"The digital revolution has blown open the distribution of books--now it's all about visibility," and with that remark--among others--David Gaughran, author of Amazon bestseller Let's get Digital, sent the audience at The Literary Consultancy (TLC's), Writing in a Digital Age 2013 conference into a tizzy.

A sentiment...

I wish I could unplug!

This was the thought foremost on my mind as I read a write up in The Guardian, by Sylvain Tesson, about his new book Consolations of the Forest - a largely philosophical account of his six-months living as a hermit in a cabin...

Fan fiction by any other name still reads wonderfully fresh.

Fanfic as it is called refers to stories produced by fans based on existing plot lines and characters, often taking pre-existing story worlds in new directions. The grey area has always been the rights-holders point of view -- people using...

A young friend passed away in an accident and to my horror his Facebook profile turned into a virtual memorial of sorts, with people leaving condolences and fond reminiscences; and of course friends liking their comments too. Like the picture of my lunch, like the portrait of my death then?...

I first read about Dick Whittington and his cat, in my textbook for English prose, at the St. Joseph's High School in suburban Bombay. Decades later I live in North West London where my local hospital is named after him.

The symbol for Whittington Hospital is a cat. After...

When Taavet Hinrikus, moved from Estonia to London, he was shocked at the bank rates he had to pay to send money back to his hometown. Then, a friend and fellow Estonian faced the same problem and talking about it, they came up with an idea to beat the system....

I saw her as part of pop music band Akasa and thought she was the most beautiful thing in the galaxy. Then met her and knew it was for real.

It was 1993, and thanks to STAR TV beaming the avaricious world of Bold and the Beautiful into the...

As a young girl working in India, I found myself in a rather unsavory situation one evening. Having stayed late at the newspaper where I worked as a journalist, I had boarded the ladies' compartment on the local train for the journey home. Imagine my shock when at the very...

"In an autobiography I'll have to write the truth... I have read Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography and if I can muster up the kind of courage that he had, I will write one..."

This was the renowned Indian film actor, Rajinikanth's response, in answer to a question posed by his mentor,...

An estimated 256,618+ writers around the world participated in NaWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, which lasts through November, last year. This year I am one of them (gulp!)

Some of you may already know that this is supposed to be a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin...

"Pain and sadness can be commercial too" says Reema Kagti, director of Talaash, a Bollywood film releasing Friday, November 30 in the UK. Shot on location in Bombay and London, Talaash has a few other unusual dimensions to its credit.

Most obviously it is directed by a director who...

"I am an Interfaith ordained minister," said the woman with curly hair and olive skin, wearing comfortable fatigue jeans. Smiling, she sat down in the queue next to the crowd control barriers behind me and in a skillful much practiced gesture slipped off her high heeled boots to wear what...

"It is perhaps the most elegant, beautiful, dynamic store we've opened in our history," chief executive Howard Schultz said in an interview on the occasion of the opening of Starbucks' first flagship Indian store, in the exclusive Horniman Circle neighbourhood of south Mumbai (also known as SoBO for those of...

Girls creator Lena Dunham signs book deal worth more than $3.5m. The headlines screamed, going onto elaborate how this 26-year-old filmmaker will deliver an advice book on essays about sex, mortality and food for Random House.

I don't know if you have seen Girls, currently renewed for its second...

"Is the Iphone5 available in London?" his brother, texted him from Dubai.
"I'm texting you from one. We live in the first world..." was his sardonic reply.

Having satisfactorily broken the heart of his younger sibling, my husband proceeded to banter with his new best friend. It...

Close on the heels of Fifty-Shades-of-pretending to be in love, when actually you just want to penetrate every orifice comes another controversy over another novel, currently in its Indie form.

This time it's in the land of science fiction. The debate triggered when Weird Tales Magazine decided to include...

The morning after the opening ceremony, here I was in London; still high from the emotions the event had evoked in me, moved by its passion, touched by its genuine soul, when my husband chuckled, "Have you seen the headlines in the Indian newspapers?"

What, what? What could possibly...

So by now most agree that Beijing had money but the London Olympics opening ceremony had soul, and that it was gloriously, quirkily, quintessentially British. Yet, for me the reason it resonated with so many around the world is because it actually did speak an universal language. Danny Boyle's real...

Tiina wakes with a start.
The nightmare is fresh in her mind. She does not scream, though. Save her heightened breathing and an increased pulse, nothing gives away the horror and dejection the dreams evoke. Swept along by a tide of the inevitable, she faces her destiny.
...

"I am fed up of this rain." My friend's seventy-year old mother who had just flown in from Norway continued, "summers are normally good in Scandinavia, but this year Oslo is just like London!"
"Oh! I actually find the rain quite... uh! Romantic" I replied softly, acutely conscious of...