Dhayaa Anbajagane's Blog, page 2

Learning when to Stop

As an author, especially a teen one, I want use the most of my time to get my name out there when I'm still young.
Anyone can be a bestseller when they're twenty-seven or thirty-five.  But I'm just sixteen.

And sometimes, that's what hurts me most.

I have tons of things that I'm supposed to be working on. But I don't do that. Why? Because I've turned into a work-o-holic.
But the actual problem with this, is that my drive is not motivated by money or anything, it's motivated by the fact that I want people to read what I write, by the fact that I enjoy writing.

And that's the most dangerous kind.

I've come to the conclusion that I have to let go of the writing for a while and focus on other things that are important to me.
There are authors who struggle to find time to write. That's good. Struggling for time shows that writing hasn't become your major priority.
If you're writing all the time, then it's time to think about what all the writing is making you miss out on.

Sometimes you need to shut down your computer, stop with the story and look at the world.
That's where the real story happens.

Acceptance

Why is it that we need human relationships?
There are plenty of animals that stake out on their own, relying on nothing for their survival.
And then there are insects who's sole purpose is to serve their queen.

But us? We're not either of those.

Humans are a separate breed when you consider our motivation in life.
Anything that you do in life is based on desire correct?
Money, fame, family. They're things that you desire.
Now connect back and start thinking even more.
Say I desire money. Why?
Maybe it's to support my family, or maybe it's to start a new business.
Why do i want to do that?

Biologists would say, "It's because of your survival instinct"

But we're beings who've developed over a few millennium. Our instincts must have diminished from that of our forestry ancestors shouldn't they?
Then what is it that drives us forward?

Take a situation where you want money for your family.
Why?
You want to provide better things for them.
Why?
To keep them happy.

At this point of the ride, you might say "Other's happiness is my happiness"
Sorry, but that only works in movies and cheesy relationships.

So why do you want to keep them happy?
Because it raises their opinion of you.
And why would you want that?

Because after you strip away all that complexity from your brain, the last thing that you'd find would be that it desires acceptance.

Why do we outcasts of society kill themselves every other day? Shouldn't this 'survival instinct' of theirs be strong enough to stop them?
It doesn't happen because in the depths of our mind, acceptance is what we crave the most. We want to be accepted into our community, into our circle of friends, into our family.
Acceptance is what our life is based upon.

Put a human being alone on a planet. He'll kill himself. Why? Not because he thinks he has no purpose but rather because he doesn't have other people to tell him that he does.
In cases like these that really push the human mind, you'll find that our 'survival' instinct is just some rudimentary tool that we've dulled down generation after generation.

So where do human relationships come into all of this?

Someone's opinion of you relates to their acceptance. To get someone else's opinion you need to know them right? You need to be in some sort of acquaintanceship.

There we go. That's why we need relationships.
Humans are social driven creatures, but we're different from other animals that act that same because our desire is much higher. And why is it so?

Because we crave acceptance.

You may deny it. You may tell me that I'm spewing nonsense right now. But think closely and tell me if your biggest problems haven't always been related to people you know, people who had a bad opinion of you, people who didn't accept you.

There's a philosophical principle called the 'Anthropic principle' that tells you that the reason the universe exists is because we're here to observe it.

The same way, I say, the reason our life exists, the reason we do the things we do, the reason we have goals and strive to achieve them, is all because there's someone we know who's observing us all the time and all that we want from them is their acceptance.

The Judge - Movie Review

Robert Downey Jr.

The guy is amazing.
The movie is amazing.
I still don't get why it was played down by critics.

The premise is this. Hank (Robert Downey Jr) is a wealthy lawyer who wins all his cases while defended the guilty.
Mid case, he gets a call and finds out his mom died, and so he travels back to a town of his old days.
The biggest plot point is the relationship between the son and the father.
I won't give away any spoilers because the movie is really good.

Hank is quite the cool cat and stands off against his dad in almost any kind of face off. He's the 'I don't care what you say' kind of guy who can scare former criminals by just analyzing them.

