Category: Adorkable

Hello Again

Hello again!

I hope you’re all doing well! Yes, I’m still here and just…trying, every day trying, like everyone else.

My last blog post wasn’t sent out for some reason—and it was a nice one about a fun ADORKABLE bookish video I was able to do with some truly awesome people! <3 (ICYMI: here it is!)

I hope this one gets sent—and if it doesn’t, I guess I’ll ask the people at WordPress lol? Not really the best with technology, so I’ll definitely need help ha.

But anyway, here are a few writing/book-related updates:

  • I reached 10,000 words on my current WIP yesterday!!! Yay, yay, yay! I’m really in love with this book and the characters. It’s a YA romance with funny and swoon-worthy moments and…ugh, I hope to keep writing, can’t wait to finish and share it with you guys!
  • THE BEST MISTAKE, my New Adult sports romance, is doing awesome! It’s gotten some wonderful reviews, and I’m so thankful for all of them! Here’s a pic from back when THE BEST MISTAKE reached 100 ratings on Goodreads! *sigh* If you haven’t read it yet, I hope you’ll check it out, and let me know what you think of the O’Brien brothers!!!
  • Just found out Sarah J. Maas is writing another book in the A Court of Thorns & Roses series! Literally one of my favorite series ever! And it’s not just any book. It’s for two characters that I love: Nesta & Cassian! <333 Can’t wait to read!
  • A kind person at work got me a Kindle! It happened around Christmas, was totally unexpected and just really thoughtful. Because of this, I now have 3 free months of KU! Very excited to read all the books lol!

Also, on a totally different note, and because I’m a real person who cares about you and your loved ones, and I hope you care about mine: Please, if you have to go out and be around people, wear a mask.

I don’t know how this has become an argument. It’s not about infringing on people’s rights; it’s not even about you protecting yourself. The masks are worn to protect others. It’s about caring for those around you because you could have the virus, be asymptomatic, and spread it to a loved one—or to someone else’s loved one. I’ve had my own experiences, and I’ll share them here.

The first time I ever had to wear a mask was five years ago. It was to protect my best friend who had cancer.

Her immune system was down because of the chemo treatments. I’d caught a cold which of course wouldn’t usually be too concerning. But for someone with cancer and lowered immunity, a cold could turn into something far worse, like pneumonia. My little cold that I knew I’d likely recover from could’ve been life-threatening to her.

So I wore a mask.

To protect her.

Because I love her.

I had to do this a couple of times because I got sick again while she was undergoing treatment. I would’ve done anything to protect her. Wearing a mask was not a hardship. I wish I could’ve done so much more. She was and still is my favorite person of all time.

*And if you at any point while you were reading this thought: “Well, she was dying anyway” or have ever said something cruel like that to a person with cancer, please don’t buy or read any of my books. They are written for people with hearts. And I’m pretty sure you’ve misplaced yours.*

There are still people who I love that I want to protect. So again, when you go out and are around people, please wear a mask.

I hope you’re all safe and healthy, finding happiness during this time. Be well, readers.

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

ADORKABLE #passthebookchallenge

Hi everyone!

So, this has to be one of the coolest things I have ever done. And it was made possible by all of the wonderful people in this video! <3

If you need a little brightness added to your day, check out our ADORKABLE #passthebookchallenge! Featuring some awesome people who I have so much love for! So thankful!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBN9bMng4SY/?igshid=jhmmfzgirr3u

You can also find the video on Facebook here–because of course, I’m sharing it everywhere lol! 🙂

And you can still find the paperback at Target and Barnes & Noble, yayyy!

If you’ve followed me on this publishing journey, from ADORKABLE and beyond, you know that I believe the world has too many tragedies and not enough happy endings. That is why I strive to give all of my characters happily-ever-afters, and why I try to spread at least a little happy where possible.

I’ve included this on all of my posts so far because it’s true:

Wherever you are, whatever you are going through, I hope this brings you some happiness!

