Hemanth Gorur's Blog, page 5

Aymaran Shadow: FREE copies on 1st Sep

Aymaran Shadow, now available on Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL), is currently running under a FREE PROMOTION on 1st Sep 2013. So, if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can download the book from the KOLL for free on this promotion day.

The book is identified with an Amazon Prime badge as you search and browse for books on your Kindle device or on Amazon.com.

Remember: the promotion begins in a few hours on 1st Sep 12 AM PST and ends 11:59 PM PST same day. So, make sure you download your free copy on Sun (tomorrow) and not later. Here is the book on Amazon.

IBP Day 8: Social Media & Networking Tips

This is Day 8 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where participants would be sharing tips for newbie writers on using social media and networking to build awareness about their brands. Here are some things you can keep in mind.

Be everywhere. If this sounds like a no-brainer, think of it: how many social media platforms are you already on? How many do you think you can be on and maintain a conversation with your followers? Whatever you can stretch to, it’s a lot lesser than what’s required. And it’s a lot more difficult than you can imagine. So, set some realistic goals on where you want to be and gradually build up your presence.

Converse, don’t sell. It’s very tempting to sell, sell, sell your book when you come across a new reader demography. Don’t. People already have enough door-to-door salesmen pounding on their doors. They don’t need one more. So, do yourself a favor and elevate yourself and your offering (book) to the level they need to be, and initiate meaningful conversations with your readers. Get them interested in you and your book. The rest will follow.

Have a landing page. You want to have one website that has everything about you and can talk to just about anybody who wishes to know about you and your writing. The whole idea of using social media and generating social presence is that readers can be finally introduced to the brand behind everything – you.

Get off your butt. I have seen many newbie writers execute some neat social media marketing and then put their feet up on the table, thinking they’ve done all there is to be done. Unless you physically get out there and actually have people listen to your thoughts and ideas, you are just another name and pic on the big bad internet. If you were blind-dating, would you be happy with just talking to an online profile or would you rather meet up in person? Well, you get the idea.

Listen. A lot. This helps in many ways. Critiques online can be very sharp at times, owing to the anonymity the internet provides. But, weed out the chaff and you may still some nuggets in the critique that you may have missed otherwise. On the other hand, you may be doing everything right, but readers may still unearth a better way to end a story or a better way to construct a dialogue. Listen to those. They may prove useful in your next book. Finally, a ‘listener’ tag will only earn you respect among your readership – aloofness can be misconstrued as arrogance, as many authors have found out to their detriment.

Good luck!

IBP Day 7: Writing Tips

This is Day 7 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where participants would be sharing writing tips with newbie writers. Here are some things you can keep in mind.

Attempt first, ask later. I had one writing newbie approach a writing group I’m part of and say: “I have 4-5 lines worth of a story idea. How can I write a book with it?” You can’t. It doesn’t work that way. Put whatever you got to put on paper, even if it means you have a raw, unedited script as the outcome. Others cannot get into your head and write your story for you.

Read a lot. Okay, that’s cliched with a capital ‘C’. But, why am I stressing it here? Because reading other authors is like reading a recipe book that contains 10 different ways of cooking the same dish.

Watch movies even more. The reasons we like movies are the reasons we need to watch them in order to write great books – well-made movies are great story-tellers, they are great suspense-builders, and they make us feel part of the story. It doesn’t hurt to know how to make that happen.

Don’t bother looking for that “original” story. Many writers vacillate endlessly thinking they need to have that totally untouched, original storyline, and end up missing out on a perfectly good story. Seriously, any story idea worth expanding on would already have been. So, sit down, take a deep breath, and give your storyline your own twist.

Shoot yourself before giving up. This is another of those things you’ll hear ad nauseum in the writing world. And there’s a reason for that. Writer’s block seems to affect newbie writers more. It’s simply a question of creative stamina. And cast-iron will. Keep pegging away, even if you feel your parrot in the cage is coming out with more words than you, and you will be rewarded.

You don’t write to be published. At least, don’t start out that way. That’s the surest way of finding the shortest way to writing hara-kiri. If you write with the sole intention of getting published, you lose the chance to grow as a writer. Also, you will get weighed down by your own expectations and will not be able to take publisher rejection (which happens a lot more than you think, and yes, it will happen to you too!) when it happens. Instead, focus on learning the ropes first, and gradually build up that expectation within yourself (to see yourself published) when you feel you’ve hit the levels expected of to-be-published authors.

Good luck!

