Prasanna Raghavan

Do you prefer a digital or a print version of a book to read? I guess the answer from what I read is the print.   Old habits are not easy to drop, while new practices get cautious approaches.  That is human nature. I didn't pay much attention to this choice until I published my eBook on a digital platform. That was a choice I made based on my research on publishing.  So many people asked me whether I would get it in print.  My answer is, I am not sure about that now.   My inability to make that decision is a money matter.  Going for print brings a whole different cost equation to the forge.  You, as a customer, would pay more for reading it in print than digital.   I am not promoting reading it digitally, but if you want to read it digitally, there are easy ways to do that, even if you don't own a kindle.  Most of you are aware of these steps.  I will explain them below if you aren't familiar.  You have a PC, a Mobile, or a Tablet, good.     Step 1 . If you don't have a

UNDER THE BAKULA TREE PUBLISHING ON AMAZON KINDLE ON 18 DECEMBER.   The image was customised using Canva.com frames UNDER THE BAKULA TREE NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE It gives me immense pleasure to let the readers know my eBook, Under the Bakula Tree, now available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle, gets published on 18 December.  It brings an end to the two-month hurdle race. The hurdles were formidable, threatening me with the impossibility of crossing them and the publishing impossible.  Under desperation, I felt publishing takes away the charm and the pleasure of accomplishing the creative milestone when you finished that line of your book.     What are the Kindle marketplaces that avail my e-book? My eBook is published on Amazon globally.  You can buy it from any Amazon Kindle store. E.g. Amazon.US, Amazon.UK, Amazon.AU, Amazon. IN.   Do you have to pay in US dollars because published on Amazon.com?  Someone asked me this question.  You don't. You pay in the country's curr

 How would I remember BlogChatter 2021? The image was customised using Canva.com I joined BlogChatter in April this year. Sooner than later, I participated in the ebook carnival, a month-long activity that ended on 5 May.   I was cradling the idea of book publishing having a skeletal understanding of its processes and was excited to read the wads of information on the topic flooding through dedicated posts and WhatsApps.   The group discussion exposed me to a unique experience that is not an exaggeration.  No question from anyone was left untended by virtual strangers.  Tension was climbing, knots were tightening, sleep was departing, I felt like finding a home on a cosy distant island on a tight expedition.  On a personal reward point, I felt younger being among the youngsters.  My memories are still green--how would I grade it now other than giving five over five.:) Unfortunately, I couldn't reach the height of publishing my story with others--still not published.  The reasons I

  Book Review Under the Mango Tree -Fiction  Author: Bina Pillai Format: Kindle Edition  The image was taken from Amazon.com.  Under the Mango Tree, Pillai's novel handles a bitter-sweet, woman-centred, family saga theme.  Amazon blurb starts—"Diya Nair is eighteen, a diligent student, hopelessly in love with Aditya. Married against her wishes to Rajagopal, ten years older than her, Diya is exposed to an orthodox family where they follow archaic customs that are alien to her modern upbringing. "   The story opens with Diya getting ready broken-heartedly in her custom riddled ancestral home for marriage. Litle expectations about her bridegroom brighten her. Her mind invokes candid memory of Aditya—her love.  They together had woven dreams to live to bring fruition to their passion.  But it is not he that she is getting ready to marry.  Rajagopal is her bridegroom, ten years older than her. Her parents chose him in an arranged marriage, forcing her to drop her studies.  &qu

 How easy is book publishing?   Beyond the exaltation and exuberance in bringing your imagination into emotion-evoking words to give readers the best reading experience, book publishing is a matter of money. Or, in the present market sense, a business.    Image is taken from free Pexel.com I thought I would have published my debut story, Under the Bakula Tree by September.   November is passing. Even now, I am not able to set a publishing date for it.  No, I wasn't sick, toiling these months in preparation for my publishing.  In September, I had no clue of what was awaiting me. I believe many of you have a story idea inside you, itching you to bring it out to publish. Then, this post is also for you to caution you against the pitfalls waiting for you in the process and to best be aware of them to avoid falling into the traps.   And that beyond the exaltation and exuberance in bringing out your imagination into emotion-evoking words to give the best reading experience to readers, it

The Showing Narrative of Kamba Ramayana "Bleached bones lay where animals had perished, including those of monstrous serpents with jaws open deadly thirst; into these enormous jaws had rushed (says the poet) elephants desperately seeking shade, all dead and fossilized, the serpents and the elephants alike."  Photo by  Errin Casano  from  Pexels In an earlier post,  Showing Versus Telling   about “showing versus telling’ a narrative style in creative writing.  I wrote there; I was a practitioner and admirer of telling before taking a creative writing course because that was easy, and I hadn't known about showing.  Also, I concluded that showing is a modern narrative style discovered by contemporary creative writers. My curiosity took me to research the ancient work of the Indian epic, Ramayana, to learn about its narrative style.  And the outcome was amazing.   I felt rewarded for getting anxious, and I am happy to share my amazement with my readers. Before I go further, I

