Writing, but not through NaNoWriMo

In a rather painful decision I took a few days ago, I decided to drop out of this year's NaNoWriMo.

I had not been able to prepare mentally for NaNoWriMo before November, and though I had some exciting YA ideas, I had not done any research. That, by itself, was no deterrent; in the past years I have successfully completed the 50K thrice, and two of these three times was with no prior work. And what's more, I am reasonably satisfied with what I did on all those three occasions. But this year was different. I started one story; it morphed beyond recognition. I continued, and it morphed again. Alongside this, life threw challenges that were just too tough.

And so, rather than ending the month with 50K of an unusable ever-shifting story, I decided to drop out and re-focus on short stories. I have managed drafting a few short stories since then, and polished a few more, and this activity is easier to fit into my current life situation.

My mother's been unwell for two months now. The unfortunate part this time is that she is just not responding to medication. The last few weeks have seen a number of emergency home visits by doctors and nurses, causing me to crystallize my personal priorities. Spending time holding her hand and talking to her is very important to me, given that she still responds to emotions. Introspecting and understanding the nature of life and happiness is important. Working to support the cause of dementia awareness and caregiver community support is important.

And writing is important..but writing a novel is not.

On the plus side as far as my writing goes, I have bumped up my submissions to eight. I also managed a few first drafts, and subbed three stories to various crit groups. A few of the subs are currently in round 2 and I have my fingers crossed about them.

On the not-so-plus side, one submission earlier accepted by Arkham Tales reverted to me because the zine closed...sigh! I promptly subbed off the story to another zine, but frankly, this is not quite the way I want to bump up my submission stats.

November's almost there

When November is around the corner, can madness be far behind?

So here I am, with no plot, no muse, no dark chocolate, but determined to participate in NaNoWriMo. I've done it thrice before, won all times (at the cost of my sanity, and lots of chocolates), and I can tell you it's addictive.

See ya there, folks!

More English than the English

Here are some factoids:

"Today 350 million people speak English in India and another 300 million in China, with more children learning English in Chinese schools than in British schools. And in continents and countries where there are varied languages and dialects, often the people speak with each other in English - their shared language." (quote from here.)

And

"with about 308 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by land area and population." (from the wikipedia article here.)

So yes, India had more people speaking English than the U S of A.

Another tidbit:

The stats say it all. In mid-2007, the International Herald Tribune stated that "English is spoken in some form by three times as many nonnative speakers as native speakers." (from here)

English was the first language I learned. It is the language I use to think, read, and speak. It gets rather tiring to have people (not from India) act surprised that I know it, or tell me that their way of using English is the correct way, because for me, it is only my 'second language'. Nah! Every country has its variations in usage--and I think India has enough in terms of numbers to define its own brand of the language. We're a majority, guys :-)

My fantasy story at Expanded Horizons

My story, A Texture Beyond Dreams, has been published at Expanded Horizons. Read it here.

As with a few other recent sales, this started as flash, then grew. Maybe I should check out some other flash stories that haven't quite worked, and see what the real story lying beneath them was.

Accepting, not-accepting

I thought it was the age of "accepting" yourself, warts, blubber, dark circles, and all.

And yet, some people are also recommending "conditional parenting" (see this NYT article). I'm confused; are they suggesting that parents should not do unto their kids as they should do unto themselves? And do the authors of books who want love used as a reward/ punishment for children also reward/ punish themselves the same way?

The transience of forced education

Two months ago, I was blissfully ignorant about the real meaning of a word I had occasionally read in the newspapers...a word that sounded like chicken something or the other...

In the beginning of July, the attendant who helps me look after my mother rushed home because her grandfather passed away. She was expected to return in four days, after the final ceremony was over. I readjusted my life into 24 x 7 caregiving, rescheduled stuff, and went into a wait-for-her-return mode. She did not return on the expected date--she had fever. Another day, two days, three. Finally, she contacted me and informed me she had chikungunya.

The human mind is a marvelous tool, infinitely capable of refocusing and adjusting. A flurry of activity followed at my end. Surfing, calling up people, reading available books. Within two hours, I could have written a comprehensive article on chikungunya :-) In the days that followed, every newspaper I opened seemed to carry a paragraph on the disease--funny, I had never noticed those paragraphs before. I believe it's called synchronity.

She was released from the hospital after a week, and supposed to return in another. Just as I was about to celebrate, she called again. More fever. More education for me on diseases that could affect rural areas, and speculations on what had gone wrong this time. Luckily for my overloaded brain, she recovered in a day. She returned after four weeks of absence, and I am amazed to note I have forgotten most of what I read about all those diseases.

And now, there is another emergency (her father) and she has gone off to her village again, and here I am, hoping desperately that she will return in three days as she expects to. I am not quite in the mood for more education.

My hard SF flash fiction published in Nature

My story, 'The Problem of Junior', has been published by Nature in their July 23, 2009 issue, as part of the 'Futures' column.

I am in really good company for this credit (see link for others who have had stories published here) I am obviously pretty thrilled about.