Happy Holidays!

Whoa! Three posts in one week! I’m finally getting back to my old schedule.

Before the long weekend begins, I have a message from my characters to all of you:

Monochrome Assan (merman and a main character in Clash of Tides) was done by Bianca Loran. She is an excellent artist, and you can find her work here: biancaloran.deviantart.com.

I plan to get more artwork done by her for Clash of Tides. If you’re interested in the story, you can find it here: Clash of Tides.

For now, have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and enjoy sending time with family and relaxing! I’ll be writing, reading, lazying about, and sleeping =)  See you next week!

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New COT Chapter! And Question

Hey, everyone! This post is for those following me for the Clash of Tides chapters. I posted |Chapter 21 – Flow| Part 1 today. Yes, I know. I said I wouldn’t do parts anymore, but I’m really trying to stick to my schedule of posting a chapter a week until the story is completed.

Also, if you are not following me for long stories, then here is a little 50 word story for you to enjoy:

As a child, she viewed the world with star-shined eyes. Every new piece of knowledge filled her with glee, but as the years went by, her once sparkling eyes slowly dulled. The things she learned were no longer exciting. And in time, life broke her down, diminishing her mind.

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Seriously, I need to make a MailChimp mailing list for these story updates. Speaking of which, does anyone have a mail marketing program they use? I could really use one. And lastly, has anyone used Patreon.com? I want to sign up for it, but I don’t think I’ll get anyone to follow me. Ah well, have a great Sunday, everyone!

I’ll have some new post for next week! Thanks for being such awesome followers :3

PS. I will be responding to all my comments today. 

My crazy Sunday!

Generally, I wouldn’t post about these things, but I felt like I had a crazy Sunday!

The following things happened to Akaluv today:

1. Got a new cover for Clash of Tides

 

2. Got a message from an NYT best-selling author: Taran Matharu (Author)

He was encouraging me not to give up on my dream of publishing a book. He offered me advice on what to do. However, I feel like a trashcan =(

3. Went to an awesome art show and met some amazing artist. As I was talking about my books, one of them asked me if I had a card O_O. I’m like, I’m not there yet, but it made me feel so happy inside^^

PS. I saw the Doctor Strange movie, and it was awesome. The story telling was remarkable.

That was my nutty Sunday. Did anything happen to you today? Also, thanks for commenting on my last post. I saw a lot of you had thoughts about popularity and competition.

Also, I HAVE REACHED 700 FOLLOWERS!!!!!!!

I don’t know how that happened, but thanks so much everyone. I know these are getting annoying, so I won’t post again until I reach a bigger milestone. Probably 1000.

So, tell me about your Sunday? What did you do today? How is your word count going? Are you catching up? How’s NaNoWriMo going?

Clash of Tides, Elena – Complete

If you have been following my blog, then you know I’ve been posting the various stages of Elena’s character drawing

Well, today, the artist sent me Elena’s final image, and I love it!

For all those we aren’t familiar with her character, she is biracial (half-white/ half-black). The inspiration for her character came from my desire to see a black female protagonist. I know urban fiction has black female characters, and of course, black literature. However, I wanted to write a fantasy story that was neither of those things – just an ordinary fantasy romance. Thus, Elena’s character was born. Writing her story has been amazing! As a writer, in some ways, my characters feel like my children. I am watching them grow and learn. And now, I can see an image of Elena brought to life, not just the picture I see in my mind.

Without any more rambling, here she is, Elena, from Clash of Tides. My first black, female protagonist!

The artist was easy to work with and understood what I wanted. If you want to contact him for commissions, his page can be found here {http://thenightwishmaster.deviantart.com}.

When I took Clash of Tides down, it broke my heart. I wanted her story to succeed, for young black women to have a protagonist they could connect with. Of course, not just black women, but anyone who could relate to her desire for freedom.

Today, I created this, and I plan to make one for Elena and Seidon!

