Prasannakumary Raghavan's Blog: Prasanna's Creative Space - Posts Tagged "kindleunlimited"
How did I become a fiction author?
Was it proposed by destiny or willed by hard work? Perhaps both.
I wrote my first story at 7. I remember sitting at the back of an old shed behind our home, scribbling inside a notebook with a blunt lead pencil. It was about our guard dog misbehaved with a home-grown chicken, pounced upon it, a neighbour intervened and saved the chicken.
The idea of writing a story bugged me after reading a storybook from my father's library—a shelf in a small room where he stalked his medical books and fiction collections. My father was a practitioner in Ayurvedic medicine, the only medical personnel in our village, then, a rural, backward area. I was born in Kerala, a small state in South India.
I remember the book name—Vischinna Kankanam—broken bangles in English.
My mother was delighted by the story but encouraged me to graduate in science. In a society, formal education was considered more significant than life --it was just right. No one famed as a writer or an artist had earned a decent living in the entire area.
I graduated in physics and education, earned a teaching career, and joined my husband in Africa after I got married. Job, family, children slowly grabbed my entire life. My husband was also a teacher— we worked in different African nations—Tanzania, Nigeria, Lesotho, before South Africa.
In South Africa, I started at a high school in Alice, part of a homeland, an apartheid set-up. The learners had extremely poor conceptualization in maths--a global issue but particularly in the area. I decided to research the topic as part of my master's degree from Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
I wasn't a superwoman. I struggled to fulfil the responsibilities, prioritized some and deprived others. However, the fire kindled by the first book wasn't willing to leave me. I rejoiced greatly at the minimum publishing opportunities, a story here, essays there. The advent of the internet and blogging gave me better hopes.
I took early retirement with some plans to prioritize the left out passions—writing a definite. My daughters, pure blessings in my life, gave me suggestions to join a creative writing course. All about wiring was an online course, and once completed, I felt I chose it right. I got the theory, practice needed time.
I was an academic author who did my master's thesis, but creative writing wasn't anything like academic writing, where you flow your creative juice. In the mathematical and scientific milieu, you seek prescriptiveness—displacement between two points is a vector—a straight directional line. Creative writing is an expansive narrative, never linear-colourful, scenting, exploding emotionally, not precise.
Being a non-native writer, I needed long hours to master the semantic and syntax aspects. The taxing steps only made my author journey challenging but rewarding. The last line of my eBook-Under the Bakula Tree- gave me immense satisfaction and fulfilment. At that time, I did not incline about what hurdles lay ahead in the remaining journey to publishing my book. In another post, I shall explain them.
Two months and days after I completed the last line, I published, Under the Bakula Tree on 18 December. 2021.
The story blurb:
Three women’s paths cross at the Skyward Residential Complex in Richwood, Kochi, Kerala. They find support in a sisterhood they form. Their commitment to one another gets stronger as the social norms of the gendered society restrict them and keep them under surveillance.
Sara is at a crossroads. All paths remain closed in front of her. Will the sisterhood help her get the big break in life and reach her Krishna?
The story is an attempt to light the contemporary lives of women in Kerala, where I was born and raised.
The eBook is published in Amazon Kindle, Unlimited
Would you please buy a copy of my eBook, read, and rate it on Amazon and Goodreads on your device. You see it at the end of your read. Also, write a review on Amazon and Goodreads.
My eBook is available on global kindle stores, including,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NFSM2P9
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NFSM2P9
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09NFSM2P9
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09NFSM2P9
I wrote my first story at 7. I remember sitting at the back of an old shed behind our home, scribbling inside a notebook with a blunt lead pencil. It was about our guard dog misbehaved with a home-grown chicken, pounced upon it, a neighbour intervened and saved the chicken.
The idea of writing a story bugged me after reading a storybook from my father's library—a shelf in a small room where he stalked his medical books and fiction collections. My father was a practitioner in Ayurvedic medicine, the only medical personnel in our village, then, a rural, backward area. I was born in Kerala, a small state in South India.
I remember the book name—Vischinna Kankanam—broken bangles in English.
My mother was delighted by the story but encouraged me to graduate in science. In a society, formal education was considered more significant than life --it was just right. No one famed as a writer or an artist had earned a decent living in the entire area.
I graduated in physics and education, earned a teaching career, and joined my husband in Africa after I got married. Job, family, children slowly grabbed my entire life. My husband was also a teacher— we worked in different African nations—Tanzania, Nigeria, Lesotho, before South Africa.
In South Africa, I started at a high school in Alice, part of a homeland, an apartheid set-up. The learners had extremely poor conceptualization in maths--a global issue but particularly in the area. I decided to research the topic as part of my master's degree from Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
I wasn't a superwoman. I struggled to fulfil the responsibilities, prioritized some and deprived others. However, the fire kindled by the first book wasn't willing to leave me. I rejoiced greatly at the minimum publishing opportunities, a story here, essays there. The advent of the internet and blogging gave me better hopes.
I took early retirement with some plans to prioritize the left out passions—writing a definite. My daughters, pure blessings in my life, gave me suggestions to join a creative writing course. All about wiring was an online course, and once completed, I felt I chose it right. I got the theory, practice needed time.
I was an academic author who did my master's thesis, but creative writing wasn't anything like academic writing, where you flow your creative juice. In the mathematical and scientific milieu, you seek prescriptiveness—displacement between two points is a vector—a straight directional line. Creative writing is an expansive narrative, never linear-colourful, scenting, exploding emotionally, not precise.
Being a non-native writer, I needed long hours to master the semantic and syntax aspects. The taxing steps only made my author journey challenging but rewarding. The last line of my eBook-Under the Bakula Tree- gave me immense satisfaction and fulfilment. At that time, I did not incline about what hurdles lay ahead in the remaining journey to publishing my book. In another post, I shall explain them.
Two months and days after I completed the last line, I published, Under the Bakula Tree on 18 December. 2021.
The story blurb:
Three women’s paths cross at the Skyward Residential Complex in Richwood, Kochi, Kerala. They find support in a sisterhood they form. Their commitment to one another gets stronger as the social norms of the gendered society restrict them and keep them under surveillance.
Sara is at a crossroads. All paths remain closed in front of her. Will the sisterhood help her get the big break in life and reach her Krishna?
The story is an attempt to light the contemporary lives of women in Kerala, where I was born and raised.
The eBook is published in Amazon Kindle, Unlimited
Would you please buy a copy of my eBook, read, and rate it on Amazon and Goodreads on your device. You see it at the end of your read. Also, write a review on Amazon and Goodreads.
My eBook is available on global kindle stores, including,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NFSM2P9
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NFSM2P9
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09NFSM2P9
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09NFSM2P9
Prasanna's Creative Space
I'm a teacher, researcher, writer, blogger, and author. My identity evolved in this order, which means I am fresh as an author.
Under the Bakula Tree is my recently published eBook on Amazon Kindle. W ...more
Under the Bakula Tree is my recently published eBook on Amazon Kindle. W ...more
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