Blog

  • Vinita Nangia & Ajitha G.S at Anita’s Attic

    It was a blazing hot April day but no one was complaining…for the penultimate session of Season 3, Anita’s Attic had a double billing of guest speakers.

    Vinita Nangia, writer & columnist and Director of the ‪#‎WriteIndia‬ project came in the forenoon to share her insights on writing, trends seen in the WriteIndia contest and what constitutes good writing.

    Ajitha G.S., commissioning editor at HarperCollins India spent time talking to the writers on publishing trends in India and what it is that makes an editor grab a manuscript and want to publish it.

    Just the sort of impetus needed as the writers set out on their individual journeys towards authordom.

  • Preeti Shenoy at Anita’s Attic

    What does a best selling commercial fiction author do differently?

    Some of the most readable books are written by commercial fiction writers. Be it Marian Keyes, Stephen King, Conn Igulden or Thomas Harris...as for Le Carre and Rankin, they are poets masquerading as thriller writers.

    Nevertheless the literary establishment and lit fiction writers are such snobs that we look down our toffee noses and think all commercial fiction is crap; lit fiction deals with the human condition, while pulp fiction is formulaic renditions of the human condition.

    Over the last three seasons at Anita’s Attic, our guest speakers have always been literary fiction writers. Some of them have had books that sell many copies but a best-selling commercial fiction author’s numbers and reach is in another league.

    Which is why I thought it important that my writers meet and hear about the journey of a very successful commercial fiction writer. And who better than Preeti Shenoy, one among the top five highest selling authors in India (Source: Nielsen scan)and the highest selling woman writer in India?

    In a session filled with practical tips as much as personal takes, Preeti gave Anita’s Attic writers a whole new perspective on what it means to be a writer:

    • When I am writing, my internet is off.
    • I never set out to improve people’s lives
    • I refuse to believe that there is something called writer’s block
    • Blogging helps; it gives you an inkling of who your readers are !

     
    Thank you Preeti Shenoy for the enthusiasm and confidence you brought into the room and giving Anita’s Attic‬ writers an understanding of your creative process.

  • Jayapriya Vasudevan of Jacaranda Press at Anita’s Attic

    I remember to this day our first conversation. Circa 1997. Satyr of the Subway reading. Prasad Bidappa had said I should invite her to my reading at a bookstore. So I called. She was warm and friendly on the telephone. It felt like we had known each other a long time. And then she said – Do you know what I do?

    No, I said. I had presumed she was Prasad’s friend and that was good enough for me.
    I am a literary agent, she said.
    I had met literary agents in books but never a real one. Did they have fangs? Did they bite? Or did they have floppy ears and were cuddly?
    Did they drink wine or the devil’s brew?
    I was curious and we planned to meet.
    I think of how she took me in hand and guided me through the highs and lows in my writing career. She covered my back for me, no matter what.
    That’s what a literary agent should be like. Though they seldom are.And so I wanted my Season 3 Writers at Anita’s Attic to meet Jayapriya Vasudevan of Jacaranda Press. Super Agent. Super friend. And a truly good person.
    Thank you Jayapriya for being who you are. Mwaaaaaaa.

  • Manu S Pillai at Anita’s Attic

    It isn’t often that a 25 year old writer appears on the horizon with a 694 page book of which 120 pages are just notes. The writer : Manu S Pillai and the book : The Ivory Throne [Chronicles of the House of Travancore].

    In what could only be termed an invigorating session, Manu talked to the writers of Season 3 at Anita’s Attic on what started him on the book and its writing. As I sat there watching him address the class, what struck me was not just the brilliance of this young writer but also his passion for what he was doing and his diligence.

