Andaleeb Wajid's Blog, page 4

A chat with Zainab Sulaiman

Zainab and I met early last year when our common publishers treated us for ice cream (yes, they’re very cool like that!) and we met on and off at book launches etc. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the book launch of Simply Nanju but I had the pleasure of reading it recently. What can I say? Totally wowed by it.

In case you’re not aware, Simply Nanju is set in a school for disabled children and Zainab writes from her own experience as being a teacher at such a school in Bangalore. I got the chance to ask her some questions about her writing and everything and decided to put it up here. By the way, I’ll be doing more of this soon, meaning talking to other writers and putting up our conversations here. Here goes:

AW: What’s your writing routine like? As in when do you prefer to write?

ZS:  No routine at the moment, as am swamped with work – I work at a sports company and head their HR. But otherwise like to write in the mornings when I’m fresh and well-fed. I wake up ravenous and can’t do anything until I’ve eaten a good breakfast

AW: Are all the characters in Simply Nanju based on real kids you met while you taught at that special school, or did some fictional ones also creep in? Tell us the names of one real character and one fictional character please?

ZS: Mostly, ‘inspired’ by real children Nanju’s a real enough character; Pratik’s more fictional.

AW: I guffawed when I read about ‘Gussel Market’. Any reason why you changed this name as well?

ZS:  Pure laziness! Couldn’t think up a good name and so just changed poor old Russel market into Gussel market, haha. There’s another such change I made – again out of sheer sloth; those familiar with Fraser Town might have picked up on it.

AW: Was your experience as a teacher enough to write this book or did you do more research? Any books you read?

ZS: I set out by volunteering, then moved to fund raising, then got a special Ed degree in inclusive education. So yes, a lot of research in that sense Didn’t read any specific books in this genre though as I had a fair idea of what I wanted to write – though the plot was a killer! – and didn’t want to be too influenced by anything written in a similar vein; though books about disability and inclusion are honestly few and far between.

AW: What genre of books do you enjoy reading? Anything you’d like to recommend?

ZS: I love crime stories but the gentler ones – can’t handle the very dark violent versions; there’s enough chaos in the world as it is. Good ole Agatha Christie and now, Alexander McCall Smith are favourites.

AW: Are you writing something else now? Fiction? Non-fiction?

ZS: Yes, and it’s fiction. Hopefully it won’t take me another three years to write though!

AW: How did you decide the name of this book? I’m always at a loss when it comes to this part of writing.

ZS: I didn’t actually. Sayoni and Anushka thought it up And no one sucks more than me at finding an appropriate name!

AW: Is your next book also for children? Do you want to tell us a bit about it?

ZS: No, it’s for adults. And wouldn’t really want to talk about it till it’s clearer in my head

And finally, since there are hardly any books about disability in India, especially fiction,

AW: Any advice for writers who want to write about disability?

ZS: Write from the heart. Don’t be scared.

 

Friends, this is a book that you must read!

 

Buy Simply Nanju here.

In all its crunchy glory

Ta-da!

Here’s the cover of my new book:

 

 

Isn’t it lovely? I’m so excited! In fact, I’m fresh out of words to describe how cool it is.  I’m just waiting to hold it in my hand (December, 2016, come soon!) and I’m also nervously waiting for reactions from readers.

Sometimes, some characters walk into my head and demand I write a story for them. That’s what happened with Aliya and Sameer.

Aliya is this modern, straining-at-parental-controls young woman, who foolishly decides that getting married to Kamaal might give her a measure of freedom. Because he owns a restaurant and yes, because he’s hot.

Of course, nothing goes according to plan. Her ex, Sameer, literally the one who got away, turns up at the restaurant and he’s actually the head chef. And uff tauba, his hotness, do not even ask.

What’s a girl to do? Huh?

Pre-order here and wait. It will be worth it! Promise!

 

 

An award shortlist!

I didn’t expect to be back here so soon. Honest. I thought the next time I blog, it would be for some big cover reveal for the food+romance series. But was I wrong! I woke up this morning, blearily sent off kid 1 to school, tried to catch a few winks before kid 2 would ask for breakfast, dreamed something weird in the interim, checked my phone when Facebook and Google Photos reminded me that last year, on this day, we launched When She Went Away.

