A post about many firsts!

An overview about my first US trip, an upcoming release, and more!

In the last quarter of 2023, I visited several states in the US and was able to do lots of nerdy-author things! This was my first time visiting and so we also did a lot of tourist-y things, too! I took my debut, A Dupatta Is…, everywhere I went.

I visited every library I could get to and gasped when I found my book in the wild.

I signed books, visited bookstores and signed author walls.

I conducted presentations and readalouds.

I also did lots of touristy stuff with friends and family!

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Craft books I’m excited about

I’ve taken several classes with Kirsten W. Larson, have read all her books several times, and she is a great critique partner! She is also a wonderful teacher and I’m sure this book on NF PBs is going to serve as a great guide to many aspiring and established authors, including myself (I can’t wait to dive in).

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Gearing up for the release of AWE-SAMOSAS!

I’m so excited it’s March! AWE-SAMOSAS! releases on March 26th and I can’t wait for readers to devour this yummy story.

I’ve been told by advance readers that it has them craving samosas. It’s no surprise; Bhagya Madanasinghe has done a stunning job with the illustrations and there’s a yummy samosa recipe in the backmatter.

Mr. John Schu hosted the cover reveal for this book! Read some juicy details here:

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Learnings I want to carry forward in 2024

I usually follow Julie Hedlund’s 12 Day of Christmas posts and love how she emphasizes starting with a positive mindset, recounting successes and surprises in the past years and easing into the new year without focusing too much on resolution-setting. At the end of every year, this helps me remember moments I’d forgotten about, and grounds me in gratitude. I want to do a similar exercise every month— just to keep the momentum going.

Also, with four picture books and two board books releasing this year, I want to commit to being more pro-active about my social media content scheduling. I’ve learned it isn’t as intimidating if you manage to post to several social media channels at once (FB Meta Suites planner helps me post to IG and FB simultaneously and to schedule posts), preferably well in advance.

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Things to expect in future newsletters

The more I post about my publishing journey, the more questions I get from fellow agented authors and aspiring writers and the more I realize how opaque all of publishing is. I know how frustrating that can be, irrespective of what phase of publishing you are in.

I hope to share more about the process of writing, revising, submitting and other pub-related stuff in future newsletters. If you have any questions about the process, feel free to leave a comment below.