Annika Sharma's Blog, page 6

TH NEW BOOK DEAL!

And just like that, everyone, we have another book deal!Okay, maybe it wasn'tjust like that. However, before I narrate to you the story of How Annika Got a Book Deal on the Day She Moved to New York, I have to say a couple thanks.To my family and Melissa for being so damn patient.To my agent, Stacey Donaghy, for always believing in me and my stories.And to my new editor, at Sourcebooks, Cat Clyne...thank you. For everything you've already offered and all I know you will give.Now, shall we proceed to the update itself?I've been working on multiple manuscripts over the last two years--the sequel and third book to The Rearranged Life (TRL), as well as a manuscript about a female football player, AND another story about best friends and politics. Once you've thrown in a couple of moves to different cities, another graduate degree in progress, and a couple of new jobs...it was a little bananas. We've been speaking with editors, on calls and figuring things out for the last few months at least and strategizing plans for much longer.But like I wrote in my last post, when it rains, it pours, particularly in my life. What I couldn't say explicitly when I wrote the last post was that while I was finding an apartment in New York City with my parents and my friend, I was called by Stacey to tell me I had an offer on a new book series.Let's talk about it.The three-book series will follow three of four Indian friends (the fourth is up in the air), who each have their own love story. With so many different types of family structures, belief systems, histories, religious backgrounds and cultures, there is a plethora of situations that can be created, combined and explored.I hope you find them as fascinating as I will to write them. It is my hope, now that I am a few manuscripts (not books, but manuscripts) into this game that I can capture all of the tales my characters have to tell with greater accuracy, bigger hearts and smoother writing.As any writer will tell you, a first book is like a first child--all your initial mistakes, hard work, "Sweet Mother of God, I have ruined my life, their life, and possibly everyone else's life!" exclamations, and moments where you can't remember your own name...they all happen with that first published manuscript. I love TRL with an extremely special part of my heart. It's a segment that will never be touched again, like a first love. This new deal is monumental and meaningful for that reason--I'm excited to graduate in every aspect of my writing and build my second/third/fourth babies with the knowledge I gained from experiencing my first.I hope I don't let you down. And thank you for believing in me.

"Welcome to New York. It's been waiting for you."

People often say when it rains, it pours.I am a firm believer in this. Why, you ask? Because almost everything major in my life happens in one monstrous wave, a tsunami of transformation of high-stress, good feelings, and forcing everyone around me to run like hell to accommodate the changes.I was offered an internship in New York City recently to go along with my graduate program. I'm also sitting on major writing news. They both came on the same day. They were both then finalized on the same day.There are zero complains about how this played out. I couldn't be more happy. Jugging a writing career, graduate school and an internship is a fun way to have my cup runneth over, and I'm blessed.As I was walking through the streets of Midtown with my friend Kunal and my parents, scouting apartments and discussing possibilities, it struck me how many fears I'm conquering by making this move.When I was 16 years old, I read the first YA title ever that had a South Asian protagonist. The book,Born Confused, had all the makings of a magical story--a creative Indian girl, a love story with an unexpected Indian boy, the lights of New York City bringing dreams of promise...For an entire year, that's exactly what I wanted: a life in a big city with even bigger dreams, maybe even as a writer although back then it seemed like that would never happen because I'd much rather be a doctor.In the coming years, it became scary. Somehow, the idea of New York went from being this epitome of powerful dreaming to a place that felt startlingly overwhelming. I had to take baby steps to get here--a stint in Boston, a move on my own to an apartment in State College, time in Nashville on my own...and finally, with a leap of faith, Manhattan.Now...I'm living it. I'm a writer, with two post-grad degrees and while not a doctor, I'm in healthcare, and I now live in New York City...unexpectedly, surprisingly, and bravely.This blog post isn't a pat on my own back for how cool I am...because so many things went a little crazy with this move, and a lot could have been done more smoothly in my life. But it is a reminder of one thing: one of my favorite quotes, "Leap and the net will appear."I've never been more convinced how true that saying is. That if you just take a giant jump into the unknown, sometimes great things happen. I think 17-year old me would be pretty happy to hear how it turned out.

Confessions of a former dancer.

