I have been reading books since my childhood. Mostly fiction. My interest in writing came when I was reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. The book was superb The characters were amazing. The plot was excellent. That made me think can I write a book like this?
I thought I would only know if I start writing. Believe in yourself and you can do wonders is my motto in life
While reading Sinbad the Sailor, I got an idea for my book. What if there are animals on a ship having adventures? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I took out my notebook and pen and got down to writing.
After having written the first chapter, I sent it to my writers' group for feedback. Feedback was that my characters are colourful. To say I was thrilled is putting it mildly.
So I continued to write. As I wrote, one idea after another came to me. After finishing the whole novel, I hired an editor. His first question was, Would I self-publish it or hire a publisher? Since this was my story, I wanted it to be told my way. The editor took his own sweet time to edit. Finally, the editing was done.

The illustration was done by someone in society. Next came the printing bit. I found a printer through my friends. Went to the printer. They said 2 months, but it took more than that. I was so frustrated, but there was nothing I could do.

You can imagine how happy I was when I saw my name on the book. The hard part was yet to come. Marketing of my book. That in the next post.