The year 2023 was remarkably kind to me as an author. It was a year full of lit fests, school visits, and, most importantly, new stories!
Uncontrollable
What can I say about Uncontrollable, my first verse novel?
Dhara's Revolution
Dhara’s Revolution has received so much love! A chapter book about friendship, voting and making a difference, it’s gathered some lovely reviews online, besides having been shortlisted for the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Prize for Children’s Fiction!
Published in August 2023, Dhara’s Revolution is my third chapter book, and I hope to introduce it to my book club soon.
Picture Books
Nail Tree and Making a Clone are rhyming picture books, published by Oxford University Press as part of their Reading Portal.
The Reading Portal is a digital library and a gateway to contemporary Indian children’s literature across a wide variety of genres. The picture books offer a read-along feature, with images that move. It also has fun vocabulary quizzes and a ‘Rate the story’ feature that allows learners to leave a review.
These two books were a l-o-o-n-g time in the making. I sent “Making a Clone” to OUP in July 2019! It was commissioned in 2020, and then after the pandemic, it finally saw light of day in January 2023!
Hide and Seek
Dance, Nani, Dance is a delightful collection of short stories about grandparents, and I’m thrilled to have my story “Hide and Seek” as part of the anthology.
Lit Fests
Bookaroo is always special, but when Bookaroo is in Srinagar …? All the more so! In June 2023, I was part of the vibrant children’s literature festival, sharing Sisters at New Dawn and The Prophecy of Rasphora with new readers in a state I had never visited. I was so excited when I got back that I blogged about it too, something that I neglected to do for all the other lit fests I attended!
The Neev Literature Festival is another grand event, the perfect place to launch Uncontrollable, my middle-grade fantasy in verse. For the second time in my life (the first was at AFCC 2018), I say my book for the first time at the festival bookstore! I even had to borrow a copy for my launch!
The Lit Bug Fest also came back to Pune, and I was happy to do an event on The Best Idea of All, in keeping with the theme of environment!
School Visits and Author Interactions
The fact that I cannot remember how many schools I visited in 2023 says a lot! Sharada Mandir in Kadamba, Mahindra International School and Dr Dada Gujar English Medium School in Pune, VIBGYOR, One World International and Redbridge Academy in Bengaluru, Bombay International School in Mumbai … I took my books all over the country last year. This was in addition to events at Crossword (Pune), Funky Rainbow (Bengaluru) and Kahaani Box (Bengaluru). I did online interactions too, notably one for the Neev Literature Festival because my book, Sisters at New Dawn, was part of their reading challenge this year.
An exciting year has come to an end, and another exciting year has begun. I’m all set for more stories, more writing, more adventures!
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