A Matter of Life and Death: Another A to Z Story

          Today I am honored to have as my guest D. Biswas, who most of you know as Damyanti.  Her blog Daily (w)rite was a popular flash fiction site during the 2011 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  In this post she tells how her challenge entries came to be published in book form.   


Meeting the Challenge


          First of all, let me thank Lee for welcoming me on his blog. I’m here to talk about my experience of the A to Z challenge, which Lee has been organizing for the past two years. If you follow Lee, you already know about the challenge.

         This year, I signed up my blog Daily (w)rite without much of an idea of the challenge’s history, or its potential reach. I was the 15^th participant, and the final count was more than 1200, if I’m not mistaken.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, the A to Z challenge asked its participants to post on 26 days of April on their blogs, except the 4 Sundays.

        Signing up for this was where it all began, because that is where A to Z Stories ofLife and Death, my debut collection of flash fiction, was born.

       Being me, the eternal last minute improviser, I was scrambling for ideas on the morning of April 1^st. I had no clue what to do, but since I’d written small pieces of fiction on Daily (w)rite before, I decided maybe I should give that a shot.

       Writing flash fiction on Daily (w)rite usually involved picking up a random word or picture prompt, setting the kitchen timer to ten minutes, and writing non-stop and without thought till the alarm went Tiing! I polished up whatever emerged and put it up.

        After I similarly posted the first two or three pieces for A to Z, I got positive responses and returning readers…which made me ask my readers for prompts. This gave the readers room for involvement, and challenged me to come up with something completely random.


A Book Is Born

       Near the end of the challenge, I had regular, returning, encouraging visitors—some of whom suggested I compile an e-book.

       I did.

      Which is to say, I kept rejecting and re-writing the original pieces based on feedback by beta-readers till I was moderately pleased with the result (I’m never completely pleased with my work. Le Sigh.) I approached Jake Garn for the cover image and Marcel Heijnen for the cover design. (Both were amazing in their work, and I highly recommend them….Marcel is your man if you need your e-book cover designed.)

       This took me two months, and then in August, with the help of my tech-whiz and immensely supportive husband, I uploaded A to Z stories of Life andDeath. It has got good reviews on Kindle, and is selling a few copies every once in a while. I would love to have more reviews, obviously, and I have a few more stories in the pipeline based on some of the pieces in the collection.

     To give you an idea about the book, here’s the blurb:

Twenty-six A to Z stories, based on the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, question our moral compass: How do you judge a teacher toying with the sexuality of her teenaged student? A boy who decides to murder his mother? What thoughts rage inside a pedophile serial killer before he shoots himself? They challenge the concepts of beauty, truth, and morality, by revealing the face of the other side.
The stories focus on a crucial juncture when a character's life changes, for the better or worse, because of a choice or decision. Some of the characters in the stories confront death, others talk about life with its quirks and whimsies. Each voice, ranging in age from a six-year-old to a centenarian, has its own riveting story to tell. Together, this collection of stories at over 12000 words attempts to prove that when it comes to stories, depth can sometimes replace length and breadth.

   What's Next? 
      
         I’m definitely going to participate in April 2012, and if all goes well, I shall have a second book in the A to Z series. All of this from the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge by the tremendous Arlee Bird.

        Speaking of challenges and blogfests, I’d like to end with an invite to The Rule of Three Blogfest, a month-long shared-world fiction extravaganza in October with some great prizes, and of course, a lot of exposure for your writing.

       This is one Blogfest fiction authors ought not to miss, because it is open to all genres, and provides an excellent showcase for an author's craft. Go ahead and sign up!

      In conclusion, a big hand to Arlee Bird, and to A to Z! Mark your calendars for April 2012, because this challenge is going to get bigger and better!!

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Writer Bio: D.Biswas lives more in her head than in this world, adores her husband, and loves her pet fish and plants. She is an established writer for magazines and journals. Her short fiction has been published in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Muse India and in print anthologies by Marshall Cavendish, Monsoon Books, and MPH publications. Her book, A to Z Stories of Life and Death, is available for download at Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.

Twitter: damyantig

Website: http://amloki.com

Blog: http://damyantiwrites.wordpress.com

            I'm thrilled to have featured another success story from the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge and want to thank Damyanti for taking the time to tell her story.   We now welcome your comments and questions.



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