Aww, I thought. It’s already a year! Then I went about doing other boring stuff like making tea and again checked Facebook on my phone and there was an announcement from Goodbooks.in about The Hindu-Goodbooks Awards shortlist.

I thought to myself, heh, I never make it into any of these. So I shouldn’t even bother checking because it just feels so godawful when I don’t see my name there. And then I clicked the link, scrolled down and sorry to use an awful cliche, but my heart literally stopped.

My name was there! For When She Went Away. I blinked, hit refresh, waited for page to load through the disgustingly slow internet connection and then expected to read some other name instead of mine. But no! It was my name out there! Woo!

I immediately shared the link with Sayoni, my publisher at Duckbill and because I couldn’t wait for the ticks to turn blue, I called and told her and both she and Anushka were thrilled. The rest of my day has been spent hitting like on everyone who congratulates me on Facebook. Naturally, we have been very productive today, my dears.

If you haven’t read the book, you can order When She Went Away from Amazon here. To read the e-book, download the Juggernaut app and read it here.

Food+Romance

 

While I’ve been out of the blogging scene, I’ve been busy writing. Yes! I’ve written two books and the third is 3/4 written and all have the theme of food+romance.

What is that, you ask? Well, it’s not yet a genre (really? I need to check) but I realised that I love writing about food and somehow a romance creeps in, even when I, ahem try to write horror. So I’ve decided to make it my new thing.

The books all revolve around people who are involved with food. For instance, there’s a food photographer and a hot chef in The Crunch Factor (being published by Hachette soon), a food blogger whose only claim to fame was that she blew up an oven, in Will the Oven Explode? (Juggernaut, also soon) and as yet unnamed book about two neighbouring cafe owners who can’t figure out if they hate each other or have the hots for each other (also Juggernaut, and since I’m still writing it, definitely a little later)

And by God, I’m having such a blast. So, I guess you understand why I haven’t blogged since April. Been busy writing, folks! So, come back soon, because I’ll definitely post cover pics and other information here, on the website first, followed by my social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

My latest baby, Asmara

Sometime in early 2015, I was beginning to slightly panic. I hadn’t written a word in all of 2014. It was a self-imposed sabbatical from writing because I’d already written ten books by then, seven of which were published by the end of 2014. I thought I needed to stay away from writing, recharge my creative batteries as it were. The moment 2015 rolled along, I knew I had to get started, but I had no idea what I was going to write.

I scribbled random notes, tried to get excited about it but nothing really worked. So I thought that it will happen when it will and well, it did. The main character, her motivation and what really drove the story kicked in suddenly one day, and I had a very brief concept note for this new book. Normally, I’m super lazy about naming my characters. I usually name them whatever pops into my head at the moment. And just then, for some reason, the name that came to my head was Asmara.

I was excited and sharing my excitement was Pooja, my friend and colleague (who’s responsible for this photo by the way). I showed her the concept note, fleshed it out a little, and then sent it off to a couple of publishers. Let’s say I was pleasantly surprised when it was snapped up by Penguin. Okay no, make that ridiculously pleased and shout from the rooftop happy when Penguin said they wanted to publish Asmara’s Summer.

Of course, I still had to write it. And that was what I was secretly worried about. I was ending this year long drought of words, with a book that had already been signed up by a publisher. What had I been thinking! What if I couldn’t write it? Or what if they hated what I write?

If you know me, you know that I try and avoid thinking of all this when I write. I write firmly inside my bubble where no one can get in unless I let them. So I devoted most of March and April to writing it and I finished it like way before my deadline was due. Ha. I still had my writing mojo, bitches.

Editing for Asmara began and whoa – I realised that Asmara was being edited by the world’s most stringent/dogged/tenacious editor I’ve ever worked with. Niyati Dhuldoya. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever worked *this* hard at a manuscript during the editing stages, in my life.

Anyway, like they say, bringing out a book is like having a baby and after all that labour pain, you kind of forget what the fuss was all about and you want to have another baby too. Same here. I got excited about another idea the same year, August to be exact. This time I decided I was going to write the book and then send it out. And that was how my contemporary romance The Crunch Factor came about. Ahem. I haven’t announced this anywhere else as yet, but The Crunch Factor has been accepted at Hachette and is being published in November, 2016!

A year that began on a doubtful note, ended with two books being written and accepted for publication. I can only hope things get better than this!

