Staying on top with a strong personal brand!

Hi guys! Today I want to take the time to touch on a topic that is personal to me and I think it is important to a lot of young artists whether they know it or not. So let me start with a question: What do the Twilight series and the Amazon Kindle have in common?

Both of them have achieved success as they have provided for their certain niche of customers. Twilight appealed to those teenage girls who dreamed that their first love would be as gorgeous, exciting and dangerous as Edward Cullen.

The Amazon Kindle appealing to all readers who wanted a lighter, easier way to read. There were many readers before this from companies like Sony, but no e- reader was celebrated like this before.

So what made these two inventions more appealing to customers?  They both had very strong Brand appeal! Twilight enticed with teenage girls and boys with it Cinderella/Romeo and Juliet storyline and with vampires and werewolves who had now become, sexier, cooler, looked younger and loved rather than hated humans. 

The Kindle, heavy influenced with all it super cool reading techniques and technology made reading cool again even in this age of video games and play stations.  

Branding is very important if you are trying to sell your writing and want to reach a mass audience because readers need to buy into you as well as your book. Readers will not purchase your story if they cannot connect with any aspect of your product and this product needs to have a strong brand.

Some would say that anyone can write a book but let me tell you this- not many can create a story that people would want to buy. This is where your author related branding strategy comes in.

“Although a PR firm normally takes care of branding your book, there is nothing more personal than an author reaching out to her readers,” says Kia. “Readers like to know that you care about them and their opinions. That you are passionate about the world you are creating both for yourself and your readers and that most importantly, they can relate to you because you get them. They like to know that they can interact with the author.”

Your brand can take a variety of forms. It can portray your product as the one that can differentiate itself from the competition whether through quality, use or design. 

Some products can also be priced lower than others while others target an area of the market where not many or no competitors exist. Thus its brand is defined by the fact that it can offer something new and exclusive to its competitors.

Authors can appeal to their niche of customers through injecting their personality into the brand. Never aim for an audience that it is too wide. Your readers should be able to invest emotionally in your book so that they will want to see your finished product.

One easy and definite way to build your brand is through your personal website. Here your unique characteristics can shine. You can also post interesting and exclusive details about the upcoming projects. Make your website something that stands out using a variety of multimedia and design features.

If you want to interact even more with your customers, make your email address easy to find in case they want to comment on your book. If you respond to your readers in good time, you can be sure that they will recommend your work to others.

Write articles for newspapers and magazines that pay you and allow the possibility of a byline as well as a promotion for your upcoming book.   Mix around as much as possible and do book signings, lectures and appearances to talk about your book or a related topic of writing. Travel locally at first and then extend this to the national or international arena. 

Get on local radio and TV at first to increase your coverage. Also target student radio/ TV and print as it is now a very important part of the mainstream media industry. Don’t aim for the BBC in the first instance. They get thousands of requests like this per day and unless yours would be a new angle, you are likely to get nowhere.     

And of course, it goes without saying that you must engage in social networking. Tweet and post regularly but make your posts unique and meaningful. Ask readers questions, highlight useful links and in other words, encourage them to comment.

Social networking can be made easier if you have a personal blog that you use regularly. So as well as short statements, you are providing your reader with a unique insight into your world. As well as blogging yourself, follow and comment on other blogs who might, one day, then be encouraged to highlight your blog to their followers.

And this is all for now, folks! We hope you enjoyed your Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year.

The Christmas spirit: wind down, relax and breathe- Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Special Message from Kia Storm & Rochelle Sampy:

 “On behalf of Rochelle and myself, we want to say a big thank you for reading and following us throughout the last few months. Please stick with us because next year is set to be even bigger and better and we can’t wait to reveal all J. So as we get ready for Christmas, I just want to take the time to say a massive Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We love you so much for reading and sticking with us!!!” We are back on the 5^th of January, However please check on our last post for the year on branding due out on the 30^th of December.”

It’s that time of year again when we can relax and enjoy the holiday cheer. Presents are wrapped, lunch for the big day is being prepared and the children are counting down the days. As well as spending that invaluable time with your family, Christmas can also be a quiet time to reflect on the year gone by. As an author, it can be an important time to think about how you can make the next year even better.  

