Thanks to Jaswant Singh, former External Affairs Minister of India for writing ” Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence” a scholarly treatise on what actually happened before the calamity of the Partition of India way back in 1947. The publication of the book ( Rupa & Co 2009) stirred up a great deal of controversy. Singh was expelled from the BJP- in which party he had grown to be an admired leader. There was a school of thought that he did wrong in praising Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Actually that makes for an interesting debate which is the central theme of the book.
For those who remember Calcutta- as Kolkata was then called- in the 70’s, images of the city will probably reek of strikes, gheraos and cries of ” cholbe na”. You can see the crowds gather for yet one more union or political rally. The strident speeches of the leaders, the dutiful acknowledgements of the followers. The grime and the crowds are everywhere yet the city had a certain charm. Set largely in Kolkata is Neel Chowdhury’s “The Inheritors” published by Random House India. Rahul Jayaram’s review in Businessworld pretty much sums it up.
By the time I was born in 1951, Mahatma Gandhi was dead for three years. He was killed on January 30, 1948. Everyone knows who killed Gandhi. Not many know why he was killed. Every school child in India- at least of my generation- knows he was killed by Nathuram Godse. But who was Godse? And why did he kill someone who was called The Father of the Nation? Not too many know his story. I didn’t- to be honest- until I came across ” The Men Who Killed Gandhi“.
To be honest, I didn’t quite realize the significance of the first few lines of the story until I became serious about learning to write. To justify my point, let me ask you something. You have read hundreds of books. How many first lines do you remember? Probably none, might be an honest answer. However, if you think about it deeply, if you are in the business of writing
Nathan Bransford needs no introduction. His is a very popular blog. It also has a forum where you can share and gain a lot through interacting with many others. In this 2008 post, he writes of what he calls a basic step Finding a Literary Agent. I am sure you will find this as useful as I did.
Continue reading “Nathan Bransford on Finding a Literary Agent”
Most of us are creatures of habit. We do some things and keep doing them purely, as they say, out of habit. Unfortunately, there are good as well as bad habits! When it comes to writing, do you have a pet peeve or a habit you are conscious of ? Continue reading “Writing to Inspire”
Chip MacGregor started MacGregor Literary in Hillsboro, OR and has been in the business for a long time. Like many literary agents who share their experiences, Chip too offers useful advice to budding authors who dream of getting their work published. Read what he has to say on ” Choosing An Agent “. It covers a lot of ground on
There are lists of literary agents, there are forums for you to participate in and there are a million useful things you can pick up by reading stuff at Agent Query. AQ Connect takes you into a world where many like you share their problems, their views, their frustrations ( about writing , of course) and give you a lot of feedback. Jump in and check it out.
Here’s a link that would be interesting to track. Apparently every Sunday, Jane Friedman, publisher and editorial director of the Writer’s Digest community, puts together some of the best tweets for writers that she has seen over the last week. Continue reading “Best Tweets for Writers”
Many successful authors have taken the time and effort to share their thoughts on publishing your novel. Here is what Simon Haynes, known for the Hal Spacejock series has to say on ” How To Write A Novel ” . There are some good tips here for people like me.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 