Rebranding myself!

I am rebranding myself. Yes, it is about time in my life that I do just this. I am getting married in less than a year now in 360 days to be exact and though as stressful as my life seem to be right now I need to do this. This is not a change I am doing for myself but I am doing it because it is the right time. As we reach November 1st today and it is time for NaNoWriMo2016, I feel inspired to make this change. I have reach a point in my life where I am changing as an author, writer, novelist, reader, photographer and person it is the perfect time for it.  I don't want my blog to become a place where all I do is rant about life and the stress but as I plan on being more active it might end up being a bit of a rant. I want this place to be more than it already is and I know that means I need to work hard for it to be what I dream of this place to be. This is my little corner in the huge wide web and I am going to make most of it. I am planning to poor more of myself in here as I am soon to be Mrs. Nieves-Rouse I decided to change my pen name to my to be married name. I am doing this because I feel like Elaine Nieves is no longer true to myself. I have learned so much about myself since being engage and because I am growing so much I can say that I have outgrown Elaine. Also, I have recently decided to create my own watermark for my photos work and stuff. I have so happily admitted to myself that I am a photographer mostly for myself but because I am one I needed to protect my work so yay watermarks! Anyways I am ranting at this point and procrastinating on my writing. I have a few projects that are under development and a I am planning to get at least one final draft fore one for this time around next year. I am happy where I am in life right now as I reach a big land mark in my life I need this revamping, I am almost 24 years old and as I am no longer a kid I want to stop being so childish with my writing because I am growing so I plan to at some point revising all the unfinished projects I have and finishing them all soon at least those are my hope for the first year of my marriage life as I plan finish school and all that on that first year. Well I didn't plant this blog to be to long so I am end with this: I plan to be more active and you can see more of what my blog will be a bout on the list below.

I plan to blog about:

My wedding plans how they are going, how I'm handling the stress
NaNoWriMo2016 what I'm writing, blog of how I am progressing and all
My watermark how it looks and how it came about
My reading slumps, reading challenge, my goals, my escape
My wonderful fiance and how he keeps surprising me
My daily life and how everything is going
 My writing
Rndomness when I can't find anything to talk about and to keep actively blogging


with all the love and warmth,
 Yanilene Nieves-Rouse

xoxo

My Whole Hearteded Opinion About AMP's!

Hey there my lovely readers!

So today I am doing something different. I am writing to you about a very important topic to me and that is AMP's! What are AMP's you may be wondering? AMP's stand for Alternative Menstrual Products and what are AMP's you ask. Well it is simple; AMP's are anything that is "unconventional" menstrual products it is everything from menstrual cups, to cloth pad or liners, and sea sponges are some of many. I have personally & recently discovered the world of AMP's and immediately knew that it was something for me. Okay so from this point on I am going to get very close and personal so if you want to stop reading here I totally understand.

