Fun Friday: A Quote to Ponder

I find that this can be a very accurate way to describe myself sometimes.

What are your thoughts? This is an important concept to keep in mind when writing characters, and just when living as a human being, so I think it's fascinating and I wanted to share it.

Truth Thursday: Book Finishing Blues

There comes a time in the writing of a book where an author finally finishes writing the last words of a novel, sits back, and stares at the page (or screen, depending on what medium was used) and realizes: "Wow. I just finished writing a novel."
I'm personally not an extremely excitable person. I feign excitement a lot, but only if I'm around other people. If I'm sitting by myself staring at my computer screen, then I don't get excited at all. I continue doing whatever work needs to get done without getting excited. When I got the email offering me a publication contract, I was so nonchalant about it that probably no one guessed I had just gotten one of the most important emails of my life.
The same feelings sat with me as I finished the rewrite of Solid Ground. This book has been with me for so long. Almost 7 years ago in fall of 2007, I began writing about Vivie, her family, and her friends. The journey continued until my freshman year in high school, April 2009. Eight books and many dead pens later, the series was finished. I moved on and began writing other projects. But in 2012, I decided that there was a lot of potential in the series of books I had finished. Yes, a lot of material would need to be thrown away, but much of it could also be reused. So that was how I began rewriting Solid Ground from scratch. Two days ago, I finished the rewrite, which is about two years of work on this project. It was strange, because I didn't really feel anything. I just sat and stared at my screen with several thoughts running through my head.

Cover Reveal: Forever Kinda Love by Clara Stone

I have the privilege of participating in a cover reveal for the first time since I started this blog! Check out the giveaway below and more of Priya's (Clara's) work!

But wait! Before you see the cover, don't you want to know what the story is about?

FOREVER KINDA LOVE Synopsis:
Life’s. Little. Surprises. The last thing seven-year-old Carrigan "Ace" Casper foresaw was an eight-year-old Heath Lovelly walking into her life the day her mother died. From that moment on, Heath sticks by her side, slowly becoming her strength, her confidant, and her entire world. What she doesn’t know is, she's his saving grace, too. Ten years later, Ace is handed another crippling challenge that threatens everything in her almost perfect life. Only, this time, she doesn't turn to Heath, hiding the truth instead. But Heath knows Ace too well and won't back down easily. He's ready to do whatever it takes and will stay by her side until she accepts that their love is the kinda love worth fighting for. Will he be her forever triumph or her unexpected downfall?  Two lives. One story. And an unexpected journey to falling in love.

Without further ado, here is the lovely cover!

Title: Forever Kinda Love

Author: Clara Stone

Release date: August 15th, 2014

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Age Group: Mature Young Adult

Cover Design: Regina Wamba at Mae I Design & Photography

Ebook will be available at: Kindle | Nook | Kobo |Smashwords |Paperback

As a young adult contemporary romance writer myself, I love the uniqueness of how childhood friendship plays into this story, not to mention I really love the characters' names! To find out what happens, I suppose you'll just have to wait for the book comes out before you get to see.

Yes, the giveaway is coming. But first, some information about the author!

About the Author:

Priya Kanaparti lives in the beautiful city of Boise, ID. Unlike what most believe about Idaho, it’s more than a sack full of potatoes. When she’s not writing, you’ll catch Priya reading YA and NA books, mostly romance, and enjoying time with her family. She is a proud CW TV addict. She also write Mature YA and New Adult romance under the name Clara Stone. She is published through Reuts Publications.

Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Goodreads | Pinterest

That's all I have for you guys! Enter the giveaway below for the chance to win several different prizes! Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Toolbox Tuesday: Cultural Last Names

For those who write characters who are non-white, there are some things to keep in mind when giving characters last names. For example, a Hispanic person often has two "last" names, indicating both parents' fathers' last names. A good example of this is on this page here. Long story short, a Hispanic person typically has the first part of their father and mother's last names in that order as their last name. A child of Mr. Martinez Gonzalez and Mrs. Montez Sanchez would have a child by Mr. (or Mrs.) Martinez Montez.

It is also typical for Hispanics upon marriage for the wife to keep her previous last name. This is not uncommon among minorities. For example, a Chinese name is never changed when a woman is married. She keeps her original last name and is the only one in her family with that last name in her Chinese name. She is free to change her English last name legally if she would like, but not all women do this. It is also common for a woman to attach her husband's Chinese character to the beginning of her name so that her name is four characters long instead of just three.

