Reflecting on my journey as a writer is probably the post I enjoy writing most. Writing is such a slow business and wins are so few and far between that it’s easy to get bogged down by all the endless waiting, the ghosting, and the rejections. Yet, when I look back at my year, I realise, again, how far I’ve come. Each year, I celebrate my wins. I celebrate the books I’ve written and the ones I’m writing.
In brief, here’s what my year brought me:
- two middle-grade books (one was already published by Scholastic Asia, but it came to India in January 2024)
- a Highlights Foundation scholarship to attend a course on revising a verse novel
- dozens of school visits, author events, and lit fests
- … and finally, an agent!
Fishbowl
Fishbowl is my second novel-in-verse for middle-grade readers. In some ways, it’s more ambitious than my first, Uncontrollable, because it’s told in three distinct narrative voices.
The reviews that have started coming in have been heart-warming. They’ve called it ‘beautifully immersive’, ‘a compelling read’ and ‘an emotional journey that truly resonates’.
I’m thrilled that it’s out in the world, and I can’t wait for it to reach more readers!
Red Eyes
It feels a little like cheating to celebrate the publication of Red Eyes as a 2024 win, but the book has finally come to India! Shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award in 2018, it was first published by Scholastic Asia in 2022. It took another two years for it to finally make its way to India!
An middle-grade environmental thriller, I was surprised to hear Red Eyes referred to as science fiction. Perhaps it is, in some way, because it does look at evolutionary possibilities … Whatever labels one may give it, it’s a book that I thoroughly enjoyed writing because it allowed me to immerse myself in the forest and all the stories that guides tell about the birds and beasts that live there.
Lit Fests, Author Events, and School Visits
It’s such a wonderful feeling to take my books to children all over the country! My year began with the Junior Kolkata Literary Meet in January and ended with a lit fest organised by Funky Rainbow at Vivek High School in Chandigarh and Mohali. The months in between took me to Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, as well as to schools all over Pune.
I’m already back from my first lit fest of 2025; the year ahead looks promising!
More Reasons to Celebrate
In 2024, I also received a Highlights Foundation scholarship that I was free to use for an online course of my choice. As I have been working on verse novels for a while now, I decided to take a course on revising my verse novel with Cordelia Jensen.
Although it meant several late nights (classes were at 10:30 pm to start with and then moved to 11:30 pm when Daylight Savings kicked in), it was a rewarding experience.
I loved being at the other end of a classroom once more, and the process of working on my novel with conscious revision tips in mind was quite eye-opening. I am not quite done with my revisions yet, but the course also gave me critique partners, a community to share my love of verse novels with, and valuable constructive feedback!
Perhaps one of the most exciting things to have happened for me in 2024 is that I landed an agent in the UK, Philippa Perry from Show Me the Rabbit. I absolutely love her enthusiasm, and it was utterly heart-warming to hear her say that she wanted to “snap me up before someone else does”. The process from query to tentative offer of rep was two days long. We got on a call at the end of the month, and in no time at all they signed me on! I’m excited to see what the future has in store for us!
In the meantime, more books are in the pipeline, one of which I will be making an announcement about very soon …
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