Maybe when I get better at Gimp, I can make something special for these two, but until then, it will have to be my simple graphics. For those who are wondering about Assan, he is one of the main male characters and a merman =)

Before I leave all of you, I wanted to let you know I’ll be MIA this weekend. I’ll respond to all the comments later. Have a great weekend! And thanks for following me on this journey!!

I hope you like Elena’s drawing^^

Notice Me, For I am Small

There is so many like me,
we can flood a room or form a sea.

Each one of us has something unique to tell,
but first, you need to notice us

We were created with love, to be shared with the world,
but it’s not easy, you see, because no one has noticed me.

I want to be touched, held, and enjoyed,
I want to take you away with me, even for only a short period a day

So please, will you notice me, will you notice us?

– For the stories out there waiting to be recognized, even my own

I was inspired to write this poem when I was looking on Amazon for a new book to read. There were so many choices, I felt like I was flooded with books, and all of them just wanted to be noticed.

Also, I would like to share something with all of you. It’s interesting, even though I pulled my stories down, Clash of Tides doesn’t want to leave this blog. This morning I awoke to another surprise. The fantastic Shadow at Tales of Ryllia created a Clash of Tides teaser for me^^

Isn’t it wonderful?!! I love it! Now I feel bad for taking the story down =(

I hope you liked the poem!!! And for all the writers out there, I hope your books get noticed one day. All stories created with love, hard work, and passion deserve to be picked from the sea ^___^ lol, I did a Clash of Tides reference there > <

Clash of Tides – Elena, Base Color

This morning, I got a wonderful surprise! The artist I got to commission Elena sent me the drawing with her base color.

Again, it’s so strange seeing my character coming to life. Now since I’ve seen her in color, I’m inspired to write her story again. Once the artist completes Elena’s drawing, I’ll splice the following images together:

Seidon x Elena  

Assan x Elena  

Elena alone in an 18th-century setting  

Ahh!! I can’t wait to do the drawings. Here she is with the base color:

(Artist can be found here: http://thenightwishmaster.deviantart.com)

I was thinking of having her a little darker, but she is slightly modeled off Alicia Keys. For those who like the picture, yes, she is biracial. Ah! I can’t wait to do the splice of her and Assan, and her and Seidon. I felt the artist did a great job capturing her innocence. Sigh…I put so much effort into my stories, but it never pays off.

Anyway, I hope you like the picture!

A Writer’s Reflection

I know this post is late, but I wanted to write this. Today is the last day of the month, and we officially have four months left in the year. It’s frightening how fast time goes when you are an adult. Often I wonder why time seems to move more quickly in adulthood than childhood. I figure it’s because our lives are more robotic, and nothing is new to us anymore.

When you are younger, you’re impatient. You want to advance life faster, to get that driver’s license, to drink, and rent a car for the first time. However, none of that matters when you are older. It’s been there done that.

Today I started reflecting on what I want to accomplish for the rest of this year and next year. My goals:

1. Finish Clash of Tides and Love for an Angel by the end of the year
2. Write at least ten short stories and submit them for publication
3. Improve my craft and build up my vocabulary
4. Get better at photo manipulation
5. Start writing 9/Nine Realms and Spoiled Rich Girl (Title Pending)

So far, this is all I have. I’m sure more will come to me, but I don’t want to overwhelm myself. I’ve accomplished a lot this year, or I feel like I have. Clash of Tides is over halfway done, but Love for an Angel still has a way to go. If any of you feel like you haven’t reached your writing goals this year, then just take some time to reflect on the past few months. Make a list of what you’ve done and haven’t done. The end of the year hasn’t happened yet, so there is still time to catch up. Also, you may have produced more writing than you initially thought. So, reflect on your writing, and figure out where you want to be four months from now. Playing catch up isn’t always a bad thing.

To my fellow writers, have you accomplished your goals for this year, or will you have to play catch up?