You can ogle away at Asmara’s gorgeous cover, designed by Abhishek Choudhary. And yes, Asmara is officially published and there’s a book launch on 30th April at Atta Galatta. Do drop by if you’re in the area!

Our first workshop

On 5th March, as I left home to go to Atta Galatta for our first Nutcracker workshop, I was slightly nervous but there was more anticipation than anxiety. I loved meeting new people, talking to them, helping them along in their journey as writers, and here we were, Sajita and I, embarking on our first workshop, because we loved doing this.

 

Our participants started showing up and it was time to connect the faces to the emails we’d shared. People sat around tables and got comfortable, while we distributed the folders that we’d designed and made.

 

I don’t know why there were only four men and sixteen women at our workshop. It was definitely something to ponder about later. By the end of that day, our participants were comfortable with each other and us and they’d already got some interesting stuff written for their flash fiction exercise using the prompts we gave them.

 

Sajita and I went back to our homes, tired but elated. Oh and did I mention, it was also my birthday on 5th and it was one of the nicest birthdays I’ve had. The next day too went well, and we were pretty excited with the stories that were emerging from the participants.

To say that our first workshop exceeded our expectations, be it in the number of participants, or their active participation, would be an understatement. We only hope we’re lucky enough for the workshops that we have lined up in the future.

About that – I’ve set up a calendar on the Nutcracker website – http://www.nut-cracker.in/calendar/ – where you can see that we’re pretty serious about our workshops!  So sign up for one or pass the word around in case you know someone would be interested.

Our next workshop is at Fragrant Kitchen, Kalyan Nagar, and it is a one-day workshop, focusing entirely on writing fiction. Registration for this has opened up and there are limited seats. So spread the good word around, please?

 

Creative Writing Workshops with Nutcracker

Life works in strange ways. A couple of years ago, I met Sajita Nair when I discovered that she was working in the same organization where I had joined. We used to have a few small chats together, every now and then, but she left soon after, although we’d stayed in touch.

It’s now time for me to leave and I’d been seriously wondering what to do next when Sajita messaged to wish me for the new year. We got chatting and both of us realized that we wanted to do the same thing. Organize and conduct Creative Writing Workshops! And thus, that’s how I joined Nutcracker, which was something that she had already set up.

So Nutcracker (www.nut-cracker.in) started taking proper shape. We met on weekends and decided to hold our first creative writing workshop in Atta Galatta.

Registrations are open right now! So don’t wait! Sign up to attend the first workshop on 5th and 6th March and it’s your chance to work with us! We have just a few seats left!

Also, Nutcracker is planning it’s next workshop as well, and a workshop for children too! What can I say? I’m having fun!

Reading Hour with Aruna Nambiar

Aruna and I were published together in 2005, as part of a collection of short stories called Curtains, stories by 9 women. Even in that selection, I have to admit, her stories had its own brand of gentle humour that brought a smile to your face. When her debut novel Mango Cheeks, Metal Teeth came out a couple of years ago, I picked up a copy and of course enjoyed it a lot.

For Reading Hour January, we had Aruna over at Atta Galatta to chat with me and it was a really nice session. Some excerpts from the session for those who missed it.

I brought up how books that have maps or family trees in the very beginning intrigue and intimidate me at the same time, as a reader. It implies that the author has put in a fair amount of effort into mapping all this out and they expect me to be an alert reader because I will need this information later on. As a writer, I find it interesting as a process. I asked her if she mapped out the family tree before she wrote the book or after.

Aruna agreed that having the entire family tree and that too, three of them in this book, was an afterthought. One of her earlier readers suggested that it would be helpful to readers considering the number of characters there were in the book.

I asked her how she came up with these alliterative names like Terrible Tasneem, Koovait kannan, Ration Raman, Meen Mohammed… And she said that it’s typical of a Kerala small town where people do get remembered or called thus.

I brought up the point that there are two threads running in the story… Of Geetha and her middle class family and on the other hand, Koovait kannan and Ration Raman. Both threads are not parallel and intersect most interestingly. But they’re so different from each other. Was there a favourite when she was writing? Which thread did she enjoy writing more?

Aruna said that the Nair family with the cousins converging on the ancestral home for summer vacation was true to her own experiences but the story of the other half, the domestic help and the people like Koovait Kannan etc was different. She said that writing that thread was more interesting and even fun.

