Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A Late Happy New Year?

Well, hello there!


It's kind of pointless telling you all HAPPY NEW YEAR when I'm 23 days late, but I'm going to say it anyway.
HAPPY.
NEW.
YEAR.
 
There's one thing that happens to me every new year, and I'm told that most people feel the same way. Writing the date. This happens to me with months, but years? I cannot tell you how many times I've written 2012 when I was supposed to write 2013. I do it even now.
I haven't updated in forever but that's mainly because there's nothing really to update about. But, I decided that I'd let out a snippet of what I've done. You've heard one of the sentences.


“Get lost, Felix,” I sneered before the Council could address him. “Just . . . go.”

He closed his eyes for a longer period of time and smiled, “Well, then, I’m afraid Evaline, that it would be quite pointless coming here in the first place.”

The plump woman; the woman I really didn’t like, suddenly stepped forward. Even though she was about half my size, she trotted towards Felix, in her little red high heels, and raised her chin. “Excuse me, Mr. Felix Grayback. But, according the Law, you have absolute no right or reason to enter the threshold—”

Felix’s hand outstretched and grabbed the woman’s neck, she started choking, and everyone took one step forward, but didn’t dare get any closer. We were all frozen. The woman was gasping for air even though she couldn’t find any. She was on her tip toes, her plump legs too short to reach the ground. Her hands and fingers were wrapped around Felix’s wrist, and she was trying with all her might to get his hand off her throat. Finally, after waiting excruciatingly long seconds, he dropped the woman, and she crumpled to the floor. Two of the Council place.

Felix smiled again. “I was hoping that would be reason enough to let me in.” He was staring right at me, as if questioning me, no daring me to say otherwise.

I gulped. This was not going to be good. Felix took that as his cue and entered the room, his feet clomping against the hard tile floor. Instead of us leading him, he led us into a room, and I felt that he was all too familiar with this place.

I sat down across from him and looked around for Natalia. Was she here? Did she know? She wasn’t there among the faces although I could have sworn she was in the building. I’ve seen her before this. “What do you want?” I said, cutting back on the small-talk. “Just tell us . . . and leave. We have enough tension here anyway; we don’t need you to make it worse. How did you get here anyway?”

He shrugged. “Same technique,” he said, probably thinking back to the Council member. I shuddered. Just the thought of seeing him do that again felt like his hand was wrapped around my own throat.

“What do you want?” I repeated.

He raised both eyebrows. “I am impressed, Evaline, you seem to be the leader of everything now. Even the Council members are not stopping you. Must be because of . . .”

“My coat,” I sneered. “We all know. Just go on.”

He chuckled, and at that moment I realized that, that noise was number one on the list, “Most Annoying Sounds I Have Ever Heard”. Right next to him actually talking. “Well, Evaline,” he started. “What fun would that be?”’

When he looked at all our serious faces he chuckled again. “Okay, okay,” he said grinning. “I was hoping . . . well, I think it would be a better idea just to show you.”

I looked at him, thinking he would pull something out of his pocket, but instead he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, “Aurelie! Come out, now!” Suddenly, out of thin air, appears a silhouetted figure at first, but then the color comes and a girl who could be no more than thirteen, Taylors age. She was beautiful in that slightly childish way. I knew that she was beautiful just by her flowing and silky hair that looked like dark brown with a few light brown strands here and there, her slightly tanned skin, her heart-shaped lips, angular cheekbones, and eyes that hinted she was from an Asian descent.

“What is she doing here?”

The voice came from the far side of the room, and I was surprised to hear because it sounded awfully like . . .Taylor. My eyes focused on Taylor, who looked like she was going to explode. Then I realized she actually knew this girl. And if she knew this girl . . . that means she knows Felix. I stared at her until she looked at me, but she only looked for a seconds, like a glance. I knew that look meant she would explain later, so I kept my lips zipped tight.

Felix looked actually pretty surprised to see Taylor standing there, but the look of recognition was on his face. “Ah, Taylor.  I heard what happened to your mother.”

I didn’t think it was possible at first, but I knew I was wrong, when I literally saw the steam come out of her ears. “What happened?” Felix continued, as if he didn’t know. He looked straight at me. “I heard it was a . . . fire.”

I had a sudden urge to tell Felix off by saying, ‘Might want to check your sources, Felix, because it wasn’t my fault’. I realized I couldn’t say that, because what Felix said was true. I tried to stay away from it, but I looked down in embarrassment and regret. Thankfully, no one noticed.

Suddenly Taylor was in front of Felix, her hands wrapped around the hilt of short pocket knife. One stab, and it would hurt Felix, but not kill him. He looked at her, amused, as if he dared her to pull that off. She stood in front of him, one foot rested on the loveseat, and the other on the ground. Her hands were next to her chest, and it was a great position to do what I thought she would do. Stab him. I wanted her to do it. But something told me she wouldn’t.

