013's unforgettable moments:

* March: Shandra & I were able to interview Stephenie Meyer and take part in The Host junket on behalf of Twilight Moms. I felt like this came full circle for me, as Stephenie is the one who hooked me on Cassie's books, and through Twilight Moms (back before Twilight was huge), is where Shandra, myself and Jennifer (pictured) all met. This interview with Stephenie was like sitting down with an old friend talking about the fun from back in the day. The best part of that day was Jennifer's comment to Max Irons. A day I'll never forget Jennifer! LOL

*Meeting SOPHIE for the 1st time & introducing Cassandra Clare at the Clockwork Princess event at KeplersThis was a shock to a lot of people that Sophie & I, whom we have talked on the phone just about every day for the past couple of years, have never met in person. We had so much fun together. I swear Sophie is a long lost sister whom I never knew I had. We had a blast. What an unforgettable time we had, not only hanging out together, but together we were able to introduce Cassie and Sarah Rees Brennan to a couple hundred of their biggest fans at The Clockwork Princess book signing at Keplers. I seriously LOVE Keplers! There we also had a great time with Heidi Kling (seen in the picture below). 


* MAY: BEA (Book Expo of America), NYC / Simon & Schuster's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie party  My first trip to NYC finally happened! Not only that, I FINALLY got to attend BEA! What a cool city to visit. I seriously thought NYC would be way different than it was, and it was a lot of fun. Walking through the streets at 2 am with friends was something I'll forever remember. This city definitely does not sleep, and since I don't either, we were a match made in heaven. haha

The biggest highlight of the trip was attending Simon & Schuster's TMI Movie party. WOW! They seriously know how to throw an amazing party. Loved being able to be there to support Cassie. (Pictured above is: Kami Garcia, Cassie, myself).

BEA: What a fabulous book event! It was such a blast attending publisher parties, and getting to meet some seriously fabulous people that I've had the chance to work with over the past couple of years. Now they're REAL and not just names in an email. I also loved meeting so many blogger friends! It's so great meeting people you talk to online. Tara, Jamie, April, Anna, DJ, and the list goes on and on. They are all fabulous! I'm sorry, I know I left a lot of people off that list. Meeting authors I've talked online with for quite awhile as well as a huge highlight! I also loved helping Cassie out at her signing at BEA.













I learned that next time I go to BEA, I am upgrading and pay more for a hotel. Holy crap we were in a place that, well that's just say our door didn't always shut tight. I had a blast with my friends/room mates, Alyssa (TMI Source) and Kimmy (Page to Premiere). Alyssa and I some how crammed in a ton! We went to a YANKEES/Red Sox Game (checked this off my bucket list), rode a subway (don't laugh, that's the second time I rode one. The first time was when I was in Toronto), went to Central Park (another thing on the bucket list), walked around Times Square and the cool place in between our hotel and Central Park (which were a lot), and saw a BROADWAY show!! NEWSIES!!! Two things which were also on my bucket list. Not only that, we met the cast from Newsies after the show. I can't wait to go back!


* MAY/June Comic Con: TMI Movie Panel & More
What a crazy fun weekend this was! A dear friend of mine flew me out to Comic Con in San Diego (love this city), so that I could cover the awesomeness of the TMI movie panel. Unfortunately I didn't get into the panel, but the face to face time and the interviews I did with Godfrey (Magnus) and Robert Sheehan (Simon) were beyond awesome. Godfrey is seriously one of the most humble, and down to earth people I've ever met. Robbie.... well that's just saw Robbie is a prankster and down right hilarious. It was great seeing the rest of the cast again, as well as Harold. 



It was also pretty cool to listen to the entire fast of the Divergent movie, as well as Veronica Roth talk about the movie. My friends over at Page Turners invited me to take part in covering this awesome panel. While walking around the floor at Comic Con, I snapped some pictures (upper left) of the guys from Teen Wolf.  We also had a great time attending Nerd HQ & listening to James Dashner and crew talk about The Maze Runner movie. One of the highlights was meeting Molly Quinn. She is seriously so much fun to be around. Again, I had some great room mates, but Erin (Fangirlish), Alyssa and I learned that next time we're splurging and getting a nicer hotel. LOL Oh the memories.... 


* August: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Movie premiere/red carpet / Meeting Em


I don't even know where to begin about this high light. Sony Pictures invited a few of us fan sites out to Hollywood, where they not only treated us to a private screening of the TMI movie, they also invited us to take part in the TMI movie press junket, were we got face time with each of the cast members and were able to sit down with them and Cassie to talk about the movie, as well as Jessica, the screen writer, and Harold, the director. The biggest highlight was attending the Red Carpet (Black carpet in this case). WOW! The carpet, the movie, and the after party were series amazing! What an awesome, awesome, unforgettable event this was.
Pics: 
* Cassie and Josh from the red carpet.
* Alyssa, Erin and I with the cut outs of One Direction at Sony Studios
* Jamie Campbell Bower from the red carpet. He came right over to myself, Erin and Alyssa and gave us huge hugs. This pic is of him talking to me. He is seriously one of the most genuine person I've had the chance to meet. 


The movie after party! 
The entire TMI cast is incredibly nice and totally down to earth. It was so great to spend more time with them, and get to talk to them outside of being on set and the press junket. I meet AIDEN TURNER!!! I don't get star struck, but I totally did meeting him. (Pictured: Aiden & I, Godfrey Gao, Robert Sheehan, Lily Collins) 


This picture is from the CBS Morning Show that highlight Cassandra Clare. Here you can see myself and Erin Gross (my fabulous friend from Fangirlish). I was talking to Cassie, and she was talking to the fans across the street behind us. 


