FFF: The Guitar

When I started writing Akasha my husband asked if the main love interest could be based (somewhat) after him. He doesn't look anything like a Romanian/Indian though, so that didn't work. But we compromised.

There are signs of him everywhere. Joshua is patterned after him quite a bit, (I have a thing for curly blonds with blue eyes). He named Captain Reg after one of his World of Warcraft characters and I also gave him frizzy hair in honor of my hubby, (His hair can get quite fuzzy when we go to the beach).

But my favorite thing, is that Bryshen plays guitar. My husband is an amazing guitar player. When we were dating he talked about how he could play guitar but I thought it was just one of those things guys say to impress you. I wasn't impressed until I heard him.

Totally melted.

Have I mentioned I love acoustic guitar?

Part of me wishes I could have expounded on Bryshen's playing a bit more. After all it's only mentioned in the one chapter. It just wasn't important to the story though, just one of those things that makes Bryshen him.

At least now someone knows why.

The Dead-Tossed Waves

I don't do scary. I don't watch horror films and I hate blood and gore. But I LOVE THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH series! I finally got around to reading THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES and finished it last night. I'm not sure why I waited so long to read it. It's just been sitting on my shelf this whole time, but I'm glad I finally did.

Carrie Ryan is an amazing writer. She knows exactly how long to build the suspense, dragging it out just to that point before you think you might go insane. I seriously felt like I was gripping the book through most of it.

LOVED IT!

Now, to get my hands on a copy of THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES...

Author Night

My author night has officially been set up for May 25th at 6 p.m. in the Phelps Dodge room of the public library. I am both very excited (because more people will be aware of Akasha) and very nervous (I'm supposed to give a 20 minute presentation). I have a little over a month to get it together though so that's good. Of course I also have a month to make myself so nervous about it I throw up a few times.

The good thing is there will be another author there with me. I've heard she also doesn't like to speak so she was more than happy to share the night with me.

So if you live in the Safford area (and I'm aware not many people do), come and see me. And if you don't then you can contribute by telling me what I'm supposed to talk about for 20 minutes. Any ideas of what people might want to know about?

Fun Fact Friday

The tune to the music box came to be about two years after my sister drew the picture of Nichole, and about five years before I finally wrote her story. When I wrote the words to it they were from Nichole's point of view, wishing she could see her mother again.

Of course hardly anything turned out the way I imagined it way back then. Personally I think it turned out much better.

The music box melody

The art of art

I've had people say to me: I can't believe you wrote a book. It hurts my head just thinking about it. Which I totally get. On one hand, if you know me at all, I'm not that great of a story teller. Mostly because when I'm around people who aren't my immediate family I clam up and stammer over every word. It's embarrassing so I just don't do it. But the whole thing about their head hurting-I get.

If you've read previous posts you know my sister painted the cover of Akasha. In fact one of her pencil sketches started this whole writing thing for me. She is a very talented artist. And when I really look at the things she's painted (or sketched), it hurts my head thinking of how she does it. I watched her do a charcoal sketch one time. Her hand was moving all over the place, not really finishing anything the first time around. After a few minutes I kept thinking, how is she going to make this into anything?

Then she went back over different features. The hair, eyes, then maybe the lips again, back to the eyes, until before you knew it, the picture was complete. I was seriously amazed.

So this post is to you Hollie!

If you'd like to see more of her work here is her website. Just to warn you though, she's not all serious witches and orphans. ;)

Fun Fact Friday

I did not forget about fun fact friday. But since I just spent the day finishing City of Fallen Angels, (which if you haven't started reading I say to you...really?) I've decided to make that my fun fact. I'm a big fan of Cassandra Clare and she managed to pull off book four in a major way. So good!

If you know me at all you've probably guessed that one of the main reasons I picked up City of Bones was because it said on the cover-fans of Buffy would fall for the series. That and my sister-in-law told me I had to read them, using the Buffy thing as a way to pique my interest. I admit I was hesitant to read it because I thought it would be a rip off. I'm mean it's demon slaying right? So not a rip-off! She made it her very own.

And her own is very awesome!

Some good news

I finally built up the nerve to call the lady from the library about doing an author night. She was so nice! Which made me happy because I've explained before how I've had to talk to not nice people. (Or people just having a bad day)

She's setting me up for the end of May and is hoping to get another author or two the same night, which can I just say, phew! I know I made this decision to self publish which means I have to do all my own promoting and all, but it's hard and I don't enjoy doing it. I like sitting at home watching tv or reading, not talking to a room of people about my book.

I'm very excited though. This is good exposure for this small town. And right now getting my name out there is the most important thing. Right?

Fun Fact Friday

While I was writing Akasha I listened to Stolen by Dashboard Confessional about a million times. I have so many scenes placed within the song I wish I could show it to everyone else. So go tell your friends to buy my book so it can become popular enough to make a movie out of so I can show you the montage I have in my head. Okay? :)

Stolen-Dashboard Confessional