Overall the premise of the movie is good, and all the characters have some deep connection to one another. Each character is well fleshed out and have their own backstory and strong points that blend well into the story. It's an amazing plot, but the emotion it draws from you turns it into a great story.

The only thing I can't get, for the love of me, is why the critics would call this a failure just because it didn't meet their box office predictions?

The movie is brilliant, and emotional, with solo piano music playing at those intense moments to give you the chills.
I highly recommend this to anyone. It's a story about a middle-aged man, and how he rediscovers his relationship with his father.

The Game - Book Review

This book is quite a brilliant one and I'm all for it.
Mainly because it's from an Indie Author and it's quite a feat to get popular when you're like that.

The premise for the book is simple. Children enter 'Earth' when they're young and live their life their, slowly gathering up knowledge. When they die they come back to their original bodies, filled with wisdom and knowledge of their previous lives.

For the sake of interest, I will not reveal other plot elements at play here, but I really admire the author for writing the books with the larger plot in mind.

Every character seems to have some use or the other further up the story, and it's really quite intriguing to me since I actually write a lot like that (My mom criticizes me for it a lot)

Most people don't like it because they think it leaves plot holes in the book. I think you should rather look at this series as a big book, that way it's easier to understand why the characters must be introduced here and why they must remain mysterious.

There is of course romance, that builds up really well (plenty of cheesy statements though. And I really hate those kind)
But I don't really have any complaints regarding the romance. It was necessary to the story and played out quite well.
One complaint that I have though is that inbetween (While in the game) our hero switches girlfriends in a matter on minutes (granted his previous one cheated on him. But still)
Honestly, it portrays him as a player, and I really don't think the author would like that.

The book, of course, does have a few hic-cups,and that's fine because the author is an Indie Writer. He doesn't have a team of people helping him out 24x7 does he?

Overall, an amazing book, and is quite thought-provoking with it's intriguing plot.

The Imitation game movie review

Brilliant.
Biographical.
Mind-boggling.

The premise and base of the movie is simply amazing, and I have to say I love it dearly.
Like most inspirational movies, this one is based on a true story, and one that's quite dramatic without any fictional adulteration.
The movie follows the sociopathical genius, Alan turing, and his mission in creating a machine to decode german languages.
The scenes of course, depict characters far from reality, and the film has received much criticism due to that. But this adds a level of drama that really touches the heart so no complaints. Just be sure not to judge the villainous characters that quickly, because in reality they might have been Turing's best friends (actually scratch that. He was hard to get along with)
The romance in the movie is what got me going. Simply because it's intellectual. Turing and Joan are pure mathematicians and fall in love because of that.
The plot takes an interesting twist when it's revealed that Turing is gay. And the story takes an even steeper curve when his fiancee, Joan, is unfazed by the fact and is still willing to marry him with all these shortcomings.
The ending is what gets to you, especially when the pure facts from Turing's life are revealed.

This is a heartwarming tale for the family, about a great man, his life, and simply the power of human emotions.

The Dhayaa Update

It's been almost half a month since my last 'Dhayaa Update' so I figured it was time to let you guys in on my agenda.

I'm done with my draft for AcQuest and the file has been sent for a first printing. I'll be putting up the book for a Goodreads giveaway soon, so be on the lookout for that.
I'm working another new series (shhhh, secret for now) as well as a few standalone novels.
This year I figured I'd try a different author strategy, so no releases will be happening this year. I'm pushing all of them till this December or Next June (whichever comes first). The big difference is mainly because summer sales are a huge slump and I don't want to start of on a low key.
I'll probably aim for a next June release and hope to plan out the successive one's properly. Maybe I'll write a post on that later on.
I'm planning on finishing my book backlog in about 18 months time, which I feel is good enough for writing around seven more books. If I finish it off soon then I always have the third series that I plan on writing (shhhh. Even bigger secret), and really look forward to writing about those characters.
So for now, all that Dhayaa will send out into the public are blog posts and occasional tweets. 
But come next June, and you're in for a treat of a surprise!

