virtual reality – Angelina Singer Author Updates

Battling Project Overload: Coffee & Concepts

And no – it’s not a cool science fiction title. This is literally just the story of my life as an overactive busy-brained freelance writer.

My brain is so tired – like all the time. And I’ve found I also don’t retain things as well because of it. So, it’s high time I handle my crazy workload before it gets too big for me to manage. That’s why I really enjoyed my recent conversation with Walt Robillard – Editor in Chief of WarGate Books.

I was fortunate enough to land a spot on his podcast show, Coffee & Concepts, to talk about my books and my writing process. What so many people don’t think of when it comes to interacting with their favorite stories, is the way authors have to weave these narratives from literally nothing. And finding time / motivation to write can be challenging at best and near impossible at its worst.

We talked about what kinds of coffee we like (which is largely frappuccinos and lattes for me), as well as what kind of inspiration I gathered for my latest release of The Rewind Duology. This series is so important to me, because it really took the struggles I experienced as a kid, and flipped them all around. Where I used to feel weak, these books transformed into a triumph – and I’m also donating a portion of the proceeds to KIND Campaign as well!

Giving back to the community is a crucial component of my work – that’s why I love being able to support an amazing charity that I believe in. Alongside my work with high school students who have an interest in getting into the writing field, as well as my work on the Board of Directors for ARIA, it’s been a blessing to donate my time and efforts.

Excerpt from Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember (The Rewind Duology #1):

“Maybe getting older lets you finally see all sides of the dice – not just the ones that are facing up.”

Vera Bartlet is a soon-to-be college graduate with absolutely no idea how messy her life is about to become. It’s not just the job search looming on the horizon or her lack of a boyfriend that’s got her stomach in knots – rather, her dad has been missing for almost a decade, and no one knows what happened to him.

When Uncle Edgar mysteriously arrives back onto the scene, he comes armed with some interesting new ideas about what may have happened to Vera’s dad – and an even more revolutionary idea of how to find him. With nothing short of bending time and space, Edgar sends Vera back in time in the hopes that she might find the clues they need to get her dad home.

As she sifts through the mangled pieces of reality and her altered memories of middle school drama become jumbled in between truth and fantasy, Vera has to choose which elements of her past should stay in the past, and which she might like to incorporate into her future. Time travel is never simple, and there are always side effects – but in this case, it might just hold the key to finding her dad. Will Vera stay sane long enough to find her dad and make peace with the bullies who made her miserable?

I have plans to start drafting my next concept, but my life has been so chaotic. Here’s hoping things settle down soon. But until then, keep hustling!

Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change RELEASES TOMORROW!

Tomorrow, my sixth book gets launched into the world. Being that this isn’t my first rodeo, so to speak, I always think about how weird it is to publish a story. Like, you pour your whole heart into this thing, just to slap a $2.99 ebook price on it and hope that someone deigns to spend their hard-earned cash on your emotional journey.

Okay, that definitely came out way more cynical than I really intended, but hear me out: writing a story is no small matter. Especially, one as big and important to me as this one.

The Rewind Duology came about as a result of me still trying to work through the bad emotional patterns I sustained as a result of chronic bullying as a kid. My bullies were kids with significant psychological and emotional issues. And as I’ve become an adult, I’ve become privy to some knowledge about them that definitely shed some light on their situations.

That doesn’t make it right – but it does make it make a little more sense than it used to, perhaps.

Regardless, the first book of The Rewind Duology was Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember – and that was a coming-of-age time travel. My character, Vera, went back in time to find her dad, who was trapped in a virtual reality world. So in book 2, Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change… Vera gets stuck in that very same virtual reality world.

This is a picture of my dad and I from today – Vera’s dad is modeled a lot after him!

It’s really interesting to reflect on all this, because the sequel almost didn’t happen. About two weeks before I published the first book, I got this wild idea of a way to continue the story – not just in the VR world, but in Vera’s life as well. Because after all – there’s still her friends Willow and Zander, her brother Jet, and her – well, whatever the heck Alex is to her these days.

I’m so excited about this latest and final installment of The Rewind Duology, and I really hope you love it as much as I loved writing it. But most importantly, I hope it shows you how healing truly isn’t a linear process – and the key to getting there, is embracing the journey – with all its twists and turns – as long as it takes.

READ The Rewind Duology HERE: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093YG13VF?ref_=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tkin&binding=kindle_edition

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more updates! Thank you so much for being here.

– Angelina Singer

Hit Summer With Your Best Shot 6/21 – SEQUEL PREMIERE

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! In the spirit of this occasion of remembering those who gave their lives for America (may they always be honored and remembered), I thought I’d make a pretty big announcement of my own.

The sequel to my time-travel coming-of-age romance Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember is called Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change. And you can read it on June 21st (yes – the first day of Summer). Summer isn’t just a season; if you’ve read book one, you know that Summer is the name of the biggest grade-school-baddie-turned-psychopathic-criminal. So of course, I figured the best way to forgive her once and for all was to drop this second and final installment on the first day of her season.

Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change actually takes place in the SoCal fall, but that’s basically still warm weather (with the addition of pumpkin spiced everything). It was really fun to situate the characters in that season of blending the savory with the summertime. That also mimics the interesting blend of spastic daytime patterns as experienced by Vera and Fader in the virtual reality world they get trapped in.

The book will be available in ebook, paperback, and eventually, audiobook – narrated by the amazing Chelsea Kwoka. She voiced book 1 and hit it out of the park, so I knew we absolutely had to work together again.

To catch up on book 1, you can find it on Amazon HERE. I always like to tell people how personal both books are to me (but the first book especially – because it’s basically me traveling back in time to enact some justice on my old bullies).

