2023: The brick-by-brick year
This year, it rained almost every day from August till November. My maid says it has not been as heavy as the previous heavy-rain years, but she is not aware of the statistics. Her measure is the height of the Cooum River that flows under the footbridge which she crosses daily to come to our home. Then came December 1st and 2nd — Cyclone Michaung paused near the city for half a day, and unleashed a historic burst of showers that the city has never seen before. This has been very typical of 2023. Let me try to distill this idea into my realm of things — my literature journey in 2023.
At first, when I look back at the year, it has been a year of ordinaries. But it is still a magnificent year if you take notice. You can read my ‘writing goals’ that I published at the start of this year here.
The Ones that did not happen:
a) Writing Goal 2a: A City Full of Stories (republished edition):
I had mentioned that I would get an editor to relook at the edits and then look for an independent publisher. It never happened. I don’t think it will happen in 2024 either, as I am keen to focus on the publication of a few other works. But in 2025, I am sure to take this up, as I expect to allocate some budget for this. This will be done under the creative partnership that I shall cover shortly. About 25 copies of the present edition were sold. I stopped marketing for this book considering my bandwidth. In hindsight, I could have made a few videos.
b)Writing Goal 1b: The Twine Shall Meet — my second novel.
This did not happen because of lack of time than lack of initiative. I put more time into ‘My Rainbow Bridge’. But I visited one of the scenes set for the novel, the Al-Seef Heritage Walk along Dubai Creek for the novel.
It is a beautiful place, and it appeared in front of me as if I was looking for it. It is the case of Mountain coming to Mohammed. The place has all the makings of a plot location — ferries, boats, barges, and tugs; tourists, fishermen, families; restaurants, cafes, businesses of various sizes — one suite to tall towers; locals, Indians, Filipinos, ex-pats — all potential characters of the novel.
If you call this progress, yes. I have visited the third location in my manuscript apart from Mumbai and Goa.
The Ones That Happened:
Writing Goal 1a) My Rainbow Bridge
My Rainbow Bridge is evolving into a bigger project than I thought. But I was able to write three chapters this year because of a combination of coincidences, opportunities, the support of those who are involved — mainly my cousins, and my imagination.
The story has delved into the depths I have not fathomed, and I am sure that there are some more depths I haven’t seen. The relationships that I had more meaning I thought, and my writing also evolved in the process.
Writing Goal 2b) Publishing Indian Print Edition of River’s Heaven
The printed edition of ‘River’s Heaven: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Introspection’ was published in November 2023.
The book took its time, mostly because I had some financial challenges and also bandwidth issues to support the publisher’s efforts. The book turned out to be a gem.
It is yet to be launched since I have not been able to give time to the publisher for the launch interview. The book’s cover art and print are fabulous, and I thank the publisher for the great piece of work.
Writing goal 2c) Ponder 2022
The best effort and the most happy piece of my writing efforts was publishing Ponder 2022. It had 15 poets, 4 tributes, and 28 poems in all. I wrote a separate piece in ‘The Journal’ as the publication coincided with my 49th birthday.
The book experimented with ‘Tributes’ for the first time. The cover was amazing, designed by yours truly. Ponder 2022 made up the third edition of the Ponder Series.
Writing Goal 2d) The Bachelor’s Wife and Other Stories gets an editor
With the Bachelor’s Wife and Other Stories manuscript going through two reads and creative discussions with my ‘Creative Partner and Advisor’ — Shweta Hitesh Joshi, we added Falguni Jain to our team as the Editor.
I welcomed her with a small video. The action picked up in October and the book is going through its edits. Shweta and Falguni are doing a fabulous job of editing the book and I am sure we have a fabulous piece of work in the anvil.
Writing Goal 2e) A City Full of Stories 2 gets its first glimpse
With ‘Bachelor’s Wife…’ getting my partner’s full attention, I was prodding Shweta to have a first glance at the book. I am sure she will make time to read the manuscript as I believe that this is my best piece of writing yet.
Writing Goal 3: Finding a Literary and Marketing Partner:
The Creative Partnership:
I have realized that an author is more than one person. Shwetahitesh has been my patron, fan, friend, philosopher, and guide in my literary journey. She loves my poetry and more, my fiction work.
We met in September ( I think) and sealed a deal of working together on all my fiction work. She insists on one book at a time, while I keep talking about all my projects, but we have found our common path. Hope we have fun and a fantastic journey with you, Shweta.
Writing Goal 4) Continuing collaborations
My collaborations grew leaps and bounds as I sharpened and deepened my work with Sarah Polyakov and Priya Patel.
Priya Patel:
On November 15, I announced my collaboration with Priya Patel on a new book ‘Sunrise in the Western Sky: Poetry Duets’ — Poetarrati Volume 5, as we have a large collection of Poetry Duets between us. She was excited and thrilled about it.
I hope this will be a magnificent piece of poetry work that we will be proud of, Priya.
Sarah Polyakov:
I have launched a separate library section within my medium blog with Sarah Polyakov, especially on our common mythology art — her artwork and poetry and my verses. I hope to expand this and eventually work on a book with her.
And the ones that happened accidentally:
I wrote more poems than ever…
The year brought the best out of me to date as a poet. I wrote a poetry series called the Dubai Diaries, which again gained a separate library section in my blog.
Most of my poetry has been collaborative work this year with Priya Patel, Chloe Douglas, and Sarah Polyakov. I think I wrote more than a hundred poems during this year.
…Announced a book of essays …
I write articles as a featured contributor for BizCatalyst360, an award-winning platform. I wrote fewer articles The title ‘Wisdom of Nothing’ is based on one of my articles.
I call my articles ‘short essays’ and the book is a collection of these short essays. I hope to self-publish this book.
…And I read more books and wrote book reviews…
I read more than fifteen books and wrote book reviews. My reviews, particularly one about Lolita, were well-received and appreciated. I could connect with some of the authors who loved my reviews.
In particular, I had the opportunity to review ‘Fugitive Dreams’ by Palestinian-American author Ramsey Hanhan Underground and ‘Hacker’s Dairies’ by Israeli author Adam Prockstem Smith. Considering the current events, the two books offered me perspectives of lives in Israel- Gaza.
… and Ponder 2023 has been shaping up well.
Ponder 2023 has adopted a combination of tributes and poetry reviews, but the tributes themselves are poetry reviews.
I have collaborated with Priya Patel in a few reviews and hope to do more.
In short…2023 was a brick-by-brick year.
I achieved a few things and could not complete others. But I did a few pieces that laid the path for my journey in 2024, shaping my goals for the new year.
I also realize that I make friends who become collaborators and I have tremendous respect for such friendships. I hope I will be able to carry on those which are already built and build new ones that could become the bricks for the next year’s wall that I build along my literary journey.
~Ashok Subramanian © 2023