IBP Day 6: My Top 5 Reads

This is Day 6 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where participants would be sharing their top 5 reads. Here’s a little list I put together.

Right at the top of my list is (no surprise to those who know my reading preferences) The Bourne series by Robert Ludlum. Amazing wizardry with visualization, incredible plot detail and great theme make this a not-to-be-missed treat for the hungry mind.

Ludlum somehow edges out Arthur C Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to second slot. Clarke is another master story-teller, with an uncanny ability to paint very realistic pictures of deep space and bring in elements of human frailty and psychology at just the right points.

My next two favorite reads are from the same author: Dan Brown. While his Digital Fortress brought back for me the love of numbers with an intricate plot around ciphers, digital keys and viruses, his Angels and Demons left me with a morbid sense of unease and longing, with his powerful depiction of the battle between the church and science over the creation of anti-matter.

Bringing up the rear, is a work of non-fiction that I believe should be on the bookshelf of every aspiring management professional, or just about anyone who aims to be successful: Straight From The Gut by Jack Welch, the former chief of General Electric. Very anecdotal, very succinct, no nonsense.

Funnily, I have no paranormal books up there in the Top 5, though I’m a paranormal author myself. I’m yet to find something in this genre that’ll beat any of the incumbents in my list. That search is a good problem to have.

Hang around till 30th Aug. Lots more action streaming in! You could also enter the Aymaran Shadow Giveaway that’s currently underway and win yourself some fabulous freebies.

AYMARAN SHADOW GIVEAWAY

To know more, visit: The Event Page

To enter, visit: the Rafflecopter giveaway OR the Giveaway tab on the book’s Facebook page

IBP Day 5: My Current Read

This is Day 5 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where participants would be disclosing the book currently in their laps. I’m reading a paranormal mystery/romance by LJ Smith.

The book is called Dark Visions. At 720+ pages, it’s taking quite some reading. Here’s what the blurb says:

“Kaitlyn Fairchild has always felt like an outsider. Her haunting eyes and prophetic drawings have earned her a reputation as a witch. But Kait’s not a witch: she’s psychic. Tired of being shunned, Kait accepts an invitation to attend the Zetes Institute, where she can study with other psychic teens and have a fresh start.

As Kaitlyn leans to hone her abilities with four other gifted students, she starts to discover the intensity of her power – and the joy of having true friends. But those friendships quickly become complicated when Kait finds herself torn between two irresistible guys. Rob is a healer – kind and gentle, he’s surrounded by good energy, while Gabriel is aggressive and mysterious – a telepath concealing his true nature.

Together, Rob and Gabriel’s opposing forces start to threaten the group’s stability, and when an experiment traps the five teens in a psychic link – a link that threatens their sanity and their lives – Kaitlyn must decide who to trust and who to love . . . “

The book started off as promised, but well into the story, it was suddenly appearing as a paranormal mystery/adventure that incidentally had a love triangle, than the other way around (as the blurb insists).

The five-some find secret rooms at the Zetes Institute, whacky labs and experiments, they go cross-country all across California, Oregon and into Washington State to escape Mr. Z, find some long-forgotten psychic race in Canada, and so on. They’re then forced to battle Mr. Z’s new recruits – more psychic students who have now replaced the five-some at the Institute.

The book reads like a teeny-bopper adventure with a mix of clairvoyant skills thrown in. Still, it’s a decent read so far, so, fingers crossed.

Hang around till 30th Aug. Lots more action streaming in! You could also enter the Aymaran Shadow Giveaway that’s currently underway and win yourself some fabulous freebies.

AYMARAN SHADOW GIVEAWAY

To know more, visit: The Event Page

To enter, visit: the Rafflecopter giveaway OR the Giveaway tab on the book’s Facebook page

IBP Day 4: Interview Your Neighbor

This is Day 4 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where participants would be interviewing their neighbors on the hop. What follows is an exciting tete-a-tete with Lindsey Gray, my neighbor on this hop, and a romance author and book reviewer.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

It was when I published my first novel in December of 2010. I had been writing for years, but did not have anyone reading it. I finally felt once I had an audience to read it, I was a real writer.

Do you have a specific writing style?

I write in third person omniscient, which is a bit odd in the boom of first and multiple point of view novels. I feel it gives the reader a better grasp of the whole story. I also don’t think I can write a story in the mind of one or two characters. I have even the very smallest characters whispering in my head to give what I can of their voice.

What’s the best writing advice you have ever received?

