In the middle of May I received a call from the local allotment secretary. A space had come up and I was next on the waiting list. Did I still want one? My first reaction was to say: No thank you. I really don’t have time f
or it anymore.
or it anymore. This past year I’ve had very little spare time because I discovered the internet, bloggers and blogging, twitter and face book, and saw with open-mouthed shock exactly what I should have been doing even before my book had come out. I had absolutely no idea. I had purposefully never worked on a computer that was hooked up to the internet, and I suddenly realised what a mistake it had been.
I immediately hooked my laptop up to the internet, discovered the SAS in January 2010 and began digging my head out of the sand.
I hurled myself into the fray and bloggers started reviewing my book, not put off by the fact that it had been out for a long while, and I was interviewed so many times I think every morsel of my life, likes and dislikes, even down to my favourite sweets when I was a kid, is on the internet, which is just a little bit scary! But I carried on at break-neck speed, giving The Long Weekend my all.
I got fed up of dragging the laptop around everywhere and got myself an iPhone – it soon became my co-conspirator, making it easy for me never to miss anything...and never to switch off. Ever. Spare time didn’t exist anymore because I had to keep abreast of everything, comment on everything, make myself known as a children’s writer. It became a habit, one that I was finding hard to wean myself off. After the two blog tours, which did require lots of publicising etc, were over, I was still on the internet, afraid that I might miss something important.
Was it worth it? Yes. Definitely. But I lost a sense of balance.
So when the allotment secretary rang me, no is not what actually came out of my mouth. I’ve been on the waiting list for a few years now and if I didn’t take up the offer now, who knew when another space might come up? This one came up because a 93 year old had decided that it was getting a bit too much for him to manage! The allotments are next to the woods behind my house, less than a minute away...
I immediately hooked my laptop up to the internet, discovered the SAS in January 2010 and began digging my head out of the sand.
I hurled myself into the fray and bloggers started reviewing my book, not put off by the fact that it had been out for a long while, and I was interviewed so many times I think every morsel of my life, likes and dislikes, even down to my favourite sweets when I was a kid, is on the internet, which is just a little bit scary! But I carried on at break-neck speed, giving The Long Weekend my all.
I got fed up of dragging the laptop around everywhere and got myself an iPhone – it soon became my co-conspirator, making it easy for me never to miss anything...and never to switch off. Ever. Spare time didn’t exist anymore because I had to keep abreast of everything, comment on everything, make myself known as a children’s writer. It became a habit, one that I was finding hard to wean myself off. After the two blog tours, which did require lots of publicising etc, were over, I was still on the internet, afraid that I might miss something important.
Was it worth it? Yes. Definitely. But I lost a sense of balance.
So when the allotment secretary rang me, no is not what actually came out of my mouth. I’ve been on the waiting list for a few years now and if I didn’t take up the offer now, who knew when another space might come up? This one came up because a 93 year old had decided that it was getting a bit too much for him to manage! The allotments are next to the woods behind my house, less than a minute away...
So I said yes, I’d love it, thank you!
I’ve worked my bit of land for the past few weeks, preparing it for sowing all the wonderful veg and salad we eat the most. I inherited blackcurrant, redcurrant and raspberry bushes and only needed to add some strawberries to the fruit collection. As I’ve been working down there, I’ve realised that I cannot hear my phone ringing, I’ve never once checked my emails, and the only tweeting going on is that of the birds, although I think the parakeets and woodpeckers turn their noses up at tweeting. And whether it’s for half an h
16 Comments on Thinking Space by Savita Kalhan, last added: 5/17/2011
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By: Savita Kalhan,
on 3/1/2011
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alan Gibbons, Library cuts, Savita Kalhan, Library Campaign, Shamila Akhtar, Libraries, Add a tag
Libraries are under threat and there has been a huge outcry against cuts and closures that span the whole of the United Kingdom. And rightly so. Libraries are precious and should be placed under a protection order.
You will all have read or written many articles and blogs about the intrinsic importance of libraries and what they mean and what they provide for the individual, for children, for adults, for the disadvantaged, for society in general.
This is what they meant to me when I was a child.
I came to live in England with my parents when I was 11 months old. My father was an educated man – he spoke and wrote Hindi, Urdu and English, but was forced to leave school much earlier than he would have liked in order to help his parents. My mother never went to school. She was put to work when very young and although all her younger sisters went to school, she missed her chance and by twelve it was too late for her. She speaks only Punjabi, but can understand some Hindi, mainly learnt from films. She was brought up in a village, so as a child her experiences were limited, her knowledge of the world severely restricted.
My parents worked very hard. Our family grew, and we were raised in a very traditional environment. We had to work hard at school and at home. And we weren’t allowed to go out at all. Except to one place – the library.
