As the year 2016 comes to an end, sharing this last edition of the year, which has the regular features like some great books, some thoughts and Creative people of Chennai in Chennai Colors. However as the year was coming to an end, I started a new section, “SPOTLIGHT’. This is my small effort to support upcoming authors in their effort to reach their readers. And yes, it is FREE, however to be featured in this section, you need to go through a selection process, please click here for details. Now here is what this last edition of the year contains…
A: THOUGHTS
As I started speaking in public forums, after my first book Songs of the Mist's publication, I realise how hard it is to speak from the podium. But believe me, talking to people who have just come to listen to you, leaving their far more important work at home or office. They do expect you to give them something to think, make it worth their while as you come up on stage....
B: READER
Some times some books chose you rather than you choosing them to read. In the three years that I have been reading some lovely books through our 'Sans Serif book club' initiative, this book connected with me at deeper level. The tentative steps taken by R K Narayan - one of the Indian pioneers of writing in English, is endearing and courageous.
“Women without love lose the light in their eyes, women without love die while they are still alive. “ - Elena Ferrante in her book 'The Days of Abandonment'. Now that I guess will give you a little idea what kind of suffering the book painted as our Sans Serif Book club members plunged into reading. It is so intense that you feel like skipping those painful pages, which was quite difficult for me as I don’t like to leave even one word unread.
C: WORKSHOPS
As the tight grip of Publishers, distributors and established & influential Author’s nexus loosened up on the Publishing Industry in the Kindle Age, the floodgates opened up for new authors and new writing styles. Every day, there are millions of books getting published through online platforms. But why this rush? No one is actually making money apart from a very miniscule number of online authors. So why people are writing all the time?
The agenda of my talk was to get the aspiring author to understand what goes on behind making a best seller and how a budding writer can work on the ideas to get to the top. And here are the main points from the workshop.
CHENNAI COLORS
When the famous Tamil Movies director, producer and scriptwriter N Lingusamy called me to meet, I was sure that it would be a short curtsy visit to discuss our mutual passion of writing Haiku. But as the day went by, I realised that its going to take some time. He has a disarming charm that makes the words flow and time moved on swiftly.
SPOTLIGHT:
Sara Secora is a well-branded Voice Over artist, who has turned her talents to the arduous task of authoring a fantasy trilogy. I usually don’t write about YA / Romance / Fantasy books but as I interacted with her for this SPOTLIGHT, I realised behind the seemingly carefree, fun loving façade, lies a passionate young girl who is taking life on her own terms.
A psychological thriller that is partly based on a true story; combined with conspiracy and a deaf art student. It is a story about a deaf art student’s past, which unveils a 19th century conspiracy about the identity of Jack the Ripper.
A cliff-hanger in which myriad lives come together. Here, as you read on, you will find many eras colliding, as they are all connected by threads in a tapestry that needs to be unraveled, one thread at a time,
The author is from Punjab - India, who was a banker before the writing bug hit him with full force. Just after retirement he decided to pen down his memoirs of 35 years, which was a unique journey from Guwahati to Machhiwara.
MISCELLENIA
“For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the out come of many years of thinking....” says Virginia Woolf and in my opinion, to put that body of thinking, in a common voice, one needs a space where the thoughts and ideas can freely flow...
It is not our experiences that got our species to the top position on the evolution scale. We are there because of the innovative way we have responded to our given situation over the millennia. And that’s the essence of this year’s theme of TEDx Chennai, “Erasing the Box”
I hope you have liked this last edition of the year 2016. Wish you all a very happy and prosperous year 2017. Please do let me know if you have any queries or question. Please do leave a comment as well.
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Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय
