Andaleeb Wajid's Blog, page 2

One Year Ago

Friends,

One year ago, I published the first book of the Jasmine Villa Series - One Way to Love - Tehzeeb and Ayub’s story and I remember being very nervous because I hadn’t shown it to anyone. It was an experiment and I had no clue if the book was going to work or not.

I hit the publish button and went about doing my work because it was Eid and we were all very busy and Amazon was taking forever to upload it. I kept coming back to the laptop to hit refresh and when it finally went live, the thrill, I tell you!

I wanted to shout out from the rooftops and I did the social media equivalent of it and told everyone to read it. And they did!

In all this time, I’ve had readers from India, US, UK, Australia and Canada who have loved this book and waited with eager anticipation for the next one in the series and that’s one of the things I’ve really enjoyed about my journey in self-publishing - the ability to create new series and give readers what they want!

So, anyway, since this a special day, I’m reducing the price of this book from Rs. 125 to Rs. 75. So, if you haven’t read it yet, now’s the time to do it!

Everything about this journey has been fun and I especially enjoyed the collaborative parts of it where I remember heading off to my girl Pooja Premnath’s house and spending the entire day while we tried to crack a theme for the series so that she could design the covers.

Man, I miss those days when I could just hop over to her place and we would order in food and reminisce about our days together in the office where we met and remember we had to work and we’d go back to browsing through photos to decide which one would work or not.

Anyway, we’ve come a long way since then. And I haven’t stopped writing either.

So, get your copy of One Way to Love at this special reduced price only for today! And friends, reviews matter. I know you might think of romance as a guilty pleasure (why though?) but if you do take a moment to offer your words of encouragement, it means a lot to us writers who have struggled and spent so much time over our work.

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In other news, Shilpa Suraj’s new book A Barren Heart is out. I’ve read it friends. It’s a little dark because it’s emotional but do read it when you’re in the mood for something to engage your feelings. It’s not a romance in the typical boy-meets girl scenario but it’s a story with a lot of heart.

In case you didn’t know, bestselling author Judy Balan is now a bestselling writer of an astrology book - 2020 The Second Half. It’s up on Kindle, so please do get it if you want to see what the second half of 2020 holds for you. She’s also a psychological astrologer, so do check her out at balan.judy@gmail.com and write to her if you want to book her for readings.

Anna C has written a standalone romance called One Last Kiss which is as steamy as her Girl-Boy series, so do take a look! She also has a newsletter out now - AnnaCWriter.substack.com so subscribe to it if you want to get sneak peeks into her new upcoming books.

Bijal Vachharajani (of A Cloud Called Bhura fame) and Radha Rangarajan have written about Indian Champions who are fighting to save the planet and it’s a book everyone should read! Also, the book was released (on Kindle) today and it features interviews with people like Romulus Whitaker, Rohan Chakravarty and Parineeta Dandekar, to name a few. The book is called - 10 Indian Champions: Who are fighting to save the planet. It’s also been published by Duckbill, my favouritest publishers ever.

Speaking of Duckbill, they’re also publishing my latest young adult novel next year hopefully and I’m so excited about getting my feet back into YA which is a genre that I absolutely love.

That’s it from me now. I hope everyone is staying safe and figuring out how to make their lives work in the times of Corona. Several writer friends have been discussing if we should bring in Corona in our fiction from now on because the world as we knew it doesn’t exist any longer.

I’m still reluctant to do that. Maybe I’ll set my books in 2019 for as long as I can!

Okay, bye now. And yes, One Way to Love is for just Rs. 75 for all of today! Get your copy if you haven’t already!

Not all superheroes wear capes; some have super memory!

  A few years back, my mother and I were out shopping on Commercial Street. We bumped into a girl who looked very familiar, and we had a short conversation. She left. My mother turned to me and asked me who that was. I had no idea. I didn’t know if I had studied with her …

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Night at the Warehouse – Free Preview

Okay, who loves getting creeped out? Me! Me! But I also can’t sleep after reading a horror novel or seeing something scary on TV because in my imagination, the shirts hanging at the back of the door, transform themselves into sinister monsters at night, something that will creep towards me while I turn my face …

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How to create the romance in your story

When I was in college, my friends and I would pass around romance novels to each other on the sly, hoping our English teachers wouldn’t spot us reading these juicy novels and give us a hard time. Romance novels were generally considered trashy although no teacher expressly told us not to read them. They were …

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Turning Hate into Halwa

In an episode of Masterchef Australia I watched recently, the contestants were asked to “hero” the vegetables and make them palatable to meat-lovers. It was an interesting episode and I made mental notes to try out at home and convert the meat-lovers into veggie-lovers although I knew I wouldn’t be able to fool the 11-year-old …

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So many short stories!

I started my writing career with short stories and I didn’t think it I’d ever be able to write a novel because it seemed so long drawn and just difficult. But then, I did it once and I found that it wasn’t so bad and I’ve been writing and writing and here I am, with […]

Ten Questions I was asked

Kanchana Bannerjee, fellow writer and friend whom I interviewed for my blog sometime back, returned the favour and asked me ten questions on her blog. You can read the full interview and visit her amazing website here – http://www.kanchanabanerjee.com. Meanwhile here are her questions and my answers – Q1. The series of stories that you are doing with Juggernaut, how… Read more →

Happening in exactly a month – A book reading at iBrowse

I realised just as I was sitting down to write this post, that the book reading is on 9th June, exactly a month from now. Marianne De Nazareth (a well known writer herself) conducts these book reading sessions at the iBrowse Club which is a book club at Catholic Club. I’ve had the pleasure of being their guest twice already,… Read more →

A Sweet Deal

For those who don’t know, Juggernaut published one of my cutest/sweetest romances in early April. It’s called A Sweet Deal. Download the book from the website/app here. Meanwhile, here’s a free preview.     Chapter One What to do when you drop your Kindle in the toilet? Rumana taps out the question on her phone, her fingers shaking slightly. The… Read more →

Train Journeys – What they were and what they are

The truth is, there is nothing romantic about train journeys any more. Years ago, when I was wondering what to write after my first novel, I thought of a romance that takes place on a train journey and even started writing it. I gave up after a few chapters because I wasn’t convinced about anything – the characters, the situation… Read more →