2022: The half-year journal
It has been a tough year at work. I have now tied the oars and let the waters take me forward. I need some peace and calm.
I don’t talk much about my work life in my blogs, but sometimes, just the mention gets stuff out of my chest. So that’s that.
I don’t want to wait for the end of the year to scribble in my journal, because my memory is fickle. Second, June is my birth month, and it makes sense to take stock of what happened at this six-month point. It is easy to put together my published work as the milestones achieved.
a) Jan 2022: Verses of this Universe — Poetarrati Volume 3:
Verses of the Universe is a compilation of 61 poems between me and @shwetahitesh. Published by Highbrowscribespub, the book design was a challenge given that we had pictures accompanying the poems. The design artist came up with a masterstroke — a landscape page layout — which could accommodate pictures with poems.
The cover design itself was magical. The cover design came from my son Anirudh and was developed further by the publisher’s design artist. It came out wonderful. You can see the design for yourself.
Shweta’s absence during the publishing process was telling, but both the publisher and I made our best to compensate for her absence. The book is a lovely compilation — classified into 5 headings: Deep Inside the Human, Matters of the Heart, Conversations with the Universe, Art meets Art: An Ekphrasis Journey, In the Lap of Nature.
In June 2022, I published the Kindle Edition of the book.
You can buy the book here.
b) Feb 2022: ‘Efflorosence 2021’: My first Poetry Anthology:
100 poets in an anthology. Only Chennai Poetry Circle can do this wonderful job. I was one of the 100 poets in a brilliantly compiled anthology called ‘Efflorosence 2021’.
It was a magnificent effort to get the poems on time for publishing and launching the event, the coordinator, Ms. Hema Ravi had done a fabulous job. She has moved to publish her own collection of short stories and poems since then.
My contribution was a poem called ‘Lost and Found’.
May 2022: ‘Ponder 2021: Annual Collection of Poetry Reviews’
Ponder 2021 is the second edition of the ‘Ponder’: Annual Collection of Poem Reviews. The book explores contemporary poetry through 14 reviews of 28 poems, composed by 20 poets from five continents.
I had a brief engagement with one of the poets, who took spite of the ‘copyright’ confirmation. Except for that piece, the book is a resounding success, after a year-long journey came to an end.
The poems are collected with the poet’s consent as part of ‘thematic reviews’, and the review juxtaposes different dimensions of the theme. Both the poets and the readers love such in-depth analysis of poetry.
You can buy the book here.
June 2022: ‘The Vernals’: A Short Story Anthology
‘The Vernals: A Trug of Short Stories’ is my first contribution to a short fiction anthology. I was wondering if this year would end up with only publishing poetry but I landed this gorgeous opportunity.
‘The Chink in the Armor’ is inspired by the epic Ramayan, and ‘The Stubble’ is based on real-life inspiration. The two stories brought out the creator in me, and it felt good to be part of a pantheon of authors. With diverse genres, ages and locations, the stories make good reading. Some stories are outstanding and some are great efforts.
Highbrowscribespub’s first anthology project is a great success. From cover to contents, and coordination, the book has come out well.
The book can be picked up here.
Featured Author in BizCatalyst 360:
I continued to write interesting articles on self-discovery and contemporary issues in BizCatalyst 360 and it is evolving into a discovery process for me, as a non-fiction writer.
You can follow my non-fiction writings here.
The Road Ahead:
The second half of this year looks exciting. The following are the next few projects.
a) River’s Heaven: Poetarrati Volume 4 (A collection of contemporary poetry)
b) The Bachelor’s Wife and Other Stories: Tales Inspired by Ramayan
c) A City Full of Stories 2: Stories from the City of Joy
While these three projects take shape in a sequence, I start work on ‘Angel: A Journey of Discovery’ as Poetarrati Volume 5.
More in the next edition of the Journal.
For my published work visit my Amazon Author page.
~Ashok Subramanian
