Personal Blog of Dagny Sol, Editor and Author Coach
A few weeks ago, my dear friend Zephyr told me she was reading a book that she was falling in love with. She strongly recommended that I read it. Zephyr needs no introduction. Her blog, The Cybernag, is iconic. She is the Granny of the blogging world, a lady of robust home-grown wisdom and perfectly […]
Small is Big- by Rafaa Dalvi Brevity is the soul of wit, said Shakespeare; it is the sister of talent, said Chekhov. Writing flash fiction is challenging as well as deeply satisfying. I have loved all varieties of micro-fiction- as a reader as well as a writer. Micro-tales compel you to stay focused on your […]
Pretty Vile Girl: The protagonist you will hate to love! When you have racy plot and myriad, twisted sub-plots married to a series of brutal murders, committed with ice-cold nerve made all the more chilling by a kind of detached, almost meditative casualness, you get a Pretty Vile Girl! The theme of this novel is revenge- […]
Fairy tales are written for impressionable youngsters; Unfairy Tales are written for discerning adults. The values and perceptions of the modern world are not the same as those of the times when the Perrault, Anderson and the Brothers Grimm penned down their stories. Today, their stories seem biased, bigoted and even regressive. Humans have learned […]
The theme of the novel is unusual, specially in the Indian context. Men wanting to marry women older than themselves aren’t thick upon the ground in India, as yet. For an author to have picked such a theme for his debut novel, speaks of his own comfort with the idea. The love interest between the […]
BRAHMAHATYA: by Rajiv Mittal Complicated yet integrated characters, a skilfully created sequence of inevitable events and a thick suspense plentifully fed by a revengeful, murderous intent, Brahmahatya has it all. To make the novel additionally delectable, there is the generous inclusion of local flavor. This, I said to myself, is an Indian story written in English. […]
Water Boarding is not just a romantic story. While the story revolves around love (yes, there is a love triangle), this story is a lot more than just another romance. The story demonstrates how circumstances and events can hold you immovably captive in their grip, reducing you to a helplessness so acute that you feel as […]
To be honest, this is not a book review. This is the description of a soul-satisfying feast. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the first paragraph of the book was about maasor tenga, a signature dish from verdant Asom. It is not just a paragraph heralding a gripping story. It has layer upon layer of […]
Book Review: Lean in to Relationships by Rishabh Jhol I was highly skeptical when I began to read this book. The title was not exactly encouraging and the cover page was uninspiring. Moreover, relationships? Er… um… I thought to myself. Rather pompously, yes. My first clue that […]
I don’t often write book reviews- in fact I hardly ever do. Beloo Mehra’s training and professional experience (see her professional credentials below) make her eminently suitable to pen a book of this scope and depth on this topic. My admiration for Beloo’s work and wisdom hardly needs reiteration. It is an admiration born one […]