 Okay so once I discovered AMP's and what it meant I knew I wanted to use them. It was a big choice but the more I found out about them the more I knew they were for me. Now I haven't been using AMP's to long so I am not an expert but I can tell you that choosing to use AMP's and change completely to them it is a big step and changes your life. Now I do want to say that if you do want to change to AMP's you have to be sure it is for you. Look I am a girl and I love to feel free and enjoy life but when that time of month comes it is inevitable. I tend to have very sensitive skin and before I found about AMP's I used pads usually the overnight heavy flow ones and I did sometimes use tampons. I had to stop using tampons because I am very prone to infections and stuff like that down there. So you could imagine that me being a heavy flow type of girl and without being able to use tampons I had to constantly change pads and it was pricy and a pain especially when I had to work. Once I first found out about AMP's I was curious more than anything but only after a few days or research I was sold on it. Now as to how I started to use AMP's. I actually sew my first menstrual pad. I found a video on YouTube (which  was how I found out about AMP's) and cut the latter cut the fabric from an old beach towel and a piece of towel and sew it by hand. With that done I tried it out and knew I wanted to change completely. After that I bought my ever reliable menstrual cup. My menstrual cup is the DivaCup. Before I start talking about menstrual cups and all that the reason I chose to use one is because I found out about them and how they work just like a tampon but have no risk of TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome) which can kill you. Now that I know about TSS I am sure that I was at risk of it using tampons because of how sensitive and pro infections I am down there. I have been using the DivaCup for a few months now and it is the best thing ever specially for going to work. I just put it in and every so often depending on my flow for the day I have to go to the bathroom take it out dump the blood in the toilet and rinse it off then put it back in and that is it, no hassle. If I keep it clean insert it correctly make sure I don't over flow it every so many hours I won't have any leaks at all! Okay I had it happen one day I over flow it so much I did not only leak I bleed through it and that was my own fault for having it for more than 9 hours without going to the bathroom once. Now I have had sleep with it and there is no problem with it. I love my menstrual cup and I adore my cloth pads. I usually just use my DivaCup to go out or to work and the rest of the time I just use my cloth pads. Cloth pads are just that cloth pads they do the same as a regular pad but are reusable and you have to wash them. Now using cloth pads have its benefits like you know that annoying fishy like smell your period brings? Not with a cloth pad! You do get some smell but is so minimal and almost none that you can't notice it at all and this is due to regular pads are full of chemicals that when the blood makes contact with the pad creates the smell which can be very noticeable at times. But with a cloth pad you don't have that problem and they are so soft your skin won't get irritated like some regular pads will do to you.  Overall I am very happy about changing to AMP's and I couldn't be gladder I changed. I have only use the pads and cup so far but I am open for trying more in the future. Now cloth pads and menstrual cups are pricy but in the long run saves money so it has its ups and downs.  I am also willing to do anything that might help the environment and one less person using disposal menstrual products means less waste out there and that always helps the environment. So think about its pros and cons before you try it because it is not for everyone. I leave with this & I hope we get to have more topics like this in the future.

Love,

Elaine

My New Novel

My lovelies,

So as I told you before I been working and writing a new Novel that was born during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) on November last year. This Novel was inspired by something my best friend and fellow writer said to me during a conversation. It is something special and fun;tThough it is still on its initial stage I can promise this new Novel is and will be a fun light read. I am working on a more contemporary genre something I have never written before. Since I usually just write Young Adult fantasy or eroticas I am very excited to be branching out more and getting out of my comfort zone. I can't say much about this new Novel yet because it is still on its beginning stage and it is still a fragile idea but what I can say it is that it will be a Young Adult Contemporary. This is a fun story mainly from my wild imagination but inspired by the people that are close to me. I am planning on letting the characters guide me and my intuition dictates what happens next. I got a small outline on how it starts and how it ends but the journey I have yet to discover it. I am excited to say I am planning on it to be a stand-alone for now unless I feel like there is more to tell after the story is done it will most likely be a stand-alone. I am planning on finishing the story this year and publishing it. I have big plans for the story and what I want to do with it once is done and written but that is a story for another blog post so keep in mind there will be a lot more updates on this Novel throughout this journey on writing it and publishing.

With warm love and wishes,

Elaine

My Writing Update on Future Writing Plans

Hey there my lovelies!

I want to give you an update on my writing and my plans for it for this year. So last year on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) I got an amazing idea for a Novel. I did start to write it but didn't write much since NaNoWriMo happens every November and by that point I didn't have my new laptop still. So I did fail at it, badly, but I only wanted to do NaNoWriMo to help my boyfriend who is also a writer to get out of his writing slump and it did work a bit. This experience did help me realize that this year I want to write a lot more and get my first Novel published this year. I am going to be working on my Novel soon and I will update you guys more on it later on.   This year I plan on writing this one novel and participating on NaNoWriMo2016 with another novel too. I am trying to keep my goals little and not to many since I am going to be attending school full time and working. It will be hard for me to do a lot of things at once and I don't want to overwhelm myself this year. I do want to do a lot more blogging this year and I know I say that a lot and never make it as much as I want but I will try to write blogs in advance and publishing them at least once or twice a week. I have not set up a day for them yet but I will think of something and I will update you on it later on as well. I am working on making blog posts about many different topics and not just writing because I know life is more than that and for an aspiring writer sometimes writing about anything is better than not writing at all. I want to keep it real and keep it realistic and more about my daily life even if it is mundane. I want to do this because that is the only way I can think of blogging and helping others in their daily life. So more blogging and writing; a new fresh novel coming out soon hopefully and maybe a few short stories or something and definitely another Novel for NaNoWriMo2016 though I don't have any idea yet on what would it be about. Until the next blog post! 

