Dreams Galore

Ever felt a book was bad? Why do you think it was bad? It had spelling errors. It had grammatical errors. The characters acted weird all of a sudden. The plot had holes. The story jumped its way to the end.  The location/profession/etc. was absolutely nonsensical.  A few of the many reasons why readers shun a book, and finally an author.  If you want your book to sell well, remembering this one thing would help you write better: My Readers Are Not Stupid. They Pay For My Book Because They Think It's Worth It.  Prove it.  Make full use of the spell & grammar checker. Hire a professional proofreader/editor. Talk to your characters. Make them real with real reactions. Get your book beta-read to identify plot holes that you might have missed.  Do your research. Talk to people. Don't just google. Last but not the least, revise it as many times as possible till it has the same quality that your favorite book ha...

Courtesy:Radial Direct Of late, I have come across a lot of digital short stories and anthologies over various forums. Authors are excited about this new phenomenon where each story range typically from 8K-10K word count. I have never bought a short story yet but I have enjoyed quite a few as giveaways. I know a lot others who feel the same way and prefer the longer versions of a story. Yet, there is no smoke without fire. If they are being written with much enthusiasm, there is an audience too. Hence, it piqued my interest and I went about doing my little research. After reading through readers and authors experience with these digital bite sized stories, I concluded there are two ways to look at the short story reading/selling phenomena. Direct Sales - Selling Short Stories - Single or series There are authors who make a living just by writing and selling short stories. Yes, they do. In fact, Amazon has a dedicated page for shorts known as Kindle Singles . That definitel...

Tomorrow (hopefully!) I am going to experience the first snow in my life. Yeah you read it right. It doesn't snow in India. At least not where I come from and whichever country I have ever visited had snow right after I left! So, I am all excited to welcome the snow (though all my friends are falling in to the pit of gloom complaining!). Funnily it was only yesterday I took this photo capturing the change of season and the approaching winter. And now I am going to face snowfall in October! The suddenness of the news got me thinking. What can we as authors learn from this? Learn from weather, you say? Yes, my idle brain always comes up with something weird. So, here is what I came up this week. Fall, the shedding of leaves, the vibrant colors around after a sunny summer is like the after-glow of success. Things that have gone well. But eventually it fades and comes the winter which in many ways is the downslide of whatever we are doing. Like no one is buying your books, wor...

My weekend was spent editing. So much of editing and all that I could do was worry. Worry if anyone would like my book. Worry if it is worth putting out there for readers. Worry if I have given my best. It also brought with it a hope that it will be better. As I worked through the chapters, there was one particular part that got me all teary. I wanted to share with you all a snippet of my upcoming novel - Memories Rustle. It might not be the next bestseller, but it is special to me. I hope you enjoy this. And later, when the time comes, I hope you would also join Lyla's journey down the memory lane. He stood in front of her resigned, taking in the lovely face he had hurt deeply. He watched as another big tear rolled down her cheek, leaving a trail of gleam on her smooth skin. He instinctively caught the tear midway with his thumb and first finger.  Lyla shivered lightly with shock under his touch. She did not stop him when he came closer, feeling his body touching her...

This is my entry for Blogfest Contest hosted at Brenda Drake's blog : http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/ Genre: Romance “H elp me”, screamed the voice. Alex, covered with mud and sweat looked around the bare rocky edge he was standing at. He could hear the voice from all around him. His face crunched as he tried remembering the face behind the voice. “Who is it? Where are you?”, Alex called out. He was panting, jogging along the treacherous end of the mountain searching for the voice below. The cry of help was urgent and fear tugged his heart. “Help me before it is too late” Fear laced the voice too. Alex stopped to hear the source and he rushed back to where he hoped the man is. He fell on his knees, and put his palms on the brown ground trying to peek below. Ground gave away beyond the point and he staggered back scared. The edge was slanting towards the abyss and he feared he would slip down. “Alex, where are you? Please don’t leave me here. I will die” ...

Today, I am very excited to introduce a very dear friend of mine who graciously accepted to guest blog here! I am doubly happy because this is the first guest blog post too! Cecilia Robert is the author of the exciting fantasy short story series "The Grim Reaper's Novice"! Imagine fantasy story coming to you in installments! She recently shared the first in the series and trust me, its awesome! I am going post the review soon. :)   Without further ado, I introduce you author Cecilia Robert who shares the fascinating journey of discovery behind this book. Here you go! First of all, I want to thank Shilpa for hosting me in her awesome blog.  *sip* mmh the tea is just right temperature.   An amazing host who serves the right kind of beverage during this cold time of year ! Incomparable! *sip again* After moving to Vienna seven years ago, I became fascinated by its beauty and the historical architecture (obsessed is the word). From time to time, I found mys...