Two blog posts in a week--I feel like I deserve a cookie, but rather than indulging in any dessert treat for doing what I should have been doing all along, I'll choose to feel hope that perhaps this cloud of feeling overwhelmed might be lifting.I was on Facebook the other day, and I came across a series of beautiful photographs of one of my former dance students. She doesn't live in my town anymore--her family moved a few years ago, and she committed herself to dancing under a respected teacher in her new place, a move I was really happy about, because what teacher doesn't want her students to continue onward? From all the photos and videos I occasionally watch (read: stalk. Because she's awesome.) she has only blossomed. When I commented on a picture, her mother told me she was doing herarangetramin a few months and I couldn't help but grin at the accomplishment this sweet girl is about to manage. It also brought back a flood of memories about my own dancing days.What does a writer do when she feels, well,anything? Write about it.To those who don't know, I was a classical Indian dancer trained from the age of five in Bharatanatyam, a form of Indian dance that is a few thousand years old. It's India's version of ballet. Bharatanatyam involves rigid (but flowing) hand gestures, facial expressions and intense footwork to tell stories about Hindu mythology. A dancer theoretically begins at a young age and progresses through a series of dances--first, to isolate movements on the body and gain control over muscles, then slowly progressing to more complex dances that master emotional arcs and intense footwork. At the end of learning the dances required to master the craft, she performs anarangetram, her professional debut where she ascends the stage and gives a 2+ hour performance alone.I did mine when I was 17. It was a low-key affair without a ton of bells and whistles. Looking back, I don't think I understood the magnitude of what it meant. But I do notice now, as an adult, the enormity of what dance has done for my life. Not only did I perform Bharatanatyam for all of my childhood, but when I got to college, my love of dance translated into raas-garba, a different style of dance. The team I was on was ranked #1 in the country during my time at Penn State, and it was an incredible experience. Eventually, I began to choreograph a community kids dance for Dandia on Fire, Penn State's raas competition. That competition eventually became Infusion, and while I graduated, the kids dance still goes on to this day, nine years later. I also taught Bharatanatyam until I began my Master's program and my time commitments became too much to manage. Even now, I am awed at the way a body can move and convey so many emotions that a mind or words can't.I think everyone has one passionate love that transcends age and weaves its way through their whole life.Dance is that love for me.Whether it's throwing down on a wedding dance floor or performing on a stage, it's staggering how much dance has given me. A random aunty once asked if I was a classical dancer, simply by the fact that I often don't turn my head to look at something around me, but use just my eyes--a telltale classical dancer move. It came back to bite me in the rump when my raas teammates had to laughingly tell me I had to move my head in raas--it was a moment that reminded me of the scene fromSave the Last Dancewhere Derek has to tell Julia Stiles' character to loosen the hell up. But even when I talk, I've been told I'm expressive and I use my hands...something that could be argued is a totally Indian thing anyway, but something I'm quietly aware came from years of learning to tell stories using my body. Perhaps, that's where any storytelling ability I have came from too--from my old dance teacher Ranjani telling me I had to explore a character and understand what it felt like to go through a heartbreak or miss someone. At 17, I may not have known the depths of what someone could feel, but God knows we all can relate to that.So, now, as I watch from afar as K goes through her rigorous prep for this enormous performance, it brings a soft smile to my face. Perhaps she too in fifteen years will look back and think about what dance offered to her and all the ways it transformed her life. Maybe she'll look back and realize that all the little pieces fit together because of one passion she chased down. I take no credit in this. But from one dancer to another, it's a coded secret that passes on:"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way."

Clarity and the last six months without.

