To the woman with a heart of gold, the person who could make anyone smile, the lady who had everyone in love with her beautiful soul, my source of strength and happiness, my dadi.

Even though you are not with me anymore I know that you will, under any circumstances, be watching over me and sending me those wonderful blessings of yours.

Today I may not be able to see you, but i do feel your love and presence around me. I may have lost you but in my heart I carry the memories we made, and all the times you brought a smile to my face because you just couldn’t bear anyone frowning or feeling low.

People say that memories are golden and without a doubt that may be true but I don’t want just the memories, I want you too. It’s tough to move on, because I won’t have anyone to talk to about my tiniest achievements.

I have always thanked god for giving me a lady like you in my life, it truly was a blessing to even be around you.For everything we shared, the laughter, the dreams, the smiles I love you with a special love that only keeps increasing with every passing minute.

You left me with beautiful memories, your love is still my guide, although we cannot see you, i know you’re always by my side. The pain of losing you is immeasurable, I know that the biggest star shining in the sky is you, and as usual you try to brighten up this world.

I’ve learnt so much from you, you had a heart filled  with so much love, anyone who ever visited home, would never leave without a hug or with an empty stomach. You truly were the queen of the house as well as our hearts.

Thank you for filling all my days with immense light and happiness. I love you, always have and always will. I will miss you a lot. May your soul rest in peace.

• My BFFs Rubina Ramesh & Dola Basu Singh

Rubina Ramesh and Dola Basu Singh are my “kickass soul sisters” who have encouraged me and supported me always in every way. I can say my indie publishing journey began because I had their support. I love them to the Moon and back 🙂 <3

• How To Reboot Your Creativity

Creativity has always been my most fave word and have practised it all my life. Hence it was a great honour and privilege to be invited by TEDx Versova to give a talk on this subject. I spoke on “Reboot Your Creativity.” My special thanks to ElsaMarie D’Silva, Supreet Kaur, Marissa Borges and Amisha and Red Dot Foundaiton for this wonderful opportunity to share my experiences with creativity and supporting me to present my best version of the talk.

You can watch the entire video here: https://www.ted.com/talks/sonia_rao_reboot_your_creativity

VENGEANCE-A STING IN EVERY TALE

A Wrimo India Anthology

The Blurb:

Vengeance—A Sting in Every Tale is an anthology by the wrimos of India which I compiled and edited. Based on the concept of Revenge, the stories are thrilling, hard-hitting and memorable even as they showcase the culture and ethos of our country India.

Vengeance—A Sting in Every Tale

Edited & Compiled by Sonia Rao

Includes stories by: 

Shweta Rao Garg – Archana Sarat – Neil D’Silva – Balakrishnan Rajamani – Shail Raghuvanshi – Sini Mathew – Mahesh Ramani – Pierre Hart – Prashanth Srivatsa – Neelesh Inamdar – Sreeja Harikrishnan – Destination Infinity (Rajesh K) – Mamatha Kamireddy – Sudha Nair – Pritesh Patil – Ruchi Singh – Dola B. Singh – Debashis Deb – Smriti Verma – Karthik Lakshminarayanan – Sonia Rao.

CHANDRAYARN-WRIMO INDIA’S SPIN TO THE MOON

(Moon Lander or vehicle)+ Yarn (stories)= Chandrayarn (a Moon Lander carrying stories). 

The Blurb

Did I miss the deadline?

Did I get the date wrong?

Am I Buzzing like Aldrin, in

The shadow of Armstrong?

One small step for man,

And one leap for humankind,

Is an impassable black hole,

For my procrastinatory mind.

Saare jahaan se acha,

Hai Rakesh ji ka desh!

Ek hi pal mein bheja unhone,

Antariksh se sandesh.

Chobis ghante mein naa bhej paya,

Mai ek chhoti si katha,

Ab doobunga mai pachtave mein,

Seeped in cosmic vyatha.

Spin Chandrayarn off to the moon,

And Mangalyarn to Mars,

Fly, take off, without me, go!

I’m left staring at stars.

