Sharath Komarraju's Blog, page 67

5 Reasons why Professional Authors Should Write for Free

Sometime last year, I wrote a post on whether or not writers should publish for free. There I took the hard-nosed professional’s stance. I said authors should not give away their stuff for free, especially if someone else is making a buck out of it. I still believe in that credo. If someone is making […]

Meetup 143: Historical Fiction

Last weekend, Nikita hosted a session on Historical Fiction. Generally, in an amateur setting (and in some professional settings too), there is considerable confusion between historical fiction, mythological fiction and fantasy. The lines do overlap, and the elements that define each genre are sometimes not as rigid as we’d like them to be. In spite […]

Does Pornography Promote Male Domination?

I take it that the debate on pornography and its effect on society is at least a few centuries old. There have always been a certain group of people vying to define what is ‘good’ and to control what the others should or shouldn’t see. I’ve never given much thought to the matter, but have […]

Micro Fiction: Ten 55-word-stories to Light Up Your Day

He scoffed at the concept of ghosts.Was willing to spend a night in a haunted house to win a bet ;  he took a flask of coffee and his ipod, made himself comfortable and waited for the night to end so that he could  collect the money. The night never ended, at least for him. […]

Flash Fiction: The Transferer

Back in 2008, Livejournal conducted a flash fiction contest where 500-word-stories had to be written on the theme: journal. They gave us a sop saying that all selected stories ‘might’ go into a published book, and we were allowed to send in more than one entry. I sent in five. I’m serializing them on this blog. This is the […]

An Epicurean Guide to Truth

This is my third post on Epicurus. If you’d like to read the first two, click here and here. Like all philosophers, Epicurus was also obsessed with the idea of Truth (with the capital T). One of the great empirical questions that they teach you to ask in Philosophy 101 is this: ‘If a tree […]

Love and Longing in Art: Echo and Narcissus

In Book III of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, he tells the story of Echo, the talkative mountain nymph, and Narcissus, the vain youth from Thespia. Echo The tale, like most tales in mythology, begins with Zeus’s desire to frolic with the mountain nymphs while hiding from the jealous eye of Hera, his wife. Some versions say that Zeus tasked […]

5 Things An Editor Wants To See On Your Manuscript’s First Page

You must have heard of the Mickey Spillane quote that’s often-repeated in writer circles: The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next. Editors at publishing houses and literary agencies have very little time on their hands – typically twenty or thirty seconds per manuscript during the evaluation phase. They will read […]

Photo Post: Dear Dairy

Mother, heed me for sake of Ra’s, Meat I do decry, steak no mas, But hungry I am thees hour for a slice of cheese power and liquid white in cape of glass. Guest Post by Nitish Nair. Scientist. Writer. Poet. Photographer. Read his previous post: Gold ‘n IFiled under: Guest Posts, Ideas Log

Which of these 3 ways do you use to measure wealth?

Before I begin this post, I must make it clear that by ‘wealth’, I don’t mean intangible wealth like health, love, family, friends and freedom. I know that tangible wealth isn’t everything, but I think we can all agree that it isn’t nothing either. Whether we like it or not, money is a fundamental part of our lives. […]