Edward M. Carpenter nominated me for the Versatile Blogger award. To accept, I state seven random facts about myself and tag fifteen other bloggers. A great way to get to know more about me and for you to meet other bloggers I’m a big fan of.
Here goes:
1. I never learned how to ride a bike.
2. Chocolate chip cookies from Subway can brighten my day.
3. I do stand up comedy.
4. Braveheart is my favorite movie.
5. My Ph.D. is in Postcolonial Literature.
6. There are only three cities in which I’ve lived longer than six years.
7. Arabic and Chinese are two languages I’ve studied (and not mastered!)
With the birth of a new industry, it’s not uncommon to have other associated services pop up. When you’re making a car, for example, you’ll also need upholstery, wheels, and even consumer reviews to tell you which car is the best for your lifestyle.
The same is true of book publishing. Years ago, like in 2000, you waited for magazines to tell you what to read. Or maybe word of mouth from your book club, librarian, or other literary source. The introduction of the e-book poured kerosene on the self publishing industry. Commercial publishers began looking at download rates and purchase prices to see what authors were now risk worthy. As more and more writers began flooding the market, and more platforms like Smashwords became available, suddenly it was was difficult to pick your indie read as a paperback.
Enter the book blogger. Book bloggers are a self selected literati who read, review, and blog about books because they love them. They don’t get paid, are often juggling hectic work and personal schedules, and in many cases are berated by authors for not being available. They do it because they read something exciting and they want you to know about it. OR they had a terrible experience and they want to warn you so that you can get to your long list of to-reads.
As an independent author, I couldn’t have gotten the international coverage of my book without these faithful word warriors. They are as professional and polished as any reviewer you’ll find out there.
As part of Celebrating Bloggers week, I’m sharing some of the recent book bloggers who have come my way. Check out their blogs, follow them. You may find a book or two that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
What blogs do you follow? Leave some suggestions so we can all support these wonderful people who are writers in their own right.
Fellow writer and Tribemate on Triberr, Justin Bog, tagged me in an innovative writer
La tristesse de Sîtâ (Preah Khan, Angkor) (Photo credit: dalbera)
meme where we each post ten answers about a work in progress. I’m going to answer based on the work I’m doing for the first novel I ever tried to write and now the third one that will be released.
1. What is the working title of your book?
An Unlikely Goddess
2. Where did the idea come for the book?
This is the classic coming of age story about a young girl growing up in the U.S. as the child of South Indian immigrant parents. People will no doubt ask how much of the story is autobiographical (an editor already has). The protagionst’s trajectory is more the sum of a series of eexpereinces, real and imagined, mine and those of others.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
Literary fiction
4. Which characters would you choose to play your characters in the movie version?
Hmmm… I love to discover new talent. And this cast would be mostly South Indian so the film may be a great way to highlight some new up and coming actors.
5. What is the one sentence synposis of your book?
Where will Sita find the community she longs for? Within the Hindu culture she grew up in or amongst the Christians she chose for herself?
6. Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?
I’ve shopped the manuscript around to several agents over the years it’s been in progress and received the standard “much to be admired but we didn’t love it.” This is one of the many projects that sparked my decision to go into self publishing.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I’m not great at keeping up with dates like this because I don’t write down when I start a project but I do know that it was sometime in 2003 that I started. The latest revision is easier to pinpoint since it started in August.
8. What other books would you compare this story with in your genre?
In some ways this is like the female version of The Namesake by Jhumpha Lahiri.
9. What or who inspired you to write this book?
I wanted to write a book about immigrant life that focused on a younger protagonist and a family that struggled to make good on the American dream since so many of the other stories in this genre feature thirtysomethings in suburbia.
10. What else about your book might pique a reader’s interest?
The search for happiness is universal so I hope readers recognize themselves in Sita.
Now I get to tag five other writers so you check out their work and hopefully they’ll post about their new projects as well.
1. Lynn Boston, author of The Third Eye triology. A rolicking first installment on finding out about past lives and buried treasure.
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