Several readers have asked about the pronunciation of the character's names, so I decided to respond in a quick blog... :-)
How to pronounce the character's names...
The Silivasis...
Shelby: Shell -- bee
Nachari: Nah - kar - ee
Nathaniel:- Nuh -- than -- yul
Kagen: Kay -- gen
Marquis: Mar -- keis
Keitaro: Key -- tar -- oh
Serena: Sir -- reen -- uh
Storm: Storm
Nikolai: Nick -- oh -- lye
Others...
Jadon: Jay -- don
Jaegar: Jay -- gar
Napolean: Nah -- pole -- ee -- an
Braden: Bray -- den
Julien: Jule -- ee -- n
Ramsey: Ram -- zee
Valentine: Val -- en -- tine
Salvatore: Sal -- vuh -- tor
The Destinies...
Dalia: Dahl -- yuh
Jocelyn: Joss -- eh -- lyn
Ciopori: See -- uh -- pore -- ee
Vanya: Von - ya
Kristina: Chris - tina
Surnames...
Sakarias: Suh -- care -- ee -- us
Silivasi: Sil -- uh -- vos -- ee
Demir: Dee -- mir
Mondragon: Mon -- dragon
Olaru: Oh - lair -- roo
Bratianu: Brot -- ee - ah - nu
Nistor: Knee -- store
Alexiares: Ah -- lex -- ee- are -- es
I may have forgotten a few, but hopefully, this covers the basics :-).
Til next time, stay positive...
A+!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thanks for a wonderful celebration!
A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by yesterday. I could not have better fans or friends ~ you guys are simply awesome!!!
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The winner of the Free Autographed Copy is Aimee Rush (please send your contact/shipping information to author@tessadawn.com as soon as possible...)
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To everyone else, thanks so much for entering and I appreciate your patience as the bookstores figure out their inventory! (Apparently Amazon did not order enough initial copies and had to back order. B&N may have done the same thing). It only goes to show that you surprised them both!!! And me. :-)
Well, I'm going to take a deep breath and enjoy a one-week vacation beginning Monday before jumping right back into book three (editing/rewriting Napolean’s story). I will see you all on Facebook, Twitter, and right here (the new BCS BLOG) when I return! Thanks again for your support...
You are deeply appreciated!
Tessa
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Welcome to the official Release of Blood Awakening!
Welcome to all my fangtastic friends!
I've tried to make our "virtual celebration" as simple as one-two-three…
ONE: Please Vote in the Poll (to the right).
TWO: Please “Join this Site,” (icon in the upper right-hand corner).
THREE: Please Post a Comment (below).
(*Note: if you don't see the "Join this Site" icon -- or can't post -- it's probably b/c you're using Internet Explorer as your browser & certain versions are incompatible w/google's "followers" widget! Please try another search engine! {Google CHROME is available as a free download} :-) Thanks!
(*Note: if you don't see the "Join this Site" icon -- or can't post -- it's probably b/c you're using Internet Explorer as your browser & certain versions are incompatible w/google's "followers" widget! Please try another search engine! {Google CHROME is available as a free download} :-) Thanks!
How to post a comment:
Visitors can add unlimited posts (and view other reader's posts) by clicking Comments at the bottom of THIS entry: Click comments then scroll down to the very last post & fill out the comments box OR click on the date beneath any post). Please feel free to reply to other readers! Oh, and please add a **Spoiler Alert** if a comment reveals details about a book. Thanks!
Complete step three to enter the contest. The winner will be chosen randomly at midnight tonight, and his/her name will be posted on the author's Facebook page – AND on this BLOG – tomorrow (July 22, 2011). Please check back: If you win, email author@tessadawn.com as soon as possible to claim your book and exchange shipping information.
I will be here all day adding comments and answering questions! Thank you so much for coming!
Tessa
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The Blood Curse Series has a new BLOG home!
Welcome to the home of my new BLOG! The old Blog has been transferred over (finally), and this one should be a lot more fun, easy-to-use, and interesting! Plus, I should be able to blog much more often now!!!
(Famous last words, eh?)
Readers of the Blood Curse Series,
Please feel free to post comments, suggest topics, and talk amongst each other: This is your space, too.
Writers and Reviewers,
Please feel free to contact me at author@tessadawn.com to request a guest blog spot or to post a Blood Curse Series book review.
As most of you know. BLOOD AWAKENING (book two in the series) is being released this month: eBook July 15th; Trade Paperback (8.5X5.5) July 21st; however, both the Amazon Kindle Version and the B&N Nook Version are now up for sale!
Look forward to seeing all my favorite friends, fans, and readers here!
As always, keepin’ it positive ~~ A+
Tessa
Writing Tips: Blog Two (#2)
Writing Tips ~
Blog Two: What to write
Over the past five years, what books have you read—and loved? What books have you had a hard time putting down? And what was it – exactly – about them that you liked?
In terms of main-characters, do you prefer males or females? If females, do you find yourself drawn to sassy, witty heroines; meek, waiting-to-be-rescued girls that will soon come of age; or strong, knock-you-on-your-butt women who take names and leave no prisoners? If males, do you like the sporty jock; the quirky detective; the rakish, properly-bred aristocrat; or an Alpha werewolf or vampire? If so, why? What it is about that type of character that really revs your engine?
With regard to plot, do you like having a mystery to solve, a global conflict to resolve, or a romance to get lost in? Would you prefer to tell a story in the present, the past, or the future? Would you rather be on the edge of your seat the entire book or laughing until your sides hurt? Do you like to be scared by monsters or titillated by steamy sexual entanglements? Is there a combination of these themes you prefer?