By Andre Gunther at http://www.aguntherphotography.com Every evening while I return from work, I deliberately take the seat on the right side of the bus. Because that means I can see the unobstructed view of the glittering New York skyline. If you have ever seen it at night in its glorious sparkling costume, you would know what it looks like. Photographer Andre Gunther captured it in the image above but trust me, seeing it with naked eyes is much more magical. Seeing the sparkling, tall and proud skyline means a lot to me. Its beautiful and inspiring. Everything that a writer would want his book to be. I look at it and think of the success that is possible. It signifies the fundamental rule of nature. Think, innovate, persevere and collaborate - and you have your masterpiece. As a writer, that is essential. It can get you closer to your masterpiece. Remember it need not be a masterpiece for everyone. It needs to be your masterpiece. Your skyline. That is wh...

OK. I have to admit I am neither pro- or against Twilight. The first time I read the book, I finished the series in flat 4 days along with the first two movies. (Yeah, I forgot I needed to sleep as well. I literally adapted our beloved vampire lifestyle! LOL). I enjoyed the books thoroughly and loved Edward. Jacob was mostly irritating to me butting in to their cute love story. But that doesn't mean I liked all the books. "Breaking Dawn" for one was a disappointment for me. I kept feeling it was written because it "had" to be written. For most part, especially Bella's pregnancy (did I mention how difficult it was for me to go through the cruel pregnancy stage?) was a stretch. The only thing which saved the book for me was Jacob's narration in the first part. It was funny to say the least with noteworthy chapter titles! I am sure I would have not completed it if it was Bella narrating it. It would be too much of self-pity!  But I liked the movi...

Yesterday I was frantically searching for an important document that I swear I stored it "safely" but failed to find it. Don't ask me how many times I caught myself wishing I cast the spell - "Accio!" (Please don't tell me you don't recognize this spell from Harry Potter! :D) LOL! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have such convenient powers with us to deal with such crisis? I think so and would love to have some. So that got me thinking. If I can have three super powers from all the fantasy novels that I have read, what would it be? 1. Accio! (Courtesy Harry Potter Series by J.K.Rowling) Yes, I lose a lot of things. I misplace them ALL the time because I always store them too "safely"!! So, finding those safely stored things without breaking in to a sweat would be such a huge relief! Oh, and I also not have to walk to my TV to get the remote. :P 2. Vampiric food habits (Courtesy Vampire Diaries, Twilight, Insatiable, etc) ...

I have both good news and bad news today. Good news is I am finally done with my romance novella that I had been working on since last month! So, that means I have nothing to do but turn it over to my publisher and pray that I don't have to edit too much. Now the bad news. After all the writing I did, I still haven't figured out a name! Isn't that incredible? I have tried hard but nothing really seems to fit it. And if it does fit, its been taken up. I have been crossing off quite a number of names off my list and now, I wonder if it really matters. What's in a name, eh? A good book title is like a magnet to the reader. That piques their interest. The visual hook if I might say. They give an indication to what might be inside. They give meaning to the story that is about to come. But with so many books releasing every week, how are we ever going to get a unique name for our books? I want to ask, how important is the name for you to buy a book? Would you buy a boo...

It can happen to anyone. Even the best selling authors. But that doesn't make it right. I still cannot write. I feel as if words froze on my finger tips and the keyboard is not warm enough to melt it down to them. You know how it feels, right? Then what do I do? Sleep it off? I would probably wake up feeling even more zombie-like than what I am feeling now.  Do I take a break? What if I lose all the steam and forget all my brilliant ideas for the book? Do I force myself to write? Well, I would probably kill my hero in this mood.  So, after a looong time spent at thinking of a solution (with a pack of crispy wafers and coke), I decided to go back to the reason which inspired me to write - books. For most of us, reading inspires writing. It is the same for me. A fine book pushes me to write better. A good book inspires me to pen my own stories. Reading teaches me to write.  So, friends, if an offensive blank page stares back at you, go back...

We readers are impatient. The cover page, synopsis at the back cover, the first page, the first line. We are always looking for the hook. Ever more so, if you are of the internet generation. We have just about 5-10 seconds attention span! Now imagine thousands of wonderful books trying to claim that attention of yours when you are in the bookstore. Well, out of the thousands good books, your attention bows to only about a handful. And finally about couple of books actually make it to the counter. Ever given a second thought to those hooks that actually captivated you? Below are some hooks that worked for me and I guess for lot others too! :) HP and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K.Rowling: "Mr. And Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange ormysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense." Twilight...

Every imagined what would it feel like to be the center of another Harry Potter-like revolution with your first novel? I know its tempting to slip in to that dream world with a dreamy smile but think again. Erin Morgenstern, a debutant author (The Night Circus) is living it and she might not be that thrilled. Well, at least not about some parts of it. Especially not when her book is publicized as the next big thing after Harry Potter and Twilight by none other than Summit Entertainment (production company behind Twilight) even before it is published. Even before anyone has read as much as word of it. Scary, stressful? Hmm. Erin is not alone. There is a high-stake competition out there both in publishing industry and Hollywood to en cash on the starry-eyed readers who have been reading fantasy fiction like never before. Harry Potter might be the trigger, but the fantasy stories are not limit to wizards alone. Vampires are getting an over-kill but they are still thr...