Firstly, just try and relax for most of the time. Being a young author who will achieve success is hard work and you will not receive many relaxation periods such as this. Reconnect with your readers. Ask them what they would like to see from you in the New Year. They will appreciate this and nothing beats an author who cares about their audience. This is your dream and you should make it happen!

Take a look at last year’s strategy for your strengths and weaknesses, if there were any. If you did not have a strategy, it is worth creating one for the next year. Knowing how and when you are going to showcase your writing will help you prioritise and keep to your goals.

I speak from experience when I say that you should only make goals that you can keep. Find ways that you can keep to these goals and try to prevent the possibility of straying away from goals. You don’t want next year to be the same as this one. I’m just saying...

Organising yourself as a young writer is possibly more important than the creative writing process itself. Imagine if you were so busy that you forgot to plan to buy the newest games console for your son at Christmas? Hmmm... I’m not feeling so good just thinking about it!

I often find it useful to create word documents that can track your projects by date, tasks and deadline. Creating scheduled reminders on Outlook can also be useful. Whilst reflecting on the past year, think about your marketing strategy. How successful was your social media/PR strategy in relation to your target market?

Carry on with what worked but rework the part of the strategy that did not do so well. Remember that while you make time for the writing process itself you should also make time for marketing all this great work that you are doing. 

How are you goals going to be planned out? Depending on how busy or fast you want to work, goals can be set weekly or monthly. Weekly goals are useful at keeping you at a regular pace while monthly goals are more useful for big projects. Do not feel pressurized to achieve all goals by yourself.

There is only so much you can do and so it is useful to start building up a team of members, if you have not already. Assign them regular tasks and give them a function whether it is marketing or sponsorship. If you are not paying them, make their role as interesting as possible. As well as you achieving your goals for your project, they should also get something unique out of it that they can then share.

Think of new creative strategies that work that will really appeal to readers. Whether it is engaging directly with your target audience through lectures and events, or organising regular Q& A with readers virtually, or video interviews, make sure that your readers see you as distinct from any other author that existed.

Discuss all these new creative possibilities with your team and create new creative campaigns that will keep your regular followers as well as attracting new ones.  Set up a system for monitoring these goals so that you can evaluate what you are doing throughout the year.

And now to the fun bit... rewards. When you achieve your goals, remember to reward yourself. This might seem a bit patronising but taking time out from writing in a positive way will really help you push on in achieving success. Have a drink with your friends or do a bit of shopping. Anything that will let your mind now that more of this will be possible if your writing is on track! 

Also, connect with other young writers who will also be working hard throughout the year. Speaking or interacting with them will keep you focused and will also be great for venting those frustrations.  

Don't let fear destroy success: part 2

The writer dilemma- Part Two

Failures are not recorded in history nor are they built on in the media frenzy. But if genius inventors such as Thomas Edison only discovered the light bulb after 1,000 tries, then why should we be afraid of failing? 

However, many of us try to avoid failure and so in the end we settle for a very simple life when we could be living out our dreams. We will never face any real victory as nothing we achieve will have been achieved with all our strength and tears.

Mistakes are considered wrong in our society and not something that we could learn from. But we are not perfect nor were we born perfect. We had to fail so many times before we could walk, talk or ride a bike. If we gave up then, when we were young, we would have been nothing now.

Youth is a concept that is often connected with failure as it seems to be the time when people are more adventurous and comfortable with failing. When we get older, we suddenly become more protective. Our life is all about routine and making it work for our families.

But is it really worth not testing new ideas out just because of your family? Some might feel selfish by putting themselves first but perhaps they have forgotten the most important thing. Life does not end after your youth, it can only get better. The main advantage of getting older is that you can plan for your future using the experiences that you gained when you were younger.

As a young writer, you will receive several rejections and some may tell you that writing may just not be for you. But, publishing and writing are both very subjective career fields. Before entering the literary arena, you should be prepared for the fact that your first manuscript might not be a total success. But do not stop getting your work out there.

Take all the criticism in and strive to make your manuscript your personal best so that the next time an editor sees it, he is blown away. Remember that showcasing your book to agents and publishers is one of the highest levels that you will compete at as a young writer. 

Failure was prevalent in the life of Bill Gates who experienced failure with his first business Traf – O – Data but carried on to establish Microsoft as well as Albert Einstein who was considered mentally handicapped when he was younger. 