Cover of the Week

Snow like Ashes

This week we're doing snow like ashes by Sara Raasch. This book was actually in a Bookbub ad recently and pushed it's sales pretty well. The great cover got it a listing on the eBook promo giant, no doubt. (If you want one too check out this post or check out the alternatives)

Background

The background on the cover is quite simple and adept, show-casing just what it quotes : Ash.
All you can see is a huge layer of ash over the surface and a large ring-like structure standing on top of it.
The sky is done well, providing the necessary glare to catch the reader's eye and make him or her check out the book.
The small spots also show some sort of snow fall, which based on the title can be inferred to be ash fall. Overall the backgrounds works well, complementing the rest of the components.

Symbol

The symbol is the main hero in this cover. The designer has gone with the simple "Tao" one, but has edited it in many ways. The two sides of the Tao show the pre-story scenario and the current dystopian-scenario. Each side does it perfectly and to the last detail. There are leaves inscribed on one side of the stone symbol and barren branches on the other. 
Within each one is a scenario of the same. One filled with life and light. The other, dark and dull, covered with ashes.
The symbol brings out the heart of the settings in the story and so it works really well in connecting with a reader and exciting him or her.

Text

The text in the cover is very minimal and the font face is simple. The title coloring reflects the changes in the story as well, with "Like Ashes" alone being in the characteristic Ash-White color while the Snow remains in a contrasting black.
The author name also follows the same pattern and has one part of the name in black and the other in white.
Overall, the text provides a simple way of telling the reader the book title and author name without distracting them from the real hero of the design : The symbol

Conclusion

The design is very strict and follows a certain code. It sticks to it very well and comes out great. The contrast between the happy world and the post-apocalyptic one is very good is maintained in everything on the cover.
It also holds onto its catchiness while doing all of this and definitely excites it's readers.
Overall, a brilliant piece of art.

Changes

No changes to be made whatsoever. If you think you can make any changes, feel free to let me know in the comments.

The Dhayaa Update

It's been quite a while since I updated you guys with what's going on with my 'authory' side.

So I've been working solely on my second book, AcQuest. (And yes, I know I've been saying that for the past one month)
I just went through a fourth edit in the book and I really fell in love with one of the characters I've sketched up. I'm thinking about getting a character illustration done. Create a poster of all the characters maybe.

I've planned out the plot and story line for BeQuest, which I have to say was pretty fast. Took me hardly an hour, which isn't that big a surprise because I've thinking up the plot for a while now.
No spoilers on that though. Shhh.

I've got quite a bit of free time with me so I hope to finish of the Quest Saga by this summer at least and start working on another series. I also have a few ideas to extend the Quest Saga in other ways as well and I also have two stand-alone novels in mind. One is completely different from my usual take and goes towards plain literary fiction of the emotional kind and the other goes towards a Mythological Fantasy.

And the new series I'm releasing? I'm pretty sure it's a kick-ass idea so I'm not giving you guys any spoilers. For now.

Cover of the Week

Throne Of Glass

Today we'll be looking at the Throne of Glass Series.
So some info about this series first : It's about an imprisoned female assassin who's made to do a king's dirty work if she wants to get bail.
Now let's get right to it.

Background

Each cover has a blaring background, and doesn't use too many different colors. Usually we use a two shaded background but this cover uses only one shade for every single cover page. There are certain rough shadings or hues that are used to design the texture of the cover, and it works very well.
It's basically a blank rectangle of color that's been brightened, dimmed, roughed up and smoothed out to create a nice catchy effect. A nice trick used here, that many novels use, is the glares behind the character. What these do is that they suggest to your mind that you're not able to see something, whatever it may be, and that's what grasps your attention, increases your curiosity and ultimately gets you to wonder what you're looking at.

Character

This is the winning moment for the cover. The author chose to go for an illustrated character rather than a photographic one and kudos to her for that. The character herself, has been portrayed beautifully, but I think the main catching factor is the character herself.
Hardly any books have a female assassin brandishing knives and what-not, so I think the author has provided a very good base for the designer to work on.
The white hair always makes her look more mystical, and the attire has been portrayed up till the minutest of details. The swept-in-the-wind look gives you an adrenaline rush about an epic sort of scene taking place and that works well too.
The facial expressions and the eyes are really good, showing her will to go to any extent required. The blades and weaponry give her a warrior look which adds further to the readers perception of the character and makes her all the more interesting.
A hidden technique used here is that the attire the character wears has shades that closely match that of the background.

