Miss Read

Miss Read: it’s the name of one of my all-time favorite authors. Dora Saint was her real name, but she was better known by her pseudonym, Miss Read. Dora Saint worked as a school teacher before she began to write full time. She admittedly gleaned many of the subjects and topics for her numerous novels [...]

Read Full Post »

Dystopian Fantasy

Merriam Webster dictionary defines Dystopia as: An imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives Anti-Utopia Dystopia derives from the combination of the two Greek words dys (meaning bad/hard) and topia (meaning place/landscape). Dystopia is also sometimes referred to as Cacotopia. Humans have always been fascinated with imagining what future — near or far [...]

Read Full Post »

Books For Less

During my trip to India, I took a delightful detour to a medium-sized bookstore in one of the cities I visited. Owing to its unassuming name — Jyoti Book Depot — I entered the store willing myself not to get my hopes up too much. (I know, shame on me for judging a bookstore by [...]

Read Full Post »

Another Recipe From My WIP: Mango Lassi

The main character (MC) in my current WIP (Work-In-Progress) loves Mango Lassi. Her dad, who is the better cook in the family and who also happens to be putty in my MC’s hands, makes it for her whenever she craves it. This version of the recipe has been customized for my MC’s tastes. Basically, it’s simpler [...]

Read Full Post »

Old Friends

Posted originally on: February 4, 2010 Today seems to be more of a day to muse than ramble. I’ll leave you all with some passages from some of my all-time favorite books – in both children’s and adult categories. Pick up any one of them from a bookshelf and spend some time with it, if [...]

Read Full Post »

Epigraphs

Pictograph. Bar Graph. Line Graph. Epigraph. If you’re thinking this is going to be a lesson in math, rest assured — it’s not!  :-) Even though there is a concept of ‘epigraph’ in math, today I’m using this word very much in the context of writing. Merriam Webster online defines an epigraph as:             A [...]

Read Full Post »

Miniature World

I sat in my idling car at the tail end of the school’s carpool line, with an open book in my lap. My mind was elsewhere, mulling over this and that. I noticed a bright flash of color through the corner of my eye and turned to my left. I saw a little girl, clad [...]

Read Full Post »

The Essence of a Book

Ever notice that each well-written book has one quote or an instance of narrative inside it that embodies the essence of that book? I was skimming through some books, which I recently read/re-read, paying closer attention to the authors’ style and characterization techniques, and voice and the way they played with plots and sub-plots. It [...]

Read Full Post »

Perspective

I don’t know how much truth there is in the saying that you grow wiser as you grow older, but I definitely know of one thing that never stops changing (no, by that I don’t mean your nose which never stops growing – ack!!) as long as you live. It is your perspective; your viewpoint. [...]

Read Full Post »

Quoatable Quotes

Here’s some sage advice (and gripes and commiserations) from writers who have been there and done that. All of them made me go “Exactly! That is so true!” or “That’s how it should be!” when I first came upon them; so I thought I’d pass them along… Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.  [...]

Read Full Post »