​Since 2012, which was the year that I created my Twitter account, and even before that when I had just started my original blog, JustaTeenWriting, social media has been a huge part of my life. It sounds silly to say that, because of course it has been--social media is a big part of most anyone from 18-30 years old's lives, and then many younger and older than that (statistics just say that the majority of people on social media are between those ages). When I say that it's been a huge part of my life, though, I don't just mean that I check my Facebook feed often, or respond to my friends on Snapchat every day. Social media has been a tool to spread my writing, my thoughts, and my business (Inspire Thread Company). However there's something about social media that I also hate, and it's the absorbing feeling that it sometimes has on you. I'm sure that not everyone feels this way, but sometimes when you focus so much on something, like growing a following on social media and spreading your brand, you can become too consumed with that. Hence my social media hiatus.

It's a love-hate relationship. I would never want to give up my platform, because I so love that I get to connect with you all here and meet people from around the world through a cellphone or laptop screen, but sometimes social media can crush you, and that's the adverse effect of what it should be. Over the past few months, I realized that I had become too consumed with social media, and that I didn't want something to have more control over my time than I did, and social media was becoming that. So being a person that 100% believes in their control over their own life and their own thoughts, I decided to take a week break (well, five days, because I couldn't QUITE take it for a week) from all social media platforms. 

I immediately deleted all of my social media apps from my phone, and logged out of any social media accounts on my laptop. This was a good thing, because the first day of my break, I--out of habit--tried to check my Instagram account. No luck, it was gone!

In the meantime, catch up with me on my other social places:

Instagram: @Elysia_Regina
Twitter:@Elysia_Regina
​Snapchat: @elysialou 
Website: elysiaregina.com

OH, AND I FINALLY GOT APUBLIC FACEBOOK PAGE!! I would so appreciate it if y'all headed over there and gave it a like!

Facebook.com/officialelysiaregina

The sisters and I then traveled toSesame Burger in Mt. Pleasant, and had some absolutely delicious nachos and sliders. OH, and chocolate milkshakes. How could I forget those!?

The next day was the big day of panels and signings, where I met Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (If you want a GREAT zombie book, read that one),Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies, Marie Lu, artist and author of Legend, andAaron Hartzler, author of What We Saw. Cool story about Aaron: 

Aaron had met my blogging parter at PlotBrownies.com, friend and fellow novelist Matt Keenan at TTBF (Teen Texas Book Fest), so it was really great to be able to meet him, too! Aaron is super friendly and really talented. 

Besides the author signings, I also attended a bunch of great panels. My favorite was Gale Foreman's Creativity & Jealousy & Fear & Success with  Marie Lu, Libba Bray, Margaret Stohl, Daniel Handler, and Scott Westerfeld. Just the lineup itself sounds amazing, right? It was sort of like an inside peek at what goes on in the industry in Hollywood, and what successful authors have for insecurities and what the path to fame looks like. 

The night ended with a YA Smackdown where the authors competed in games like Hollywood Squares and Taboo. A select few also read juvenilia, AKA writings from their younger days, which was entirely entertaining. Alexander London, author of Proxy, also sang a death metal song from his made-up death metal frog band from his youth. I don't think I need to tell you how funny that was. 
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And last but absolutely not least, I met a bunch of amazing people in line! That was acutally one of my favorite parts. I love to meet new people, and especially when they're book lovers like myself. And holy was Charleston beautiful!
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After the conference, my sisters and I drove home and talked a ton about our incredible time in the historic city. I can't wait until YALLfest next year, and am considering going to their sister conference in California, YALLwest. 

As far as current reads...I have most recently read Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, The Martian by Andy Weir, and The Girl From Felony Bay by J. E. Thompson. I'm currently reading Proxy by Alexander London.

Did you go to YALLfest this year? Tell me how it was! And catch up with me on social media...

Instagram: @Elysia_Regina
Twitter:@Elysia_Regina
Website: elysiaregina.com

 Hi guys! Here's a quick update on things...