Text

The font face and typography is beautifully done. It's curves and thin lines show the only feminine side to to the whole cover. The added element might seem weird. Why add femininity to a character who's so tomboyish?
For scope.
The text's femininity shows a side of the character that the illustration does not portray and this is really important in drawing in the reader. The main target for the book is obviously teenage girls, and the font face is perfect for their bibliographic curiosity.
The author's name changes color with the background, which is quite expected. The 'J' in her name, is portrayed very well and stands out from the others, giving it a certain kind of brand. It juts out at you, enticing you to just look at it for a second, and when you do, the illustration takes care of the rest.
The typography is spectacular and the ways the text is enlarged in certain spots catches the eye.

Conclusion

So the book has multiple things going for it all at once. The 'J' in the author name as well as the background hues help catch the eye of the reader. The character illustration and the text font face do the rest. The theme is kept uniform throughout the whole book : Just portray the character.
And I have to say, the best thing about the book is the character herself, not because she'd been portrayed well, but because she's amazing as a text only character itself.
The author has to be given the credit for this one, because even though the illustrator did make the cover, the author was the one who provided her designer with this kind of great base material.

Changes

I'd say the one change I'd make is the face of the character. The eyes are the most perfect thing but the rest of her features are quite different  and I say so because I can feel a certain oddness come out of from them. Now please note that this is for only the most critical of aspects and from a normal point of view, this cover should make you buy the book immediately.
What I would change, is re-edit the facial expression, or create a sort of face mask to leave only the eyes. The eyes are the most powerful thing in the character's imagery and if that stood out a lot, this'd be great. 

What changes do you want to make? Comment and let me know!

AcQuest : A sneak preview

Q faced the golden griffin floating in front of him, his face beaded with sweat. He gripped his double-edged sword tightly with both hands, a line of neon red shining brightly on the nightmare-black blade. His legs bent, and he crouched low, sharpening his reflexes.

His eyes stared at the beast towering in front of him, it’s golden-brown feathers glistening in the warm light like a hundred little lamps. They painted the air with their liquid movements, kicking up powerful torrents of wind that pushed him along the rough floor.

“Concentrate,” he muttered under his breath.

His breathing into a steady flow of air as he tried to calm himself down. He knew he needed a clear mind if he wanted to get out of this one unscathed.

The great beast eyed him carefully, like it was waiting for him to make a mistake. Q paced around the griffin in a circle, his steps quiet and soft, his hands firmly latched onto his sword, his eyes fixed on his target. He knew that even a moment’s distraction would let the griffin gain the upper hand. His mind went into overtime, analyzing every movement, every possibility.

The griffin didn't seem to like all the silent waiting, and screeched at Q with a sharp, shrill pitch

Q didn't like waiting either and shot forward from his crouched position, recoiling his muscles like a spring. He dropped his right arm to the side, his fingers curling around his sword’s handle, raring to strike. His legs ate up the distance between him and the griffin, his steps fast and heavy, his entire being eager to land a blow.

The griffin held it’s ground, it’s intimidating stare watching him thunder down towards it, it’s body still as a rock. It’s panicless presence dented Q’s confidence. Was he making a mistake?

He cleared his thoughts, knowing that he couldn't let the situation get to him. He was sure the griffin was just playing around with his mind, enticing him to make the first error. But he wasn't going to give into it’s plan. He surged forward, his legs hastening to a faster pace.

His sword arm shot across towards his left, ready to slash through the monstrous beast.

Griffins could normally never show any facial emotions, but Q could swear this one was looking at him mockingly. The huge beast lowered its body, like it was ready to go for the kill, it’s golden eyes bloodshot with the same intent.

It shot towards him with incredulous speed and in the blink of an eye, his weapons were knocked free from his wrists.