 ~Sahir Doshi

NaNoWriMo Username: Sahier

 

 The first Wrimo India Anthology, Vengeance – A Sting in Every Tale, was launched in 2015. From that time, every year we’ve had great intentions of coming out with an anthology. There have been many false starts and with the umpteen time- and work-related curve balls life sent our way, we ended up becoming good fielders but nothing concrete to show for anything writing-related. In the previous year even if you didn’t write a word, it was perfectly fine. And then in June 2020, Susan Kaye Quinn declared that a lander was going to the moon carrying a capsule and we could send our books, pics and other digital matter too. Ultimately, it was only this year that the opportunity raised its head again and was grabbed whole-heartedly by the wrimos to commemorate this year with an anthology. The idea cropped up very close to the deadline but wrimos are used to it. And being writers, we always have a story or two lying around which we can brush up and send to the writing party. Of course, some wrote a new story in the 24 hour deadline.

We ended up with 28 gorgeous pieces of writing which we are sharing with you in this book.

But this has been a team effort.

Special thanks to Sadhana Wadhwa for taking over the entire responsibility of creating the cover.

Hats off to the writers who submitted their stories within the deadline.

Applause and gratitude for Sahir Doshi for coming up with the fabulous  play on words in the title and the subtitle. And also for the humorous Hinglish verse for all the procrastinators (including himself) who did not send in their stories but are whole-heartedly sending their best wishes for the effort.

To the Moon, then.

Chandrayarn—Wrimo India’s Spin To The Moon 

Compiled and edited by Sonia Rao

Includes stories by:

Aksheeya Suresh – S. B. Akshobhya – Bisma Monem – Chitra Padmana – Dr. Manjusri Nair – Ermelinda Makkimane – Gayatri Gadre – Jyotsna Atre – Kavya Janani. U – L. A. Nolan – Manisha Sahoo – Mansi Karna – Nam Perugu – Neeraj SK – Pradnya Kosare – Prakash Hegade – Raj Kumar Balasubramaniyan – Rashmi Agrawal – Sadhana Wadhwa – Sanketa Wadhwa – Sapna Bhattacharya – Shaurya Chatwal – Shubhankar Sengupta – Siddesh Kabe – Sini Mathew – Sreeparna Sen – Suchitra Nandi Purkayastha – Sonia Rao.

HELLCATS, THE ANTHOLOGY

They say writing changes lives and this is one anthology that came into being for the very reason of making a huge difference in the life of an elderly grandmother. This is one labour of love in which an entire community came forward to do their bit to make a difference. I shall let Kate Pickford—the compiler and editor of this anthology tell the story in her own words:

The Blurb

HELLCATS, THE ANTHOLOGY: THE TIME TO RISE IS MEOW

When I heard that Erada, my sister-in-law’s mother, was in danger of losing her home in Armenia—because the courts had sided with an undeserving relative—I was aghast. I cannot abide a bully. Neither could I stand by and watch a 79-year-old woman lose her home without a fight.

Her grandsons had put together a GoFundMe to raise money for their beloved Tata (which is Armenian for Nana) so I piggybacked off that idea and looked for ways to raise some dosh. I reopened my book coaching / editing / ghostwriting business and trolled for clients. I raised a few thousand bucks on the promise of future work, but raising the kind of funds Erada needed was going to take time. And, as a friend pointed out, there’s only one of me (much to my chagrin) and only twenty-four hours in a day (who made that rule?).

“I called my banker and asked if I could refinance my house. As a self-employed writer, I don’t qualify for a standard loan so while it sounds fancy when I say I called “my banker” what it means is, “I called the guy who is willing to loan me money at double the market rate.” He turned me down. Something about Erada’s house being in Armenia and him being my friend and not wanting me to lose my shirt.

What then? What could I do?

After racking my brain and downing a little whisky, I came up with what can only be described as a hair-brained idea: I decided to put an anthology together to help raise funds for Erada. I’d never curated or produced an anthology before, but I figured I could learn as I went. Luckily for me, the universe had other ideas about how that would play out.

Later that night I saw a premade book cover that made me laugh. The cover had sold, but I reached out to the designer and asked if she could make a new cover for me by morning.

She could, and she did.

Then I approached a “with it. All she wants to do is stay in her home…” (All of this is true, but there’s no harm in pulling at the heart strings when you’re trying to convince writers to work for free.)

“Well, what does HELLCAT mean?” they asked.

I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to constrain my fellow scribblers, so I left it open to interpretation. Which was when they said yes. And the idea sprouted wings and took off from there.

Writers talked to writers who pinged their writer friends, and before I knew it, the stories started rolling in. I read them and sent editorial notes.

The writers took my “HELLCATS, THE ANTHOLOGY started to take form.

We have stories of:

Pirates, cowboys, and spacewalkers.

Soul suckers, seers, and swashbuckling heroes.

