It was a unique blogging prompt from the much loved @TheBlogchatter community to recapitulate the first half of 2016. Honestly speaking, I have to admit these ~180 days just flew past. Literally flew past!

But wait! A lot happened. A lot lot has happened.

Books

It was in the end of 2015 that my book Abhaya went live on Kindle. I self published it. It made sense that I wait for the readers to validate the online version before I invest in a paperback edition. Apart from being rewarded by some amazing reviews, the joyous aspect of this validation was that there were quite some senior readers who had never read an online book who made this effort to read the Kindle copy online and gave their feedback. Can’t express how grateful  I am. Six months down the line, I have decided to plunge into investing on paperback. Do pray for me that the second half of 2016 IS going to be as encouraging.

I have to mention this Ebook Carnival  that encouraged bloggers to experience self publishing, a much needed initiative. Thanks to that, I mustered will to convert my ongoing essays on Telugu poets into an ebook for the occasion.

Blogs

Apart from my books and some columns, I was never an active blogger. This is the first year I flexed and started to blog my mind and I am happy I am doing so. With a short story, some book reviews, some posts on self publishing and some published articles, it feels really motivating to keep at it.

Events

London Book Fair 2016 that took place in April 2016 is one event I have to recount. I loved the #AuthorHQ where eminent authors like Rachel Abbott, Mark Dawson and Peter James shared their experiences with upcoming authors. This is the first book related event I attended where writing craft was discussed than content. I could not help noticing how grounded and non condescending these talks were compared to other literature festival events.

Lastly (and as they say but not the least), I had an awesomely fantastic trip to Greece (Crete Islands) and posted a brief travelogue here.

This really felt motivating. Thinking of the goals I set for myself, my second novel, my reading list and planned blog posts. That does look like a good amount of work. But writing the post showed me that I really had a great first half 2016 and the time did not actually fly away without my knowledge!

Hope the streak of awesomeness continues for all of us!

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