It might seem old hat to some, but the best advice I’ve received is to never give up. You might feel blocked or uninspired, but just keep at it and you will get through it.

Tell us something about yourself that would make us go “Really?”

I have an irrational hatred for Kevin Bacon.

Do you prefer to work alone or with critique partners/beta-readers?

I usually work alone. It is an issue of trust with my work. With so many authors becoming the victims of piracy, it is hard to give over your work to anyone you don’t know personally. I have made a few close friends in the industry that I do trust, but I have to be completed with a project in order to share it.

If you hadn’t become an author, what would you have been?

I love to bake and my first job was actually at a bakery. I think I would have become a baker or chef. For now, I will settle for writing about food and blogging about my favorite recipes.

If you woke up and suddenly found yourself to be a male author, what would be your immediate reaction?

I would wonder what advantages a man truly has over a woman.

How much of yourself do you see or inject into your characters?

I think they all have a little bit of me in them, but two characters in my Redemption Series are more like me than any of the others. Abe North is the closest to my heart because I feel his personality is the male mirror of mine. Becca Swift is a character that I injected my own strength and heart into.

Your favorite genre is romance. What do you like most about it? What do you hate?

My favorite part is all the ways authors write about people falling or being in love. What I don’t like about some novels I have read is predictability. I know love follows a course, but every path is different and should be told that way.

How important do you think maintaining a blog is in order to engage your readers?

I think it is very important as a way to express yourself on a more personal level. Yes, there is Twitter, Facebook, and other social media, but you can only express so much. On a blog, the reader has the choice to read it and as a writer, I feel like I can make more of a connection with those readers.

Hang around till 30th Aug. Lots more action streaming in! You could also enter the Aymaran Shadow Giveaway that’s currently underway and win yourself some fabulous freebies.

AYMARAN SHADOW GIVEAWAY

To know more, visit: The Event Page

To enter, visit: the Rafflecopter giveaway OR the Giveaway tab on the book’s Facebook page

IBP Day 3: Interview Your Character

This is Day 3 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where participants would be interviewing one of their characters in their books. Today, I’ll be interviewing ‘Ambrois’, one of the antagonists of my novel, Aymaran Shadow.

What was your life like growing up?

If you mean this life, it was not great. Not normal, if that’s what you mean. I’ve not been to school. Rather, I was packed off to seminaries where I received my training. I was also flown to Bolivia quite often, where I was familiarized with certain cities and locations. I slowly realized that I had taken birth for a specific purpose. And my training and visits to Bolivia were only to help accelerate the awakening of purpose within me.

Before your story began, what were your hopes for the future? What changed that?

My ilk do not hope. They know what their future is. And that future is not alterable. We survive across lifetimes, across centuries. When you are talking of such timescales, there is no scope for uncertainty about the future.

What’s your greatest talent?

This will be a little bit tricky. Not for me, but for you to accept. I’m known for making my victims choke with horror in their eyes before I bring their end. If my victims ever take re-birth, they will never forget the last few seconds of their previous life.

When you were a child, what was the worst thing you did and how did your parents punish you for it?

I had no parents. I don’t know why. I had a handler who was also a guardian. When I was really young, I got punished once for helping a girl carry her groceries home. I got rapped on my wrists with a hardwood cane twenty times. I never helped anyone after that.

What would you do if you had no electricity for a week?

This is not a hypothetical question for me at all. I have gone weeks without electricity and water. It was part of my training. I used to hunt elk and boar in the woods nearby during such periods and live off the land.

What do you collect?

Memories, knives and hooves.

What are your 3 most prized possessions?

Memories, knives and hooves.

What about you is heroic?

You have to understand my purpose before applying the definition of ‘heroic’. I have been brought on to this earth in this life for a very specific purpose. And that is to brutalize a certain woman who was the scourge of the Spanish empire in the centuries gone by. She was a thorn in their flesh. And she needed to be punished. Not only in that life but also in all her subsequent lifetimes. I have been bestowed with that honor. Of accomplishing that task until the end of time. I did it in my previous life. I’m sure to do it in this one. And in future. If this is not heroic, what is?

Hang around till 30th Aug. Lots more action streaming in! You could also enter the Aymaran Shadow Giveaway that’s currently underway and win yourself some fabulous freebies.

AYMARAN SHADOW GIVEAWAY

To know more, visit: The Event Page

To enter, visit: the Rafflecopter giveaway OR the Giveaway tab on the book’s Facebook page

IBP Day 2: Introduce Your WIP

This is Day 2 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where all of us participants would be introducing our works in progress. Here’s mine.