With guest appearances by Mr. Darcy, The Madwoman in the Attic, and Hunter S. Thompson as a cat.

In the far reaches of outer space, cats crawl and pounce, shift and slaughter.

While back on Earth, the wicked are punished, the weak avenged, and the good guy wins against all odds.

We have paranormal fantasy, sci-fi, swords and sorcerers, cozy mysteries, romance, literary fiction, and much, much more.

But what all these stories have in common is heart. The good guy wins, the bad guy is punished, the cat gets the cream. Heart.

But the writing community had more than stories to offer.

Without me knowing how exactly, a team coalesced around this idea that we could beat a bully and save Erada’s home—offering not only original stories, but a back office with proofreaders, formatters, web designers, and a Chief Operating Officer (aka Chief Cat Herder and all-star, Josie Clement; without her, this wouldn’t have happened, no matter how well intentioned I was).

And within those groups volunteers began to make memes that we could use for our advertising campaign; someone wrote a soundtrack for HELLCATS; then someone else made a short movie. The thing just kept growing and growing and growing. Within a month, we had a book of astounding quality ready to go out into the world and work its magic.

Why? Because I asked. I asked if my friends and colleagues (and their friends and colleagues) would help right a wrong and do something good in the world.

Nothing is more rewarding than doing the right thing. It makes us better people.

And the HELLCATS are the very essence of good people. No, they are the best.

This community of HELLCATS came together because Erada’s story struck a note in each of their hearts.  The resulting volume speaks to the generosity of the human spirit and the light that burns in each of us, just waiting for a chance to shine.

I am inordinately proud of the people who stepped up to make HELLCATS come to fruition. It has been a wild ride with plenty of stumbles by yours truly, but each time I didn’t know what to do, there was someone there to help right me and get HELLCATS back on track.

This book is truly a labor of love.

We hope you’ll find something in here to lighten, brighten, or energize your day.

Because HELLCATS, THE ANTHOLOGY is such a brilliant mash-up of styles we’ve added blurbs before each story so you can choose what you’d like to read. Not every story is for everyone, but I warrant you’ll find more than one tale that tickles your funny bone, or scratches an itch you didn’t know you had, in here.

Revenge, reckoning, and redemption: HELLCATS, THE ANTHOLOGY has it all.

So without further ado, I give you sixty nine stories of feline adventure that will make you chortle, chuckle, gasp, and guffaw.

The proceeds of “this anthology will go to support Erada and her struggle to save her home.”

~Kate Pickford, Hellcat and Editor in Chief

Hellcats, The Anthology

Compiled and Edited by Kate Pickford

Includes stories by:

J.A. Clement – Jon Evans & E.G. Bateman – Lawrence M. Schoen – Arleigh Jacobs – Aidan Pilkington-Burrows and Lilia Hunter – H.L. Beatty (Audra Spicer) – Gage Lee (Shadow Alley Press) – Efthalia – Michael Raymond – Marcus Alexander Hart – Ella J. Smyth – Chris McFarlane – Clare Sager – David John Dowd – AM Scott – Ann B. Harrison – A.G. Marshall – Jenn Mitchell – Bokerah Brumley – AA Briggs – Judy Clothier – William Van Winkle – Julia Huni – Kasia Lasinska – Katy Hollway – Sonia Rao – Jon Tobey – R.R. Virdi – Las McMaster – Erin Lindsay McCabe – Liam Pickford – Mark Stallings (Shadow Alley Press) – Kimberly Kennedy – Mhairi Simpson – N. H. Paxton (Shadow Alley Press) – Ben Wolf – Kris Bowes – Navin Weeratne – Nicole Grotepas – Penelope Cress – Russel Zimmerman – Sally Clements – Ginger Rinkenberger and Kate Pickford – Tom Fruman – Shanda Forish – Erika Domeika – Grayson Walker – Aleta Goin – A.J. McWain – C.J. Lazar – Stephanie Mylchreest – Wes Pollock – Kate Pickford – Sarah Noffke – Katie Cord – Jamie Davis – Wunji Lau – J.T. Williams – DJ Cooper – Chelle Honiker – Brandon Ellis – B.K. Boes – Tamari Etherton – Yudhanjaya Wijeratne – Lilly MacKenzie Hurd – Andrew Mackay – Steve Higgs – Kenzie Kelly – Craig Martelle.

GET IT HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Hellcats-Anthology-Kate-Pickford-ebook/dp/B08GJD5KLL/