I think you get the idea…
Write the book that YOU would most like to read!
After all, you are going to spend hundreds of hours with your book: writing it, dissecting it, editing it, polishing it, reading it…and reading it…and re-reading it! And then you might even have to talk about it and analyze it…a whole lot: Your excitement and passion—or your boredom and discomfort—is going to transfer to the reader…every time.
What about writing to the market? There is definitely a school of thought that emphasizes figuring out what people are looking for and then writing to fill that niche. I don’t personally agree with that philosophy, and here’s why: It can often take 2-3 years for a book to move from conception to publication (and that’s a fast-moving novel with no hiccups). By the time your book comes out, whatever the market was previously doing has likely changed. Beyond that, have you ever tried to be something that you’re not? (To play sports when you wanted to play music? To act like a lady when you were born a tomboy? To become a doctor when you wanted to become a school-teacher? Etc.) If so, do you remember how that felt? No one can be you as well as you. Enough said.
So now that you’ve decided to write what you love, how do you navigate all the existing genres considering that each one has its own set of rules? For instance, in a romance, the relationship between the two main-characters MUST be the primary theme in the book; everything else revolves around those two-people falling in love, and the writer can’t get so lost in fantasy (or mystery or science fiction or suspense…) that the romantic-balance tips. Not to mention, the ending MUST be happily-ever-after (you can’t kill-off the main character at the end and leave his or her partner grieving). By the same respect, in a mystery, the main theme must be “who-dunnit,” and the solution to the problem must not be readily obvious (the reader shouldn’t know in chapter one that it was Professor Plum in the library).
So what do you do?
The answer ~ even when you are navigating the built-in rules governing the various genres, you still follow your personal preference: If you want to kill-off the hero—because you just love tragedy—then don’t write a romance. If you want Professor Plum to be the main—and only—killer in your story, then skip the mystery and go for horror. The point is, decide first what elements, characters, and storylines you want to write based on what you love to read, and then figure out what genre(s) those elements, characters, and storylines fit into.
Not the other way around.
Once you know what you love to read…why you love to read it…and what about it most excites you, then you will know what you want to write. And this brings us full circle to the most-important writing tip of all: READ. READ. READ.
A LOT!
Blog Two: What to write
Over the past five years, what books have you read—and loved? What books have you had a hard time putting down? And what was it – exactly – about them that you liked?
In terms of main-characters, do you prefer males or females? If females, do you find yourself drawn to sassy, witty heroines; meek, waiting-to-be-rescued girls that will soon come of age; or strong, knock-you-on-your-butt women who take names and leave no prisoners? If males, do you like the sporty jock; the quirky detective; the rakish, properly-bred aristocrat; or an Alpha werewolf or vampire? If so, why? What it is about that type of character that really revs your engine?
With regard to plot, do you like having a mystery to solve, a global conflict to resolve, or a romance to get lost in? Would you prefer to tell a story in the present, the past, or the future? Would you rather be on the edge of your seat the entire book or laughing until your sides hurt? Do you like to be scared by monsters or titillated by steamy sexual entanglements? Is there a combination of these themes you prefer?
I think you get the idea…
Write the book that YOU would most like to read!
After all, you are going to spend hundreds of hours with your book: writing it, dissecting it, editing it, polishing it, reading it…and reading it…and re-reading it! And then you might even have to talk about it and analyze it…a whole lot: Your excitement and passion—or your boredom and discomfort—is going to transfer to the reader…every time.
What about writing to the market? There is definitely a school of thought that emphasizes figuring out what people are looking for and then writing to fill that niche. I don’t personally agree with that philosophy, and here’s why: It can often take 2-3 years for a book to move from conception to publication (and that’s a fast-moving novel with no hiccups). By the time your book comes out, whatever the market was previously doing has likely changed. Beyond that, have you ever tried to be something that you’re not? (To play sports when you wanted to play music? To act like a lady when you were born a tomboy? To become a doctor when you wanted to become a school-teacher? Etc.) If so, do you remember how that felt? No one can be you as well as you. Enough said.
So now that you’ve decided to write what you love, how do you navigate all the existing genres considering that each one has its own set of rules? For instance, in a romance, the relationship between the two main-characters MUST be the primary theme in the book; everything else revolves around those two-people falling in love, and the writer can’t get so lost in fantasy (or mystery or science fiction or suspense…) that the romantic-balance tips. Not to mention, the ending MUST be happily-ever-after (you can’t kill-off the main character at the end and leave his or her partner grieving). By the same respect, in a mystery, the main theme must be “who-dunnit,” and the solution to the problem must not be readily obvious (the reader shouldn’t know in chapter one that it was Professor Plum in the library).
So what do you do?
The answer ~ even when you are navigating the built-in rules governing the various genres, you still follow your personal preference: If you want to kill-off the hero—because you just love tragedy—then don’t write a romance. If you want Professor Plum to be the main—and only—killer in your story, then skip the mystery and go for horror. The point is, decide first what elements, characters, and storylines you want to write based on what you love to read, and then figure out what genre(s) those elements, characters, and storylines fit into.
Not the other way around.
Once you know what you love to read…why you love to read it…and what about it most excites you, then you will know what you want to write. And this brings us full circle to the most-important writing tip of all: READ. READ. READ.
A LOT!
This is the first time I ever read a book of your. I haven'tfinish the book as yet, but I truly love it..you are right there with with Christnia Feehan in my book. Am looking forward in reading your next book, I can wait.
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1. Aida | June 24, 2011 at 03:12 PM EDT