Yes, this is the three-hundredth post on my blog.It feels like just a few days ago that I signed my nine-page-contract for The Story-Catcher and asked two friends to witness it. It feels like just a few days ago that I read the proofs and sent them back to my editor. It feels like just a few days ago that I received the first copies of The Story-Catcher and began to talk about a website and maybe, in the near future, a blog.It feels like just yesterday that my website was launched. (How proud I was of it!) It feels like just yesterday that I started writing a blog. (People started reading it. People started subscribing to it.)And now, it's my three-hundredth post.Twelve categories. Ninety-four approved comments. One hundred and eighty-three tags.And now, my three-hundredth post. … [Read more...]
5 Writers of Fiction Who Have Hugely Influenced Me
Today, in a class about the role of literature in society, I began to think. Of course I love reading. Naturally a lot of my favourite writers have influenced my writing. I know I consciously started using adverbs more after reading Georgette Heyer. But then, I also began to wonder, which writers made me who I am?And then, I came up with my top five writers of fiction. I have no idea who I'd be without them.Enid Blyton When friends tell me that their parents threatened to send them to boarding school if they were too naughty, I realise that that's one threat that would never have worked for me. Simply because I have cotton-candy ideas that boarding school consists of nothing but midnight parties.L.M. Montgomery Anne taught me two things - one, it's not such a bad thing to be talkative and two, imagination is a truly wonderful thing. Emily's 'flashes' and Anne's wild imagination … [Read more...]
A Doll’s House
I love how time changes the way I read a play. I read A Doll's House. Again. I imagined how it would be on stage. I cringed, yes. I closed my eyes, yes. But I enjoyed it. I read it cover to cover without needing a break. I did not worry about how good or bad a translation it is. I just saw it as it was - a play that has the power to make you squirm from the time the curtains are drawn open to the time the door is slammed shut.And just about seven months ago, I wrote:The Norwegian playwright I had never heard of - that's how I once began to read the play. It was far more powerful than Ghosts, and far more interesting than An Enemy of the People. I wonder why I made those judgements. Now, I cringe at so much more and wonder about how good the translation is. That's what studying English does to you. Yet, it's a strong play. It's one that I still read with the whole bag of emotions - … [Read more...]
Airs Above the Ground
I remember quite enjoying Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart. Maybe I didn't like it as much as The Ivy Tree or Madam, Will You Talk? but I did enjoy it.This time, I enjoyed the beginning. The Spanish Riding School, the levade, Timothy in his awkward state between adolescence and adulthood... I smiled through all of it. I liked the sudden unreliability of the narrative voice, the same technique that blew me over in The Ivy Tree. I liked the balance between description and narration.In fact, I think I liked the story till the husband makes an appearance.Is it just me or is the novel too full of dramatic action and corny romance to be really enjoyable? … [Read more...]
Day One: Colour your Thoughts
At the British Library workshop for the 5-7 age-group today, I read out a story about a black dog.Mr Hope is afraid of the black dog because it's as big as a tiger. Mrs Hope is afraid of the black dog because it is as big as an elephant. Adeline Hope is afraid of the black dog because it's as big as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Maurice Hope is afraid of the black dog because it is as big as Big Jeffy."What do you think Big Jeffy is?" I asked."I think it's a very very very very very very very very very very very big alien," responded one six-year-old.We discussed what an alien is. We discussed whether or not aliens are friendly, whether or not aliens are like humans, whether or not aliens are monsters, and whether or not aliens have LASER guns. But we all agreed to the suggestion that Big Jeffy was an alien.One of the children, when it came to colouring her thoughts, drew a big, … [Read more...]
Another Foggy Day
It was not a cold morning, so when I reached school, I was more than a little surprised to see that it resembled a hill-station once more. Once again, there was no school.I stepped out of the warm bus and was astounded to see that when I breathed, there was steam coming out of my nostrils! Perhaps it's necessary to mention here that sometimes, when everyone else can create steam by breathing out, I often can't. My breath, I've concluded before, simply is not warm enough."Good morning," two colleagues greeted me.I was still so caught up with the smoke coming out from my nostrils that I did not even think about my unconventional response to their greeting. "Good morning, I feel like a dragon!" … [Read more...]
Colour your Ideas
My first workshop as part of the Creepy House Reading Challenge is this Sunday! A workshop for the little ones (age 5-7), I call it ...Read Aloud and Colour your Thoughts! Sunday 12th January, 2014. 11:00 am - noon Stories are always more fun when they have pictures. When they have more pictures, they are more interesting! So read a story, or listen to a story and imagine... Whatever you imagine, put down on paper. Draw and colour images from what you read – fill your ideas with colour! The best illustration will receive a prize. If the children are old enough and comfortable enough, I will ask them to read. If not, I'll read out to them. The children will be given paper and crayons. I'm excited to see what they come up with! … [Read more...]
The White Horse of Zennor and Other Stories
I love short stories! I wrote in my diary not very long ago, I think short stories are far more exciting to write because they capture a spark of imagination that lasts right through the moment of the story. A full-length novel... It begins with the spark, but for me involves more laborious imagination and less exciting inspiration.I've read The White Horse of Zennor and Other Stories before, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Writing about the sea is an old idea. I think, of course, of Tennyson and so many others. Michael Morpurgo captures the same excitement and thrill of the sea in stories that mix the traditional and the modern.Magic, folk-tales and a very willing suspension of disbelief come together to create stories that are filled with wonder. The first story, The Giant's Necklace, made me sad, but it was so gently told, with such great sensitivity, … [Read more...]
All Because of Jackson
There's a bubble of contentment within me whenever I read Dick King-Smith, and All Because of Jackson is no different.Filled with delightful pictures and dreams, All Because of Jackson is the story of a rabbit. Of course, with Dick King-Smith, it has to be about an animal. An animal that is perfectly ordinary, but different.Different because Jackson the rabbit wants to be a sailor. No rabbit becomes a sailor! Human beings eat rabbits!But Jackson wants to be a sailor.And so he does.All Because of Jackson is a twenty-minute voyage of joy! … [Read more...]
Moon Pie
Every page of Simon Mason's Moon Pie rang true. On the book-cover, I remember reading that someone called it an 'ultra-modern' story. I was not sure what to expect.I certainly did not expect this kind of brutal honesty. It made me shake my head and cry.Eleven-year-old Martha is puzzled by her father's strange behaviour. Martha's mother is dead, and the girl assumes that her father is grieving and so, naturally, behaving strangely.But Martha's mother always said that someone had to think straight, someone had to keep his head.So Martha has to keep her head. After all, she is eleven, she tells herself. She is old enough to take care of herself, to take care of her five-year-old brother Tug and to make endless lists of things to do to maintain order despite her father's strange behaviour. She is eleven. She cooks, makes lists and tries to do the things on the list.One … [Read more...]