Here is the story of the second book. Couple of years ago, I asked a friend to give me a writing prompt. He said – Camel, folktale.

Camel and a folktale – that meant I have to retell a camel story. So I scoured around for a camel story. Predictably camels are not part of the Panchatantra  and I found many from the middle-east. I wrote a retelling of a camel story as a writing exercise.

I met some writers a few years ago in a writing workshop in Oregon. We kept in touch and we still do. One of them recommended a small publisher Guardian Angel Publishing. They produce beautiful books with diverse themes as a Print on Demand publisher. The book gets sold in Amazon. I did two books with them – an e-book and then a POD.

The e-book was published under their Littlest Angel series – Chasing a Pot of Gold. 

Then I placed a creative non-fiction – As I Watch – the story of a butterfly. Samantha Bell illustrated it and it is sold on Amazon. 

Earlier this summer, I decided to look up all the writing practice I had done to salvage some stories that had potential. I opened the camel story. I thought that would be great for GuardianAngel Publishing. So I sent a draft to the editor who promptly replied. She wanted some revisions on the scenes. I cut down some more words, added a few more scenes and there the story was accepted the next day. How often do you get to do that?

The Clever Camel is now contracted. I am expecting it to be out next year too. Next year will be a busy year for new books, I think. But I am not complaining.

A red umbrella, followed by a clever camel. It is not often that I get two acceptances within the first 6 months of the year.