I spoke at Amazon yesterday. Sharing my story of rejection, putting on a suit and pretending to go to work, the book deal I gave myself, my blonde alter-ego alias, signing a “real” 3 book deal with HarperCollins, booking a theatre and putting on a one woman show because no one was interested in a show about a 50-something Asian woman (show was later optioned for television), adapting that show into a novel and turning down a fourth book deal to go solo (no blonde alias this time round 💁‍♀️ ).

What I shared is that:

➡ There will always be obstacles but there is always a way and there are different ways of unlocking doors. You just need to persevere and find yours.

Just as I was leaving I came across beautifully painted doors hung on the wall. Apparently, when Jeff Bezos started Amazon because he used to work off a desk-door as there was no money. He certainly found his way from that desk door 🙂

📅 Unravelling is out 27th September, 2024. May you find your door and your way. #Keepgoing

 

My journey:

* As a kid, desperate to be blonde, I shaved off my black bushy eyebrows, coloured them in with a yellow marker, and went to school. Miss Davies, my teacher, was horrified and told me that I would go far in life by just being myself. Well…Not possible culturally! I wanted to be a writer; my parents wanted me to be a lawyer. Their struggle shaped their desire for my stability.

*Worked for a management consultancy and wrote my first novel, Gypsy Masala. It got rejected by every publisher. Quit my job to follow a dream. Well, technically I got made redundant. Couldn’t tell my parents, so I put on a suit, pretended to go to work, and went to the library. That suit routine lasted 8 months – yes, you read that right!

* Had a brainwave and set up my own publishing and PR company. Hyped Gypsy Masala shamelessly under a blonde alias, Pru, thereby fulfilling my blonde ambition 😉 Got Gypsy Masala into the charts (still putting on a suit and still pretending to go to work!). Pru was shortlisted as Publicist of the Year! Really didn’t want to win as I couldn’t thank the various parts of myself who had been a dream to work with.

* Signed a 3-book deal with HarperCollins. Not what I thought it would be. Set up my own consultancy, working with leaders globally to tell their stories.

* A series of life-changing events in short succession made me want to stay safely in my comfort zone. But nothing happens in the comfort zone, so I did the thing that terrified me the most… Having never acted before (not even at school), I booked a theatre in the West End and put on a one-woman show – because nobody was interested in seeing a show about a 50-something Asian woman. The show sold out. The producer of The Crown came to see it, and the show got optioned for television.

* Wrote my fourth novel, Unravelling. Turned down the book deal with HarperCollins to go solo again (reasons are many). Unravelling is out in September 2024.

* I’m on the faculty of various business schools, teaching storytelling for personal transformation, and wherever else I can speak because if you change your story, you change your life…

Feel your roots and embrace your dreams…

———————-

Unravelling is out September 2024. You can pre-order at any online retailer or at your local bookshop.

Loving this year’s South Asian Heritage Month theme, ‘Free to Be Me’. The irony isn’t lost on me, given my own journey of setting up a double life and creating a blonde alter-ego alias publicist to follow my dreams.

– My first novel was rejected by most publishers so I set up a publishing company and a PR company, whilst pretending to go to work (long story!). Hyped the novel under an alias and got it into the book charts.
– I went on to sign a 3-book deal and my alter-ego was shortlisted as publicist of the year.
– I didn’t attend the ceremony because, well, if I won, I couldn’t thank the various parts of myself that had been a dream to work with.

I have turned down a fourth book deal to go solo again. The reasons are many, but the most important one is that I am finally free to be me.

Don’t contort yourself to fit into a system.
There is always a way forward.

Looking forward to this new chapter and to the events next month where I get to share my story.

Unravelling is published in September.
More to follow…

#SouthAsianHeritageMonth
#Unravelling

It was my midlife crisis… Having never acted before (not even at school), I booked a theatre in Covent Garden, rehearsed for 18 months, and put on a one woman show playing all 17 parts. I did this mostly to get over the fear that had secretly crept up on me (that creeps up exponentially on a lot of us in our late 40s).

