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It has been a washout February as far as writing is concerned for me. I haven’t got a word on paper (or on MS Word, actually) in this entire month, all of it due to what I would like to blame on writer’s block, but in reality, is a curious mix of laziness and distractions. I am hoping to get back on track in the month of March . Some things still got done, so I am writing this post with a bunch of updates.
Redesigned Website: I managed to get my website redesigned. I felt the earlier one was over two years old, and while the look was nice, I wanted a way to put my books upfront. Besides, when I designed the earlier one, it was with Jigneshbhai and Swami articles in mind and a bunch of non-fiction ideas. But over the past couple of years, it turned out that I ended up writing more stories and novellas – all of it fiction and very little non-fiction. So I wanted the website to reflect that while still keeping the colours intact. Besides, I had also built an online store on my website for readers to buy my books. I realised that it was too much of a hassle to keep it running and update it constantly. Amazon is good enough. So I got rid of that too from my website. So the redesigned website is now ready. Take a look at the same URL – ranjitkulkarni.com.
Change in Frequency of Blog Posts: I am not sure if you noticed but I have reduced the frequency of blog posts. I have stopped posting weekly and now intend to post twice a month – every alternate week. This is mainly because I noticed that posting something every week on the blog was getting on my mind and occupying it, and affecting my actual writing. What works on blogs isn’t necessarily good writing, and I didn’t want the need to blog every week to affect my more serious writing – stories and novellas. I still enjoy blogging, so I decided to reduce the frequency. Moreover, I realised that posting stories on the blog made them ineligible for publication elsewhere, as most journals treat them as already published. Hence, going forward, the blog posts will have only stories published elsewhere and updates or articles, alternating every week, for the rest of this year.
Stories Published: A few of my short stories (some very short – called flash fiction) got published in some literary journals over the past couple of months. I will post the stories later to the blog, but for now, you may read them at the links of the journals. Here is the list:
Indian Periodical published the voice of the voiceless My Mom’s Carcass
Grey Thoughts Writer’s Club published the tale of a wronged soul Bloody Justice
Ariel Chart published the story of mixed feelings The Young Man
Literary Yard published the touching flash fiction story Open House
Potato Soup Journal published the tale of moral remorse The Coach
Upcoming Book: I have written a bunch of stories in December and January around the theme of travel, inspired by some of the characters I met and experiences I had during my road trips to Gujarat and the Northeast during the months of October and December. Some more story ideas are still in my notes and I should hopefully convert them into full fledged stories in March. If things go as per plan, editing should happen in April and, after formatting and book cover design, I should be in a position to release a collection of travel-themed stories by end of May. I haven’t decided a title yet, but it will be a travel-themed book of stories – that is certain.
So those are the quick updates from my end from January and February. I hope to provide updates more frequently during this year – perhaps every second month or when I have something to report. Do take a look at the website and the stories. Thanks for reading!