Both my parents were in complete agreement about this. My father because he wanted us to do well, excel in school and in our studies, make something of ourselves. Even though he was in many respects a traditional Punjabi man, he never considered himself saddled with five daughters. He expected as much from us as if we were boys. And my mother because of her reverence for books. She couldn’t read them herself, but for her they were the source of wisdom, knowledge and understanding, and therefore the means to escape from poverty and derision. She held them in awe and respect. We were never allowed to put books on the floor, or anywhere they might get damaged.
We couldn’t afford to buy any books. So we joined our local library.
Wycombe Library - the grand opening in 1932!
Wycombe Library when I joined it
The brand new Wycombe Library in the Eden Centre and the fantastic Children's Library
5 Comments on My Library and Me - Savita Kalhan, last added: 3/2/2011
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By: Savita Kalhan,
on 1/24/2011
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Blog Tours, Book Bloggers, The Long Weekend, Savita Kalhan, Add a tag
Why write if it's not to be read?
I’ve been writing for a number of years, almost solely for teens, and so far I’ve had one book published. I’ve written several books, and I have ideas for several more. In my last blog I talked about my need to start on a new book each Autumn. It’s now January and yes, I am deep into my new story and loving the main character, although I’m not sure the main character loves me for what I’m putting her through! Regardless, I’m writing and I know I’ll continue writing until the book is finished when I’ll read it through and edit it, and agonise over it before sending it off to my agent, who will cast her critical eye on it and deliver her judgment, and if it’s a positive one it will get sent off to the publisher who will do the same etc, etc...
But this is just one aspect of being a writer – of intrinsic importance, of course, and you can’t call yourself a writer unless you are prepared to go through all of the above – there are other aspects that might be perilous to ignore.
To be a successful writer these days, several other hats should be donned once the writing has been done. The same is true even to be a moderately successful writer. There was a time when writers did not have to don any other hats – there were people who did that for them. These hats include 
upping your profile, trying to get (hopefully rave, but no guarantees!) reviews – online and in the press, making sure everyone, including the right people know about them, doing signings, visiting schools, blogging about your new book, blogging about yourself, being active on twitter and facebook, getting interviewed, networking, courting bloggers and librarians, speaking at conferences, and finding as many platforms for yourself and your book as possible. (Even Margaret Atwood maintains an active Twitter profile)
upping your profile, trying to get (hopefully rave, but no guarantees!) reviews – online and in the press, making sure everyone, including the right people know about them, doing signings, visiting schools, blogging about your new book, blogging about yourself, being active on twitter and facebook, getting interviewed, networking, courting bloggers and librarians, speaking at conferences, and finding as many platforms for yourself and your book as possible. (Even Margaret Atwood maintains an active Twitter profile)
Creating a bit of a buzz for your book is important. The books that find their way onto all the shortlists and often win prizes haven’t got there all by themselves, unless their authors have been extremely lucky. The writers have been doing all the above and more to ensure their book’s success.
Not as many people read my first novel, The Long Weekend, as I would have liked. There are so many factors that contributed to that. I’m putting my hand up and saying that one of those factors was my naivety as a newly published author. No one knew about my book and as I wasn’t shouting it from the rooftops or even holding it up for people to see, things stayed that way. I didn’t know about all the other hats I needed to wear if I wanted my book to reach its readers, I just assumed that others were donning them for me. Consequently my book was only in a few book shops and found by very few readers.
Now I know what I hav
15 Comments on Donning Hats and Juggling Acts, last added: 1/26/2011
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By: Savita Kalhan,
on 10/5/2010
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: To Kill a Mockingbird, Anne Rooney, Banned Books, The Long Weekend, Savita Kalhan, Add a tag
Offending a vocal minority, or arguably even a hostile majority, in the areas of politics, religion and morality can result in your book finding itself on the banned list. Banned Books week, launched by the American Libraries Association, ALA, to celebrate the freedom to read and to highlight the dangers of book censorship, has just come to an end. When I read Anne Rooney’s piece, "Banned: The Hidden Censorship of Children’s Books", it all brought back memories of what it was like living in a society where 95% of published books were banned.
For most of us in the UK, it’s an alien concept. Yes, we know that in the distant past books have been banned here, but not in modern times. We’ve got used to the choice, knowing that if a book is out there, the librarian or bookseller only needs the ISBN number and, hey presto, the book will arrive in the library, or in the bookshop, or through your letterbox in a matter of days.
Imagine a place where there are no books, no fiction to speak of, no poetry, no comics, no magazines, unless they have been vetted and deemed suitable by the Ministry of Information. It’s a terrible vision, too awful to contemplate.