His black sword scraped against the ground, it’s sharp blade enveloped in a curtain of bright orange sparks. Q winced as he caught his wrist in pain. The blow had almost snapped his arm right off.

The griffin sensed the opportunity and pushed him to the ground, its claws pressed against his chest, its sheer weight preventing him from moving even an inch. It threw it’s head up into the air and screeched fiercely, the victory cry of a griffin.

“C'mon Ruby, that’s enough for today,” Taylor walked over to Q.

The griffin retracted it’s claws and walked away from him, each step showing serene grace and rugged pride at the same time.

Taylor held her hand out and helped Q onto his feet, a warm smile on her face.

Q had known Taylor ever since he was little. As the younger one, he’d been her sidekick for as long as he could remember. One look at the tomboyish, confident Taylor and you’d never realize that she’d been as girlish as one could get back when she was little. Around then her mind had been filled with nothing but princesses and princes.

Q reminisced of the time she wanted to grow out her golden hair to be more like Rapunzel. She even tried getting contacts to turn her electric blue pupils into some complex shade he couldn't recollect. She’d spent quite a while grooming her hair and making sure it remained razor straight, though all that seemed like quite a waste when he looked at her now, her still-golden hair hanging in loose curls right above her shoulder.

Her frame was thin and frail, like that off a delicate girl, but what it his was a girl who was well-trained in almost every single form of martial arts. Q had always felt sorry for boys who went after her. It was the same story every single time. They’d treat her as the delicate flower she seemed to be and declare their undying will to protect her. And she’d just knock them to the ground if they pestered her a little too much after she rejected them.

Q found it pretty ironic that after all those years of talking about true love and finding her perfect prince, she just rejected every single guy that came along. He never mentioned it to her though. He didn't have a death wish just of yet.

Taylor was seventeen years old, a year older than Q, so she had this ‘I must protect him since he’s still a child’ attitude. Surprisingly though, that attitude seemed to vanish whenever she dealt with him for breaking the Academy’s rules. Q really did like having someone who cared for him but Taylor’s protectiveness got downright silly at times.

Just last week she’d gotten into panic mode when she’d thought Q was choking, while in reality, all he had done was cough. The day ended up with him getting a scan to check if his lungs were okay. He wished she’d give it a break already, it wasn't like he was still a little kid.

Taylor was also a ‘Dark Knight’. No, that doesn't mean she’s a female Batman, though that’d have been really really cool. The Dark Knights were this amazing legion of highly-skilled space mercenaries.

That was pretty much all that Q knew about them. Taylor wasn't exactly very talkative when it came to her ‘mercenary’ life and he didn't ask her about it either.

“Looks like you had a tough one,” Taylor looked at him, a smile appearing on her pointy face.

“You’re never going to beat me, you know that?” Ruby said.

“Yes, I know Ruby,” Q said, trying not to show his irritation.

Taylor held a protective feeling for Ruby as well, so it wasn't exactly wise to be irritated at the griffin for the time being.

Taylor had found Ruby during her last mission, and the griffin had stuck to them ever since.

Ruby couldn't talk in a conventional way though, so she communicated with them telepathically instead. But the problem with her telepathic method, was that she could read your thoughts whenever she wanted to.

Not fun.

“Just when do you plan on actually using your powers?” Ruby asked. “I’m tired of these physical bouts. A human could never beat a griffin with just a sword”

“Give it a break Ruby,” Taylor said. “The Academy banned him from using his powers, remember?”

“Can’t he just disobey that rule?” Ruby asked.

“Actually that’s a pretty good-” Q stopped himself mid-sentence. He could almost feel Taylor’s deathly stare piercing his soul. She could be really scary when she got serious.

“I’m sorry,” Taylor said, a wide, fake-smile appearing on her face. “What was that Q?”

Remember when you get a chill, and you feel a shiver down your spine? When Taylor does the fake smile thing, you’d feel like your spine ran away.

“Uhh..Nothing,” Q managed to say. “Can we go to the training center?” he added, hoping that would get Taylor back into cheerful mode.

Taylor smiled, “Let’s go then”