Who knew he would, in a later years, actually be considered a genius! Yet, if he or Bill Gates, had stopped trying at that juncture in their lives, the world would have lost two of the greatest minds it has ever possessed.

 JK Rowling also had a hard life in the publishing world before the success of Harry Potter:

“The first agent on my list sent my sample three chapters and synopsis back by return of post. The first two publishers took slightly longer to return them, but the ‘no’ was just as firm. Oddly, these rejections didn’t upset me much. In any case, these were real rejection letters- even real writers had got them.”

She continued:

“And then the second agent, who was high on the list purely because I liked his name, wrote back with the most magical words I have ever read: ‘We would be pleased to read the balance of your manuscript on an exclusive basis...”

Failure is often inevitable when you start something new but, a writer should never let their passion stop after the first hurdle. Success mostly comes at a price and is something we should all be prepared for.

Don't let fear destroy success: part 1

The writer dilemma- Part One

Kia once told me told that in order to achieve success, one must embrace failure.

She explains that throughout the course of her young writing years (It was only recently that she started taking her writing seriously) that she too had, had to cope with the dreaded rejection letters.

Most of them are now locked away in her sacred dream box for the day when she actually makes it, so she can post the response ‘You were wrong and I was right’ to all those who rejected her!

“I wrote over a dozen short stories in the midst of a very painful break up and was able to get them all published within the space of a year or even less,” she tells me.

“In that same year, I wrote my novel too- the pain from the break up was intense and writing was the only way I knew how to deal with it. That’s how I express myself. Funnily enough, I personally find it very hard to talk about how I feel and so writing enables me to express myself freely and without constraint,” she explains. 

“Every now and again though, I do write strange things on Facebook and then get people asking me whether I live on another planet...!”

Who doesn’t, I think to myself.

She smiles, “The point it, I always find I am my most creative through failure. It is necessary in order to develop your craft and to become bigger and better. There is no escaping failure and the pain you experience can be great motivator for all if only we embrace it and use it to drive success,” 

“I have had lots of no’s when I sent off the first batch of my short stories. I mean, I even had someone wrote ‘No thanks, please don’t send back’ on my manuscript,”

She shakes her head in amazement. “Can you imagine? This is my dream and someone has scribbled that on the front of it? I had to compose myself, I had to tell myself that this agency just doesn’t get it but, someone else will...someone out there in this big, gigantic world must get it!”

She continues, “And you know what? Someone did get me, but it was only because I kept going. That’s all it takes... the ability to rise above the fear of failing and just do...that’s all that is required from you and you never know what could happen.”

“So... are you really going to send a response to those rejection slips you received?” I asked in disbelief.

She laughed with a now very obvious cheeky grin on her face, “Yes, I am. Together with a copy of my new glossy book! But in all honesty, Rochelle you must believe that when one door closes another really can open for you. If one person doesn’t like you, I guarantee there is someone out there that will love you. The point is to never take failure personally,”

“You know that saying, feel the fear but do it anyway? I live by that statement.”

This makes me think about failure from a young writer's perspective. There are so many unpublished, young writers out there and there is this major feeling going around that most can’t make it really big as a writer.  The ones that do are lucky geniuses. 

Is this really true? What is the difference between those that makes it and those people that don’t? In any case, I believe that in any writing career, failure is necessary is reshaping a young writer’s style and never lets them get lazy in their craft.

Reinvention: strive for the unknown- part 2

PART TWO

From speaking to Kia, I realised that she is rewarded by her changes through seeing the happiness that she has created for the people around her. This made me think that maybe it’s a good idea to reward the changes that go well in your lives.

Maybe it’s as simple as, knowing when you are on the right track and taking time to reward yourself and keeping yourself positive about reaching that end goal.

It’s also a fact that most goals take time and so you should never feel like reinvention should be quick; it is a gradual process which you need to plan a strategy for. If change happens too quickly, it might tire you out much before you have done anything worthwhile with your life. 

If you do fail, don’t let this stop you ever striving for change again. Failure is part of our learning process. Rather than hiding in your closet ask for feedback or assess where you went wrong. Then the next time you cannot falter along the way.

If you are a budding, young writer then you should always make time for reinvention, especially as it is one of those careers that can offer the most variety without having to strenuously study for the change.

