A Reader's Take - The Grand Theme Reveal!

       I just can't believe it's already been a year since A to Z challenge!! Gone is the girl who was still a newbie in the blogging world, unsure if she could survive the challenge. I absolutely loved the thrill I got from participating in the challenge last year and completing it successfully. I have even met some amazing people through this challenge. So, this time I am back with a bang for more. 

       Last year, I had selected the theme 'Flavors of Live' and had written about emotions. I had selected one emotion from each letter and had written a short story or poem about it. This time, I wanted it to be something different, something more challenging. So, after a lot of brain storming, I and my friend Nibha decided on a common theme with different approaches. So, are you excited to know about my theme? Red carpet and Drum rolls please!

       My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge will be 'A Reader's Take'. In every post, I am going to pick a name of some novel starting from that day's letter and use it as the title of my post. To make it more challenging, I have decided to weave a serial story using these titles. Here is the blurb of my story:

       Kayra is the kind of girl who you would fall in love with. With her cheerfulness and enthusiasm, she can make anyone smile. 'Radiator' is what people call her. But something happened, that changed all this. Kayra is no more her bubbly self. The girl who made others' smile has now lost her own smile. She refuses to even talk with people. A worried Mrs. Sharma, Kayra's mother, seeks Kayra's best friend Ayaan's help to bring her daughter back to normal. But things get difficult when Kayra refuses to talk to even Ayaan. Will Ayaan succeed in finding out the reason behind Kayra's strange behavior? What happens when the secret Kayra has been keeping comes to light? 

       'Leave Me Never' is a story about dreams, love and friendship. Join Kayra and Ayaan in their journey to find out more.

       Curious? I hope you are! Come back in April to read more about Kayra and Ayaan. Now, if it is going to be a single story stretched over 26 posts or whether it will be split into half remains to be seen. This is the first serial story I am writing and your opinions matter a lot. Hope to see you all in April. Till then, stay tuned.

Until the next post,

Keep Smiling :)

Love,

Swathi :)

First Blogiversary!!

       I am barely someone who gets excited over birthdays. I am known to forget even my own birthday. But when it is about my blog, I can hardly forget it! I am all excited and my happiness knows no bound!

       Exactly one year back, on this day, I had opened this blog. It was a happy as well as scary moment. Happy because I wanted to write one from a long time and scared because I had no idea what I would write! What if I ran out of topics? That was one of my biggest fear! But I set all my worries aside and listened to my heart for once. And I am so glad I did that!

       It has been an eventful year and I have learned so many new things. I have discovered the hidden story writer and poet in me. I have learnt how to make new connections. I have gained so many new friends, online as well as offline. In this one year, I have read, written and learnt more than I have done in my entire lifetime! And now when it is time to celebrate my Blogiversary, I can hardly believe my little baby blog has completed a year already!

       But completion of a year also signifies many things. It means I am no longer a newbie. Now I have an experience of a year and that definitely raises the expectations. So, on this day, I have decided to make some changes. Here is how it is going to be from today: Concentrate more on quality writing and post fiction and poems often (Some of my readers have started complaining they miss my old writing style!) I also wanted to revamp my blog and give it some cool look on this day but due to my busy schedule, I couldn't do it. But that will be done within this week.

       As for the reviews, I have developed quite a liking for reviewing books. So I am opening a new book blog EscapeReality, dedicated for reviewing books, where I will be posting reviews regularly. This way I can concentrate both on fiction and reviews.

       Looking forward to learning more and making new friends this year too. A big Thank You to everyone who took time to read and comment on my blog. You people have helped me grow :)

Until the next post,
Keep Smiling :)

Love,
Swathi :)

2015 - A New Beginning

       2015! A new beginning, a new journey. 2014 was a very productive year. And I hope I can work enough to make 2015 the same, maybe even more. I am not a person to party on new year or think that new year brings good things with it. I believe it is up to us to do good things and make this year worthwhile. I don't make resolutions every year because I know I will never follow them. So instead of making resolutions, I am creating a wishlist. Whenever I feel confused, I hope this wishlist will help me realize what I really want. Here are a few things I would wish to accomplish in this year -

• Learn to drive a 4 wheeler and get a license. This one is gonna happen soon as I am already learning driving and I am definitely enjoying it.
• Write more often. Last year, though I was blogging regularly in the first half of the year, it took a back seat from august with the commence of final year. I wish I can manage both well this year, without either taking a backseat!
• Study well and secure a seat in a good college. Yes, I plan to do MTech. 
• Get published again (as a contributing author or by writing a full length novel)
• Stop wasting time over unnecessary things and give more time for myself; maybe fine tune my hobbies and learn new things.
• Read more books. Reading books has always been my favorite pass time and I don't want to give it up when life gets busy. I want to make time, even though a little, and enjoy reading awesome stories.
• Give up fears and insecurities and learn to love myself. I have realized this is very important if one wants to be successful.
• Learn to let go of things and people that hurt me. I want to learn to accept the truth, no matter how hard it is and move on with life, leaving behind unpleasant memories (and people!)
• Make new friends. Being an introvert, I don't usually mingle much with people. I like to keep to myself. Though I don't want to change it completely, I want to learn to be a little more social.

