It has become almost mandatory for writers to have blogs these days. I started my first blog, “Looking At Life,” when I wanted to capture observations and thoughts from my schooldays at The Lawrence School, Lovedale. Later I started “People At Work & Play” my “professional” blog which spoke of careers, people management and the like. Now that I am retired and am full time into writing, I have a writing blog, which is what you are reading. Continue reading “Blogging For Writers”
Category: On Writing: Resources for Writers
Sharing insights, suggestions, tips and almost anything which will help you, and me, become better writers.
A confirmed web surfer, I am always on the hunt for things that may help me improve my writing. Here are a few things which caught my attention over the last week:
- “The Emotion Thesaurus” by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi is an interesting dive into what are the giveaways when people express emotions. Designed for the writer to be factually correct when he/she captures the moods of their characters, and writes about their body language and mannerisms, this book is truly one of its kind. A must for the book shelf of every serious writer.
I have always believed that there’s a great amount to be learned just by reading what other writers have to say. Blogs are a wonderful medium by which writers express their views on different aspects of the writer’s life. It’s interesting to see things from differing perspectives and realize that what you thought was the best way need not really be so at all. Here’s something I really enjoyed. I must warn you though that reading all of this will take up a certain amount of your time. In my view, it is time well spent. Continue reading “Top Blogs for Writers”
There aren’t too many, especially in today’s fast-paced “dog eat dog” kind of world, who make time to fulfill their passions. Vikram Sampath, is clearly one of them. I first got to know Vikram when he and I were invited by the book lovers club, iBrowse to speak of our books. I knew he studied in that centre of academic and all-round excellence, BITS Pilani, which I used to visit regularly for recruitment in my Wipro days. The fact that he knew my son-in-law, Subhash, also a BITS, Pilani alum helped too. Continue reading “Fourth In The Series: “Meet The Author” – Vikram Sampath”
Here’s a brief announcement. The interview scheduled for March 15 with Vikram Sampath has, I am afraid, been postponed. He has been awfully busy the last few weeks and travelling like crazy. It is understandable that he asked for some more time to participate in the series of interviews I am doing on this blog called, “Meet The Author.”Stay tuned for more on this.
It has its challenges. Its moments of despair. You feel like tearing your hair apart. There is so much to be done and so little time. The ideas are there and so are the thoughts but they disappear when you settle down to capture them. And of course, there are moments of exhilaration. Of joy. Of seeing your creation take shape and ultimately emerge as a sell-able product, a book. An author’s life is fun. At the end of the day, you need the passion to keep at it, to keep going, which means to keep writing. Continue reading “On Writing”
You would have seen her articles in whichever newspaper you take in. Be it the Deccan Herald, The Hindu, The Times of India or the Hindu Metroplus. As a free-lance journalist, she reviews books, restaurants, events, and writes about a wide variety of topics that catch her fancy. These range from “On Ageing”, to “The Nilgiris.” Not that they are linked except in minds like mine since I spent my childhood in The Nilgiris and now can more readily relate to issues associated with ageing. But we won’t spend too much time on that! Even though a disclaimer is not strictly called for, I must tell you that Sheila’s husband, Col. Sunil Kumar, Indian Army, (retd) and I go back a long, long time, when we were kids together at the Lawrence School, Lovedale, hence the hang up on The Nilgiris and the Army and stuff like that.
Today, we have something far more interesting to talk about. I would like you to meet Sheila Kumar. She is an accomplished writer who has worn many a hat, which I will leave her to describe to you in her own way. As she maintains, “Good writing will stay the course.”
Her book “Kith and Kin- Chronicles of a Clan” a collection of short stories set in Kerala has received wide acclaim. Here are two of the many favourable reviews of the book, the first by Winnowed, and another in the Timeout, Mumbai. You can order her book easily from Flipkart. Don’t you love that cover? Your mind takes you back to the green paddy fields and the blue backwaters of colourful Kerala, which is the backdrop for some of the stories of the Melekat clan.
Through this interview, the third in the “Meet the Author” series in this blog, I would like you to hear what Sheila has to say about her writing and about herself.
1 Tell us a little bit about yourself. To what extent did your life as an Army wife fashion your thinking and outlook. Was it an advantage or a disadvantage? What led to your becoming an author?
I was an army brat before I became an army wife. My life became somewhat compartmentalized: there was the wife of Capt., then Major, then Colonel Kumar, clad in chiffon and pearls, going about her various quasi-official duties as an army wife. And there was Sheila Kumar, somewhat wild, somewhat wacky, avid reader, avid theatergoer, avid word wielder. Actually, army life had little or no impact on my far- from- secret life as a writer.
