The goal to write a book began when I was still a teenager. But the time wasnt right, obviously!
Prizewinning essays, shortstories, limericks, and some funny verse kept me busy during short spells - and spurts - of creative writing. But it wasnt till 2007, when I brought home my spanking new laptop, that I decided, well, its now, or never!
The Flute in the Forest began as a tiny seed of an idea my daughter Shonali planted in my head.
"Why dont you write about the jungles you knew so well in South India?" she had said. Now, why hadnt I thought of that?!
I opened the laptop, found ' my bearings' as they say in outdoor/camping jargon. Hmmm, now how would my story begin.......??
"Thirteen year old Atiya........." I wrote, and so my story was born!
As the idea grew, the personality of my little heroine grew, too. Pretty soon, Atiya's knowledge of the forest became a central point in my story. All those interesting things about the trees, birds, and wild life I knew I wanted my reader to discover........how else would they discover this?
It took me three obsessed months, with several sleepless nights, and constant fights with power failures, run down batteries, and sunless days before I finished my writing. Wow! I was done.
Now,I thought, now comes the easy part! Find a publisher!
Well, that was where I got a rude shock.........publishers do NOT want to read manuscripts that may need editing, or have long winded, rambling story lines that meander through the pages, becoming more predictable, and less readable as the pages pass. I had only just touched the tip of the iceberg. UGH!
EPISODE TWO................AFTER THE BREAK!
I wrote to publisher after publisher for 6 months. By the end of 2007, I came to the ego crushing decision that my book was 'useless'. I decided to forget all about it, and begin on my third book, instead. (It was much more fun writing books rather than finding a market. and deep down I did not much care if I never got my work published, the writing itself was the biggest joy of all! )
And so, 2007, and the first half of 2008 flew by. By this time I'd written three books, and received probably 5 rejection letters. Each time the publishers would write back politely saying that my book was 'not on their priority list' and that they wished me luck elsewhere. And each time my ego would drop ten degrees lower
lower
lower than sea level............
All through 2008 I refused to reread my work. Then in 2009 January, I opened up the manuscript for my first book, and reread the work from cover to cover. I WAS HORRIFIED! Had I sent this to the publishers, I thought in disblelief....Horror of horrors! Within an hour I buckled down and began some c old blooded, drastic editing work. Whole pages were cut out, beautiful paragraphs of fabulous prose, oh my goodness, all those gorgeous sentences! OUT! OUT! OUT! DELETE! Two days and much editing later, I read the book again, and wow! Much better stuff now.
Then it was Round Two: Sending Book to the Publishers, Receiving Rejection Slips..........
Round Three: More editing, and still more editing, until in early 2010, I felt there was nothing more I could do with the editing of the book.
Then in March/April of 2010, I met Janaki, who runs a bookstore in Aundh. We spoke about the progress with my book, and she suggested I write to Puffin. I did, sent them my manuscript, and a month later I get a call from the Editor.
"Hello, Leela, " she says in her cheerful voice. "Good news! Puffin likes your book, and we'd like to accept it. I'll send you a draft of our contract........."
HURRAY, I wanted to shout . Puffin likes "Flute in the Forest"!
******************************************
EPISODE THREE:
The draft of the contract was double dutch to me. I never was much of a legal eagle, so most of the convoluted sentences made little sense to me. But I asked a lawyer friend to go through it and he thought it was fine, quite typical of all publishing contracts. All I needed to do was go through it slowly, and sign it if I agreed.
I did. Another agonizing month went by. And then I got a call from my Editor. She'd read through the original ms, and now told me she'd been through it again, found some bits she thought needed changes. "Go through the whole thing " she said cheerily, and let me know what you think of it?"
The entire ms arrived by email. I hadnt a clue how to open the document, being a total dodo at computers. I had to ask her how to do that first. Then I had to 'learn' how to add my changes, if any. We worked like this for approximately a month. I'd seen so many books with the printers devil very busy adding and deleting letters, words, sentences and so on. I couldnt bear the thought of the same thing happening to my book, so I went through the whole thing again and again, and again..........Finally after 4 days I sent it back.