To start the process,  young writers should firstly take some time off or find some free time where they can just think about their plan and their goal for change for a first few days. Take a retreat if you must but find a quiet place to think without any distractions.

Once you have a strategy, stick to it! There is nothing worse than knowing what could have been. Be serious about this change. Tell yourself that you cannot go back to your old life.

Reinvention has been popular even when individuals have rewarding careers already. For instance, Donatella Versace who is infamous for her designer brand clothing decided to take a different turn in the fashion world. 

 She created a new line for high street brand H&M which was a result of more than the year’s preparations. This result was not as easy as creating her ready- to – wear lines for her own collections for which she has had years of practice.

Her main reason for this change was to educate the youth about the history of Versace.

“I wanted to show the young people what Versace is. I was expecting H&M to tell me, ‘No, you can’t do this,’ but I gave them some samples, and they came back with something very similar. We live in the world of fashion, the world of young people,” she said.

Here again, Donatella had doubts that this change might have not worked but pursued it anyway since she was passionate about it. 

Even more, Joan Rivers, the comedian known for her sarcasm and ‘don’t – care’ attitude says that she likes her phases of reinvention and does not let anyone stop her.

“My career is very fluid. People always say to me “You keep reinventing yourself” and you just want to stare at them. You just go with the opportunity. I’m constantly writing, I’m constantly performing. I’m on the air in ‘Fashion Police’ but I’m also writing the show and the ‘Joan and Melissa’ show, “she says.

Filmmaker Nora Ephron famous for Oscar- nominated writing for When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail reveals that it is never too late to reinvent yourself. 

The 60 – year – old who has worked as a journalist, on President JFK’s campaign, director, filmmaker and writer feels that perhaps women have it easier.

“Women are sometimes in a better position than men to reinvent themselves. Men are more likely to get stuck in ruts, which is one reason why so many of them buy things like boats instead of switching careers, “she mentions.

Why not begin the change today? Change can only bring rewards and if you are positive, it should ensure your happiness and success in every part of your life. 

Try something different today!

Reinvention: strive for the unknown - part 1

PART ONE

Have you ever felt the need to do something else in your life but feel afraid of the thought of change? Maybe your family has told you that it is too late to change careers or that you have too much commitment and responsibility to ever get out of the rut you now find yourself in?

“The truth is most people are so afraid,” says Kia.

“Most people are living their lives under labels and once you have been labelled as something it becomes a task in itself to break free of that perception of yourself. Mainly because the people around you will fight pretty hard to ensure you stay in that category they have created for you.”

                                                                        
As we were chatting, I tried to think long and hard about the time when I have been labelled and I can certainly see this ideology as a fact as I struggle to live up to the image of my loved ones.

Now, I know that entering new territory should never be frightening but exciting.

When you reinvent yourself at a young age, change always has the potential to be great. Some have said that we can be happier if we de clutter and cleanse our lives.  

Leave your baggage behind whether it is objects or people. Other individuals should not have the right to drag you down with them.

Once you have restored your mental state, it is time to get physical. The best way to feel alive again is to energize the body. I find that if I start the day with 20 minutes of yoga or gentle exercise, I am much happier for the rest of the day and the general ‘tube rush’ in London does not bother me. I am able to deal with difficulties that arise as calmly as possible and know that it is just part of life.

A friend in India recently told me that she is afraid of changing careers. She studied sciences at university and cannot deal with the voices that will ridicule her for not being great at the main subject that she studied. 

We are all fearful of our future at some point in our lives but it is how we deal with it that is most important. We need to trust ourselves and ignore the negative voices that tell us, there are no ways out of our current situation.  Don’t let these voices stop you from progressing to a new level.

“I never accept labels,” says Kia. “If you think I am one thing today, I will be another tomorrow. I just never want to be boxed in, caved in, blocked into anything because I love the taste of freedom and I love the buzz that the unknown brings.”

“I am very good at creating possibilities for myself but my fear comes with meeting new people. People are often too quick to tell me I am successful because they somehow see success within me that I can’t recognise within myself.”

“How do you mean?” I asked.

 “I guess I cringe when people say that because as in my eyes I am not and there are still so much to do to get to the level I want,” Kia says. 

“It will take tremendous level of patience and passion, determination resilience, commitment, discipline- all the things I pray that I develop on a daily basis because they are not easy at all. I think the key though is to constantly give, because people don’t realise that success lies in giving, really it does,” she smiles happily.