“I’ve had enough of you.” I was apparently wrong, because Taylor raised the knife above her head when we all heard a shout.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Writer's Block

There's something I really didn't get when I wrote Pure at Heart. I didn't get what Writer's Block was, and how it felt like. I don't know if it's just me, but I think that it's the case for all author's who were writing their debut novel in a series.
When I started Blazing Heart, I was so excited. I had a vivid vision of everything I wanted in the sequel. I started writing and writing, and there were many times where I just wanted to close my laptop shut and scream out in frustration. I would just sit their for minutes, trying to figure out what to write next. And I would write like three chapters, before I realize that I do not like what I just wrote. I would delete it, and start over, no matter how much I didn't want to. Now that I think of it, it might just be the fact that after you write a book, you realize that you want to change some things in it, except you can't--because its already published. So when you start writing another book, you think, "Oh, well, I don't want to make the same mistakes over again, so I'll just be really careful this time." Except, that results in you not writing anything at all.
I think I finally understand why writing a book usually takes years. I'm about 25,000 words in, and I think that I want to delete about ten thousand of them already. In fact, I have no idea where the plot is going--I'm just writing. I'm trying to get my thoughts down. This is the first time, I've tried something like this, and I hope it works. Yeah, I'm planning, but I think a real author plans, but also improvises when she writes. If she doesn't like a part of a plot, she should be able to change it, to the way she likes. And I think that's what's so amazing about being a writer. The fact that YOU get to change the story to what YOU want to be--not someone else. It's what makes writing so much different, and so much better than reading. You are in charge this time. There's no yelling at the book, drawling out, "Whyyyyy?" s anymore. There's no sulking over something that happened, and you didn't want it to. Writing expresses you.
So guys, when you have Writer's Block? Think of me. Sitting here. About to delete like half of her word count.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Update #2

Hi, everyone!
Okay, so I've not been having much time the past few months on writing, and it's kind of sad for me. Anyways, I've decided to let out the fact that there will be two new additions to the characters in Pure at Heart. These two girls are both somewhere between thirteen and fourteen, and have a rivalry.

Here are some quotes by them (that I've written so far):

Aurelie:

"My name is Aurelie."

"I won't let anything happen to him."

"Tried and succeeded."

"Let go of me. You guys act like you're the best at everything because of your name. We are only called Dark, because of the magic the warlocks use. We can easily call ourselves Pure too."

"Forget it. Call me whatever you want. I won't be here long enough for you to appreciate it."

Taylor:

"Finally. You know, werewolves, usually don't snooze for three hours straight. That stuff wasn't supposed to last more than twenty minutes."

"You're good, but I'm better."

"You really are clueless, aren't you?"

"Taylor, the country singer."

"What an idiotic mother. Who would ever marry such a--"

"When my mother was in action, it would be like everything is going on in slow motion."


So at this point, Taylor and Aurelie literally hate each other. What do you think?



Friday, November 23, 2012

Where To Buy Pure at Heart

If you want to buy my book as a paperback or e-book, these places sell it:

1. Barnes and Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pure-at-heart-sahana-epari/1112782533?ean=9781479213580

2. Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Pure-at-Heart-Volume-1/dp/1479213586/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1353699927&sr=8-2&keywords=sahana+epari

3. Ebay

4. Books-a-Million

There are many other stores. All you have to do is Google my name: Sahana Epari.

Update on Blaze in My Heart

You might have heard in some of the interviews I've done that I rarely plan when I write. I mean, I do, but most of the time it's in my head, if you know what I mean. So when I was staring at the blank Word document in September, I was thinking, "I have no idea what I want to write about in this sequel." I had writer's block, but not for long.
I realized that every good author has to plan, and it doesn't matter if it's a quick outline of the book, or a deep, detailed, description of every character, every setting, EVERYTHING. When you plan, it's rare that you have writer's block, because well, you know what you're going to write about. The only problem that comes up to surface now is HOW you're going to write about that.
So that's what I did. I planned. And boy, did it work. I didn't plan the whole book out--that would take forever. But I am maybe four or five chapters ahead, and I'm glad that I am. So far, everything's going great with Blaze in My Heart, but there are a few things I want to change:
1. I'm really young, so I want to improve my writing style. Use better words, adjectives, you know the drill.
2. I want to deepen the relationships between the characters. I don't only want to emphasize WHAT, but also WHY. Why do I trust this person this much? Why do I care?
3. I want Evaline to be MUCH MUCH MUCH more realistic. I want her to be more aware of her surroundings, and not be very oblivious to obvious answers. I know that it's what a good author does, but whenever I read books like that, I feel like I'm watching Dora. The. Mountain. Is. Behind. You.
4. I'm not very sure about the title. I'm sure I want to include the word "heart" somewhere. But, Blaze in My Heart just doesn't do it for me. I'm thinking maybe Blazing Heart?
Also, something crossed my mind a few days ago. I'm about 15,000 words into Blaze in My Heart, but the readers of Pure at Heart, are missing a lot. They don't know a lot about Eva's background, how her pack started, what happened to her father. Pure at Heart just zooms straight into the conflict and there's barely any background information. Because of this, I was thinking I could write maybe one of those "0.5" novels. I could describe life for Eva and the Shadow clan when they just started, how they all met, blah blah blah. The title could be maybe, "Dark Heart"? I don't know, still thinking. A lot.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Stargirl (Stargirl, #1)Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book that just makes me smile, no matter how irritating it is sometimes.

There aren't a lot of books like that, for me anyway. For some books like this, I have a love-hate relationship with it. Sometimes, I feel like I just have to shut the book and just replay the scene over and over in my head until I have it in my dreams. It's just everything about that scene seems perfect, well thought-out, and just amazing. Other times, I feel like pulling my hair out and screaming, "WHY?!"
And that's exactly what's so good. Stargirl made me laugh, cry, smile, and get angry. That's exactly what good books do. They bring out the emotion in you, and Stargirl did exactly that.
The book was a new idea, and Jerry Spinelli did an amazing job interpreting it.
This is like a once-in-a-life-time read, and I'm glad I did read it, or I wouldn't know what's so great about a book like this, especially when the summary didn't interest me at all.

View all my reviews