Aruna then followed this up with a reading from the book that was quite funny. It made me remember how she’d said once that she wasn’t aiming for humor. But when she wrote this book it kind of crept in. The studied humour that shows a mirror to our lives, set in the 80s is not just a nostalgic trip. There are some painful growing up moments that Aruna deftly weaves in, so that the reader is left with a feeling of, ah, so that’s what the book was about, once they’ve finished it.

We spoke a little more about characters like Geetha who is the protagonist and how it appears that she seems to have grown the most in the book. There were several questions from the audience too, about various situations that arise when you write a coming of age novel.

Overall, it was a really nice event, intimate and yet, blessed with an interested audience.

Selfie with the author of the month, Aruna Nambiar!

A Little Girl in a Big City

BLF (Bangalore Literature Festival) came and went away too soon. It was like, one minute I was getting excited Friday evening for BLF 2015, and the next minute it was Sunday night and I was coming back home, exhausted. Nevertheless, it was an exciting two days, and I felt pretty amazed that I was able to participate in it. My session was on Sunday evening and we had a decent sized, interested crowd. And although I kept telling people, I didn’t relate to our topic – A Little Girl in a Big City, at the end of the two days, I pretty much felt like that, creaky knees notwithstanding.

Meeting old friends and making new ones was pretty much the highlight of the two day fest. I’m not really a social person, and I really prefer to bury my head in a book than talk to people (some people I know have just gasped loudly, and then whispered ‘liar’) but it’s true! But it’s occasions like these that I put on a smile and hope for the best.

Some pics and a video of our session below!

During our session.

 

My books on display at BLF

 

Reading Hour with Anjum Hasan

There are so many times when you’re reading a book, and you wish you could ask the author something. Right? I’m so happy to be doing Reading Hour because that’s exactly what I get to do. Ask authors questions that play in my mind as I read their work. How cool is that?

So, on 14th November, Atta Galatta was a hub of crazy activity as it was Children’s Day as well. There were kids running around everywhere and we had to wait a while for the place to settle down, for the noise levels to go down. Even then, Anjum and I had one or two kids look down our backs, curiously wondering what we were doing.

Anjum’s latest novel, The Cosmopolitans was the topic of conversation. It’s a remarkably evocative book, filled with sharp insights and keen observation.

I’ve always been fascinated by how authors name their protagonists. Personally speaking I have a tough time naming them. So the protagonist in The Cosmopolitans, Qayenaat has to be one of the most interesting names I’ve seen. I wanted to know if there was some deeper significance to the name but Anjum said that wasn’t so. Qayenaat, aware of her ethereal name drops her second name, Gupta because it’s so plain and real. The drawbacks of this arise later when Qayenaat, tries to claim insurance after her father dies and is declined because she can’t prove she’s her father’s daughter.

Cosmopolitans is filled with such instances of harsh practical reality that intersperse with Qayenaat’s ruminations of life on a higher level. Like the concern with money, which people would consider crass and vulgar but it’s a concern that is real and stares Qayenaat in her face, often as she sees the world around her in a race for it, while she often feels left behind.

Also, a heroine in her fifties, one unencumbered by a husband, children or a marriage is also unusual. Anjum admitted that she wanted someone with a certain amount of experience, a solid amount of life, lived. Qayenaat’s father who makes a mark in the novel through Qayenaat’s ruminations is important and for him to be who he is, a Nehruvian idealist, it’s important for him to have been born at a certain age. It was therefore inevitable that Qayenaat would be anything less than fifty.

Qayenaat’s understanding of Bangalore is spot on. Her assimilation of the different cultures and different worlds that inhabit this city is remarkably insightful. I wanted to know if it was Anjum’s as well and how she managed to create such an intricate picture. Being a writer, I suppose one learns to observe people and surroundings even when we’re not actively aware of it. And Anjum’s experience with working at an art gallery certainly helped.

One of the things I really wanted to know, especially as a writer myself, was why do protagonists sometimes go away to find themselves. Anjum thought it was a relevant question considering how almost all her protagonists have done that.

Honestly, it’s a little difficult to capture the entirety of the event in a blog post. The audience was articulate and asked some insightful questions. But that’s saying neither this nor that. I’ll try and see if we can record some of the future Reading Hour sessions so they can be uploaded here.

Some pics.

Note:

There is no Reading Hour planned for December. The next session is in January.