    Without passion, any piece of writing no matter how brilliantly researched will not leap off the page and it is this I hope was the greatest takeaway for my writers along with some of these nuggets:

    * Women’s bodies were not sexualized then as it were now
    * Myth making is part of holding onto power

    Thank you Manu Pillai. You are a star! And I personally look forward to seeing you scale greater heights…

  • On Creating and Maintaining a Writer’s Digital Presence

    Just like that, Season 3 of Anita’s Attic is into session 4 and we thought it time that our writers get an understanding of what it is to be a writer in this time and age. And so it was time to call in the Marines.

    And I can’t think of anyone more appropriate than Biju Ebenezer, part of my digital team *conditionsapply and a WordPress evangelist.

    In a scintillating session where Biju talked to the writers about the importance of creating a digital footprint and answered their queries, many nuggets of wisdom emerged :

    * Tomorrow when someone searches for you, you have to give them at least 5 avenues to find you – on creating a digital footprint

    * If you are out of sight, you are out of mind! – on maintaining blogs,

    * Write your blog post at least once a month – on digital discipline

    Thank you Biju for sharing your wisdom so generously and so graciously

  • Vivek Shanbagh at Anita’s Attic

    There is a book everyone is talking about these days.

    Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbagh and translated into English by Srinath Perur. A nonsense phrase title of a slim book but with a truly remarkable literary heft that would put tomes with ponderous titles to shame.

    So to speak to Season 3 writers at Anita’s Attic, we had the gracious and gentle Vivek Shanbagh who talked of his journey from village to city, Konkani to Kannada, reader to writer, real time versus literary time and thereon.

    It was a proud moment for us to be able to include Indian language writers into the Attic’s list of guest speakers. And who better than Vivek Shanbagh to start with!

    Thank you Vivek.

  • Lavanya Sankaran at Anita’s Attic

    As always, I take great care to zone in on the writers I invite to introduce the world of writing to my writers at ‎Anita’s Attic‬ and the first writer pretty much sets the tone.

    And so Season 3 at Anita’s Attic kick-started with the brilliant, passionate and funny Lavanya Sankaran, author of ‪The Red Carpet and The Hope Factory.

    Here are some of her quips:

    On responses to writing: Your mother was the person who when you pooped thought it was brilliant.
    On the writing discipline: Writing demands you write. That is the nature of that god…

    Thank you Lavanya….you were a rock star!

  • Anita’s Attic in the Sunday Magazine of the New Indian Express

    ASFL---Anita-Nair

  • Physician, heal thyself| Collaborative Fiction from Anita’s Attic Season 2 in The Bangalore Mirror

    I could get addicted to this rush of seeing my mentees work in print.

    Proud mentor moment again as the third piece of collaborative fiction by Anita’s Attic Season 2 writers published this morning in the Bangalore Mirror.

    Take a bow Vani Menon, Raksha Kumar, Peter Vas and Adithya Ravi.

    And thank you again Bangalore Mirror.

    An Excerpt

    “Balu,” said somebody at the door. The doctor looked up into the tired eyes of Hargopal.
    “Urgent,” Hargopal said and left as swiftly as he showed up.
    Dr Balu suddenly became stiff. He got up and patted the boy. “You’ll be alright. Nothing to worry.” He briskly walked to the door and looked outside at the row of patients waiting for him at the reception area.
    He made his way to the rear entrance of the building that housed his clinic in a converted garage. The familiar white tempo-traveller with its window curtains pulled across was parked close to the compound wall. Hargopal was nowhere in sight. The tempo-traveller’s door slid open as soon as he approached it. He was pulled in by Hargopal and the door slid shut quickly.
    “All clear,” crackled a walkie-talkie. Dr Balu understood that Shanmugham Street was now under surveillance.

     
    Read the complete story online here
     

  • Rahul Warrier’s “A night of stories ” published in The Madras Mag

    Rahul Warrier’s “A night of stories” has been published in The Madras Mag – an independent literary magazine from India.

    Excerpt

    The stage awaits the story tellers – the “aatta vilakku” is lit before the performance begins, and stays up all night along with the spell-bound audience, mesmerized by the stories unfurling on stage.

    Read the complete version here.