Meeting deadlines

 I take on the Baton of Blogchatter Ebook Carnival from Medha whose ebook 'The Last Seychelles Flame' is also part of the mix. About Medha's ebook: Adrija has all the qualities for a boy to reject her marriage proposal, and so her parents are worried about finding a groom for her. She moves to Mumbai to become the best fashion photographer and Cupid strikes.. or not.. Will she unite with her true love?  

I took up the Blogchatter E-book challenge for a few reasons chief among which was learning to meet deadlines when it comes to writing. I find it easy to meet deadlines where my profession (teaching) is concerned. While writing, on the other hand, I have been quite a dismal failure. There are two books that I have kept half-finished. Both of them are very important for me and yet I have not been able to find time for completing them. So I decided to give me this challenge: complete the A to Z posts, 26 of them in a month’s time. I succeeded. Of course, I kept the posts short unlike the chapters of the two books which are pretty long running into thousands of words. Nevertheless, completing the Blogchatter challenge gave a boost to my desire to complete the other two books: Autumn Shadows (memoirs) and Black Hole (novel).

The challenge taught me a few lessons about preparing an e-book. I didn’t seek professional help while I put the 26 posts from A to Z into the little book titled Life’s Magic. Lack of professional skills left the book without certain essentials including a cover (which came out as a separate entity!), table of contents and the introductory title page. Well, I’ll seek a little professional help next time J

In the meanwhile, I thank the Blogchatter team for all the fun they provided every now and then with some Twitter jobs and others including this post. I am obliged to them for making me write my first e-book meeting deadlines. I thank my friends and well-wishers who downloaded the booklet, read it and conveyed to me their appreciation.  Some of the messages that came from young readers excited me. That was the best part of this entire exercise.

I look forward to much greater writing. Autumn Shadows which began with these 50-odd words: Insects come to die in my living room. Every morning I sweep them into the dustpan from beneath the CFL bulb where they lie dead in a heap of atomic dark spots while Maggie prepares the morning’s red tea flavoured with a leaf or two of tulsi or mint picked freshly from our little kitchen garden. has already grown into more than 25,000 words in 12 chapters. The fertiliser for its growth has been provided by Blogchatter. 

I will get on with the writing. Writing is becoming me. Or I’m becoming writing.

 I pass on the Baton of Blogchatter Ebook Carnival to Surbhi whose ebook 'Ten Tales' is also part of the mix.

About Surbhi's ebook: Ten Tales is a collection of ten short stories for children aged 8 years and above. These stories are a mix of magic, mystery, thrill, suspense, happiness and excitement. They are sure to widen their imagination and give it a fresh perspective.