With Love,

Elaine 

2016, New Year and New Ideas!

Hello my lovelies,

I would like to say Happy New Year to all of you first. I hope everyone had an amazing New Year’s Eve and a good Year so far. With a New Year there are new challenges and new goals. I want to tell you some of my goals for this year. 2016 is a big year for me; not many people know that I struggled a lot in college the last few years and I did though I don't regret any of it. Many of the struggles I had made me uncertain about my future and what I wanted but because of this struggles I have found myself growing in some unexpected ways. This year I am going back to school, to a new school, for an intense program that is going to take me about nine months to finish. I am excited and terrified about it but this is what I am meant to be doing so I will give it my all. I am also going to be working which always makes it harder but it is a necessary evil since I do have to pay for my own schooling. This year I am planning on working on my writing more and my blogging. I am hoping that this year I can blog a lot more and be more inspiring and helpful to others. Also I will be reading a lot more and with this I hope to make my goal of at least reading forty-four books this year. My last and most important goal this year is to be able to get married to my amazing boyfriend soon to be fiancé. We have both been talking about settling down together soon and that is my most important goal. I know many people would think we are doing this too fast but having been dating for almost two years (two years this summer) and knowing each other for about four years already we know we are each other’s one and it just seemed to be the natural step to take. There are other things involving my writing that I have planned but that is a story for another blog post. With this I leave you for now. I hope this year brings you all happiness and that all your wishes come true!

Love Always,

Elaine

Happy thanksgiving to everyone!!!!

New Books, Writing, Computer Not Working Well and Other Fun Stuff...

I been meaning to keep up with my blog but with my computer not working my iPod in need of repairs and me back to my old old crappy phone is hasn't been working out. Sorry guys I been trying to be better at this and I promise I will do better whenever I can. There is so many thing wrong with my computer I am going to buy a new one. All I need is a cheap computer that lets me write and listen to music and brows YouTube and have all the basic things and that is it. So until then I am not really doing much writing at all to be honest. I got my computer working right now so I am making the best off it. I am trying to fix my iPod because all it needs is a new screen but my dad accidentally broke the new one while putting it so we need to buy another one but hey it happens and once I get my iPod I can do my blog post a lot more often I don’t like feeling like I am neglecting my blog but I always procrastinate a lot and end up not doing it. I know I been bad lately. To be honest my life is always in chaos and it is hard for me to do everything I want but I am trying to get there. I had been trying to read a lot this year so I put my goal of 44 books for this year on good reads and I am trying to reach that goal and surpass it. I have only read two books so far but I am reading like three at this moment going back and forward with them. I love reading as much as I love writing and I figure if I read a lot I can get into the writing mood more often. I finished Redeemed the last HoN (House of Night series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast) book this year and it was a hard one to get but after being with this book series since 2009 so it was hard to let go of it and say my goodbyes but I did it and it was such a good ending! I am glad I read the HoN books and I am on to the novellas now and I am having a love hate relationship with them because I want to read them but I don’t want to leave the HoN world behind so yeah it is hard but I am going to do it. I also read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and is definitely going on my favorites now. I am currently reading Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and oh my god this is my favorite Dystopian book so far is just a great book. I got a few new books in my  to be red pile ao I am happy I might get to read my goal of 44 books this year and those are just my  physical books which are growing I can’t even tell you about my  audio books or my  eBooks there are so many. So reading a lot and working a lot and thinking even more in between I can say that though there is a shadow in my schooling area and I am still trying to figure out what to do with that I am happy to say that the rest of my life is slowly falling into place. I have a great love life with my boyfriend and tomorrow we would been dating for 9 months and I can say I am so glad I am dating such a wonderful amazing man and writer. I been thinking on going back to my old project and write, write, write and then send it all to my amazing co-writer Joe so we can finally finish at least one book. I am still finding a way to write to get publish at least one of my works and to my fateful beautiful people on Facebook and here will give a singed copy when my dreams finally come true. Also today was a bad day but I am optimistic that my day will get better with new books and new worlds to explore and all. I am happy to say that my life is a bit simpler than before. For a while now I been disconnected to the social media completely but I am looking forward to getting connected this year and find my right balance. Soon after summer I am getting my new phone because my upgrade is coming up so yes I am getting there. I might want to try using my Nook to write post but I can’t promise I will enjoy it a lot. Well I am leaving this post at this because it has become quite long and I am posting it and after I will get my wonderful editor and sister to edit it and hope she doesn’t scream at my horrible train of taught and my horrible grammar in this post.