When we look at the beautiful book cover of our favorite bestsellers, we often fail to appreciate the hard work that went behind it. The greatest being of the writer who struggles at every little step right from the first word to the first sale of his book. Most of the stories behind that shiny book cover might sound similar and inspiring, but there are some that take the inspiration quotient a notch higher. The story of Amish Tripathi, the author of the best seller "The Immortals of Meluha" is one such example. Did you know he got over 20 rejections and publishers had told him no one would like to read his book? Yes. He did and when no one agreed to publish it, his agent (God bless him!) did it himself. He invested in the book and came out with 5000 copies as against the normal 3000 for debut authors in the first run. Did you know that the marketing and distribution of the first book of this Shiva Triology "The Immortals of Meluha" was handled by Amish himself? Y...

If I have a choice of both, there has never been an occasion when I picked a novel of any other genre over fantasy. If there is a fantasy book available, it needs to be read first. Period. A lot of my friends feel this way and I wonder what makes us such big fans of fantasy. For me, below are the reasons why fantasy is my number one pick on my bookshelf. 1) There's Magic! - Magic is cool. Magic is fun. Magic is hot. You can shout " Accio " and have whatever you wanted in your hand. How cool is that! Magic sprinkles awe in my fantasy books. It takes me to another world helping me escape the boring, mundane earth for a better, more comfortable atmosphere. It gives my imagination a high.  2) There's Action! - Yes, most of the good fantasy novels have super plots that involves lot of high speed action. You do not have to get tangled in a long, confusing and really useless emotional out pours and relationships between even more confused men and women. In stead enjoy ...

Only sometimes we come across a book that impresses you so much that you change your life's outlook. Even if it is in just a tiny way. The fact that a stranger sitting thousands of miles away could do that with just words written on paper that you bought/borrowed by chance makes it an even greater feat. I feel the author has every right to be proud of it and Kathyrn Stockett must be one proud woman today for she wrote a book that is a must read for everyone. I am just 2 yrs late discussing this wonderful book and dearly thank the producers who are making this in to a movie for that was what drew my attention to it. A very unusual book for me to buy considering only wands and pixies interest me these days. Today I am glad I did. The book is based in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi. It is about three extra-ordinary women who take grave risks to write their story anonymously during the deep and hurting racial divide of the fluid sixties. Unlike the agitating and adrenaline pumping s...

I cannot help but write this post about my favourite book that saw its end on the seventy mm screen this july 15th. It was the Harry Potter franchise and oh, how many of us can vouch that their childhood ended with this screening! While the credits rolled on the screen, I could feel the taste of childhood nostalgia within me. The first snigger at people readng Harry potter books, then the amusing curiosity to know what is it all about. Followed by the curiosity was the fascination with the magic, closely matched by the temptation to indulge in more. The final result was just pure joy and love for the characters and books that never fail to enthuse me. I am sure this has been the story of many others in my age group. Today when I sat in  the theater to watch this movie, I was not surrounded by giggling teenagers. I was with people who grew up with Harry Potter and had come to show their love for him. They were of my age - both girls and boys. They laughed, si...

I do not usually do this but the below quote is from my favourite blog and I just had to share it. Before you wonder more about all of it which is below, let me introduce you to Book Swept. The blog is about outstanding lines from fiction novels accompanied by striking photos that tell the same thing in their own way. I just love the thought-provoking, touching lines that they pluck out from books long-forgotten. Every day when I log in to my blogger account, I check the updates on this blog. Simply put, it makes my day. Today, when I looked it up to get the latest of their posts, I was overwhelmed to find a cluster of few lines which pretty much summarizes my feeling on this subject. Read it and enjoy! Book Swept: White Oleander : "'If evil means to be self-motivated, to be the center of one's own universe, to live on one's own terms, then every artist, every thinker, ..."

Today while spending my precious 40 minutes on my way to office in our company bus, I was listening to songs. Which is not uncommon after the advent of small and cute iPods. As usual I would keep skipping perfectly good songs in favor of others. Most of the time, the song I want to listen to depends on my mood. Sometimes I choose to listen to all energetic and happy songs, while I majorly choose soothing or sad songs when I am looking for relaxation. So, today I chose songs that helped me relax because the morning was not very bright and gloomy. While skipping through, I decided to listen to the famous Enrique song “Addicted”. Now this was not the first time I was listening to it. I had heard it many times before and enjoyed it as well. Yet today when the notes begun, it tugged to my heart and I could feel each and every pain that the character in the song was going through. And along with it started my version of the story. Yes, I day dreamed about how the hero of my story is going ...