A Novel Idea on Passyunk is a community-minded bookstore and event space in East Passyunk, Philadelphia. I have a chat with Christina Rosso, author and bookstore owner about her journey.
I was born in 1985, possibly the most open and optimistic time in China’s modern history; the country was going through reform and opening-up. Diplomatic relationships with America, Japan and the rest of the word had never been better. Echoing the late Chairman Mao’s famous slogan, “Women hold up half the sky”, women were encouraged to participate in the labour force fully. I do not recall any of my friends’ mums not working.
Dipa Sanatani is back with another book and this time it’s a non-fiction. And yet it tells a story. Her story. Listen carefully and you’ll hear its song…Woven with a fairytale-like narration, The Merchant of Stories has all her musings, experiences and knowledge put together in a single book. The book builds a magical world of awe without the hint of any supernatural element in it. Well, life itself is magic… Isn’t it?
The creative entrepreneur walks a different path from the technology entrepreneur. She/he needs to wear two hats. The first is the artist hat to define the creative vision of their product or service. The second is the business hat to understand the dynamics of their chosen marketplace and sell it to as many people as possible.Wearing two fundamentally different hats is not easy. Dipa Sanatani leads us through her journey of this balancing act in The Merchant of Stories.
“It is really exciting taking on new writers – as it’s the start of an epic journey together. I will edit their manuscript, most books at this stage require some form of editorial input, unless they have been professionally edited by an independent editor. I would then pitch the book to relevant publishers, this can be a prolonged wait at times and I do my best to keep morale high…”
“The worship of Durga and Kali are a big part of Bengali Hindu traditions. Durga Puja at the end of Navaratri is one of Bengal’s biggest festivals. Kali Puja is done during Diwali. More than any specific story that stayed in my mind, it was the description of Kali that has stuck with me. She is fierce, aggressive and a destroyer of evil.”
All authors secretly dream of inspiring millions around the world with their writing. But ask authors to speak in front of an audience and that dream quickly turns into a nightmare. Alex Kiester’s debut novel “In Her Skin” takes readers down the perilous path from written word to spoken word. The psychological thriller centres around Meggie Meyer, a debut author who can’t face her book tour and hires an actress to impersonate her.
Human beings are animals though of a special kind. We are mostly hairless and bear remarkable similarities with the apes. According to the process of natural selection, we have evolved to be the most superior of all living beings. In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote about the uniqueness of humans more than two centuries before Darwin came up with the theory of evolution.
A simple search in Google will show you hundreds of articles and blog posts giving you instructions on how to channel your emotions into writing. In fact, you might already know some of the most popular tips. Such is the power and popularity of the Tortured Artist stereotype–the romanticized idea that mental health issues help you write better.
Novels in the spirituality genre are often non-fiction. They are committed towards presenting the facts rather than weaving a story. But what if spirituality intertwines itself with the elements from the spine-chilling thriller genre that will leave us biting our nails in anticipation of what will happen next? Won’t it be rather impressive?