Settling down

Her parents asked her to meet their friends' son. To maintain peace and her sanity, Rhea agreed. Dressed in her usual casual way, she refused to wear bright red lipstick to her mother's disappointment. The older woman pleaded with her daughter, "Please put some effort in your appearance. Just for today."  Rhea looked her in…

The Small Things Aren’t That Small

December hasn’t come yet and people are busy making lists of their 2019 accomplishments. Some are going a step further and talking about the last decade of accomplishments. I see stuff about people buying their first car or getting a book deal. I also see people who remember that they’ve been strong even in times…

Finding Herself

Some say she took too long to get over it. Too sensitive or crazy — was this woman for real? But she didn’t consider them wasted years. Nor did she look back with regret. Yes, time was precious but finding herself finally, in a world full of chaos and with a heart heavy with feeling,…

2018 in a Nutshell

Another calendar year coming to an end. I don’t make any New Year’s Resolutions because that doesn’t work well with my anxiety issues. Instead, I continue to focus on my long term goals — which may have changed slightly along the way as all things in life change.  This year, I published Story Time (a…

Perfection

At 10, she wanted a prince with a castle. A few years later, she saw the possibility of happiness only if a man looked at her the way that Shah Rukh Khan looked at his heroines. Fast forward to her 20s, and perfection became a list. "He should be this tall and be a doctor…

A Woman’s Wants

Roses made her happy. She often filled her bedroom with them. Growing up with movies and books around her, she had believed that roses should be a gift from a lover. Fast forward to her 30s, the same girl had become a woman who didn’t wait to get what she wanted.

Anxiety & the New Year

Happy New Year to you all! I'm back to work after allowing myself a couple of weeks to not stress about writing the next book. And I just realised that I must be the only writer online who has NOT written a long post about 2017 achievements and about my goals for 2018. The fact…

Indie Publishing Pointers

So I didn’t do NaNoWriMo this year. Instead, I published my seventh book on Amazon Kindle, picked up valuable book marketing tips for indie authors, and took a great weekend trip to beautiful Vizag. I’m feeling refreshed and ready to start Book 8. I’m also ready to share some basic tips with new indie authors.…

Being a Writer and Explaining It Too

Being a writer is awesome, especially when people ask you or your parents what you do. I love the confused looks on people's faces every time they hear that I write books and other readable stuff. It's also fun and not annoying anymore when they assume I don't work at all. Most people like to…

4 Ways to Manage Your Writing Time

We full time writers are familiar with people's surprised/angry reactions to unanswered calls and our reluctance to leave the desk during our precious writing time. The truth is, most people think working from home means that you have no work schedule to follow. But we should have discipline. Time management can be easy if you…