A Good News! Seek Your Wishes And Blessings!

Most Gracious ILites,

I do not have enough words to thank you for the encouragement and support you have given to my writings on this site and off this site.

I have so far published five books in Tamil. Many ILites have been requesting me to publish a book in English, which I have been trying for the past two years.

I am now pleased to tell you all that I have my first book in English published in a "do-it-yourself" site.

Please click the link below and you can have a preview of the book.

THE WEAKER SEX by VARALOTTI RENGASAMY (Book) in Literature & Fiction

You can see the cover, read my preface and read the first ten pages of the book. You may order the book from the site directly.

Though the project took more time than it should, I loved doing it. I was involved in the layout of the book, in designing the cover, writing the face, the key-words, the blurb for the site, almost everything. I need to acknowledge the part of my wife who mercilessly discarded the cover I had chosen and chose the present cover instead.

This book is a short story collection containing 13 short stories handpicked by me from out of 250 stories I wrote during a period of 8 years. A few of them like The Promise have already been published and is now appears in almost all the blogsites that deal with human emotions and values. In fact that was the story that pulled me to this wonderful site.

Some of the stories that have not been published elsewhere like The Power Game, which is based on a real-life incident of a famous, beautiful musician of the South and "The Young Crow" which my editors told me that it made them weep all over their key-boards.

As a boy who has got some prize in his school comes home running to tell the news to his mother with bated breaths, so am I rushing to tell you this good news. I seek your blessings, wishes and support.

I am looking forward to your reviews, your scathing comments on my very first book.

Now I am like the expectant father pacing outside the labour room waiting for the good news.

With Love,

 

Most Gracious ILites,

I lost all your responses because of the database problem. I lost my original post on the book release. I wrote it again from my memory. The words are not the same, but the feelings are.

I could recover a few pages of the earlier thread. Which I am posting below.

A request to all whose comments do not appear here, please comment, I mean, bless and wish, again. I value your blessings and hate to lose them because of a technical error.

At times when we greet a newly married couple and try to climb down the dais, the photographer calls us back, "please do it again, the picture is not clear.". We invariably oblige the photographer. On similar grounds, I want you, I request you to please leave your note of blessings again.

Love,

 

This is the post of Indusladay, our Boss:

Congratulations, Sridhar.

This is indeed a great achievement. Publishing a book in a foreign language (your mother tongue being Tamil) shows your command over the language and needless mention about your writing skills. Wish you good luck to publish more in both Tamil and English.

The front cover of the book looks awesome. You seem to be multi-talented!

Regards,
Malathy

 

And this is from our site-poet Tamildownunder:

Dear varalotti,

The book looks great. Cover design is excellent and ofcourse your description of the stories is enticing. I am sure the book will be a run away success. As a fellow madurai citizen and fellow member of IL I am proud of you. Wish you more success.

Regards,

TDU
__________________
சாகற நாள் தெரிஞ்சுப்போச்சுன்னா வாழற நாள் நரகமாயிடும்...சந்தோஷம் - தாங்க முக்கியம் !!

 

This is my reply to Laxmi, my moderator. I could not restore her post:

Hello Laxmi,
Thanks for those words of inspiration, encouragement, support and love. IL has been a great source of inspiration for me. I have been writing for 8 years but never developed the courage to approach a publisher on my own. Then I started writing in IL. The kind words of well-meaning friends like you inspired my confidence and when the opportunity presented itself, I had the courage to grab it.
Indhu (who is technically the publisher of this book, you see the name Indhu Publications) should have the credit for choosing the cover. We had to choose from literally hundreds, and Indhu in the typical way she chooses her dresses fast, chose this. She made me discard the cover I had chosen earlier and the reason she cited was "ILites will not like this. You have to change." And I did change. She is proved right.
Thanks Laxmi.
Soon I will be replying you and others regarding SHE 13. Since I could not post anything for the Wednesday thread I plan to give a detailed write-up of my shopping experiences especially with Indhu.

Thanks once again, Laxmi, for your kind words.
regards,

 

This is my reply to Malathy

Thanks a ton, Malathy. Though preparing the book for on-line publication many sleepless nights, it gave me an insight into various aspects of formatting, cover designing and publishing. For instance I had not used the "drop caps" facility in word. If you had previewed the first page of my first story in the book, The Black Dog, the first letter N will be of a very large size, but still will be co-ordinated with the rest of the page. I learnt it only this time.

I did not draw the cover design myself, Malathy. We were offered hundreds of cover-designs. First I chose one and almost finished it. Then my publisher (I refer to Indhu, you see the book is published by INDHU PUBLICATIONS) rejected the cover design. This time I wanted to fight with the publisher.

I told her "I have written a 160 page book. Don't I have the right to design my own cover?"
She replied, "Have your way. But ILites will not like it. Don't me later that I didn't warn you."
That was a soft spot and she hit hard there. Then we sat together to see the galleys and chose this cover.

Let me also take this opportunity to thank you for providing such a wonderful forum like this, which has inspired me to write books. And the story which drew me to IL, The Promise, is there in this book.

When you have bought the book and read it, please do comment on that.

regards,

 

This is my response to TDU:

Dear TDU,

thanks for the nice words which I consider as your blessings.. Regarding the 'enticing' description of the stories, IL has been my training ground. I have tried all kinds of teasers here. And applied one of them there in that site.

I am very happy to be blessed by a Madurai citizen ad a fellow member of IL.

Thank you once again,
regards,

 

This is by Shanvy (Shanthi)

Dear sridhar,

Congrats on your book. the cover design is excellent and the preface is a like a starter before a full course meal. If all the stories are so enticing like the black dog, i cannot wait to get hold of a copy. Congrats on your achievement. keep the thoughts flowing... . I am sure the book will be a run away success.

:2thumbsup:
love
shanthi

 

This is by Pushpavalli Srinivasan, Malathi Jagan's mother:

Dear Sridhar,
Please accept our "Hearty congratulations on publication of your English short story book , THE WEAKER SEX." As Malathi is away, I'm wishing on behalf of her also. She had missed the excitement, but will be back with her comments and admiration soon. As I was also busy for the last two days, today only I went through the thread. I wish that you publish more books in English so that it will reach far and wide.
With love and regards,
Pushpavalli

 

This is my reply to Shanvy:

Dear Shanthi,
thanks for your kind wishes. I will be happy if you could get hold of a copy and give your comments on the full book.
Thanks once again, Shanthi.
love,