It was a DARK, STORMY night

So sad people don't want to read stories with such openings anymore.

I love them :(

Love your kids and get punished: Justice Norwegian style

This was a shock me. How can someone be so insensitive and cruel?

Sagarika and Anurup Bhattachrya, a couple from my city, are suffering in a foreign land. Their two little children have been taken away from them by Norwegian child service because the parents fed their children with hand and slept with them on the same bed. 


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088337/Norwegian-authorities-away-children-Indian-couple-eating-hands.html#ixzz1jxSzmZFc


http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/why-this-indian-couples-kids-were-taken-away-by-norway-authorities/221278

Most of the kids in India grow up this way. My mom used to feed me with hand and I co-slept with my parents till I was seven. And I do the same with my kids. We care for our children. We love them. Unlike the west, we don't put little babies in a separate room and bid them goodnight. This is our culture. Maybe the Norwegian child service finds it uncivilized but there is nothing wrong with it. I don't see many stories of child abuse in India but I find almost ten everyday in the western media. As a book and movie lover, I see many protagonists of western books and films with a troubled childhood. And they were not hand fed or co-slept.

I signed an online petition. If you feel for the parents, please help them by signing it.
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The Petition

Hi there, my name is Hana, but this is not about me anyway...It is about Sagarika and Anurup Bhattacharya and their two little children that have been TAKEN AWAY from them by Norweigian child services.
Why?
Because Sagarika and Anurup cared for their little ones according to Indian culture, which is different to Norwegian - they fed their babies by hand and co-slept, which is normal in Indian society... and nothing wrong with that!!                                                  
The parents have taken it to court and lost, they also asked their embassy to help - with no success. Sagarika is inconsolable – the baby girl, Aishwarya, was just 5 months old and breast-fed, the older one, Avigyan, was about two years old.
Kids are not even in one family, they are cared for by two different foster families and can be returned to Sagarika and Anrup after they are 18. And, authorities would not even allow the grandparents to get custody (it is allowed in UK!)!!!
I do not know Sagarika and Anurup myself, but my heart goes to them - how horrible it must be to have the lights of their life taken away...
So, I just want to help them and that is why I started a petition to support them - will you sign it? I know it is not about "serious" topics like protecting the Amazon or Arctic, but I believe that families where parents love their children belong together. I am not asking for any donation – just your signature!

PLEASE, SPREAD THE WORD and share our link with your friends and family:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bhattacharya-familysagarika-anurup-their/

Need a Book Trailer?

Here are two book trailers I made for a friend:

First one is for the book 'Paranormal Exposed' by Prabir Ghosh.

Second one is for 'Why Men and Women are North and South Poles' by Pinaki Ghosh.

I mostly use Sony Vegas Pro for the trailers but simpler ones can be done using Windows Movie Maker. For graphics, I use GIMP. 

If you want a book trailer for your masterpiece, just post a comment here. I don't charge anything. All I need is a detailed synopsis of your book, the cover art and any image file you may want to include. If you have an idea how the trailer should be, even better. I use royalty free images and videos.

Cover for 'Annihilation:The Beginning'

Alright. After experimenting with GIMP without any book or manual, I finally managed to come up with the first version of the book cover:

Notice the writer? Yep. Gavin Wilder is the pen name I chose for myself. Don't ask why this particular name because I don't know. Just a random pick.

Become a writer, Remain a writer

How to tell the world that you are a writer? People will either dismiss you with a laugh or think that there is something wrong with you but very few will take you seriously. It happens to the most of us. You are not considered a writer until your name appears on the cover of a book or in the credit list of a movie.

The truth is that you become a writer the moment you decide to be one and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Your career starts when you write or type the first word of your book or screenplay. But you have to keep on writing each day to remain a writer. 

This is where a dogged determination helps. Some days will be good – you will feel inspired and write some brilliant pages. Some days will be not so good – you will sit and stare at the monitor or the blank page, unable to write a single word. You will doubt your ability, feel frustrated and wonder if you are wasting your time. Why not just give it up and do something else? Take a nap, watch TV or hang out with friends. If you succumb to the negative thoughts, you won’t remain a writer for long. You will start to lose interest and your dream project will remain just that – a dream.

A determination to go on is the quality that separates published or produced writers from thousands of others. Don’t give up. Never give up. If you write just one page every day, you will have a screenplay in just over three months. But if you don’t write, you won’t have anything to show in support that you are a writer.

So write with discipline and determination and have patience. When you are writing, cast away all your worries, anxieties, fears and frustrations. Just concentrate on writing a powerful screenplay or novel with lively characters and memorable dialogs because that is your job and commitment as a writer. 

That First Page

So here you are -- sitting in front of your computer, staring at the white screen of your word processor/screenplay writing software. You have a brilliant idea and you just can’t wait till you express it in form of a novel or a screenplay. You've turned off the TV, switched off the phone, asked the kids, your spouse and your friends that you won’t be available for the next few hours. Everything is set and you are ready to go.

Ten-minutes later...

You’re still staring at the blank page of your software. The idea is still there but you are not sure how to put it in words. You think harder.

Twenty-minutes later...

You’re not looking at the screen anymore.  Your ears pick up all the sounds outside the room. You suddenly remember that the most important game of the season will be on TV in two hours. Oh, and you need to fix the kid’s bike.  The idea is still there but you just can’t figure out how to start.

Thirty-minutes later...

You’re not in your seat anymore. You stretch, open the curtains and look outside. Isn’t it a lovely evening? Wait! Isn’t today the last day to use those discount coupons at your favourite eating joint? You check the watch. There is still time and you don’t want to waste the coupons.

You take one last look at the computer. Oh well, you can’t do anything till you find out how to start that first page. Right now, you can only visualize an electrifying encounter between your protagonist and her arch-rival. But that is not the beginning of the story.

With a sigh, you walk towards the door.

WAIT! STOP!

Go back to your seat. Sit tight and write down that encounter. Yes, it is not the beginning of your story. Yes, you may delete it when you write your next draft. But right now, it is THE most important piece of your work. Write it down now!

Because if you walk out of the room now, you will never ever finish your dream novel/screenplay.