Celebrating The Rosewood Guitar

Today, please welcome author Mariam Kobras, who’s here celebrating today’s release of The Rosewood Guitar, the final book in her fantastic, award-winning Stone Series (published by Buddhapuss Ink)!

I met Mariam on Twitter, and love her writing. She writes lovely prose, with deeply emotional, well-developed plots and characters a reader cannot help but love. And so, with no further ado, here’s Mariam:

So I’m sitting here at my desk, on the eve of the release of The Rosewood Guitar, Jon’s Story, the last book in the Stone Series. 

Laid out before me are the four books that have already been published by my very dear publisher, Buddhapuss Ink LLC. Next to them are the Independent Publisher Book Award medals the Stone Trilogy won, and the first prequel, Waiting for a Song. There are copies of royalty checks, tax statements, contracts and letters from my publisher, letters and messages from readers and fans… 

…and I’m wondering: how did all this happen? 

Being an author wasn’t a lifelong dream for me. Like nearly all teenagers, I dabbled in writing for a while, but, to be honest, I soon figured out that it wasn’t for me. There was real work involved, and I had enough of that to do for school. Remember, math and Latin? Yes. Those. Not my friends.

I got married at twenty-three while I was still at university, and our first son was born while my husband worked on his Ph.D. Suddenly, I was a housewife and mother. Writing got packed away into the deepest, darkest recesses of my imaginary closet. 

Something changed one cold, drab morning late in 2009.

I remember waking up and staring out at the darkness and rain and feeling a spark of excitement that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. My fingers twitched in anticipation; my brain was in overdrive.

What had changed? A small thing, seemingly, but one that changed my entire life. 

I’d finally come up with a setting for the story that had been haunting me for so long.

A setting! All those tiny pieces, a wild puzzle, all of it fell into place the moment I realized that I’d found the right setting for The Distant Shore! 

My husband gave me a laptop for Christmas. I met my publisher on Twitter; we got along fabulously right from the start. Long before I was even thinking of submitting they requested the manuscript, I signed my first book deal early in 2011, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

So here we are now: releasing my fifth book in the Stone Series, and, except for the upcoming Christmas special, Sound of Falling Snow, the last in the series. 

The Rosewood Guitar is my favorite novel in the series. That doesn’t mean that I don’t love my other books–of course I do! I wrote them, after all.

But Rosewood is special. I think I relate to it so well because it’s about beginnings, about the decisions that change the life of young Jon Stone forever, which set him on the road to fame and fortune. 

It’s about loneliness, friendship, and creativity and believing in that creativity. There’s fame, and how that can change a person, and the price tag fame carries. It’s about what is left behind, and what is found and the question: Is it all worth it. And it’s about the magic of music, of poetry, and the melodies Jon hears all around him. 

Rosewood Guitar is about a young man who sets out, leaving his home and family in New York City, to find success in Los Angeles. Jon Stone is one of those hungry young birds who gravitate toward Hollywood, with nothing in their pockets except a big dream and very little money. Most of them get lost, that’s a bitter truth. But not Jon Stone. He’s blessed with an extraordinary talent, and he has that golden luck that’s needed to make it.

But while he sails to fame and wealth he learns that fame is a harsh mistress, and that he’ll have to pay to keep her satisfied, and that the price might be steeper than he thought. 

Let me get back to the writing thing for a moment. I know that readers love to hear how this writing thing (and the getting a book deal thing) works.

You’ll have realized by now that I don’t talk a lot about the “how”.

See, I don’t believe in talking about writing. I believe in writing. If you want to be a writer, don’t talk about it. Do it. There are no universal writing tips. What worked for me may be a catastrophe for you. What works for you might have me crossed-eyed in panic.

If there is one rule, then it’s this: BUTT IN CHAIR, WRITE! And have plenty of coffee ready. 

Right then! It’s party time at Buddhapuss Ink LLC! Let’s break open the champagne!

***

Thank you, Mariam, for joining us today!

As a special treat, Mariam even put together a virtual author reading – so enjoy this excerpt from The Rosewood Guitar!

For more, you can find Mariam online at her website, on Twitter (@Mariam_Kobras) and on Facebook. 

The Stone Series books are available online and at bookstores everywhere.