“I just desperately want to share my book with the world and will wait in anticipation like a little kid asking ‘so what do you think of it? Do you like it?’ This can be both scary and exciting but in order for me to get to the point of sharing I must reinvent,” she explains.

“I must enter into the unknown and I must be willing to give. This is how I view success. I don’t view it as monetary gain meaning that I can now afford to buy the latest designer handbag. I view  success as in how many people have I inspired with my vision, my work and if I haven’t  moved   enough people with my craft, then I aspire to inspire more. It’s that simple. “

I must admit that I have become very fond of Kia. She really is very genuine. I do believe that she pushes herself to the limit and she always strives for something.

But is this all to reinvention? Find out more, in Part 2...

‘When perfect is not perfect enough’ - part 2

                                                                         PART TWO

                                                                                                                                                                          
......In the past, I have been guilty of striving for perfection when submitting work or potentially missing deadlines even when I know there is nothing more to add.

As a young writer, you can also face this problem when writing an article. Your editor constantly reminds you that your work only needs to be ‘workable’ as it is up to editors or sub – editors to decide on how the final version will look. Yet, you slave away at night producing at that ‘perfect’ piece, totally exhausted by the end.

I often wonder about why people feel the need to be perfect. Some dwell too much on their past mistakes and try to make the present a place where nothing can go wrong. Others are and remain anxious about their future and so their whole life is built around creating a selection of perfect anecdotes along the way.

If perfectionism is controlled and is present in only one part of your life, that is not a bad thing. Say that you decide you want to be better at creating suspense and so you spend more time in your novel doing so, reworking it until it is perfect. Eventually, readers will be hooked on the novel you wrote because of the effort spent on creating tension within your plot.

However, I believe that even if you aim for being perfect in everything you do, it will not last forever and the initial spark slowly dies after each event or project has ended.

“There is always going to be someone who can do as well or even better than you,” I said to Kia. “It’s inevitable.”

“I know,” she had said. “That’s why I push myself to beat myself because I am not competing with anyone else but myself. The only performances that matters are mines because that’s the only thing I can control. 


I look at people that have strived for what they want with admiration because they have paved the way so I can do the same and I want to pave the way for someone else so I can’t accept defeat because my goal is to be a part of the history of change.”

For me, it all began with my parents. Coming from an Asian background, I was taught that I should do well, no matter what the cost. When I was younger and living in India, I was always pushed to get higher grades than others and when I failed to get the grades that another did manage to get, I was made to feel bad about it. 


Not that I was a bad student. I won certificates for my academic school life and was in charge of tutoring other students. But, I never understood that I should just be happy with my academic potential rather than striving to be a bigger brainiac.

It was something that I knew, in my heart of hearts, could not be achieved. 

And I am not alone in this perfectionism battle. Take famous sportspeople like Tiger Woods and Andre Agassi.

Tiger Woods who has recently been in the papers for other reasons had to practice his golf skills tirelessly when he was younger whilst his dad trained him to perform under any situation. Most of his childhood was spent in training Tiger in the area of mental toughness which paid off. One could say that Tiger Woods would have not turned into the golfing champion he is today, without the preparation taken by his father.

                                                                            

Andre Agassi’s father took the tennis training challenge even further by building a ball machine for a young Agassi which he then used to practice his tennis serve. No wonder he holds the record for the strongest return serves in tennis history today!

But one cannot help wondering whether the two celebrities especially Woods has had their childhood cut short by the demanding regimes. Emotionally, they were meant to act like adults. In place of the freedom to act as normal children would, at that age, there were strict goals to follow which they should have not been subjected to.

“The only thing, I never feel the need to push is my writing ability,” Kia says.

“Whenever I write, I just feel that’s it... it’s almost like...like...magic...I can never explain it...sometimes I dream the world I am creating like it really exist..I don’t need to think, it’s like my hands just knows what to write...it’s automated....it’s like I have seen that world before...”

So how did I try and break out of my bubble? I came to London of course and discovered that there was much more to life than simply ‘studying perfection’. I wanted to have a laugh, wanted to go to concerts and clubs with my friends and most of all, I wanted to enjoy myself without feeling the pressure to be perfect.

Best selling British broadcaster and author, Simon Winchester admits that the process of writing is never perfect, no matter how much you want it to be.  

