(EDIT: You can buy it here.) What happens when you take twenty writers and illustrators and ask them to imagine the future? Well, something fantastic and magical, you can be sure. We know because we did it. And the result is Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean, a collection of young adult speculative fiction—including six […]
Week #37: My top 10 young adult reads
This list is a result of the Indiblogger #loveofreading topic, asking bloggers to list their 10 favourite books. So I thought I’d put my own spin on things and make it about the young adult novels I loved most. (Disclaimer: My top 10 is subject to change at any time, without any reason!) So here […]
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Week #36: Stories from Okhla
What’s special about your home? That was the question that filmmaker and fellow writer Samina Mishra and her friend Sherna Dastur asked about two dozen children in Okhla, Delhi. In reply, they wrote and drew about their lives and their homes, about ‘the terraces, mosques and train tracks that lead to the villages that their […]
Week #35: Freelance blogging for money?
Even though I call myself a writer, I spend a goodly portion of my working life not writing. Unless I’ve just signed a book contract, most of my income comes from copy-editing rather than writing. Most of the time, I don’t think it’s a bad way to earn a living. But that’s not to say […]
Week #34: Inspired in Germany
On my latest travels, in Germany, I started off in Berlin being suitably umimpressed. This wasn’t my idea of a European capital—it was sort of seedy and overgrown, with a distinct lack of pretty. But the more time I spent, the more it grew on me. By the time I left a week later, I […]
Week #33: Holiday reading round-up
Five books in 16 days is no big deal. But five books in 16 days while on holiday might raise some eyebrows. I’m quite puzzled myself—it must not have been a very exciting holiday if, on average, I read a third of a book every day. As chronicled in my last post, the first 10 […]
Week #32: Travelling light
There is a good reason for the neglect of 52 Weeks of Reading and Writing: I’m on holiday and having too much fun to worry about blogging. But the very mention of holiday brings up the conundrum of reading material. What to take along? How many? Only thin books or fat ones too? Well, this […]
Week #31: Would I write for free?
A week ago, Gargi asked this question in her blog post that got me thinking: Would I write for free? Short answer: No. Slightly longer answer: Since I make part of my income as a professional writer, it would be extremely foolhardy to stop taking money for it or go around offering my services for […]
The Vani Foundation Fellowship 2014
The Vani Foundation will award four fellowships, each of Rs 20,000, to two writers and two illustrators of children’s books at Jumpstart 2014. The winners also get to attend a Jumpstart 2014 Masterclass. Fellowship Mentors Gulzar (poet, filmmaker and award-winning lyricist) Paro Anand (children’s author) Application guidelines Submissions are invited from writers in Hindi, English […]
Week #30: Book review of Bad Boy
For a change on time, and a book review too. Bad Boy is the nineteenth Chief Inspector Banks mystery, and time Banks has a very personal stake in things as his daughter is held hostage by a psychopath. As the book blurb says, “A policeman’s daughter should know better.” Read the full review here. ~PD