I also have (what I hope) is a fun book trailer on YouTube all about book 1 – care to take a look? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUUTZ820GTI

Thank you so much for all your continued support. Comment below with more content you’d like to see from me. I could talk about my writing for ages, but I know that lifestyle stuff is important too, of course!

I’ll leave you with a quick spoiler-free passage from the sequel that I particularly enjoy. This is a moment between Fader and Vera while navigating the digital reality world:

Between the sound of the falling acid just outside, and the repetitive drip-drip-drip of hidden water somewhere in the cave, the silence was bearable. But only for so long.

“I don’t bite, you know.”

Fader huffed. “That hasn’t been proven. You looked like you were in enough pain to bite me if I hadn’t have given you that cloth to chomp on instead.”

I rolled my eyes, even though the gesture may have been left unseen in the faint neon halo light. “That’s not entirely true.”

“You sure? Because I can’t stitch up my own wounds. Don’t think I’d have the stomach for it.”

“What I’m sure of right now is that… I want you.”

He froze, like being stung by an unseen predator. “What?”

“Want you next to me, I meant. Yeah, like, scoot in. I’m cold.” Turning away momentarily, I prayed that Freudian slip didn’t just damage everything good we had going on. In a virtual reality world built on real-world death, you’d be surprised at how hard good stuff was to find.

Before he could find a proper rebuttal, he moved closer to my side, wrapping his arm around my bare shoulders as shivers ran up my spine. “Okay, you have me. Is that all you wanted?”

The ambiguity in his words wasn’t lost on me, so I treaded lightly. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

Life Doesn’t Come with Cheat Codes.

Hello friends! I’m writing today with some VERY exciting news about my yet-to-be-published book.

Before anyone else, I’m going to let you see my book cover and cover blurb. How cool is that?

But first, a little background: So this newest book, Forgiving What I Couldn’t Change (The Rewind Duology Book 2) is the sequel to Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember. Both books deal heavily with coming of age, struggles with bullies, and finding yourself amidst the noise. Vera Bartlet is the main character, and in book one, she has to track down her missing dad while dealing with issues like time travel, dating, and learning to adult. If you like snark and clever tagline, you’d probably like this book, and you can find it on Amazon HERE.

Here’s the blurb for book 2:

Life doesn’t come with cheat codes.

Vera Bartlet finally lands her dream job after rescuing her dad from the psychotic bullies who held him captive. Despite dealing with the recurring trauma from being bullied and the psychological struggles surrounding it, Vera’s moving in a much better direction. With time travel under her belt, happily engaged friends, and an improved relationship with her previously estranged Uncle Edgar, life is stable – until the time machine gets stolen.
Vera’s family worries that a machine immune to the limits of time and space in the wrong hands would spell disaster for more than just their family. But when she’s quite literally dragged into the epicenter of the nefarious operation, Vera gets thrown into the very same virtual reality world that imprisoned her dad for the better part of a decade.

This place isn’t like anywhere Vera’s been before. Sporadic sky patterns with a deadly acid nightfall, man-eating purple-blooded wolf creatures, and an avatar with totally unnecessary upgrades is only the beginning of what she has to deal with. Her only saving grace is the frustratingly attractive Fader, who’s been in the game longer than she has and knows a way out.

Can Vera make it out of the game alive, forgive her bullies, and level up before her whole world glitches?

AND HERE’S THE COVER…

Seriously, how cool is this?!?! I’m obsessed with this cover. My designer really nailed this one.

As of now, I’m planning far a soft-release, maybe later next month if all goes to plan. But I’m not making any formal announcements yet as I’m still in the editing process right now. Even the cover may be subject to change depending on how everything is laid out, but I’m really excited to see how it goes.

There’s just so much that goes into all this, and I’m really hoping that it’ll all go smoothly, but the key is to just keep rolling with it and not panic. But then again, that’s also just life. And lately, I’ve been really bogged down with all my freelancing work on top of it all. And getting out of burnout is really, freaking difficult. I’ll probably blog about that soon too – but today is not the day.

In the meantime, if you want to join my review team, you can do so at this link: http://eepurl.com/df6qqf

Thank you so much for all your continued support! Angelina signing off for now, but I’m never too far away. Comment below to connect or follow me on Instagram and Tiktok.

Meet the Characters of My Latest Book

Have you read my coming-of-age time travel yet? If not, well, maybe this blog post will convince you. Besides the fact that I literally wrote my old middle school bullies into the story, and then cosplayed as a couple of them (yes, seriously, keep on reading below), the story is romance and family drama all rolled into one. Oh yeah – and all the awkwardness of growing up and stuff is front-and-center too.

“Maybe getting older lets you finally see all sides of the dice – not just the ones that are facing up.”

Click HERE to “Meet” the characters of my book, cosplayed by me 😉

Book 1 of The Rewind Duology, Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember

I had way too much fun dressing up like my characters, as seen in the hyperlink above. Seriously, they’re a unique bunch. And Summer’s makeup took FOREVER to wash off. But it was so worth it, LOL.

The sequel to this book will be available hopefully later this year, but if you wanna catch up and read Forgetting What I Couldn’t Remember ahead of time, you can do that HERE. It’s available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook if that’s more your thing 😉

And oh boy, let me tell you – the plot twists in book 2 are BONKERS. Literally, there are a few things that will drop your jaw. I’m honestly blown away I even thought up these things in the first place, but I’m super excited about it. Now, I just need the motivation and focus to finish. If you have any tips to share for crossing that finish line, feel free to share below. I would truly appreciate it.