Stay safe and well, bookworms!

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

LOL Love!

Hi everyone!

A lot of you probably know this, but three of my books are now published in Hungary! ADORKABLE, NINJA GIRL and The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad! Yay!!! <3

In March of this year, Piszkos tánc (aka the Hungarian version of The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad) was released!

Sidenote: Piszkos tánc literally means Dirty Dance…which makes me think of Dirty Dancing…which is awesome bc I looove that movie!

What’s even more awesome? The LOL readers seriously rock!!! They are just so lovely and kind!

They send wonderful book pics like the ones below *__*.

They also do amazing collages! Truly, these brought tears to my eyes; they are so perfect for Sadie & Colton’s book! <333

Also, they made me realize the Sprouse twins, Dylan & Cole, could totally play Colton & Kyle in the movie version of The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad!!! 😀

P.S. There’s actually no movie, but maybe someday. *sigh*

P.P.S. If there ever is a movie for any of my books, you’ll be the first to know :).

Also, there was this!!!!! Some awesome person had to do a newspaper book report for school, and they chose Piszkos tánc! Oh my heart! <333

The LOL readers have shown me a lot of love, and I just wanted to share some of that love with you!

I’ll also be doing a live event on the LOL Facebook page Wednesday at 12:00 AM EST/11:00 AM CST/6:00 PM in Hungary. We’ll be talking about my books and writing and tbh I just hope I don’t mess it all up ugh. So so nervous lol. Cross your fingers for me, would you? I’m pretty awkward, so I welcome and appreciate all the good karma/vibes you can send.

I truly hope you’re well, everyone! Staying safe, reading awesome books and spending time with your loved ones (whether in person or virtually :))!

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

*Note to self: Figure out how to share other people’s posts on Instagram. That’s where I first saw those collages *swoons*. Hope you all have an awesome day!*

Less Than 2 Weeks

Hi everyone!

Positive post ahead :).

In less than two weeks, my 5th book, The Best Mistake, comes out!!! Yay, yay, yay, you guys! Oh, I’m so excited to share this one with you!

I cannot wait for everyone to meet Honor & Archer and all of the O’Briens!

I decided to post and focus on the positive because…well, tbh, I get a little overwhelmed sometimes and need to be reminded of things that are cheerful and good.

Here are a few of the things that have recently brightened my days:

  1. My family. I’m so incredibly grateful for the time I have with them. It is priceless. They are the best thing in my whole world. The few friends I have are wonderful as well.
  2. The ability to connect. Thank goodness for phones/mail/video chats/texts/email/nice messages from nice people.
  3. Good books/TV/movies. I’ve been reading a lot lately. Haven’t been writing–which stinks–but I’ve been stressed and escaping through books/TV/movies. So glad for the escape.
  4. Second Printing. A very kind editor from Entangled let me know this week that ADORKABLE is actually going into a second printing!!! I’m no expert–this is my first and only book that’s been traditionally published–but they’ve told me it’s done well, yay, and this means the book will be on shelves longer–which, to me, is AMAZING! <3
  5. Speaking of Amazing... A while ago, an awesome author friend asked when I’d have ARCS ready of The Best Mistake because she wanted to read it, and that just made my day! <3 Thank you so much, Theresa!!!

I’ve been struggling recently, as I’m sure a lot of you have, to stay in a positive place. The way our world is right now…how so many are suffering, going through the unthinkable…I just can’t help getting overwhelmed with sadness sometimes.

Trying to focus on the good things has cheered me up a bit, and I hope it helps you as well.

I hope to cheer you up even more in a couple weeks when The Best Mistake comes out! 😉 But just to tide you over…here’s an awesome pic @lauren.bodiford posted a few weeks ago for The Best Mistake cover reveal!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B98A-9eA2I7/?igshid=1b1fuye3s5214

I hope you’re well, bookworms! <3

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

P.S. The idea that someone could be reading an ARC of The Best Mistake right now is nerve-wracking and exciting, eep! Oh, I’m crossing my fingers so hard that people like Archer & Honor’s story!!! I’ll be posting more about the book soon, and again, I hope you all have a great weekend! 🙂

Book Birthday Week!

