From Blogger to Author – my journey!

Once upon a time, long long ago I used to write.

I regularly wrote for my College magazine and for The Navhind Times, Goa. I remember when I participated in an Inter-College writing contest called “Write-a-lot“, I won the 1st prize (well obviously, what did you think ;)) and my friends suggested I should have entered for “Talk-a-lot” as well, if there was one. I beg to differ. I write more and better than I talk, okay! So there!

And then I stopped. Stopped writing, I mean. It’s still a mystery why I stopped, but I did.

Then a few years ago, a close childhood friend Savita from Goa, posted her son’s travel blog in our classmates’ WhatsApp group. After a couple of days, when I finally got around to reading it, I left a comment and she responded with, “At last! Was waiting for Radhi’s review and comment.”

This scene triggered off two thoughts.
One – that my writing skills were remembered and appreciated enough to value a review by me. (Thanks Savi!)
Two – A blog! How cool is that!

Frankly, I hadn’t paid much attention to blogging till then. I only knew Amitabh Bachchan wrote blogs. And so did Twinkle Khanna. Celebrity stuff, ya know!

Now I decided that, celebrity or not, Radhika Acharya too would write blogs.

The next step obviously was to set up the site. Being a little woolly headed about computers and related technical stuff then (confession – I still am), the most natural thing to do was to rope in my tech-savvy twin sons into this grand project.

I therefore dashed off a longish message on WhatsApp to one of them. I ‘wrote-a-lot’ in that message if I remember – about blogs in general, about my blog in particular and finally ended by rather belatedly asking if he knew how to set up one.

“Yeah,” he wrote back.

Brief. To the point. Laconic reply. Obviously we won’t see him entering any write-a-lot/talk-a-lot contests!

The dear chap set up my own wee little blog for me.

And I came, I saw and I wrote! 🙂

Traffic was slow, stats were depressing, but I wrote; because I loved it. And I didn’t have too many aspirations or ambitions then. I was happy blogging away.

And then the A to Z  Blog Challenge happened. One blog for every letter of the alphabet all through April 2019. And that, I tell you, changed the scene.

The Blogchatter platform along with its lovely team dared me to think beyond blogs into the covers of a book. The A-Z series about the JP Family were so well received that it seemed logical to convert them into a book. With the encouragement, support and solid backing of Blogchatter and other co-bloggers, that’s just what I’ve done.

And here we are – with my debut book!

A Book with 26 short humorous pieces written in 10 days flat and then converted into Book format in 5 days flat! I tell you – Word Document brought me to my knees and showed me who’s Boss! So I might be forgiven if the book is not really a slick nor sleek affair!

But do check out the link below, download – it’s free for some days – and share it with friends, foes and neighbors! 🙂

The Book – The Adventures of the JP Family
Author     – Radhika Acharya
Genre       – Humor

About the book – Light-hearted stories revolving around The JP Family – an average middle class family – with fun situations and even funnier characters. You might find the family familiar – it could be your friend’s family, your neighbor’s family; why, it could even be your own family! 🙂

So now with the formal launch of my book, the scene looks kinda cool.

Amitabh Bachchan writes blogs – so do I! Twinkle Khanna writes books – so do I! 

🙂