I have always wanted to write about Indian mythology in a way that no one’s written before. Plus, paranormal or psychological thrillers are my genre of choice currently.

My first book, Aymaran Shadow, was a foray in that direction. It is also the first book of the Eternal Visitation series, which plans to include tales of the supernatural, the surreal and the esoteric, with elements of horror.

My second book in the series, therefore, would be a something along those lines but draw from anecdotes or hearsay in Indian mythology and concoct a story that should scare yet draw the reader, delve into history yet be relevant contemporarily, explore the richness of paranormal fiction yet be real enough to give goosebumps.

While I have the story concept in mind, these are still broad brushstrokes. I hope to get cracking on this story soon as my current commercial engagements are over. Which should be soon!

Hang around till 30th Aug. Lots more action streaming in! You could also enter the Aymaran Shadow Giveaway that’s currently underway and win yourself some fabulous freebies.

AYMARAN SHADOW GIVEAWAY

To know more, visit: The Event Page

To enter, visit: the Rafflecopter giveaway OR the Giveaway tab on the book’s Facebook page

IBP Day 1: Introduce Yourself

This is Day 1 of the Indie Block Party Blog Hop, where all of us participants would be introducing ourselves. Here’s my introduction.

I listen. I don’t judge.

I imagine. I don’t write.

I don’t aim to qualify. I aim to annihilate.

I don’t hug trees. I plant them.

I tell stories. I don’t make them up.

I don’t throw airs. I swallow whole those who do.

I don’t like undotted i’s or uncrossed t’s. Ever.

I have 256 GB of RAM. And 256 MB of HDD. Sorry.

I like to help. Unless you have escaped from a penitentiary.

I have OCD. When it comes to re-reading my drafts and washing hands.

I don’t like SMS lingo. Unless you’re sexting. Not.

I write paranormal and psychological. To scare and obfuscate.

Well, that was me in my most unbridled, most unfettered mood. For those of you who are more accustomed to a formal introduction, here’s one.

Hang around till 30th Aug. Lots more action streaming in! You could also enter the Aymaran Shadow Giveaway that’s currently underway and win yourself some fabulous freebies.

AYMARAN SHADOW GIVEAWAY

To know more, visit: The Event Page

To enter, visit: the Rafflecopter giveaway OR the Giveaway tab on the book’s Facebook page

Indie Block Party Blog Hop

So, you’ve been to blog hops where you tweet and like and comment. Have you been to one where you could also pick authors’ brains? Welcome to the Indie Block Party (IBP) Blog Hop which is happening right now during 19th-30th August,

WHAT YOU DO

35 international indie authors. 12 days of action.

Hop to all indie authors’ blogs (including this blog) and see what makes each author tick, what makes them unique, watch them poke each other and know facts about them that make you go “Really?”.

Also, participate in the giveaway contest at Aymaran Shadow to win fabulous prizes and giveaways.

WHAT YOU WIN

When you enter the Aymaran Shadow giveaway, and ‘Like’ the book’s Facebook page; follow or comment on this blog; follow the author Hemanth Gorur on Twitter; or tweet about this giveaway; you stand to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card. A whopping 10 points for book reviews!!

And, that’s not all. Every participant of the Aymaran Shadow giveaway is gifted with a FREE ebook copy of Aymaran Shadow, so that you can join Sanya Rawat as she mounts a tense psychological war against two macabre stalkers from her past life!

HOW TO ENTER

You can enter the Aymaran Shadow giveaway by visiting the Rafflecopter giveaway OR by clicking on the Giveaway tab on the book’s Facebook page.

So, hurry! The giveaway ends on August 30th, 2013. Remember, you can increase your chances of winning that $20 Gift Card by completing multiple activities, or by repeating an activity (eg: tweeting every day).

FREE ebook copies of Aymaran Shadow will be sent to all participants on the day the giveaway contest ends (unless requested earlier). Winners of the Aymaran Shadow giveaway will be announced 10 days after the contest ends in order to allow for participants to read the book and post their reviews. Recipients of free ebook copies of Aymaran Shadow through previous giveaways or review requests are eligible only for the Gift Card, but can post reviews of the book if they already have not done so and will be considered a valid entry.

BACK TO THE BLOG HOP

Click on the Indie Block Party Blog Hop icon below to return to the blog hop’s main page and visit other indie authors’ blogs.