  Showing Versus Telling The above is a writing rule I learned from my creative writing course at All About Writing. Before I joined the course, I had no clue about the writing rules.  Even after the course, I'm not sure I grasped all the rules, or grasping and practising are two different things.  The template in the post introduces the difference between telling and showing.  What is telling in writing?  As I know it, Telling is an easy method.   You create a scene, and at some point, your character is petrified.  You can use adjectives like angry, troubled, upset, and so on, the reason many of us prefer it.  What is showing?  To show is an effort; we should show the character's reactions on the face, body, voice, and explain the surroundings, the smell, the sound.  Get the reader to engage with all senses for the emotional connection, do not come naturally, need to practise.    It brings specific details about his facial expressions, body language and voice modulations.   To

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie My favourite Authors The photo was taken from her author website Who is your favourite author is not an easy question to answer because of the difficulty to pinpoint one from among the list of the many. But you can list them in the order of your preference. The top on my list is, without a doubt, Chimamanda Adichie.  About Chimamanda Adichie Who is Adichie?  I don't think she needs an introduction to the creative world, but let me introduce her to those who need it.  Adichie is a Nigerian born writer thrown into international fame for her publications covering fiction and non-fiction.  Her work includes Purple Hibiscus (2003), her first novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Americanah (2013), a string of short stories and a short story collection-The Thing around your neck (2009). She is the recipient of many accolades and awards: The Purple Hibiscus won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half a Yellow Sun, the Orange Prize

 18 July Nelson Mandela Day As the world reflects Nelson Mandela's legacy, we thank his life, leadership, devotion to humanity, and humanitarian causes. Mandela (18 July 1918--5 December 2013) Nelson Mandela, the Republic of South Africa's first president, does not need an introduction to the world.  His birthday, July 18, is declared Nelson Mandela International Day, and South Africans take this opportunity to celebrate his life the entire month.  South Africa became an independent republic in 1994, overhauling the apartheid that ran the show as a legal regime since 1948, Mandela, its first president.   Mandela's contribution to the peaceful transformation of South Africa, from a racially pitting people into a rainbow nation, is the most celebrated example of positivity.  This positivity shines on every individual when they make an individual positive action to help and reach others.  July is a month for taking this action and spread the Mandela values--fighting injustice,

  Picture from Google. Madhuri stuffed her bag with the steel tiffin box, small flask, and purse, dropped it on the Glossy creed black and white coffee table. Pulled the diary out of the bag, scribbled the grocery list stuffed it back. Removed two bulging plastic files inside the table made them flop near the bag.  Just another day, she gasped. She measured her movement as she sat on the sofa.  The September sun sneaked in through the window signalled a throbbing headache, a lacklustre sensation.  She was strongly inclined to take a break from everything to take a trip to somewhere alone-will it ever happen?  "One minute ma," Ankush called out from upstairs.  It was nearly eight. She should be on the road now.  A throb on the temple blinded her-- she hushed it with a fingertip and craned the head to scan the stairs. Not a sign of him.    "I have a test in the first lesson Ma, cannot wait for him," Megha reminded her from the sofa across from her--she was ready for t

  She slipped into a pair of sandalwood shade pyjama, pulled over the head a jacquard cotton salwar top, pinned the pleated maroon shawl on the shoulder. Na, not going to wrap it around the neck.  She sleeked down the pleats to make her look a head taller and hide the fat around the middle. In the dressing table not being full length couldn't figure out how the pair of designer sandal in maroon matched with the rest of the attire. With a smile oozing with self-pride, she grabbed her purse, locked the room stepped out into the hotel foyer to the walkway outside.  The milky air outside was fresh. The leaves of the hibiscus lined by the walkway were wet from the morning rain. She touched them fondly, shattering the water pearls dancing on the edges.   A lazy breeze from the valley of Neem trees cuddled her hair loosened a fringe to tumble on to her forehead.   The road in the front hadn't changed a bit in the years. The clusters of old shops on the sides teetering with the goodies

source https://www.biography.com/writer/maya-angelou   #MayaAngelou, #scienceandpoetry, #CarlSagan. On Feb 14, 1990, NASA's Voyager1 probe snapped a photograph of Earth from 6 billion kilometres away.  This was the first time earth was seen from the outer reaches of the Solar System. The mission of the voyager was to photograph the outer planets and the cameras before shutting down took the picture on Carl Sagan's insistence.   The grainy photograph now has become the iconic image  showing earth in the mostly empty space that Sagan limned the 'pale blue dot,' the title of his bestselling book published on September 8 1997 .  In the book, Sagan wrote, "everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives on this mote of dust suspended in this sunbeam."   The poetic phrase, 'the mote of dust' caught the imagination of people all over the world across disciplines of science and art. . In t