Category Books

Now Lets start counting on our fingers. she is a management graduate from XLRI. She has been Creative Director with top advertising agencies. She has written for magazines across the world. She is currently co-building an app. And in the middle of all this, she Loves writing books! Meet Jane De Suza, the Singapore-based, multi-talented writer of the SuperZero series, Uncool, The Spy Who Lost Her Head and, the most recent, Flyaway Boy.

Stepping into writing

As an only child, growing up in the town of Jamshedpur, Jane made up stories constantly in her head and (believe it or not) in the margins of her textbooks! “That won me the Love of friends and the dismay of teachers. My parents had loads of books, and when I’d, read all mine, I started on theirs. And when I’d react theirs, 1 started writing my own,” she says, about her journey into the world of writing.

The Writer’s Routine

Jane admits that she isn’t the sort who can sit and churn out the daily 1000 words. ‘The churn shows,” she says, “it produces stoic, sludge writing. I’ve only ever started a book when the idea or character is unique enough to Leap out at me. And then the story writes itself. I start writing manically for hours at a stretch, oblivious to the pings from, either phone or pressure cooker.” She gets her first draft out in a fever, and Later rewrites it many more times.

Writing like Jane De Suza

Jane believes that ideas can strike at any moment. And that as a writer, you must always be prepared. So jot down these tips quickly!

Ideas are like sudden storms. Carry a pen and napkin (that you won’t blow your nose on Later and fling out). if a tune inspires you, hum it into your phone. If its an image of an upside down crow in a puddle, click the pic. Labels on bottles, lines from a book – write down anything you can build on Later.

* Start a chat with people – auto-drivers, hair dressers, grandparents, cobblers who are fixing your shoe. Walk around,. Eavesdrop. Put your phone away if you’re alone in a cafe or street, and look at people around. What’s the couple fighting about, you think? is it a boyfriend, brother, boyfriend’s brother? Aha,-story idea emerging, huh?

* Look at the world from someone else’s point of view. Argue against your own, beliefs. write from the perspective of a tree about to be cut down, or a dog with no home, or a man who cannot remember. * Write when completely alone. That’s why the best ideas hit in the loo. The only one I’d allow around, me while writing was Marco, my dog.

* I write best at night, when everyone’s asleep and, my imagination, has the world to romp around, in. I go back and edit in the mornings, in the clear Light of day.

* Talk to your characters, talk as your characters. Talk aloud. Make their conversations real.

* Write if you love to, not because you want to be rich, or famous. And don’t write a me-too book because someone else who wrote it, is now rich and famous. Find, your own voice (it may take months/years of rewrites). Write a story that no one else in the world, but you, can.

Jane De Stint’s books

For mid-school readers:

• The SuperZero series: SuperZero, SuperZero and the Grumpy Ghosts , SuperZero and the Clone Crisis
• Uncool
• Flyaway Boy

For YA/adults:

• The Spy Who Lost Her Head

Bet you didn’t know that

• Jane cuts off heads and ears and, chins; relax, she takes terrible selfies!
• Jane went through about 25 career options while growing up and still does!
• Jane’s sense of humour often gets her into trouble!

 

Picture Credit : Google

‘Kin’ on adventures

Over a few weeks in August, Jeff Kinney, author of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, visited bookstores across the U.S. to hand out signed copies of his new book, “Rowley Jeff erson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure,” in a safe, fun, socially distant way – via a custom-made 96-inch, trident!

First published in 2007, the “Wimpy Kid” books have become widely popular among young readers, who have grown up devouring the adventures of the middle-school weakling Greg Heffley. A profile writer, Kinney comes up with at least one book every year.

Rowley is the hero

Originally slated to release in April, the “Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure” was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It finally hit the stands on August 4. The new book is the second in a spin off series that follows Greg’s gullibly sweet friend Rowley. In the latest adventure, Rowley attempts to write a fantasy story. Greg acts as a critic, agent and publicist for his friend, and tries his best to not stir any trouble – which, of course, means that he ends up making things worse.