With love and care to all my readers:

Elaine Nieves

I AM BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!

Wow I haven't write in so long I miss it! BUT it was great to let my brain take charge and my imagination to be my guide! And I am so thankful to be working on this new project! It is a fresh idea and is something I haven't write before so I am pretty exited and happy to have a great opportunity to write something with an amazing person who has a great mind and heart. My new co-writer is just such a wonderful person and I am just so happy to have him in my life. I am so glad to get back to writing hopefully I get into shape in no time! Soon I am gonna make an investment on a new and better laptop and some pretty neat programs so I can get caught up with all my projects and get them all ready to be read and seen by my new co-author, my old co-author, my editor, and everyone that might need to see them and see if they like any of them. Soon I will get back to my other big project with better ideas and a better direction. I know I had to get away from that one for a while so I could see where I wanted to take it but soon I am gonna tackled it down in no time. I also planned on keeping you guys updated on them and my progress! — feeling inspired.

Life update:

So my life is finally on track. Is life so is hard and a roll-a-coaster of emotions but it is good. I have a job and I love it plus is good starting point to get yourself on track. School is hard so I am taking a short brake to figure my next step on that. My life is good. I have a wonderful boyfriend who is the most supporting person and I love him. He is great and I am so happy. My family is great and is family. I am in a very happy and good place and I feel like I can write a lot more.

Work update:

I have been so overwhelmed on my many project I have given my self I will take one at the time. My work outside of my writing and blogging is pretty stable and though holiday season is coming up and it is gonna be insane I am gonna take everything one step at the time.

Stressed!

Stress is everywhere! I have been stressing out about everything so much that I can feel a heavy weight on my shoulders and my back. I can't attend college this semester I need a job if I want to attend to college at all next semester so I am on a job hunt and THAT is the most exhausting and stressing thing of them all. But I am holding on trying not to get depressed at the fact that I cannot go to school. I got distracted today so much to the point I made a new blog so check it out: Korean Princess: Lee Yeon-Hee

Anyway, I am going back to my job hunt I just wanted to give you and update on me. Oh and BTW I am going to try to distressify by watching some Korean drama. Y( ^ . ^ )Y "FIGHT IT!"

Emotions.

I don't want them. I don't need them. I really hate them. I want to cry. I want to leave and never come back. I want to be done with everyone and everything. Its not save in my head its not safe in my heart and its not safe in me. Emotions are something I had never control well but lately everything is bad and I want to cry all the time but I am sick of it I am sick of being sad and crying all the dam time. I am sick of being so unstable and letting my emotions dictate my life. I want to leave and never come back I want to cry and never ever smile and cry  and cry and bye bye feelings. I am so broken that I don't want it anymore not the pain not even the happiness.... I don't want any emotions at all.

I will always have them.