I was a published writer at the age of 12….it was a given that I would end up a writer. Of what, was yet unclear at the time but that too fell into place eventually!
2. Who were some of the authors you admired? Who, in some sense, influenced your writing style and choice of subjects?
It’s a Holy Trinity, the authors I admire: Shakespeare, PG Wodehouse and Ayn Rand. It’s all about their style, substance and context. However, truth to tell, none of the three has actually influenced my writing style. I write because there is a compulsion to write. I don’t pick my choice of subjects, they pick me to tell their stories.
Adwoman with HTA/JWT/OBM; journalist, features writer, book editor, army wife… it has been many hats through the years. At some level, I’m sure that has shaped my writing, just as it has my life. I am an instinctive writer. I write and watch what I write take a definitive shape of its own. Nine times out of ten, I’m happy with that shape.
3. You have a hectic schedule as I can imagine. How do you find the time to pursue your passion for writing? What would you recommend to so many people out there who would love to write but fear they “don’t have the time.” How different is it for example to write a book as distinct from writing articles for the newspapers?
Writing is more than a passion for me, it comes to me as easily as I breathe. So, making time for writing is akin to making the effort to breathe. I hold the crown for the laziest person I know (!) and it is a crown I am loath to give up. Despite that, I meet all my deadlines, I write about anything and everything that catches my fancy.
I’d say that all those years in journalism does give one an edge: the language gets more fine-tuned, the turns of phrases gets more adroit, everything one puts down on paper or the computer, gets a thorough makeover.
I’ve always preferred feature writing to reportage, so when I started to write a book, playing kingmaker and creating a motley set of characters…and they don’t come more motley than the Melekat clan in my book! … was good fun.
4. Tell us briefly about your book. What prompted you to choose this theme?
I’ve been a journalist (with The Times of India, with Femina, with Delhi Times, and now as a freelance) for many years, carving out a niche as travel writer, food writer and book reviewer. `When are you bringing out your first book,` people would ask me; everyone was certain that I would author a book, many books, perhaps! Well, for years there was no book inside me. And one fine day, there was. The book had a gestation period of six months in my brain, then the words came pouring out. And Kith and Kin, my first book, a collection of short stories linking all the characters to one central Kerala clan, was done inside seven months.
Let me tell you about Kith and Kin The stories are a funny, wry, sad, bold and timorous take on life. What happens to the Melekat clan happens to people everywhere. Life throws all sorts of things at us; the real story lies in how we deal with the onslaught.
Is any part of Kith and Kin autobiographical? Only in the broadest sweep. I will quote Zadie Smith here: it is not autobiographical but it has the intensity of the personal.
Kith and Kin has been reviewed by just about every major newspaper and the reviews have mostly been good. I don’t for a minute take that for granted…I give thanks instead!
5. What would you say as parting words of advice to new authors, budding authors and the many who would love to see their work in print?
Write. Keep writing. Write, rewrite, polish your work and send it off to publications. Every book has its reader and in the process, has its publisher, too. If it’s good. I firmly believe that, in the long run, only good writing will stay the course. The rest will fall by the wayside…some moments in the sun and then, oblivion. Where quality publishing is concerned, the doors have opened wide but it is still a by-invitation-only event.
My blog: http://bindersfullawords.blogspot.in/ is a repository of some of my published work.
Thank you, Sheila and we wish you every success for “Kith and Kin” and the books we will see from you in the future.
I was delighted to be invited to join the panel of judges for the 7th Annual Short Story Challenge 2013, organized by NYC Midnight. It was an honor for me to accept. Continue reading “7th Annual Short Story Challenge 2013”
Until this morning, I hadn’t. That is I hadn’t heard of the Diagram Prize. A small item in today DNA newspaper caught my attention. It said “Judge The Book By It’s Title.” It went on to speak of an annual award run by the trade magazine, The Bookseller for the oddest title of the year. Apparently, in the race for this year’s award are titles like, ” Was Hitler Ill”, “How Tea Cosies Changed The World”, and “Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop.” Continue reading “Have You Heard Of The Diagram Prize?”
A writing project I am currently engaged in is the editing of my third thriller, “Let The Dead Stay Dead.” I found it quite fascinating to return to this manuscript which had been put on the back burner in October 2012. You may recall that I had written the first 50,000 words for “Let The Dead Stay Dead” during NaNoWriMo of 2011. Continue reading “Editing “Let The Dead Stay Dead””
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 