Walking on Cloud Nine! I Have a Publisher for my Non-Fictional Memoir!

Monday, January 28, 2019
Bombay

Walking on Cloud Nine! I Have a Publisher for my Non-Fictional Memoir!

      Namaste from Bombay!
      You must forgive me for wearing a grin wider than the Cheshire Cat's today. You see, my day started with a meeting with a potential publisher who offered me a contract right away and could not wait for me to finish the paper work. Yes! My non-fictional memoir based on the year I spent in the UK, ten years ago, when I was posted to teach at NYU-London during which year I had begun blogging, is finally going to be in print--in a book! Plus, we talked about other publishing ventures too. But first things first...
     As usual, I blogged and caught up with Twitter and email before I got down to breakfast of muesli and coffee. At 10.30, I had a meeting with Ishaan Jajodia who founded Curato, a small publishing house based in Bombay. I had been introduced to him in September by our mutual friend Ashley D'Mello, a retired journalist from The Times of India. At our meeting at a Club in Juhu, Ishaan had told me that he could only take on the publication of my book in 2020--if, after reading my completed manuscript, he found it publication-worthy. I was not willing to wait for another whole year and so, gave up on the idea of working with him.
     A few months have gone by and things have changed dramatically. Ishaan's former Copy Editor is no longer with his company. He has put together a new editorial team and changed the name of his publishing house to Curato (from Bombay Kala Books). He read my manuscript and likes it very much and would very much like to go ahead with the publication of it right away! I was amazed! This is happening while I have sent out a mass mailing to a number of Indian publishing houses to find out if anyone is interested in publishing it.
      Naturally, I was quite delighted to meet Ishaan again at the Bandra Gymkhana which has become like an office for me! Over coffee for him and a cold lemon soda for me, we chatted about all aspects of the book--paperback or hard-bound; international distribution; to include or not to include recipes and pictures; cover design; a book launch in Bombay and, if I would like it, in Goa too; possible publication dates; contract details and signing, etc. etc. We also looked at Ishaan and his press getting a hold of rights to publish a paperback Indian edition of my book on Anglo-Indians as its hardbound cover price from Lexington Books is proving prohibitive to everyone--aside from folks in India who can't afford to buy it, my Anglo-Indian interviewees in the UK say that it is beyond their budgets too! Ishaan told me that if Lexington Books gives him the rights, he can publish a paperback edition for just Rs. 500 a pop! So, I will have a lot to work going forward...as reading the final manuscript of my memoir and submitting it will take up at least the next two weeks of my time and effort.  Still, I am not complaining. This is a huge leap for me and I am thrilled.
     For those of you who do not know it, the book began as my blog--when I was posted to live in London in 2008-09. It was a momentous year, both personally and publicly. No sooner did I get to the UK than the sub-prime mortgage hit: Lehman Brothers folded in the US and, in the UK, it was the Bradford and Bingley Bank that closed down. Meanwhile, our Ponzie Pal Bernie Madoff made off with money from so many different quarters (including NYU) that it plunged the world into the economic doldrums. Obama was elected,  two months later, as the first Black American President, the horrendous terrorist attacks known now as the attacks of 26/11 took place in Bombay and changed the city forever.
     On the personal front, I was attacked by a particularly virulent case of plantar fasciitis in both my feet that left me little short of crippled, I became homeless very suddenly when the lease on my London flat was not extended into the summer. I found an incredible place to stay through new English friends I had made which could only be found in dreams. I made friends with an American gal who was also posted to work in London from New York and together we traveled to far-flung corners of the UK to explore and engage in adventure. I traveled extensively throughout Europe and stayed in youth hostels where I met a motley lot of characters who formed the backbone of the many weird encounters I had that year. All these and more made up the crazy experiences of that year which I condensed into a book manuscript that is brimming with anecdotes, accounts of the food I tasted, cooked and ate, and of the exciting people who became firm forever friends.
     Two years after I returned from the UK, I began writing the book. Believe me, I had so much to learn about taking a book from the blog stage to the page stage! Initially, my manuscript was full of information about all the places to which I had been culled from my travelogues; a few drafts later, it was all about the people I met because initial readers told me that this was what interested them the most. I workshopped early chapters of the book at the New York Writers Worshop under the master teacher Charles Salzburg who is an accomplished novelist himself and the king of non-fictional writing workshops. I learned a whole lot from him and from the other students in his class (including my friend Susan De Souza who took the class with me) who critiqued my chapters and offered suggestions and recommendations for change. I read a whole bunch of memoirs myself to understand about 'dramatic arcs' and the manner in which writers kept a reader's interest going chapter after chapter through personal stories. It was all about telling a tale; but the tale had to move forward at every stage and carry the reader with it. These were all the lessons I learned as the  manuscript went through countless drafts.  Just when I thought that I had it down pat, another reader would come up with more suggestions and tell me what to change. And each time, I absolutely and completely took their recommendations and carried on with the revisions.  I learned from this book--my first non-academic book--that writing is nothing but re-writing or revising.
     I think I am happy with this book as it finally stands and as it is now ready to go out into the world, I am filled with trepidation.  Unlike my past books, this one is personal. It is about me and my loved ones and those people who have grown to be dear friends. I have to make sure that I am representing them correctly and that I will not cause even the slightest offense. Of course, I have changed names every where, but still...anonymity is not guaranteed and I have no doubt my many friends in the UK will recognize themselves through the pages. This is what worries me the most.
     At the end of my meeting with Ishaan (who likes the book exactly as it is although I do want to look at changing the chapter order before I finally submit it to him), I asked for time so that my lawyer friend in the US can run her eye through the contract before I sign it. We parted with the assurance that we will work closely together in the weeks ahead.
     I then went to Dad's for lunch as I have not yet resumed my own meal delivery service--Valerie's food was very much there for us--brinjal, a cheese-stuffed croquette and chicken mince with fresh papaya for dessert.  Soon after lunch, I returned home and took a nap before looking at my contract with Lexington Books to see if Ishaan could take over an Indian paperback edition of my Anglo-Indian book. He cannot--I will need to go through Lexington Books for him to do so. I also began transcribing the interview that Chriselle and I had done with my Dad on Boxing Day. If I do not get started on this, I will not remember the finer details of what he told us.
     Not too long after this, I received a call from my friend Maria who is visiting India from Washington DC were she works with a subsidiary of the World Bank. She invited me to visit with her at her home in a building called 'Sand Pebbles' which is only a two minute walk from my place. I spent a good hour with her and her friend Yvette who was visiting from Melbourne, Australia. By the time I left her, it was blowing and I returned home to pick up a cardigan before joining Dad for Mass. I did not have much time today to visit with Russel although we did have lunch together.
     Mass done, Dad and I parted company and I went home to have soup with cheese and crackers for dinner together with fresh pomelo which Dad's fruit man brought to his door for me together with wonderful fresh figs. I simply love the tropical fruit in India and am eating a lot of it.
     I watched something called The Yorkshire Ripper starring Alun Armstrong on TV but about an hour into it, I stopped and continued reading Birdbox for another hour--until I felt quite sleepy. I turned in early today--before 9.30 as my entire body feels as if it needs a lot more resting time.
     Until tomorrow...