↪ It’s a type of fear that you develop a strange Stockholm syndrome relationship with, the one that makes you fall in love with the confines of a comfort zone, you know it’s toxic but you can’t seem to escape.

↪ I also produced the show on because I was tired of hearing that there is no market for a 50-something Asian woman. We are invisible. 😢

Doing the show was the most terrifying/exhilarating thing that I have ever done.

The play wanted to be a novel and I did everything I could not to write it -but I did and it took me four years. I was offered a fourth book deal with HarperCollins and for various reasons, had to turn it down. Fear faithfully accompanying me, whispering that it would never see the light of day if I turned down that deal.

As Elizabeth Gilbert says fear “is boring, because it only ever has one thing to say to us, and that thing is: “STOP!”

➡ Don’t let anyone define who you are and tell you what you can or cannot do.
➡ I have found trying to overcome fear before starting anything is pointless.
➡ Invite fear along the journey but don’t let it drive 😊

🚀 Paperback launch today in Germany 🇩🇪

More to follow…

#Keepgoing
#tellyourselfanotherstory
#DieFreischwimmerin

Yesterday, I asked  myself why I continue to do things that make no sense to anyone else but me. I love it when questions that are posed by myself are answered by the universe. It answered the question this morning, via a poem by William Stafford:

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

“The Way It Is” by William Stafford

➡ My thread is the love of story. The power it has to transform not just the self but others.
➡ When I am doubting and about to embark upon a journey that makes no sense (which I currently am), I have found it really helpful to take a moment to reflect and feel its pull.

If you’re on a journey that appears to make no sense to anyone but yourself, I hope you find this poem both helpful and hopeful 🙏 ✨

#Keep going
#storytelling

#knowyourwhy

 

I was jobless, putting on a suit and pretending to go to work every day. That suit routine, I’m ashamed to say lasted around 9 months or so until one day, I took out a piece of paper and wrote down my goals. They were as follows:

• Bestselling author
• Books translated globally
• Speak internationally
• Run my own storytelling consultancy

My unemployed self, laughed at these goals and so I decided to engage it with a full technicolour story and gave it a new narrative it could follow.

Research shows that if you write down your goals, you are 42% more likely to make it happen (study by Dr Gail Matthews). I can’t find any research on how likely you make this happen with a story but for me, it has been 100%.

There are many other stories that entered my life that I didn’t see coming. Some sad, some motivating and some entirely unexpected. I have tried my best to welcome them all. Weaving them all into a tapestry that I can look back on and say, “That was quite a journey!”

What I do know is that at any point along this journey, you can tell yourself a new story. Keep believing in that story, put one foot in front of the other, even on the days you feel you can’t and watch it unfold.

Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with possibility.

#storytelling #powerofstorytelling #Newbeginnings

 

 

6 years ago, I wrote a one woman show called Sari: The whole Five Yards about a 60-year-old woman who tells the truth for the very first time and in doing so, her life unravels. I was, at that point, safely ensconced in my comfort zone unaware how my life would unravel with this piece of work. Nobody wanted to commission the show.

Having never acted before, I booked a theatre in Covent Garden, rehearsed for 18 months, put it on playing all 17 parts. It was one of the most terrifying/exilharating things that I have done. The show got bought by a production company, it then got pulled during the pandemic as budgets were cut. I did everything I could not to write the novel that it wanted to be. It took me about four years to write.

I was offered a fourth book deal with HarperCollins and for various reasons, had to turn it down. The book is still on a journey with me – unravelling as we make our first stop in Germany.

This post is to mark a milestone in a project where many times, I have wanted to give up. The things that have kept me going are:

• No regrets – The thought of not doing it scares me more than the thought of doing it. Life is short!
• Easing off on the pressure – Seeing the whole thing as an adventure and not my life’s work!
• Focussing on why I started the project in the first place – which was to give voice to people we don’t often hear from

Die Freischwimmerin is published by Droemer today (available at amazon and all bookshops)