I am currently and FINALLY seeking representation by a literary agent for my newest completed manuscript. It will be two years in November that I have been working on this one, and I am beyond excited to be querying agents. I have also started up a writing blog with my friend Matt Keenan. We're currently posting chapters of our story, We Keep On, on Tuesdays and Fridays. The blog is called Plot Brownies, because our stories are short and sweet! Check it out here: PlotBrownies.com 

I am also back into the swing of college life, and enjoying it again this semester! If you're curious, I attend the University of Maine, and am majoring in Business Marketing. 

Lastly, I am working on my seventh novel, and am about 15,000 words into it now. For those of you who don't speak in word count, that's approximately 60 pages in book form. This novel is more on the contemporary side than anything I've written before, but has a spin of thriller in it. I'm SO excited about this one, and can't wait to see where it goes.

Now that you're all updated... today's post is a short story! I don't think that I've ever posted any of my fiction on here, so this is something TOTALLY different from anything I've posted in the past. It's a story I wrote a few months ago (when I say few, I mean like six). I was going to submit it to magazines for publication, but decided to put it here for you all to read for free! Without further ado, enjoy The White Bench on the Left, a story that I hope will make you smile. 

     I drove past it every day. To school, back from school, to the store with Mom, back to the house with Mom. It was a white bench that wrapped around a tree. It was the kind of bench that you could sit on and someone could hide from you on the other side. I always hoped that the old man would be there. He wore a white bucket hat and was always painting, unless he was mowing the lawn, which he would do in shorts that came about a foot above his knees. But I always hoped that he’d be painting, perhaps something beautiful. I’d put my nose to the window and breathe in the air that smelt like barbeques and freshly cut grass, and watch the old painting man. He’d sit on that white wraparound bench with blue, red, and green paints spread across a pallet. The back of his easel would stare at me, and I always wondered what he was painting.
     Winter seemed much sadder than the summer, because the old man with the paints and the bucket hat didn’t sit outside, and his lawn wasn’t mowed, and I couldn’t dream about what kinds of things he was painting. By the time the sunny season rolled onto the calendar, I had all but forgotten about the old man, but then there he would be, painting away, adding a few wrinkles to the collection on his face. I once asked Mom if we could stop and talk to the old man. She told me that we couldn’t, because she had errands to run and things to do, and we didn’t want to bother an old man, because his time and his paintings were none of our business. I am going to tell you that I was not one to question, nor disobey my mother. I came home when I was supposed to, I didn’t sneak out when I got older, and I ate all of my vegetables, even if they happened to be brussel sprouts and peas. However, when it came to the old man with the bucket hat and the paintbrush, I couldn’t let the idea of him get away. Going to the old painting man was the first and nearly the last time I ever disobeyed my mother.
     It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and I was supposed to be biking to my piano lesson. I was eight years old, and my instructor was close enough that I could bike to her, but not close enough to walk to. My mother was gone running her errands—probably picking up more brussel sprouts and peas, I’m sure I thought—and she wouldn’t be back until just before dinner. I was scheduled to leave at 1:15 to get to my lesson on time, and instead I left at 12:50. I buckled on my black helmet, pulled on my white sneakers, and biked my pink bicycle to the old man with the bucket hat. The sun beat down on my freckled shoulders as I biked, the sounds of birds chirping and cars speeding past me an orchestra in the summer air. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, more at the notion of disobeying my mother than at actually meeting the old man. I nearly biked right past his house, but felt a burst of courage at the last moment and pulled my breaks. Dust flew up behind my back wheel as I skidded to a halt, and I nearly toppled over, catching myself at the last moment. The old man looked up at me over the easel, the paintbrush paused in his hand. He waved with his other hand, and I waved back. The moment of truth, the saying second: To go, or not to go? I put my kickstand down, looked behind me to make sure that Mom hadn’t followed me, and walked right up to the old man.