The Anthology Book 1

Today, I am delighted to present an anthology, a compilation of 36 fantastic posts from 36 outstanding bloggers. These are no ordinary bloggers. They are prolific writers who enjoy connecting, encouraging and supporting each other.  We have a Facebook group – a place where we share our posts, our thoughts, our learning and naturally, have a lot of scintillating conversation. Slowly, but surely, we grow together.

How the idea came about

When I turned 50 this year – a huge milestone in my life – I wanted to do something memorable to celebrate. When I sounded out the intention to my friends, most of them said, write a book. While that’s an exciting thought and I also had a couple of book drafts ready, thanks to last year’s NaNoWriMo, it was also intimidating. For one thing, I wasn’t even close to finishing them. Even if I did,  there was no way I could “finish” them and make even one of them ready to show the world.

Yet, the word “book” was stuck in my head. “How?” I wondered. Then, there was a virtual flash of lightning and I saw the words jumping out at me – compile a book with the group members’ posts! “Oh yes”, I thought, and proposed the idea to the group.  They were happy. And I was happy. What followed was the logistics of requesting them to send me their favorite posts from their blogs.

I intended to have the book ready by Thanksgiving, but what with this year’s NaNoWriMo and a whole lot of other commitments, I couldn’t finish it. I resolved to complete it and launch it on Christmas Day. And I did. But not without hiccups.

When I began compiling the posts, I stressed over categorizing them. Then, after reading them, realized that the writing was so versatile and varied, it was best to simply list the authors in alphabetical order. Satisfied to have reached a decision on this, I set about arranging the work. Just as I added the last post, my Word doc became blank. The text disappeared. I breathed deeply. Tried to retrieve it, since the “undo” button ditched me and then, rather than waste time digging, I redid the whole thing again.

Next it was time to add author bios and photos. When I thought I had just about got it right, MS Word crashed. (yes, I can see some of you thinking – why did she do it in MS Word? Good question. Let me know if there’s a better way). But this time I was slightly better prepared. I had saved the file as a pdf – and at least had a reference. Yay!

And so, several edits later, The Anthology was ready. Time to choose a cover now. After a couple of hours of browsing my picture archives – I had this fancy idea of using one from my own photography – over the last couple of weeks, with every photo I clicked – my thought was “will this make a good cover?”

Then, I had yet another brilliant idea! Why not make it  a nice classic cover, with a vintage look, one that we’ll all feel proud to show off? And so was this book born.

Presenting, The Write Tribe Anthology Book 1

Thanks to the creator of Write Tribe for encouraging me, and Vaisakh Venugopal for sitting up with me past midnight to do a final proofing of the book to identify changes. I like his quiet attitude!

What’s in the Write Tribe Anthology Book 1?

You’ll find poetry, 55 fiction, personal stories and experiences, parenting wisdom, haiku, anecdotes, humor and more.

Some of the authors – Jairam Mohan, Richa Singh and Sid Balachandran have generously offered their books free.

I hope you enjoy the book. I urge you to visit the contributors’ blogs – I know you’ll love them.

Ah, special thanks to Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan for beating me to it – with his post about the book.

My heart is full today! I am humbled to have the privilege of putting this book together. I hope this is the first of many!

Thank you!