For several years I lived in a country where there were no public libraries to speak of and only one bookshop. It would be two or three years later before the second bookshop opened.
This was back in 1991. Most books were banned. You could pick up the work of a few lucky authors – but the choice was limited. I remember John Grisham being stocked, but I think the covers of his books were pretty uncontroversial. If you wanted to read a half-decent book you had to bring it in to the country yourself. And that was a tall order. You had to smuggle it in.
So, my once or twice yearly trip to the UK involved buying lots and lots of books, and when I went through a phase of reading fantasy epics, well, you can imagine the problems that that caused. The trilogy was out of favour. Several thick books in a series were common. Yes, it gave me headaches, and I hadn’t even got as far as thinking about how heavy my suitcases would end up, the excess baggage payment, or the sweaty-palmed dread as I walked towards customs at the other end.
I spent several years hiding books in the lining of my suitcases, folding them inside clothes and secreting them about my person, so having to wear the voluminous black abayas did have a use! It was no laughing matter. A few hundred pounds of books were hidden away in our bags, and so much more. To be caught red-handed meant the books would in all probability be confiscated. If you were lucky you would get some of them back. It really depended on the covers, the book title and the mood of the customs man. If he found some of your books and he wasn’t feeling magnanimous, they would be sent straight to the Ministry of Information, where they disappeared in a bureaucratic black-hole while you desperately applied for the books to be returned to you. To be caught meant being deprived of several months of reading and that was a horror that I didn’t want to contemplate. It was a situation that faced us each time we disembarked with our bags and headed towards customs.
7 Comments on Banned Books - Savita Kalhan, last added: 10/6/2010
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So true! I had a lovely afternoon wandering around after a two year old who was chasing squirrels, picking buttercups and daisies and collecting 'special' stones. No sound but the wind through the trees and some rather noisy thrushes. All thoughts of to-do list vanished...
Allotment will always win, hopefully.
Very therapeutic. Makes one feel like they have had a total break. Getting close to nature is certainly the best stress release.
I am glad you said yes! Enjoy the proceeds of your labours!
Every writer needs an allotment of one's own.
I find walking the dog the best time to arrange my ideas. We are so lucky we can be in the middle of farmers fields within 10 minutes. Some days we will bump into the world and his dog. Other days we'll not see a soul for an hour or so. On a quiet walked I've even written a complete story by tapping into my iPhone then simply uploaded onto my laptop when I got home. This story is now with my editor, so fingers crossed.
I'm with Lynne - my dog needs to go out three times a day and she doesn't care about my deadlines. I stroll around the park, maybe buy a cup of tea from the park kiosk, watch the world go by. And I never take my phone.
Bizarrely, I have just taken my sister to the train and as we drove to the station she was saying exactly the same things to me - need to get outside, need to work in the garden, need to get some balance ... It's obvious, and yet, and yet ...
My brain gets it, but my must-be-writing bit kicks and bites!
I'll try to follow your good example.
My garden has needed a lot of work this spring, and I was feeling guilty about the time I spend branch-trimming, pond-clearing, digging...till I realised that I was actually getting more writing done in my writing time. I think you're right - the balance is a help rather than a hindrance. It does clear the head for new ideas!
Good decision! Everyone needs a dog (or two) and an allotment in their life!
Living in the heart of London, I envy your woods and that lovely bridge that seems to lead to enchantment! Can taste those home grown veg and herbs already... with beautiful zucchini flowers tossed lightly into a salad! A great decision, Savita!
Look at me - utterly identifying with this blog when I should be outside getting some fresh air! Well done you.
Thank you all for the comments, and the validation! Really feel I have definitely done the right thing. Feeling much more grounded... (sorry!)
And lucky that Finchley is on the edge of London and although my front door puts me firmly in London, my back door opens onto woods, so getting the best of both worlds!
I'm no gardener yet, apart from tidying up, but I absolutely get your point here. A day without a walk in the fresh air preferably with some nature thrown in is, for me, a day lost. And although I struggle to find any time to write, it hasn't stopped me taking on new other projects: I recently bought a wonderful new cookbook which I am slowly working through and trying out in the evenings, when I'm not serving meals, and am weighing up whether to sign up for fiddle lessons too.
Space - whether real world space or a quiet time to think - is essential for creative thought. Have just returned from a week grandchild-sitting before and after school, and found the middle of the day calm time, sans internet, wonderfully soothing. Feel as if ideas have started to spring again. Mind you, did pause and admire flower filled gardens and local woods during the to and fro. Thank you for the post, Savita, and much happiness with the allotment!
Do I need an allotment? No - but I'm glad you have yours. Like Elen, I have a 3-walk-a-day dog, and a garden which is in danger of being choked by bindweed.
If I get someting solid written in the next month, I'll be so happy.