Fiction Writer

03/02/2020

When this script had a staged reading, it had a cast made up of mostly non-Indians (with my approval, because if I waited to find the requisite number of Indian actors I'd never have gotten it read). As a result, at least two of the readers commented that the experience of taking on the role of an immigrant, even for a short while, gave them insight into that immigrant's mindset.

What a powerful opportunity this is, then, to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. This play has 9 roles, 8 of them Indian characters. 5 young, 4 older. 4 women, 5 men. It explores sisterhood, parent-child dynamics, family, love, marriage, and ambition. And food.

Consider it for a classroom exercise in empathy and cultural awareness. In this context, I don't consider it cultural appropriation.

Buy Jaathi: a play by Nivi Engineer (Paperback) online at Lulu. Visit the Lulu Marketplace for product details, ratings, and reviews.

03/30/2019

02/27/2019

Great things are happening at my alma mater

Nineteen years after launching the state’s first Master of Fine Arts in Writing program, Spalding University is announcing another first: the creation of a new School of Creative and Professional Writing, the first and only school of writing in Kentucky. A new Master of Arts in Writing program is ...

08/26/2018

If you've ever wondered about what it means to have an Unreliable Narrator, here's a great example. The story is presented by the media as a woman wronged, and yet, the more you listen, it's a story of a woman disregarding the safety needs--and rules--in order to serve her own purposes. It is possible to frame a narrative a certain way--with her presented as the victim in this scenario--but if you think through the facts, and consider the perspective of everyone else, you realize she was in the wrong.

She, according to literature, is an unreliable narrator. You want to side with her, you want to just accept the story in the perspective it's told, and yet your own ability to think rationally prevents that.

And that is when you get a great story. In fiction. I'm not necessarily crediting the media for having done that intentionally, but if this were fiction, this is what it would look like.

07/10/2018

Holy frijoles!

06/20/2018

"The Writer's Manifesto"

05/11/2018

This is all non-fiction, but oh, the storytelling! This is creative non-fiction at its finest.

04/25/2018

How many of these have you read? I'm at 41...for now.

The upcoming PBS series The Great American Read kicked off last Friday with the reveal of the one hundred titles in contention for "America’s Favorite Novel".

04/14/2018

Time to geek out about something we seem to know without realizing it.

03/15/2018

Just read this excellent post regarding participating in Twitter pitch sessions. Loads of useful information.

Or, general tips and tricks for pitching on Twitter, and how pitching SFF is different from pitching other genres. This is going to be a long one, folks. Skip around as needed! Update from PitchMAS…