It's been ages since I've blogged. I wish I had a reason--well, actually, I have plenty: graduate school, full-time employment (until I accelerated graduate school and had to resign), family, friends, more schoolwork, internship hunts...but a realreasonoutside of the day-to-day. For that, I've got nothing.When you become a writer, common advice is to share some personal stories and make sure you're seen as a person first, author second. I do that--with poetry and photos on Instagram about my life, the Facebook posts on a regular basis, the Twitter posts about how I want to pull my hair out for this, that and the other thing...I try to share parts of my life. Anyone who has met me at a conference or at a signing is aware that I'm not exactly timid. Other aspects of life, however, I keep hidden which is why I have the tendency to disappear from social media every once in a while for a stretch of time. I find it difficult sometimes to open up about the struggles. I pour my heart out to my best friends but I am generally a bubbly, unbothered person to most others.This post comes with a footnote that I am grateful for the life I live and happy a solid 90% of the time. But as I've gone MIA often, I owe an explanation. Here is my confession.The last six months in particular have felt as though I'm a hamster on a wheel, running and running, and not quite going anywhere. I know that's a common sentiment among late twentysomethings and early thirtysomethings. You begin to question a lot of your decisions and whether you've gone down the roads you were meant to. Plenty of conversations have been conducted in the depths of our family home, running over scenarios with my dad relentlessly until we come back to one final conclusion: it all happens for a reason. My real-life career (because sometimes this writing thing is still a fantasy or a dream come true!), schoolwork, constantly looking at extracurriculars and trying to maintain relationships with friends, family and guys, has been at the forefront of this year but everything has felt as though I'm running toward...what, exactly?When you're up to your ears in 60-80 hours of coursework a week, and opportunities keep slipping through your fingers despite your frantic attempts to grasp them, it begins to feel as though you're working toward nothing. With writing, the difficult side of the business that people on the outside (I'm looking at you, aunts and uncles who keep asking me what I'm doing with my life) don't realize is that not only is publishing painfully slow (justthinkabout the thousands of manuscripts agents and editors have to read and try to fathom the kind of time it takes to do a good job of it), as an author, your output matters. Your career is defined by a body of work. And my body of work is one published, one on submission to editors, and five in the works. In addition to that 60-80 hours of schoolwork.The hamster wheel is continuing to spin. And it's making me dizzy.Lack of clarity is the single hardest thing for me to face in life. It's the biggest obstacle I've come across in the last year. I do best when I'm working toward a goal I can see and that I'm sure of. Right now, in the throes of lectures and interviews and everything being up in the air, I can't feel it, let alone see all of it come to fruition. Normally I ascribe faithfully to the phrase, "Not all who wander are lost," but lately it's felt as though I'm wandering with nothing but a compass and a star map. It's been the largest ingredient to writer's block--that when your goals seem either out of reach or intangible, the inspiration dies along with it.Soon enough, I am certain that it'll all clear up. I am positive and full of hope that as the horizon becomes clearer, I'll remember precisely what I was working toward and that for now, I need to plow through the writer's block and frustration. Which is why, after six or seven months, I decided to blog again and begin to chip away at the wall that feels so high right now.So, friends, there's my personal confession for today. It's been a long fight and I'm a little weary. But I'll be back to normal in no time, and handling a million projects with as much grace as I can muster. And I will forever be grateful for the fact that Ihavea million projects to stress about (can you even imagine me sitting idly? Yeah, me either). I will never forget I'm lucky to live the life I have, and that I'm blessed in so many ways. This is by no means a huge complaint. But until the storm clears, you may have to be patient with me--and I will continue to thank you for it.All my love.

A Video Book Review of A CHANGE OF HEART by Sonali Dev!

Hey guys! As promised, I did a video blog for Sonali Dev's book, A CHANGE OF HEART. I wish I had words to describe this book but even as a writer, I'm falling terribly short. To sum it up, Sonali is one of my favorite authors. Her books, A Bollywood Affair, A Bollywood Bride and A Change of Heart are my three favorite books written by an Indian author. She is extraordinary--her prose is flowy (and I love the third person she writes in), and the stories are rich with vibrant imagery. The story,

It's June. Hello, Vlog.

 

Five Ways Traveling Abroad is Exactly Like Falling In Love for the First Time--by Amanda Heger

 I'll be posting my full review very soon for WITHOUT BORDERS by Amanda Heger, but for now...enjoy this guest post. What is it, you ask? Well, let's just say Amanda and I have shared a bed multiple times, gotten quite close, and it has never been in the cities we live in. Ha. Get your mind out of the gutter, guys. We have, however, traveled together to various places (none abroad, though, so perhaps we should get started on that...) and this list is SPOT ON. Go ahead. Read it. And if you don't

The 30 Before Thirty post.

 Well, this blog post is a little more personal. I'll tell you a secret: it makes me nervous to send this out there. Maybe because it probably opens up some vulnerabilities of mine and because it's never fun to push on a pressure point in front of the world. But, since I firmly believe birthdays are happy times, let's change the tone here!    I turned 29 on Tuesday. Woo hoo! It was the best week ever. Last weekend, my friend T came in from Philadelphia and we spent Saturday afternoon getting a

Review: INCONCEIVABLE! by Tegan Wren

    I'm so lucky to be a part of this tour. Not only are HALF the royalties going to the Baby Quest Foundation, a charity that assists those struggling with infertility all over the country, but the book is fantastic, so being helpful + a good book sounds like a great recipe to me!   Tegan Wren's INCONCEIVABLE follows the story of Hattie and Prince John, the (you guessed it!) heir to the throne of Toulene. When their storybook romance leads all the way to marriage, after an entertaining and

Cover reveal!: INCONCEIVABLE by Tegan Wren

I'm honored to participate in this cover reveal for more than one reason--outside of great writing and a fabulous story, this issue hits close to home for me. While I'm (much to the chagrin of my family) still single and haven't had children, too many couples I've known have battled infertility. It's a seemingly hopeless and incredibly frustrating journey for those who must travel that road. Tegan Wren's book, INCONCEIVABLE, follows Hatty, a commoner and Prince John, a prince (duh) and their