Happy Book Birthday Week, everyone!!!

Yay, woohoo, hooray!

What is book birthday week, you ask? Well, I didn’t realize it at first, but nearly all my books share a birthday week! In other words, they were released within 7 days of each other, just in different years!

Cool, right? I thought so anyway lol!

ADORKABLE, my debut YA romance and forever book baby #1, was released on this day in 2016. <3 NINJA GIRL, awesome/kickass book baby #2, came out nearly a year later on March 30, 2017. And The Unbelievable, Inconceivable Unforeseeable Truth About Ethan Wilder, mysterious/romantic book baby #3, was released on April 5, 2018.

If that wasn’t cool enough and you’re wondering why The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad, swoony/hilarious book baby #4, is up there when in fact it came out in late April of 2019…

…the answer is: Piszkos Tánc, The Hungarian version of The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad, which actually just came out this week!!! Here’s the lovely cover!

LOL rocks, and I’m so thankful to them for bringing my books and the characters I love so much to the awesome LOL readers in Hungary!!!

So yayyy, this is book birthday week, you guys! It’s something to celebrate, a bit of brightness, and I hope it brings light to your day as well!

I hope you’re all well and safe, readers! Thank you so much for being a part of my publishing journey! No matter if you’ve read one or all four of my books (some of you are probably like, just four lol??? But I’ve tried, and I’m still glad I have that many out ha! Also, my NA sports romance, The Best Mistake, is coming April 23rd, so book baby #5 is on the way!!!), I’m so glad to have your support and thankful for every positive comment/message!

Self-publishing ADORKABLE was the fulfillment of a long-held, long-hoped-for dream, and I made the decision to do it on a day that was (and still is) the anniversary of one of the worst days of my entire life, an effort to take the day back and turn it into something good. Thank you so much for helping me do that, and I hope my books give you even a small amount of happiness!

Hold on to hope, be well, keep celebrating the small things, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

P.S. Another awesome thing that made me glad this week was The English Game on Netflix! It was awesome, and soccer-loving Becks and Ash (and all of my characters lol) would’ve loved it! If you need something new to watch, I’d definitely recommend! 😉

Road Tripping with Entangled Teen!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!!! I’ve got something really fun for your guys today!

I’m so glad to be a part of Entangled Teen’s Road Trip (aka blog hop)! Each day there will be a new stop with new authors and giveaways just for you!

Today’s stop is Chariot, North Carolina–the setting for my YA romance ADORKABLE! Chariot is a small fictional town and home to a whole cast of quirky characters–including Sally Spitz who asks her best friend, Becks, to be her fake boyfriend for a month. The problem: She’s been in love with him all her life–and he’s completely clueless :).

Here’s an excerpt from one of my most favorite scenes in the book (get ready to swoon <3):

     Gently, Becks placed his hand on top of mine.

     I didn’t jump this time, but my body was like a live wire, lit up from the inside.

     “Jeez,” Becks said quietly, running the tips of his fingers up and down my arm.  “You’re shaking, Sal.”

     Mortified, I looked down to see that he was right.  Every time his fingers passed a certain place on my skin, gooseflesh appeared first followed by a tiny quiver.

     “Sorry,” I said, completely at a loss.

     As much as I tried, I couldn’t command myself to not react. Why was my body betraying me like this?  Didn’t it realize that if Becks saw how much I loved his touch, how much it moved me, he would know?

     Just as I feared it might already be too late, he said, “This isn’t working.”  Removing his hand, he sat back, shaking his head.  “I don’t know why I freak you out so much, but we need to try something different.”

     I was a lot of things, but “freaked out” was definitely not one of them.

“Here,” he said, moving a bit closer.  “You do me.”

