My first children book

I'd been toying with the idea for a while. My writing has generally been accepted well and I can stir up an interesting literary piece of work. So I thought, why not try writing fiction? And then I thought I'd get super bored if I wrote a novel. Its just way too much of an effort, way too many pages and even though I have a good imagination, I doubt I'd be able to make a book flow. 

The ideas for books were all there; drama, mystery, romance (Totally the Mills and Boons kinds :-) ) and ideas for a kiddo's book.

image from: talesofabookworm.com

I finally settled with writing a book for my niece. I understand her likes and sensibilities well enough and I've been able to cook up a story or two on demand. So I thought, why not try write it down? The draft of 5 stories was in place by mid this year, however, I was not comfortable with the product. What really pushed me was that I wanted to do something special for my niece for her birthday - and the book would be it. A book written and dedicated to her from her beloved teju masi.

With barely 3 weeks to go for her birthday, I pulled up my drafts, realized I could use only 2 of the stories and started working on it all over again. Its not been an easy task, I did have writers block, but the imagination continued and bit by bit, with a lot of support from my sister and some friends, the book started taking shape. Story after story, drafts done and re-done, grammar checked, Google images used to the fullest (God bless Larry Page and Sergey Brin for Google!), sent to and fro between my sister and I and finally I was done. I could not believe it - I had 5 stories, 46 pages and beautifully done up graphics by a friend. 

The book was printed and bound a day before my niece's birthday. Some dear friends helped get all of it together and I had it gift wrapped on time on D-Day. I prayed that she would like it and appreciate the effort that went behind it (too much to ask from a 7 year old). My sister called that night after she put her kid to bed and said one line - "Your niece has some lovely gifts this year and the one she has absolutely loved is your book". Over the next few days, my niece had devoured the book - she loved it so much she wanted to keep reading it. 

I sent my book out to a limited audience and some of the feedback I got was mind-blowing. Most have recommended I work on the book a little more and publish it! Something that I'm way to apprehensive to do. This is a work of love for my niece and that's what matters the most. I have written my first book, and had such an awesome time while at it!

I'd be happy to share my book with you. Mail me if you'd like a copy of it, pls feel free to pass it on but do so with keeping me in the loop :-)