#RTWrites :: Introducing Our Labor of Love – An Anthology of Second Chance Romances called Something Old, Something New - @RT_writes

“Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

This oft-repeated idiom has been used to explain everything going wrong in group work – such as the beleaguered Suicide Squad, the timeline issues in Endgame, the current political messes in India and the US.

It’s something our wise grannies would say to us, to make us understand our own (diminished) importance in the grand scheme of things. In the ways of my Paati, it almost always meant SHUT IT, girl, and keep your opinion to yourself.

Desi Readers Adda: The Origin Story

In January 2019, after a fabulous meet at HLF where my fellow panelists and I were heckled by an audience member and judged for writing romance, I decided to not shut it. I, along with the owner of this fab blog and my dearest friend Shilpa Suraj, created Desi Readers Adda.

We, joined by our fantastic friends Andaleeb Wajid, Devika Fernando, Ruchi Singh, Preethi Venugopala, and Milan Vohra – wanted to be India’s first Facebook genre-inclusive readers’ community by talented and bestselling authors to talk books, life and more.

We each bring our own inimitable style of viewing life, books and telling stories to our members every day and, sometimes, there are giveaways too!

True Story: we were actually called Desi Romance Adda when we began because I was seriously, personally afraid that this country vilified me and writers like me for daring to own a woman’s narrative and write about her pleasure, her desires and her identity. Within the scope of a happy ever after, but independent of a partner nonetheless.

But, six months in, and I realized I was afraid for nothing.

My world and its inhabitants (which includes my darling Addaians) is safe for romance and romantics!

We are now proudly called Desi Readers Adda because we love reading – romance, sci-fi, crime thrillers, horror and more. And we love talking about we are reading and writing ALL THE TIME!

The Spark for Our First Offering: Something Old, Something New.

Along with running a sweet Facebook community we, at DRA (as we call ourselves), wanted to be the first in many other ways.

The first to take away the stigma attached to reading and writing romance and love stories. The first to offer a safe space for readers to come and talk books with people who write them.

So we decided to combine the above two firsts and come up with the third first: publish India’s first-ever romance novella collection.

My amazing friends Andaleeb, Ruchi, Devika, and Preethi and I have all been a part of anthologies before. But these anthos have always been a collection of short stories. Short, sweet… entirely unsatisfying.

So, in typical Writer Gal not-shut it way, I decided why not do it? Why not be at the frontlines of the romance wars and create something unique, one-of-a-kind, and fantastically desi …with my unique, one-of-a-kind and fantastically desi friends.

And so the idea was born: to release a collection of novellas bearing our names and stamped with the DRA logo! On the Day of Love: Valentine’s Day, 2020!

Teamwork Made the Dream Work

This project has been a dream come true for us DRA co-founders!

Mostly because our friends went on this admittedly fraught and satisfying journey with us.
Whether it was brainstorming for cover ideas, holding hours-long discussions about the right title, taking on immense responsibilities of compiling a self-published book and marketing the holy crap out of our newest book baby (the onus of which falls on the owner of this fab blog!)

Writing a story, whether it is a 20,000 word novella or a full-length 50,000 word novel is extremely isolating. But knowing there were six people on the other end of the line makes it so much more worthwhile.

Especially, when the end result is as pretty as this beautiful book that contains so much of my soul!
A special mention has to be made here for my dear friend, Neil D’Silva, horror writer extraordinaire who gamely decided to plunge into writing paranormal romance for us and has come up with a cracker of a story!

I could talk about Andaleeb’s sexy Jehangir, Devika’s research on Chennai and her Luke, Ruchi’s Ajay’s earring, Shilpa’s heartbreaking Rags or Neil’s shivery Yamini or even my own quietly honorable Vikrant…but I won’t.

I’d rather you read our stories and tell us how you feel. Also, do enter the giveaway that goes live on release day and which enables you to win a Kindle reader AND a KU subscription!

I will say this though: Paati, you are wrong in this one instance!

Sometimes, too many cooks make the best freaking biryani-khichdi-pongal-gajar halwa-kheer-broth in the world!

Xx
Writer Gal