I've been so busy this year, I've hardly have time to breathe. I've just been offered a chance to write e novels for a really nice publishing house and am currently looking at the contract. It's quite an exciting time in my life, but a bit scary too. What if no-one buys my book? I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy stuff I've written. I love writing, though. I've just co-written a novella with eight other Indian bloggers and while I hadn't been interested in the project initially owing to work commitments and only took it up because the organizers called me up and asked me to participate, I can honestly say that writing that story while collaborating with eight other writers on WhatsApp and email was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my writing experience. Our book is in competition to get printed and I really hope it wins.
The co-writing was so interesting. I wrote the initial chapter of the romance story in the novella and the finishing chapter was written by a blogger called Arpita from Chennai and it was surreal - I mean, Arpita wrote those characters exactly as I'd pictured them. The more torrid chapter in that love story was written by blogger Datta from Kolkata, very tastefully written from beyond the bedroom door. Hats off to Datta for taking up that challenge. I found the two characters very different in style and tone in the bedroom than they were on the street - but people are very different in the bedroom than they are in the street. Isn't that so? That's why I was glad that Datta was doing that particular chapter and not me. I'd have found it difficult as that area is so very intimate. It takes a special type of writing talent to write that way, in my humble opinion.
So. Last week's LBC topic was education. I really wanted to do it, but was so caught up that it never happened. So here it is:
EDUCATION
There's a heck of a lot which I could write on the subject of education, but I'll limit myself to this wonderful quote from William Butler Yeats, Irish writer and educationist.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
Yeats' figure loomed large during the days of my education, back in my native Ireland. I studied lots of his poetry in my English literature course and every schoolchild in Ireland knew the story of Yeats' obsession with and hopeless love for the beautiful and enigmatic Maud Gonne. Yeats was a poet and a playwright of Anglo-Irish stock, who had a huge interest in theosophy, among other things. He certainly was a man of great and noble ideas. He coined the phrase 'terrible beauty' to describe the obsession and blind dedication of patriots who were ready to commit acts of terrorism for the sake of their ideals.
This week's LBC post has given me a jolt. The reason for that is the fact that I have zero inspiration for it and that's got to be highly unusual.
PEEK A BOO
A kid's game? Or something a bit more risque? I do know it is the name of a fairly noisy song from oriental style punk rockers Siouxsie and the Banshees. You can visit the song here, if you feel so inclined. I've had a look at the lyrics and they're pretty grim and awful.....not my cup of tea at all. The track comes from an album called 'Peepshow' which has fairly seedy and suspect connotations, from my point of view.
As it says in the Biblical Book of Job, I shall go this far and no further.
Thanks to freedigitalphotos.net for the images shown above. The image shown above is attributed to 'stockimages' and the lower image is attributed to 'imagerymajestic'.
The co-writing was so interesting. I wrote the initial chapter of the romance story in the novella and the finishing chapter was written by a blogger called Arpita from Chennai and it was surreal - I mean, Arpita wrote those characters exactly as I'd pictured them. The more torrid chapter in that love story was written by blogger Datta from Kolkata, very tastefully written from beyond the bedroom door. Hats off to Datta for taking up that challenge. I found the two characters very different in style and tone in the bedroom than they were on the street - but people are very different in the bedroom than they are in the street. Isn't that so? That's why I was glad that Datta was doing that particular chapter and not me. I'd have found it difficult as that area is so very intimate. It takes a special type of writing talent to write that way, in my humble opinion.
So. Last week's LBC topic was education. I really wanted to do it, but was so caught up that it never happened. So here it is:
EDUCATION
There's a heck of a lot which I could write on the subject of education, but I'll limit myself to this wonderful quote from William Butler Yeats, Irish writer and educationist.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
Yeats' figure loomed large during the days of my education, back in my native Ireland. I studied lots of his poetry in my English literature course and every schoolchild in Ireland knew the story of Yeats' obsession with and hopeless love for the beautiful and enigmatic Maud Gonne. Yeats was a poet and a playwright of Anglo-Irish stock, who had a huge interest in theosophy, among other things. He certainly was a man of great and noble ideas. He coined the phrase 'terrible beauty' to describe the obsession and blind dedication of patriots who were ready to commit acts of terrorism for the sake of their ideals.
This week's LBC post has given me a jolt. The reason for that is the fact that I have zero inspiration for it and that's got to be highly unusual.
PEEK A BOO
As it says in the Biblical Book of Job, I shall go this far and no further.
Thanks to freedigitalphotos.net for the images shown above. The image shown above is attributed to 'stockimages' and the lower image is attributed to 'imagerymajestic'.
I can't imagine writing a novel with other people - although I would be very pleased to pass on any sexy scenes to someone else! Whether explicit or not, you're right that it takes a special skill to get them right.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the ebooks - sounds promising.
Thanks for writing such a good article, I stumbled onto your blog and read a few post. I like your style of writing...
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