My first book is here!

My debut picture book - Mala's Silver Anklets - for babies (I mean the 2-3 year old variety). Loved love loving the illos of Nancy Raj, she has brought so much life to my character. Thanks to Tulika...the first step to my dreams of being published has happened.

buy here: http://www.tulikabooks.com/picbooks41.htm

Check out the launch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFR88mjnnfI

Cecil the Lost Sheep

I'm an online book scavenger, which basically means any downtime I get at office I'm on scribd or searching for websites that will let me read books for free. I get my fix, and don't have to pay for it. (I know, sad isn't it?). So, I was on scribd the other day and came across this cute children's book published by Zondervan. Cecil the Lost Sheep takes a parable from the Bible and makes it into a very non-religious story. I got the sense that I could share this story with kids as a stand alone piece or relate it with the Bible... would work either way. The book encouraged me to keep alive my dream of writing Bible stories.... here you go

Cecil the Lost Sheep, Full Book

Where a writer finds work

During my school days in the U.S., when I wasn't stacking books at the library, dealing with young blondes who thought War & Peace were two different books, trying to get a hang of cooking for myself, understanding the complicated code of American fashion, and thanking God for Karls Jr. burgers, I was trying to make money on the side. Freelancing is a wonderful world of banging your head on your laptop, downing enough coffee to send the world into a crisis, negotiating Google with the ease of a mariner... all this while you're trying to whip up 5-6 articles (300-500 words) a day that would sell at $5 a piece. Back then $30 was my ticket to a social life. But freelancing was a definite art... reserved for those who knew their subject from object, verb from adverb, and the usage of articles. And then I moved to India...
... and realized that young 18-year-olds, who could barely stitch a sentence together in propah English, were earning an average of 2000 Rs per day by simply spinning out works that would have made the Mary Poppins type of proofreader throw her pencil down and take enough Valium to leave a small village floating in never ending ecstasy. Which meant that the people who paid me $5 for an article when I was still in school, were now offering me $1 for that same type of work... and throwing my highly polished resume and portfolio at them didn't help in the least. The likes of me had been overthrown by some Meenakumari who was willing to write a full length essay for a dollar... and eagerly churned out 5 of those in a day! But I still persevere.... still knock on the doors of freelancedom, still demand quality rates for quality works... and feel like the heroine in Mother India. Sigh.
But for all you aspiring freelancers out there, here is a site that helped me find people who wanted serious writing and not seriously compromised writing. Happy Freelancing Sisters/ Brothers!

chillibreeze

Calling all writers in Chennai

So I'm obsessed. Completely and totally. With what you ask? With the idea of starting a writer's group in the hot and dusty city of Chennai. Now, I've always jumped in defense of Chennai if any dared besmirch its name by calling it conservative and duller than a certain stephanie meyer book. "I mean look at the pubs we have," I say. "And the fashion shows. What about the amazing theatre line up? Or did you ever step into any of the happening restaurants?" so on and so forth.
But I am feeling sheepish to say that I haven't found a Childrens Creative Writing Group in this wonderful place. (If I just exhibited a spectacular amount of ignorance and you know of groups like that thriving here, please do find it in your heart to forgive me and spare a shoe in the process)
So, like I said I'm obsessed. I really weally want to start group or be part of such a group. If you happen to be an individual who shares my obsession, simply hollr!