ADORKABLE by Cookie O’Gorman

Gah, I really do love that scene and Sally & Becks *sigh*!!!

ADORKABLE is such a fun, romantic, happy, dorky and swoon-worthy story! If you decide to check it out, I truly hope it brightens your day!

Here is the complete schedule for the road trip–and don’t forget to check out the next stop with author Lindsey Duga!

March 16 – Jus Accardo
March 16- AK Wilder
March 17- Cookie O’Gorman — You are here! 🙂
March 17- Lindsey Duga
March 18- Katie Delahanty
March 18- T.H. Hernandez 
March 19- Chris Cannon
March 19- Barb Han
March 20- Lisa Brown Roberts
March 20- Marlene Perez
March 21- Pintip Dunn
March 22- Brenda Drake 
March 23- Kelly Anne Blount
March 24- Emily McKay
March 25- Entangled Teen Facebook Event at 6 pm PST/9 pm EST

The road trip culminates on March 25th @ 6 pm PST/9 pm EST with a big party on the Entangled Teen Facebook page! I’ll be giving away a $10 Amazon gift card, yay! Hope to see you there!

Again, bookworms, I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe! This is a very scary and uncertain time for so many. May you live long and prosper. May the odds be ever in your favor. May COVID-19 stay far, far away from you. I wish you all the best–the best health, the best books, and the best times with those you love!

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

Hello, My Name Is Cookie O’Gorman

If you read the title, and immediately thought of The Princess Bride, awesome! We are part of the same dorky/geek-ish tribe lol.

Bonus points if you heard Mandy Patinkin AKA Inigo Montoya saying the iconic lines ;).

Anyway, hello, everyone! I wanted to share some cool things with you guys.

I went to an author event almost 2 weeks ago, and it was a lot of fun—despite my awkward.

Yes, that’s me LOL! The name tag was given to us courtesy of the bookstore (which I love!) that hosted the event. The freaked out/hilarious expression? Well, that’s all me ha!

This is what happens when you put an introvert in a room full of authors (who mostly already know each other argh) and expect them to just talk to people/have fun/mingle. Le sigh.

My mom, who was my wingman for the night, pointed out this book because she’s 1) a smart aleck and 2) hilarious!

She also told me, in all seriousness, that I did a great job and am actually good at talking to talking to people (gah, I love her and her pretty lies lol!).

Oh and did you notice her sleeve? We accidentally twinned that day—which my mom claimed we were not doing…but which was of course pointed out by the lady at Starbucks, who right when we walked in asked if we’d “matched on purpose.” *mental headslap*

No, Starbucks lady. No we did not match on purpose. We just both really like plaid/gingham LOL!

Pre-event, we went to dinner, and our lovely server brought us complimentary champagne to celebrate my first book being in the bookstore <3. I don’t drink, but it was such a nice, kind and unexpected surprise!

Another awesome surprise was actually seeing ADORKABLE on the shelves!!!! <333 Yay!

We also got to see ADORKABLE on the shelves at Target for the first time ever, and that was just too much amazingness for one day!!!

Recently, I’ve been trying to outline my new book, yay, and emailing my cover designer about what will hopefully be my next release, hooray!

I’ll post more about that soon; there’s a lot to say lol, and I’m so excited (and nervous) to share! 🙂

I’ve also received some awesome messages from readers, and I just have to say: Thank you so much!!!! I absolutely love hearing from you! You have no idea how much your kind words and support means to me! It really lifts my spirits and pushes me to keep writing, so again: Thank you!!!

I hope you’re all well, bookworms, and have an awesome weekend!

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

WIP Complete!!!

Okay, so technically, I should’ve posted this over two weeks ago lol.

But I completed my WIP, you guys! 😀 It has about 1,000 more words now because of edits–and I still have a bit more to do on that front–but WOOHOO!!!! It’s done, you guys!

And I love, love, love it so much! <3

There are a few things that I wanted to ask you, so I may do a poll later or something.