Now my editor wanted a write up on my own biodata, acknowledgements, dedication, and a summary about the story itself. Exciting but little effort, as I'd worked on that bit in my head for months and months...........!
And finally, she sent me drafts with her changes, of all this, plus the tentative illustrations of some of the chapter headings. I LOVED IT! The Flute ( as I nicknamed the book) was beginning to get its own identity. And oh my goodness, that was sooooooo exciting.
At every stage, I have to say, my Editor stood by, always available if I needed to ask a question, sort out any doubts, give a suggestion or two. That was fantastic 'backup', and I often gave her silent thanks because they were somehow always at the right moment.
The days and weeks flew by, and pretty soon it was mid-November. The Flute they told me now, was scheduled to be on the shelves in December. Just 5 weeks away! 35 days.........just 35 days left before I had my book in my hands.
Exciting stuff!
****************************************
FINAL EPISODE :
Finally, around the 10th of December 2010, I got a call from my Editor.........."The book is out, Leela!" she told me on the phone, and I jumped for joy. AT LAST!
We had our first book reading on the 10th of January at twistntales, Pune, organized by Janaki Venkatesh, the owner of the bookstore. It was wonderful to meet many friends from our camping days there, plus younger readers, all of whom were enthusiastic about the book. I most enjoyed the interactions with my readers, and the exchange of thoughts and ideas from the book, visions of the jungle, some of my own real life experiences on the tea estates when we were there in the '70's............sadly a life that is disappearing fast, with the plantations a distant history.
Now, as a first time author, I have loads of "fun work" to look forward to.........book readings in various places, events to organize with Puffin, Book Fairs to attend, and hopefully lots of interactions with young and older readers.
I have also been lucky to get a lot of great feedback from readers who have written in, phoned ,emailed and sent messages, and for all of these helpful comments, a big 'THANK YOU'. As they say, every word counts.
Cheers!·
Prizewinning essays, shortstories, limericks, and some funny verse kept me busy during short spells - and spurts - of creative writing. But it wasnt till 2007, when I brought home my spanking new laptop, that I decided, well, its now, or never!
The Flute in the Forest began as a tiny seed of an idea my daughter Shonali planted in my head.
"Why dont you write about the jungles you knew so well in South India?" she had said. Now, why hadnt I thought of that?!
I opened the laptop, found ' my bearings' as they say in outdoor/camping jargon. Hmmm, now how would my story begin.......??
"Thirteen year old Atiya........." I wrote, and so my story was born!
As the idea grew, the personality of my little heroine grew, too. Pretty soon, Atiya's knowledge of the forest became a central point in my story. All those interesting things about the trees, birds, and wild life I knew I wanted my reader to discover........how else would they discover this?
It took me three obsessed months, with several sleepless nights, and constant fights with power failures, run down batteries, and sunless days before I finished my writing. Wow! I was done.
Now,I thought, now comes the easy part! Find a publisher!
Well, that was where I got a rude shock.........publishers do NOT want to read manuscripts that may need editing, or have long winded, rambling story lines that meander through the pages, becoming more predictable, and less readable as the pages pass. I had only just touched the tip of the iceberg. UGH!
EPISODE TWO................AFTER THE BREAK!
I wrote to publisher after publisher for 6 months. By the end of 2007, I came to the ego crushing decision that my book was 'useless'. I decided to forget all about it, and begin on my third book, instead. (It was much more fun writing books rather than finding a market. and deep down I did not much care if I never got my work published, the writing itself was the biggest joy of all! )
And so, 2007, and the first half of 2008 flew by. By this time I'd written three books, and received probably 5 rejection letters. Each time the publishers would write back politely saying that my book was 'not on their priority list' and that they wished me luck elsewhere. And each time my ego would drop ten degrees lower
lower
lower than sea level............