Rowley’s story features Roland and his best friend, Garg the Barbarian, as they leave the safety of their village and embark on a quest to save Roland’s mum from the White Warlock. On their way, they encounter all kinds of creatures from Sherlock Holmes and mermaids to wizards and a centaur (though it is part cow, not horse.) All the trappings of a must-read!

Doodling for a living?

Right from childhood Kinney loved to draw, but he wasn’t very glad at it. So he developed his own drawing style with stick figures and bug-eyed characters. Using his surroundings as an inspiration, he created comics strips about the life around him. One such comic strip was “Igdoof”, which Kinney ran in his college newspaper at the University of Maryland. However his work looked too juvenile and so he never received any offers from big newspapers. In 1998, he came up with the idea for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. Kinney worked on his book for almost eight years before showing it to a publisher.

Did you know?

• The Heffleys are loosely based on Kinney’s own family. Like Greg, the author too felt caught between his four siblings- elder brother Rodrick, his sister, and his younger brother, Patrick while growing up. He draws heavily on these childhood memories to write about Greg’s family.
• Greg’s younger brother, Mannu became associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, after videos and graffiti made by activists went viral on social media. He was chosen as an icon because he is familiar to Gen Z and easy to draw.
• The series started off online on Funbrain.com in 2004 and made its print debut in April of 2007. There are now more than 200 million copies of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books available in 77 editions of 65 languages.
• Kinney wrote the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” originally for adults. It was meant to be a reflection on what it was like to be in middle school. When he fund an editor who liked the manuscript, he was told that what he had written was more like a children’s series than a book for adults.

Oh really!

• Kinney opened an independent bookstore called An Unlikely Story, in his adopted hometown, Plainville, Massachusetts in 2015. Throughout the lockdown, the bookstore has held online chats with famous authors like Stephenie Meyer, John Grishan and David Nicholls.
• The 15th book, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid; The Deep End”, is set to launch in mid-October, and sees the Heffley family going on an RV vacation.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Reading a Ruskin Bond is very easy. All you need is a quiet corner, a comfortable chair and steaming cup of coffee. Ah, and don’t forget to wrap yourself in a cosy shawl or a blanket. Why? Because it can get chilly, up there in the mountains, where most of Bond’s stories unfold.

Set in the hills and valleys of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where he spent the most cherished moments of his childhood, Bond’s books give you a glimpse of life on the snow-covered and Deodar-dotted landscapes. Like the misty mountains, Bond’s stories unravel slowly, and leave a deep impression on your mind. Before you know it, Rusty, Binya, Uncle Ken and Rakesh Bond’s unforgettable characters – have become your companions.

Such is the magic of Bond, Ruskin Bond. Generations and generations have grown up reading his books – he has been writing for 70 years now – and yet the bespectacled, rosy-cheeked storyteller from the hills, never seems to run out of yarn.

And last month in July, the octogenarian marked his seventh decade in his literary career, the only way he knows how – by writing another book. This time a part of his memoir series.

Telling his story

Set in 1951, the illustrated book “Song of India” traces the beginning of Bond’s writing career. It follows a 16-year-old Bond as he leaves for England, where he found his calling as a writer and worked on his first book “The Room on the Rook”.

The fourth installment in his memoir series, “A Song of India”, continues Bond’s reflection on his life which began with “Looking for the Rainbow” (2017) and “Till the Clouds Roll By” (2017), “Coming Round the Mountain” was the third book in the series.

What makes his work – the memoirs as well as his other books – special is that Bond always leaves a piece of himself in his stories. And as we get familiar with his characters, we get to know the author himself. So here’s a look at some of the classic Bond characters over the years.

Meet Bond’s classic characters

In a career spanning over 70 years, Bond has written over 600 stories

• Rusty: In “The Room on the Roof”, we meet the willful and rebellious Rusty, a character Bond partially based on himself.
• Mehmood: The pride Mehmood takes in making his kites will make you fall in love with this character from the story “Kite Maker.”
• Uncle Ken: A character based on Bond’s maternal uncle, his eccentricities and misadventures make him a complete laugh riot. And so the stories he appears in are also aptly named “Crazy Times with Uncle Ken” and “At Sea with Uncle Ken.”