But for right now, I just wanted to tell you it’s complete–and I took this pic after lol–and once it’s ready, I cannot wait for you to read!!!

Also, I have some updates on my other book babies :).

The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad reached 500 ratings on Goodreads!  Woohoo, yay, hooray!!!! I will have to do a giveaway to celebrate soon!

Someone wrote a one-star review of NINJA GIRL and tagged me in it…ugh (about the tagging, not the bad review.  Honestly, one-stars hurt like a dagger to the chest, but everyone has their own opinion.  I still absolutely love Snow and Ash and their story  <3.  Plus, someone else wrote a really awesome review, so it evens out I guess).

The Unbelievable, Inconceivable, Unforeseeable Truth About Ethan Wilder has recently gotten a few wonderful reviews as well!  That was awesome to see!

Oh yes, and ADORKABLE got a very nice review from Kirkus!  My first trade review, you guys!  Want to know my initial reaction?  “I’m so glad they didn’t hate it” LOL!!!!! 🙂 But seriously…I’m so glad they didn’t hate it!

I hope you’re all doing well, accomplishing your goals for 2020 and reading wonderful books!

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

Hello 2020

Hi everyone, and hello 2020!!!

I hope you’re having a wonderful year so far!

This post is a bit late (how is it already Jan. 14th???). But I’m taking a look back at 2019 to see how I did on reaching my goals! My Hello 2019 post should make it easier–and I hope it’s not too boring lol. 🙂

Okay, so here we go! Bookish/writing goals achieved last year: I published my 4th book baby, The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad, yay!!!; NINJA GIRL and The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad came out as audiobooks; I started a newsletter and created an Instagram account (still figuring these out, ha!); I tried a few different promo/marketing things like newsletter promo sites, swaps, and ads (ugggh, the confusion LOL); ADORKABLE came out in paperback with new exclusive bonus content from Entangled (Hooray!!!) and because of this I got to see ADORKABLE on shelves at Barnes & Noble, Target and Books-A-Million!!! 😀

Ahhh, OMG, huzzah!!!!!!!

I also got to do my first ever book signing(s), Instagram takeover and FB group takeovers! They were a bit stressful (just bc I’d never done them, didn’t want to mess up etc.) but also a ton of fun :).

Also got to attend a writers conference with my family, learned a lot, was inspired and enjoyed it immensely!

The one thing I didn’t do was finish the book I was working on :/. BUT! I did that last Saturday, so it’s all good, right? 😀

So, I reached most of my goals in 2019…and even had one dream come true that I never thought would: I got to see ADORKABLE on the shelf in actual stores. *Sigh* I’m so so so thankful to Entangled & all the people there for taking a chance on my little book, and I’m over-the-moon grateful to all of you for supporting me and my books throughout this publishing journey! This would’ve never been possible without YOU! So again: Thank you so much!!!

My publishing/writing goals for 2020 are: Publish a book. Learn how to balance everything (blog, newsletter, FB, Instagram etc.), and don’t be afraid to post. Write another book (or several, crossing my fingers on this!). Write more, better & consistently. Learn more about marketing/promo/ads. Attend another conference or book festival.

As always, I have personal goals as well (be a better person; get healthy; do more to help others). My main goal is to be a positive influence. To know that I’ve made life a little easier, happier, better for someone else.

Back to books!

I’ll let you know more about my brand new book soon, yay!!! I’m very excited to share it with you, and I hope you’ll love it! Will also be posting book updates, giveaways, and news about all the ups and downs of 2020.

Hoping for more ups than downs for you and for me, my lovely readers :). Wishing you all the best in 2020!

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This was my attempt at a book tree, and I think it turned out pretty…ADORKABLE <3 ;). 

May you have the best times with family & friends, and may ALL the books be under your tree! I truly hope today (and every day) is wonderful for you! <3 <3 <3

Happy reading (and happy holidays),

Cookie O’Gorman