PS: To fulfill the wish of writing regularly, I have taken up Write tribe Pro Blogger Challenge. So you can hope to see me posting at least twice a week now.

       That is it for now. I hope I can say that I fulfilled all these wishes by the end of this year. Hoping to rock 2015! I wish you all a very happy and successful year ahead :) What are your wishes? Have you made a wishlist yet? Let me know :) 

Until the next post,

Keep Smiling :)

Love,

Swathi :)

2014 at Glance - Bits and Bytes!

       

       It's the end of another year and I must say, this year has been a very good and productive one for me. As  it comes to end, here is a post dedicated to 2014. A recap of all the good and bad things.

       Coming to the good things,

• I finally gathered the courage to start my blog. After almost an year of thinking, I pushed aside the uncertainties and started to blog. And I am glad I did. It gives me so much happiness.
• I also set aside my fears and participated in more activities in college. It was a big step for me but I did it. I also won a few competitions and my confidence level has been boosted.
• Made many new friends, some online (Thanks to my blog) and some offline. Met one of the blogger friends (Prasanna Rao)
• Read nearly 35 books. Though it is less considering my craze for novels, it was a start. I had given reading a break due to busy schedule but picking up this old hobby was made me realize how much I missed it.
• Learnt many things - Quilling, painting, cooking. It is always good to learn new things.
• Had awesome time with friends as we went out partying or to watch movies.
• Attended the first interview of my life and got placed in TCS. Yay!!
• Got published in an anthlogy - GOOFY. You can buy it here.
• Bought around 50 novels this year! Yeah, I am building a library :P
• Traveled a lot with family. Oh, I love travelling.

Those were some of the good things. The list goes on but right now, this is all I remember. Here are few of the lessons I learnt (bad things always teach a lesson)

• No matter how good you are, people always find faults. So it's better to ignore others and live life the way you want.
• Some friends, no matter how best you think they are, will leave you one day for their own selfish reasons. It's better not to dwell on such person's memory. After all, nothing is permanent.
• For some people, promise is just a fancy word and they use it lightly. It's better not to place faith on others blindly.
• When you are among a crowd of strangers and the fear of 'what they will think' is stopping you from doing something you really want (something crazy or something daring), it's always good to remember that they don't know you! They will forget you within few minutes but the memory you created by doing the thing you like; it will last with you forever.
• There comes a time in life, when even though you have so many people who care for you, you have to take your own path, lead your own journey to reach your goals.

That was most of it. I had fun, I made mistakes and I learnt from them. After all, nobody is perfect. I don't regret the choices I made. How can I? It made me to who I am today and I am happy with it. So that was a glimpse of 2014 in brief. Saying final goodbyes to 2014 with this blogpost (This happens to be the 150th post of the year!)  

       How was your year? Are you happy? Let me know. See you all next year ;)

Until the next post,

Keep Smiling :)

Love,

Swathi :)

It is a Century!

       139 days back I had took a bold step and started my blog. I say bold because being a shy girl all my life, sharing my thoughts with the world was something that I didn't think would be easy. I had been juggling about the whole blogging idea from almost two years but that little nagging doubt in my head was stopping me from turning it into reality. Finally after a little push from my friends and the positive response I got after writing for a creative story writing competition in college, I jumped in to Blogosphere and after that there was no turning back.

       Participating in challenges like A - Z challenge, UBC April 2014 and UBC July 2014, different contests hosted by BlogAdda and also in fiction Prompts, my blog grew steadily and so did my confidence with each post. I made many friends. I read many posts. I smiled and I cried. When I wanted to share something, I created new characters and gave them my voice. It always felt good. Also the blog brought out the poet in me, which I didn't know existed. I found out about the hidden passion in me for writing, which before this, was just confined to my diary entries. It felt good to break free from the boundary and enter into a new world. 

       And I am glad I did! Who would have thought I would write my 100th post this soon? I definitely hadn't! I am totally excited as I write this post.

       During this journey, I have been published in two online magazines (Check my poem on Writer's Ezine here), have written for two anthologies and also have joined for a writing Internship program by Tell-a-Tale this month which I am definitely enjoying. You can read my internship posts here. To sum it up all in one sentence, it feels awesome to be following my heart after all these years. 

       Thank you everyone who helped me achieve this feat, supporting me with encouraging comments and also gently correcting me when I was wrong. Keep visiting and keep showering my blog with love. After all, this wouldn't have been possible without your support. It's definitely time for celebrations!

       I can go on talking about how happy I am today but for today, let me stop here. Have a great day folks.

PS: Linking this post to the Ultimate Blog Challenge July 2014 and NaBloPoMo.

Until the next post,

Keep Smiling :)

Love,

Swathi :)