4Things I would like to work on in August

Images from my file using Canva.com

Failing to plan things is planning to fail. During my teaching years, I crammed the idea into my learner's minds and mine. Once I retired, I lapsed into not caring about planning things.  

The call to write about four things I like to work on in August came as a wake-up call to renew the habit, and I jumped for it. August, in a biblical sense, is the month of beginning things. In South Africa, August celebrates 'women's Month,' to commemorate a historic march of women of all races made on 9 August 1956 against apartheid. 


The month of July got stuffed up with book reviews and Insta Reel creations, things I enjoyed much. The beautiful themes and plot developments of the books reviewed afforded me new perspectives, and I have more queued in my reading list. The IG Reels were a thing of technical adventure, a challenge that made me feel stupid in the initial days, and when I called out 'Eureka' in the end, a smile flashed on my face.


Reviews and the reels dragged me away from working on things creative, and the marketing plans for my eBook I had to postpone to August. So, that tops the four things I work on in August.  


1. Marketing my eBook Under the Bakula Tree. 


I published it on the Amazon Kindle in December 2021. 

It is the story of three women, the inmates of a superluxury residential complex in Kochi, Kerala, India.

The characters and the story idea:

Sara is a widow, a mother of two, eager to join her schoolmate who turned into the love of her life. She can't break herself free from the surveillance of a stranger her in-laws and her family have imposed on her. The community watches her movements and even the gatekeeper of her residential complex.  


She comes across Viji and Alina. The trio wants to meet, but no way inside their mansions without being scrutinised by their in-laws. They seek solitude under an old Bakula tree, where they share their stories, validate each other in trust, and forge a great experience of the sisterhood.

Can the sisterhood help Sara to join the love of her life?


'Under the Bakula Tree' is available on all Amazon marketplaces like:


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NFSM2P9

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NFSM2P9

 https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09NFSM2P9


2. The second thing on my list-Publish a Short-story Collection.


This has to do with the story I published as part of the Blog Chatter eBook Carnival. 'Aching Hearts' is a short story I picked from among my short story collections. Two, or three, more I should add to that to have a reasonable volume to publish as a short-story collection. I started polishing the second one but am undecided on the publishing options. Amazon is not bad- self-publishing needs payment for publishing on top of the editing and book cover expenses.  


3. The third thing is the second draft of my novel-the mystery thriller-The Murder at Thampuran Kota.


That is the project I have started with that I should have already published. However, 'Under the Bakula Tree, I pushed ahead to get a feel of the publishing and the marketing world. And I don't regret the decision. 


4 The fourth thing, write a blog post about Women Month in South Africa.

I mentioned that in the introduction. The women of South Africa, before their march, drafted a freedom charter which demanded, among other objectives, “the enfranchisement of men women of all races; equality of opportunity in employment; equal pay for equal work; equal rights concerning property, marriage and children; and the removal of all laws and customs that denied women such equality.”  

Their demands served as the seminal ideas in drafting the constitution of this country after it became free in 1994 from the colonial supremacist White rulers.


This post is part of the #BlogChatterBloghop

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