He said, “Whenever I begin a book I set the [word] counter with the start date, the number of words to write, the contract date and a very simple calculation- the number of words needed each day to meet the deadline. One hundred days, 100,000 words: 1000 words each day is the initial goal. But things change: the writing life is imperfect, however noble the intentions. Some days are good and maybe I’ll write 1500 words, while others are much less satisfactory and, for a variety of reasons, I may write virtually nothing. So be it.”

                                                                                                                                         

So there you have it. Being perfect is not always as important as enjoying life and living for the present. So until next time, keep writing and give yourself a break, sometimes...              

‘When perfect is not perfect enough’- part 1

PART ONE

 image curtsey & copyright by
http://jcspock.com

So this week, I have decided to tackle the issue of perfectionism in all it grimy detail. I was amazed to find out that after the many projects that Kia has worked on she does not celebrate it like everyone else. Instead, she tries to see ways in which next time can be even better.

“I have never completed anything in my life and thought, ‘Wow! That’s awesome’” says Kia.

 “I don’t know what it is about me but, everything I do has to be bigger, better, just greater than my last attempts. I am never satisfied with my performances, never 100% happy. its like I always compete with myself in order to beat myself.”

“It’s because you are a perfectionist, right?” I interrupted, making notes in my note pad.  I must admit, that after seeing Kia at work, I already had preconcepted notions that she was a perfectionist.

Kia leaned forward and peered anxiously at what I was writing.

“No....take that out....I’m not a perfectionist!” she said. “No way...perfectionists don’t take the kind of risks I do... not instantly anyways....I mean I go after what I want and perfectionists don’t do that very often because everything has to be perfect before they can do. I don't wait for perfection, I just do. I never sit and look at every single intricate details before i make my move...I just move,” she explained.

 “I just go with my heart and I give 100% to everything I do...” She shook her head as she tried to explain further, “I just always get this feeling after everything I do...like something is missing....”

“You feel disappointed?” I asked.

 She nodded, before quickly shaking her head. “I don’t think that’s how I feel,” she said finally.

 “I just feel like I could have done better and so I plan  to do better. I always want everything to be so explosive, it’s that buzz that I get, that dies instantly once it’s all over and then I feel that voice saying, ‘It has to be bigger and better next time’. So I’m always pushing for more.”

“Cause you’re a perfectionist!” I laughed determined to prove that i was right in what i was saying.

“No!” she said adamantly. “I don’t.....Maybe I just have an insatiable appetite for more, I don’t know...but I am not one of them...”

She pulled out her phone and handed it to me.


 “You don’t believe me?” she said.

Slowly, I took the phone from her hands, curious about why she was handing me her phone. 

 “Google it!”  

She was actually being serious and so that was exactly what I did.

It turns out that some perfectionist never admits to the fact that they are perfectionist and some, like Kia, even go to the extreme to prove they are not.

I revealed my findings but she replied saying that Google must be wrong on this point.

“I know! We’ll just have to buy a book that has detailed information about perfectionism...that’ll be more accurate,” she concluded, as she took the phone and began logging into her Amazon’s account.

“You are seriously going to buy a book?” I giggled, before bursting into laughter.

She paused and looked at me and then suddenly laughed too.

I couldn’t argue with her anymore but there was definitely something here.

I have witnessed excitement in Kia’s eyes whenever she undertakes a project.

I have also seen what appears to be uncertainty after most of her project, where she is always questioning herself especially if she hadn’t done as well as she had hoped, even when everyone commends her about how great she had done.

I was beginning to wonder why she had such reluctance to admit that she was a perfectionist although I wasn’t sure whether she was one or not.

Maybe it was something from her past that keeps her pushing for more, who knows.

I know I can definitely relate to that.  But how?.....

Overcome the past, move towards the future: part 2

                                                                          PART TW0

                                                                              
Before we finished our conversation at Prêt, we were interrupted by Kia’s friend. He was 20 minutes early and suddenly her face lit up, and together they began to talk and laugh as if they were in their own little world. Suddenly the Kia I knew was back. Bubbly and free spirited. She began to talk about her book and how Kia Garriques had spent nights dreaming of this world which, existed in a far off galaxy of the universe, with super human power.

