The Unveiling of "Fate Reloaded"

by Brittany Geragotelis

Hey all!

So, because you've all been such great fans when it came to reading Life's a Witch, I'm coming to you first to unveil my newest book, Fate Reloaded. Check out the ridiculously gorgeous book cover, that the super-talented designer Toni Misthos created for me! How hot is it?

Now, please go and check out Fate Reloaded on wattpad now! Here's the synopsis:


Jordana Kane is your typical 15-year-old sophomore who’s moving through high school as a part of the in-crowd. One Friday night, her friends make plans to go to the movies, and Jordana’s decision to go with them or not will alter her life forever. If she decides to stay home, she finds herself witnessing a crime happening next door and decides to put on her detectives hat and launch her own investigation. When she chooses to go to the movies, but leaves early, Jordana meets a mystery traveler who wiggles his way into her family’s home and her heart, before she discovers that he’s actually a famous movie star. Choosing to head to her local diner causes Jordana to meet a bad-boy musician who sweeps her into his world of rock and fame, which ends in a record deal and booze-filled parties. And if she stays through the movie, she’ll end up the star of a student film, finding herself acting alongside her number one crush. Which decision is the right one and what will seal her fate forever? You'll have to read to find out!

5x5,
B.

All good things must come to an end...

by Brittany Geragotelis

Yes, it's true. The last chapter of Life's a Witch has officially been posted, which means that the story of The Cleri and Hadley Bishop—descendent of Bridget Bishop, the first person killed during the Salem Witch Trials—is over.

For now, at least.

Posting my book on Wattpad has been a thrilling ride so far. When I decided to publish my book on the site, I never thought it would be like this. That so many people would fall in love with the characters and the story; that fans would act out scenes from the book in public; that they'd threaten to kick the bad characters' butts; that they'd request to PURCHASE their own copies of the book because they wanted that tangible thing in their hands and on their bookshelves. And lastly, that my fans would log on every Saturday to help me reach the phenomenal number of 6 million reads!

The success of LAW has exceeded my wildest expectations and feeling all the love and support from everyone who's championed it from the beginning has been heartbreakingly awesome. I just wanted to take this moment to sincerely thank each and every one of you who've stuck around, dealing with the fact that I would only publish one chapter a week, and often left with cliffhangers, which I know kept you on the edge of your seats. You've all been incredible and without you, I wouldn't be where I am today.

So, here's to an amazing experience in posting LAW. I hope you all stick around to read my next book, Fate Reloaded, which I'll begin to publish next Saturday.

Thank you again and I heart you!

5x5,
B.

My blog's gone Hollywood

by Brittany Geragotelis

I had no idea, but apparently my blog has hit Hollywood! I mean, I knew all of you read it (which is amazing as it is!), but now I have confirmation that Tinsletown (or the media that reports on Tinsletown) is taking notice of Brittany The Book Slayer.

Check out this video from CelebTV, which randomly came up in my Google alerts for Corinne Foxx. The video itself isn't bad (and they give me credit for the info and some of the pics), but they didn't even ask for permission....which is usually a no-no. But for now, I'll let it go, and share the final product with you!

Self-publishing made easy

by Brittany Geragotelis

I've already said on here that I'm fully ready to publish my books myself if the mainstream publisher thing doesn't work out (although I do have a phone call with a publisher today to discuss doing edits on my book Painless for possible publication!). I think we live in a really exciting time, where we hold the future of our passion in our hands. Whether you're an aspiring musician, actor, filmmaker, artist or author, technology is out there which allows us to bring our craft to the masses—something that used to only be relegated to the elite gatekeepers who would decide what was worthy of public consumption. This is no longer the only way a person can be successful doing what they love (Um, hello? Look at bigtime author Christopher Paolini who published his book Eragon himself, before it became a national hit!).

I met with a 16-year-old cheerleader on Monday who recently published her first young adult novel. Now, I've read plenty of self-published books over the years, both for the magazine, and now on Wattpad.com; some of it's good and some of it's bad. The point is: I get to make up my own mind about what's worthy of me reading or not.

But back to this girl's book. After chatting with her for a few minutes, I found out that she hadn't really been interested in writing until she fell back in love with reading. And then she used writing as an outlet for what she was experiencing in high school. Before she knew it, she was writing a book, one which followed a girl who didn't fit in at her school or with her classmates...mostly because she has supernatural powers!

I've started reading the book and while it's admittedly, a little unpolished, it pulled me in from the start and is actually an interesting and fun read. Now, I'm only about 100 pages in, but I'm rather impressed with what this teenager has done. After trying to get an agent for her book and being rejected, she decided to publish it herself.