All through 2008 I refused to reread my work. Then in 2009 January, I opened up the manuscript for my first book, and reread the work from cover to cover. I WAS HORRIFIED! Had I sent this to the publishers, I thought in disblelief....Horror of horrors! Within an hour I buckled down and began some c old blooded, drastic editing work. Whole pages were cut out, beautiful paragraphs of fabulous prose, oh my goodness, all those gorgeous sentences! OUT! OUT! OUT! DELETE! Two days and much editing later, I read the book again, and wow! Much better stuff now.
Then it was Round Two: Sending Book to the Publishers, Receiving Rejection Slips..........
Round Three: More editing, and still more editing, until in early 2010, I felt there was nothing more I could do with the editing of the book.
Then in March/April of 2010, I met Janaki, who runs a bookstore in Aundh. We spoke about the progress with my book, and she suggested I write to Puffin. I did, sent them my manuscript, and a month later I get a call from the Editor.
"Hello, Leela, " she says in her cheerful voice. "Good news! Puffin likes your book, and we'd like to accept it. I'll send you a draft of our contract........."
HURRAY, I wanted to shout . Puffin likes "Flute in the Forest"!
******************************************
EPISODE THREE:
The draft of the contract was double dutch to me. I never was much of a legal eagle, so most of the convoluted sentences made little sense to me. But I asked a lawyer friend to go through it and he thought it was fine, quite typical of all publishing contracts. All I needed to do was go through it slowly, and sign it if I agreed.
I did. Another agonizing month went by. And then I got a call from my Editor. She'd read through the original ms, and now told me she'd been through it again, found some bits she thought needed changes. "Go through the whole thing " she said cheerily, and let me know what you think of it?"
The entire ms arrived by email. I hadnt a clue how to open the document, being a total dodo at computers. I had to ask her how to do that first. Then I had to 'learn' how to add my changes, if any. We worked like this for approximately a month. I'd seen so many books with the printers devil very busy adding and deleting letters, words, sentences and so on. I couldnt bear the thought of the same thing happening to my book, so I went through the whole thing again and again, and again..........Finally after 4 days I sent it back.
Now my editor wanted a write up on my own biodata, acknowledgements, dedication, and a summary about the story itself. Exciting but little effort, as I'd worked on that bit in my head for months and months...........!
And finally, she sent me drafts with her changes, of all this, plus the tentative illustrations of some of the chapter headings. I LOVED IT! The Flute ( as I nicknamed the book) was beginning to get its own identity. And oh my goodness, that was sooooooo exciting.
At every stage, I have to say, my Editor stood by, always available if I needed to ask a question, sort out any doubts, give a suggestion or two. That was fantastic 'backup', and I often gave her silent thanks because they were somehow always at the right moment.
The days and weeks flew by, and pretty soon it was mid-November. The Flute they told me now, was scheduled to be on the shelves in December. Just 5 weeks away! 35 days.........just 35 days left before I had my book in my hands.
Exciting stuff!
****************************************
FINAL EPISODE :
Finally, around the 10th of December 2010, I got a call from my Editor.........."The book is out, Leela!" she told me on the phone, and I jumped for joy. AT LAST!
We had our first book reading on the 10th of January at twistntales, Pune, organized by Janaki Venkatesh, the owner of the bookstore. It was wonderful to meet many friends from our camping days there, plus younger readers, all of whom were enthusiastic about the book. I most enjoyed the interactions with my readers, and the exchange of thoughts and ideas from the book, visions of the jungle, some of my own real life experiences on the tea estates when we were there in the '70's............sadly a life that is disappearing fast, with the plantations a distant history.
Now, as a first time author, I have loads of "fun work" to look forward to.........book readings in various places, events to organize with Puffin, Book Fairs to attend, and hopefully lots of interactions with young and older readers.
I have also been lucky to get a lot of great feedback from readers who have written in, phoned ,emailed and sent messages, and for all of these helpful comments, a big 'THANK YOU'. As they say, every word counts.
Cheers!·