I finally met EM!!! 


My fabulous friend and Mundie Mama from down under came to the LA premiere, and then flew out to TX to attend a private showing I put on with the help of Sony at my local theater. I LOVED, loved, loved getting to hang out with Em. I never thought that day would come. THANK YOU EM from coming to the states! Even if it was a crazy whirlwind of a trip, it was unforgettable.
Em, Erin, Alyssa, Megan and myself had fun checking out the sites of Hollywood thanks to our tour guide Erin. lol We went all over the place. Universal Studios was a blast. 

Cassie with Erin & Myself after we found some of the movie posters that Sony had hung up for fangs to get. 

* Bookish Events & Signings: This year was an awesome year for book signings & events!


With Andrea Cremer and David Levithan / interview the lovely Gayle Forman 

(The Houston Teen Book Con: Leigh Bardugo, Maureen Johnson, Claudia Gray & Shannon Messenger)

I love being in Texas. I've had the chance to take part in some amazing events here. Texas loves authors and books! There's always an event going on somewhere in TX supporting authors, indie stores and books.
(the Austin blogger group with Rick Yancy) 

From the coordinating the author signing area at the Austin Teen Book Festival, helping out at the Houston Book Rave, to attending TLA (Texas Library Association) interviewing a ton of fabulous authors at Book People, moderating author signings & more. Here are a few pics from some of the events I've loved helping out at and enjoyed going to. 


TLA was in Dallas this year, and boy was it a lot of fun! 

After the event I moderated the Harper Teen tour featuring Anna Carey, Cynthia Hand, Veronica Rossi & Tahereh Mafi. 


Love these ladies. We had an awesome turn out too! Love seeing all the fans come out and support their favorite authors.


The Austin Teen Book Festival! 


This event gets better and better each year. I've loved being able to be apart of this amazing book event. This year I loved having Shandra there, and being able to spend some much needed girl time together.


It was a blast having our favorite TEA TIME girls from Epic Reads there too! And of course King Snarkles! Sarah Dessen, Melissa de la Cruz, Robin LaFevers, Lisa McMann, Maggie Stiefvater, the authors from The Dark Days tour and the fabulous Fierce Reads tour authors were all there and many more fabulous authors. I think it was our biggest year with both authors and the amount of fans that came. 


With Girls in the Stacks, Rae Carson and Shan


The Houston Book Rave
















I have some seriously amazing friends who can put together some seriously amazing book events. My friend Trini and D from Good Choice Reading put together a fabulous book event last month, The Houston Book Rave. They graciously allowed me to help out at. It was a blast. My highlight, FINALLY meeting Jennifer L Armentrout!!! I fangirled hardcore. Loved seeing the fabulous Cora Carmack. There were a lot of authors I enjoyed meeting for the first time, like Mary Ting, Destiny Ford/Angela Corbett & more.

Last but not least, Shandra and I meet a friend of ours that we've known for a few years now, Jennifer Miller! She's a fabulous author too. ;) 


Loved having the chance to interview:
* Marissa Meyer about Scarlet
* Breathless Reads: Marie Lu, Andrea Cremer, Jessica Khoury, Brenna Yovanoff



* Harlequin Teen's authors: Julie Kagawa, Katie McGarry, Aimee Carter, Gena Showalter & Rachel Vincent
* Fierce Reads: Jessica Brody, Leigh Bardugo, Emmy Laybourne & Anna Banks


* A.G. Howard & M.M. Vaughan
* Shannon Hale, Megan McCafferty, Diana Lopez & Lisi Harrison


One of my favorite children's authors came to Austin! William Joyce! It was so fabulous meeting him. My kids loved attending his signing. One of my favorite authors flew into Austin from Paris for a writing retreat, and we were able to meet up and go to dinner. Of course I took Amy Plum to Chuy's, an Austin tradition. ;) 

* Moments that Meant A Lot and Had Me Hyperventilating 

It's been such a pleasure promoting something I love. Books. I have always been an avid reader, and I can't even tell you the joy I get from hearing someone tell me they picked up a book because of a review they read on Mundie Moms. That right there makes everything I do on MM's worth it. It's an incredible feeling that will never get old when you're looking through a book at the book store and find your quote in it, or find yourself in the acknowledgements. The funny about this is,  ever since I was in grade school a goal of mine has been to see my name in a book. I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I was determined to do it somehow. Never in a million years did I thing being a book reviewer would allow me the chance of what I have always thought of a life time to have this happen.  I feel so grateful and humbled that something like this has happened. Here are a few of the times that I was moved to tears this year upon seeing my name in a book:


Be sure to add this book to your 2014 TBR list!

I would apologize for this long winded post, but I felt there were too many things that happened this year that I couldn't leave any of these events out. I know I've missed some events, and I hope those who were apart of those don't think that was on purpose. I've enjoyed every single book event I've had the chance to attend and take part of this year. I thank all those who made each event possible. 

THANK YOU to each of you for taking the time to stop by Mundie Moms this year. I hope I didn't bore you to tears with this post. I've got some great goodies from many of these events I'm putting together for a New Year's giveaway, since life was a bit crazy this year and I didn't have the chance to get to all the giveaways I had hoped to. Stop by tomorrow for your chance to enter to win some signed goodies!

HAVE A FABULOUS & SAFE NEW YEAR! Here's to an amazing 2014!

Labels