There is also a such thing as two character Chinese names, but those are rarer. Typically, most Chinese people have three characters in their names.

Hope that this brief post offered some insight, and please inform me about other cultures and things people are usually unaware of that can be extremely important!

Writing Process Blog Tour

My friend Keely Keith from Winslet Press asked me to participate in the Writing Process Blog Tour! If you check out her post, you'll see a completely new bio that I came up with just for this event. I'll also be linking you guys to three of my author friends' blogs next Monday, so stay tuned for that!

For now, why not check out Keely's website by clicking on this sentence right here?

Happy Monday!

Fun Friday: Picture inspiration

I thought this quote was very profound, and thought I would share it with you guys to see if anyone ends up getting an idea from it.

Depression and suicide are two subjects I'm very fascinated with, and I'm very interested in how I can use counseling to help people cope with these issues. Part of that comes through when I write as well. I find that this quote must be an accurate statement for a lot of people, who often don't have physical scars to show for it.

Please leave your thoughts below! I enjoy hearing from you!

Truth Thursday: This Annoying Dilemma

Now that I've signed a contract and I have a publishing company backing my novel Second Chance, the natural thing to do after publishing book is to publish a second one. There's just one problem. I have a bunch of drafts lying around, and no idea which one I want to experiment with next.

So, since I have conveniently managed to write mock query letters for these projects, why don't you guys help me pick?

Wacky Wednesday: Agent Query

Not only does Agent Query have some really useful tips for querying here, the website is also a really great forum for getting others to help you rip your queries apart--I mean, help you fix them so they're way better than what you could've done on your own.

Check out my experience with putting a query letter for Facades on Agent Query here. I was only able to get two responses, but that was because I didn't invest enough in helping other people with their queries. Usually, people will return the favor if you critique their queries. Plus, if you critique people's queries, you're likely to get better at editing your own. At any rate, it's worth a shot, so I definitely recommend checking it out for those of you who are getting ready to query or enter contests such as #Pitmad.

Share your query stories below if you have any! I'd love to hear from you.

Toolbox Tuesday: Naming Characters

One of the most difficult parts about writing can be naming characters. There's a lot that a name says about a person. It highlights uniqueness, personality, and so much more. Point is, the names we give characters are very important, so it's a good idea to play around with a few ideas before deciding on a name for a character.

Here are just a few tips for naming characters (more to come in another Toolbox Tuesday):

• Try to vary the amount of syllables in the characters' names. (Unlike my name, Jelsa Simone Mepsey. Yeah, don't do that.) A mixture of short and long names often makes for a very good character name. For example, Shane Christopher Kerrick sounds much better than Shane John White. A variation of syllables makes a name more interesting, and flows much better.
• Keep a database of names you like. I've met people before with unique names (such as Gracelyn) and written them down for future use. Sometimes you'll meet people with names that are a little different, but enough different so that it would make for a very good character name. Also, having a database of names you already know you like is much easier than looking through baby name websites and sifting through hundreds of names.
• Keep a database of last names as well. I especially encourage keeping lists of different last names by ethnicity. I know I personally have a tendency to write a lot of white characters, but I have been trying to diversify my cast, and I encourage other writers to attempt to do the same.
• Ask other people if the names sound good! Chances are, if a lot of people like the name you gave a character, so will your readers.

That's it for now! So, was this a helpful Toolbox Tuesday? Have tips on naming characters? Please share below!

Music Monday: Another instrumental

Remember those things called instrumentals that I wrote once upon a time? This one is called Tears. For those of you who are familiar with Waffles, he was with me when I recorded the song. If you know enough about music, you'll notice that he raises his head during the only major chord in the song, which I thought was pretty cool.

Anyway, enjoy this, and I hope it's inspirational in some way!

A Quick Update

Finals are over, and now I'm turning my room inside out to clean it because it's driving my fellow house-mates crazy. In between that, I'll be trying to catch up on blog posts, so stay tuned for more of those in the near future!
I haven't been completely slacking, however. I'm excited to announce that I've had 15+ blogs sign up to participate in the cover reveal for Second Chance, and more than half of them plan to review my novel as well! So that's very exciting, and I have a lot of work to do writing guest posts for their blogs as well.
Thanks for joining me on my writing journey; I wish you the best of luck with yours as well if you write, or if you're a reader, enjoy the multiple journeys we writers so enjoy putting you on!