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oh no!
not Asha Means Hope? I so loved that title. But anyways, this cover looks really nice! It's very artistic, but if your intent was to stay away from putting your book in a cultural category--then I'd say this wasn't such a great idea. But I love the black and white photo.

It's beautiful! It makes me want to read it, definitely!

wow, wow, wow. that is a brilliant cover.

this is a really afantastic cover. very tempting title I cannot wait to read monica

Wo-hoo! It's beautiful, Mitali. I can't wait to read it :)

Oh, Mitali! Wow, this is the WEEK for cool book covers! I really like this. (And I am coveting those eyelashes.) Sticking with a between-cultures theme, I think this is a book about... relationships... maybe traditional vs. Western? And someone is keeping a secret...? Or is that too generic?

It's GORGEOUS. Congratulations, Mitali!

Ooo baby I can't wait to read that one! Give us more!

Love it! Definitely a pick-me-up-and-read-me cover!

Beautiful cover and I love the girls eyelashes. It's about... keeping secrets? I'm not good at that game. I couldn't guess the content of Barbara's book (commenting above me) and it was titled How to Steal a Dog.

Great title and cover, Mitali!

Beautiful, Mitali. Sejal was asking if she can model for one of your covers next time!

Ooh! A child keeps a secret about her family! Or from her family... It definitely implies the idea of culture and of...introspection and thoughtfulness. Great cover!

Thank you all so much. And your guesses about content are so great -- my feeling is that a reader should be able to glimpse a bit of what the book's about from the cover, and perhaps guess what it's going to make you feel if you accept the invitation to read it.

Wow, awesome cover!!!!

Love it!! In the bookstore it would not only catch my eye, it would jump into my hands, and start turning pages!

Congrats,
gail

I hate to be the sole negative voice here - the colors, the patterns are lovely!

But the title combined with the girl's bowed head and unsmiling face instantly made me think, "Uh-oh! Her secret's gonna take years of therapy to get over." Her posture and expression imply shame and hurt to me.

Not that that would prevent me from reading the book, come to think of it.

I love the varied responses. Thanks so much, everybody!

wow is this book one of those really deep books?
i would love to read it, certainly after looking at that cover.

Wow, a bookie future with publication dates and revisions nearly finished and someone interested in more. That's security. It's like knowing your car is full of gas and your laundry is done.

It does feel a bit like that, but I don't forget the running on empty and the dirty laundry of ELEVEN years of rejection between books one and two.

my dog hasn't seen all of this movie yet

so you have finally finished her obligations under contract and are free to work on future projects and learned a lesson about signing before a first draft is complete. that's cool

je

Some authors need to sign before writing to put food on the table, and since any one of us might be in that position someday, I'm never saying "never again."

For now, I can breathe easy. But if an editor did approach me with an amazing idea, I might sign again. So I'm not sure if I learned that lesson after all!

Mitali

I love this, though I find it -- disheartening? I'm not sure that's the right word, but she certainly has captured the work that real writers face.

Thanks for sharing!

I gasped sharply when I read the sentence,

Earlier
they accuse you of withdrawing,
ask why you don’t have a baby,



-- and thought, "My goodness. My LIFE!"

I think this isn't meant to be comforting, in a way, except as in the rough comfort of snow on a frostbitten face. It's reality. It's... my life. You're never there 'til your there in some eyes, so you must love the writing for itself, or you'll never get 'there.'

Thank you Tali -- love this one and love Marge Piercy!!

This one is strangely supportive, even though it's brutal. Because it tells the truth, which is better than a white-wash.

Thank you for sharing it.

This is one of my favorite Piercy poems. Thanks for sharing it, and I'm glad "she liked it!"

Mitali,

I've liked this poem since the first time I read it. There really is so much that's true in what Piercy wrote.

I was thinking, just this afternoon, about how it never will get easier, because I always want to go further and higher. I always want to bite off more than I can chew, you know?

I think writers have be comfortable with some level of uncomfortableness, always, and Piercy expresses that so well.

So glad you got a good email!

I'm so glad to hear you got that great email! Yay she liked it!

I find this poem discouraging too - but it's also comforting to hear it from Percy and know it's not just me. I'm glad to be part of it all.

Knitting gives you a beret, mittens, socks. Nothing delusional about that. Knitters are content, or so they seem to me, when they're knitting. Knitting can keep aspiring writers from going insane! It's a noble and praiseworthy thing. Any knitters out there?

I thought AMH was set in the U.S.?

Anyhow, I think that RICKSHAW GIRL presents goals that are worth championing and features a protagonist that doesn't fit the "heroine-archetype who is conventional in today's YA lit." It was mightly successful, I might add.

Another successful novel about about "survival, dependency, or the struggle for education" is Kashmira Sheth's latest, KEEPING CORNER. I *highly* recommend it.

WOW.
Parents who want sons isn't limited to South Asian families (my friend Stephanie's father threw the camera across the hall when she was born -- the third girl -- and my Dad just left the hospital), but definitely the point of view that you'd better hush or possibly get thrown out is different. I'm very interested in how your heroine figures out a way to BE, when she must act out empowerment in smaller ways. Good luck with that.


(P.S. -- Blogger swallowed my post on your blog yesterday, and I can't yank it all back from memory, but I was saying that you should keep looking with your cultural bifocals -- we need to keep bearing witness to what isn't right with the status quo, so we'll be there reminding others to look when the time is right to apply a bit of change...)

Thanks for your encouragement, TadMack. Pooja, I can't WAIT to read Kashmira's new novel. Starred review in PW!