Did you know?

• Bond received €50 for his publication “The Room on the Roof”.
• Some of Bond’s stories like “’The Blue Umbrella’ and ‘Susanna’s Seven Husbands” have been adopted to Bollywood films. The Hindi film J”unoon” is based on Bond’s historic novella “A Flight of Pigeons.”
• His favourite and the first book he read in his childhood was Ali in Wonderland: And Other Tall Tales.
• He wanted to be a tap dancer when he was young.
• Some of his famous works are “School Days”, “Funny Side Up”, “Garland of Memories”, “Rusty – The Boy from Hills”, “The Room on the Roof”, “Landour Days – A Writer’s Journal”, “A Town Called Dehra”, and “Angry River”.
• He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for “Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra”, his novel in English. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

 

Picture Credit : Google

During the recent coronavirus lockdown, friendships, were tested. Locked up in our homes, we couldn’t meet our friends for months. Daily chats, gossip sessions, and even birthdays moved online. Video calls and phone calls continued to strengthen the bonds. Friendship overcame the walls put up by the pandemic, and that’s exactly what author Harshikaa Udasi’s new book. “Friends Behind Walls” is all about.

Set in the sleepy town of Deolali, close to Nashik in Maharashtra, it is a story of two children, Inu and Putti who form an unlikely friendship despite the animosity between their families.

Putti, a city-bred boy, is excited to spend his summer vacation in Deolali. But he soon finds out that the town doesn’t have any kids of his age to play with, except Inu. But his parents forbid him from even talking to Inu because of a long-standing feud between their families.

Not wanting to give up on their newly formed friendship, the duo decide to solve the mystery behind their family feud. On their quest, they are helped by Mr. Om Namaha and Dr. Solanki. But Inu and Putti have to visit the fearsome Tekdichi Mhatari, who lives up the hill to find answers!

What inspired the book

When Udasi visited Deolali for the first time 15 years ago, she was struck by how deserted the place looked – there were no children to be seen anywhere. “There are many sanitariums in Deolali, so a lot of elderly people stay here because it is beautiful and green, but there were hardly any children,” says Udasi, who now has a second home in Deolali.

One day, she observed that a couple of children in her neighbourhood had actually made a hole in the wall between their houses so that they could talk to each other. “These two would use the hole to sneak into each other’s houses. And so I imagined what it would be like if the kids were doing this because the families were at loggerheads with each other,” says Udasi.

In fact, she had a similar experience when she was growing up. “There was a family which never got along with my family so I never got a chance to be friends with their kids,” she adds. “So I put the two concepts together and come up with the book.”

The message of bonhomie

“Friends Behind Walls” explores why its important to preserve the bond of friendship and not fight over trivial things. “Friendships born in childhood are really the biggest bond one can have,” says Udasi.

The book begins with a striking sentence, “There should be a big giant eraser for all our past wrongs.” Udasi credits her 10-year-old son Krishang for coming up with this line when they were having a discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Act. “I was talking to my son about the conflicts between different religions and ethnicities when he said that this is all so complicated, I wish there was a giant eraser for our past,” says Udasi.

Know the author

Harshikaa Udasi is a journalist and author from Mumbai. She forayed into children’s writing after spending 19 years in journalism. Her first children’s book “Kittu’s Very Mad Day”, published in July 2017, is the story of a 10-year-old physically challenged boy who is accidentally left behind by his family in Madhya Pradesh. He comes across a skate park and learns to skate and face his fears. It won the prestigious 2018 FICCI Publishing Award for Best English Children’s Book and was shortlisted for the MAMI Word to Screen 2017.

She also runs a reading club, “The Book Trotters” to encourage children to think creatively and independently. During the lockdown, the club meets online.

Popular works

“I Absolutely Totally Instantly Have to Have A Dog” and “Kittu’s Very Mad Day”. She has contributed short stories to “On Your Marks: The Book of Crazy Exam Stories” and “Flipped: Adventure Stories Gost Stories.”

 

Picture Credit : Google