“Who’s Kia Garriques?” I said, knowing full well that everyone knew her as Nikki. “You mean Kia Storm.”

She laughed saying, “No! I meant Kia Garriques.”

“You mean, you haven’t told her yet?” her friend said, giggling away.

“What?” I asked in a confused manner.  I wanted to be in on their joke and was suddenly beginning to feel left out. I needed to be with the ‘in’ crowd.

Kia grinned. “Kia Garriques is writing a fantasy novel for teenagers.” she explained.

“But... what about Kia Storm?” I cried.

“Well I guess Kia Garriques is the alter ego of Kia Storm and Kia Storm is an image. I never try to look like that image in my daily life. I just like being normal. I guess I don't really like the spotlight too much. In my daily life, I dont like to be known too much,” she says. “So maybe in essence I see Kia Garriques as the writer, the creative side of me and well I guess Kia is just...".

Before she could say another word, her mobile phone rang and she was off outside, screaming excitedly into it, as though she had just heard some good news.

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

“Don’t worry,” her friend assured me. “She’s a complex character but, you got to love her. She has a heart of gold. She does so much but you would never know because she never promotes it too much, especially if its nothing to do with her writing. But she mostly talks about her dream which, is her novel. Even I can't wait to read this novel.”

"You havent read it?" I asked.

"No, just her sister and her agent have read it." he said. "It's fantasy fiction and believe me she has this unique imagination. I guess you can say Kia Storm writes the gritty stuff and Kia Garriques...well...Kia Garriques likes to create worlds...but I sure can't wait to read it."

"There's a lot more to discover about her." he grinned. "When this girl put her mind to something... I'm telling you, nothing stops her and she's got her heart on her book."

"Tell me some more..." He would not reveal anything else. He just placed his index finger over his lips as if to silence me.

I walked away from that meeting, still feeling like I didn’t know Kia as much as i would like. How could Kia Garriques be the alter ego of Kia when Kia Garriques was her reality?

                                                                       

Kia Storm/ Kia Garriques had mentioned to me on previous occasions that even though her friends were always telling her to grow up, she refused to listen. For a long time she felt something was wrong with her because she normally thought about life in bright colours and lights. She knows that her creativity radiates from her fairy tale yet inquisitive imagination.

I was once told that, “When we grow up, we become people who lose their originality and soon our life becomes more about caring for others rather than looking after number one." Kia knows that even when our priorities change, we can still build on what makes us wonderfully different from the rest of the human race and really start living our lives, rather than just existing.

I thought about one of my favourite singers, Jessie J, who had to deal with the pressures and stresses of being seen as different from a very young age. She has gone through a lot to get to where she is now. I mean, I remember reading somewhere how at the age of 11 Jessie J was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.

                                                                    

At the age of 18, she suffered a minor stroke and perhaps at that point she realised what was really important to her and has fought for her singing career since. Her most recent song on her album titled ‘Who’s Laughing Now’ is dedicated to those who bullied her, due to her illness when she was younger. “It wasn’t easy for me at school; I was called ‘Alien’ because I had a heart problem so I had these betas – blockers that actually turned my skin a light shade of green,” she said. 

My mind also drifted to Nicky Minaj, another artist who is different and not afraid to show it. Known as the ‘black Lady Gaga’, Nicky feels that she is happy not being part of the mainstream and promotes the idea of embracing your differences.

When comparing herself to the ‘Poker Face’ star, she said, “We both do the awkward non-pretty thing. What we're saying…well what I'm saying anyway is that it's OK to be weird. Maybe your weird is my normal. Who's to say? I think it's an attitude we both share. The point is, everyone is not black and white. There are so many shades in the middle, and you’ve got to let people feel comfortable with saying what they want to say when they want to say it. I don’t want to feel like I’ve got the gun pointed at my head and you’re about to pull the trigger if I don’t say what you want to hear. I just want to be me and do me.”    

                                                                         

So there you have it! Here I was thinking that we nerds have it hard, when most people, no matter who they go through, have similar traumas and experiences. It is all about how you stand up to these problems.

“You just have to think about others,” Kia had said to me. “If we focus on helping others, we begin to realise it’s not always about us all the time. When you focus on yourself so much, you are bound to start noticing the thing that isn’t right with you and that is the problem.”

So until next time....remember...we are all different and you know what? It feels great to be different...