Now, if you're out there and have taken the time to write your own book and feel like it deserves to be out there for all to read, there are plenty of print-on-demand publishers to choose from. I recently came across this article about Amazon's CreateSpace and found it to be really interesting. Be sure to check it out if you're thinking about self-publishing. There are a lot of great outlets out there for us creative types, all we have to do is use them!

5x5,
B.

The NYC subways are getting dangerous....

by Brittany Geragotelis

Whenever anyone's asked me whether NYC is dangerous, I've always responded that I feel safe here and that I know the areas of the city to stay away from. In fact, I feel safer in NY than I do in California or several other big cities.

But there are things about the city that have made me uneasy on certain occasions. It's not surprising that most of my bad experiences have happened while on the subway. Cramped spaces, lots of people (sometimes strange) and an enclosed area that you're stuck on until the conductors choose to let you out. So, yeah....things can get a little scary.

Just a few months ago, I was heading back to work after going to a doctors appointment in the middle of the day, when we stopped at a station to let people on and off. As soon as the doors opened though, people started running off and shouting, "There's a gun on the train!" Scared to get off, but also scared to stay on, I froze and watched as more than a dozen police officers came down into the station and then went to the back of the train to investigate.

But things like that don't happen all that often (at least that I've seen). What I learned yesterday though, is that hot weather + limited subway service=violence.

NYC in the summer can be rough. The heat often gets up into the 90s and being that we all take public transportation, it means that for most of our commute, we don't have air conditioning. And you know how grumpy people can get when they're hot and sweaty. Add to that, while the subway fares keep going up, service seems to keep going down. Now, the combination of the two can be deadly.

How you ask?

Well, when I was headed home yesterday, I had to wait about 15 minutes for a train to come. By the time it arrived, there was a huge crowd on the platform, as well as an even bigger crowd on the train. I was able to squeeze my way on there, but then, every stop after, more and more people forced their way on. And then started the shoving and the lack of personal space. And then people started to get pissed off.

People who were being pushed by others trying to "fit" inside, started to yell at the pushers and then the pushers began to yell back and before you know it, people are all screaming at each other and threatening to fight. And suddenly what's supposed to be a quiet ride home after a long day at work has turned into a riot.

Ok, maybe not a full-on riot, but it's enough to make a tiny girl like me uncomfortable. So, what is there to do? In a city like NY, it's not like I can choose to drive to work every day...that's just not practical. And if I waited until there was a train that wasn't crowded, I'd never get anywhere.

Of course, what would be nice is if the MTA realized that it's not just annoying when they cut down on service...it's actually making our trips around town less safe. In the meantime, I might just brave the heat and rely on my feet to get me around for now.

5x5,
B.

The World premier of the trailer of "Life's a Witch"

by Brittany Geragotelis

As you know, I recently traveled to Salem, MA, in order to shoot the trailer for my book, Life's A Witch—actually, it was my first book trailer ever. Anyway, one of my good friends, Alicia Chouinard, was kind enough to play the part of Hadley, braving a hot wig, a tight skirt and a whole lot of makeup to do justice to the character. My super-talented boyfriend was the brains and talent behind the camera, taking my vision and making it a reality. And Alicia's wickedly awesome mom, Sue Chouinard, was the fashionista who found all the pieces of Hadley's outfit and brought her look to life.

We ended up shooting at two different locations: the first was at the house of the judge who found Bridget Bishop guilty and sentenced her to death and the second was at the Salem Witch Trials memorial grounds. Both were awesome and in the end we couldn't decide which we liked better. So, we're going to release both and see what the fans think.

Which brings me to the matter at hand. Here is the first of my book trailers for my YA novel, Life's A Witch. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

5x5,
B.

Hanging out at Jamie Foxx's house....

by Brittany Geragotelis

Yes, it really happened.

And as promised here are the pictures. But first, let me give you a little back-story, because it's not like I just happened to stumble upon the Oscar-winning actor's humble abode unknowingly. What actually happened was that we were shooting his daughter, Corinne Foxx, for our cover and asked if we could take a few pics of Corinne at the recording studio, since she's been learning more about the industry lately. We also asked if Jamie wanted to be in a few pictures with her.

Being the doting dad that he is (he's SUCH a proud papa!), he offered for us to shoot her at his in-home recording studio! AND he agreed to letting us take some pictures of him with her! SOOOO, after spending the day at another shoot with 6 other celebs, we headed about an hour away into some random farm hills to the little hideaway that Jamie calls home.

The Ray star was kind enough to let us hang out, put us up in his pool house and provided food, snacks and even sparkling apple cider for everyone as we did Corinne's makeup and hair. We took pictures of his sick cars, walked around his pool and even jumped on his trampoline. It was surreal to say the least.

So now that you've got the inside scoop, here are the pictures I snapped while we were there! Enjoy!

5x5,
B.