Where Curiosity Leads...

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Debdatta Dasgupta April 04, 2020 0

#Spotlight :: The most complete self service portal for authors! - @magic_author

MagicAuthor.com

MagicAuthor.com was founded in the year 2012 by Mr. Saptharishi Suresh, with a humble mission to help aspiring writers to establish themselves. Mr. Saptharishi Suresh is an avid reader and a published author. His challenges with publishing his first book compelled him to think of something else, a platform where writers can publish their work without the hassle. His journey to create MagicAuthor.com was a long road. It took him nearly 5 years to create MagicAuthor.com and make a recognized platform by authors, readers, and publishers.

Along the way, he noticed it was very difficult to publish books in regional languages, where there are many options for books in English. So, he wanted to create an online space for the literature that includes English as well as regional languages.

MagicAuthor.com, a writing platform for all age groups, they have started an initiative where kids can upload and showcase their works online. It can be an artwork, or stories or a video/photo of craftwork.

He wants MagicAuthor.com foray into podcasts and audio-books; he aspires to make MagicAuthor.com LinkedIn for the author’s community.

About MagicAuthor.com:

MagicAuthor.com is one of a kind platform, in which, using their book wizard authors can create eBooks from scratch and also design a cover image and publish them online. If you've already created an eBook in PDF or ePub format then you can simply upload it to our e-commerce platform. It is a unique initiative dedicated to authors, designers, and publishers, etc. to create eBooks in formats like ePUB, PDF, and MOBI.

MagicAuthor.com is a publishing services provider. They provide authors with tools and services that enable them to publish and sell their own books.

MagicAuthor.com also distributes eBooks to the google play store.

Unique Features of Magicauthor.com:

One of the best features MagicAuthor.com of No upfront costs involved.
MagicAuthor.com promoted eBooks that can be on any topic or genre.
MagicAuthor.com supports most of the Indian languages. So far, they have released eBooks in Assamese, Konkani (Romi & Devanagiri scripts), Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and English.
The platform also supports promoting books published elsewhere.
Other features include creating blogs, discussing literature, asking/answering questions related to writing and publishing on our community site.
You can follow your favorite authors. So, if you are looking to develop a fan base and stay connected with your readers, then create a writer profile at our site.
If you are a publisher or a business, then you can leverage our community to nurture, engage and retain your followers.

Please check out some of the free tools available for authors, designers, and publishers.

Saptharishi Suresh (Founder of MagicAuthor.com):

Saptharishi Suresh is a published author and an art enthusiast. He wrote his first story at the age of ten and done many paintings during his childhood. Later, as an adult, he reproduced the same online.

Though his interest was in arts and literature, he couldn't pursue it as a profession, thanks to the lack of guidance and peer pressure. He decided to pursue engineering and became a software engineer in the year 2005. After a couple of years into the profession, he realized the need to revive my childhood interest as something in him was feeling lonely. He set up a blogging website called Saptharishi - Thinketh Undefined in 2008 and started writing on a wide variety of topics like short stories, painting, spiritual, tourism, and even technology. With the website getting popular, he decided to take the plunge of publishing his first novel "The Wake-up Call" in the year 2010.

Getting his first book published was not easy at all and he learned a lot about the challenges involved in the process. Being a software engineer he thought of leveraging his software skills to aid in the publishing process. He wanted to make life easy for other authors. Hence the set up the platform called "Magic Author" (https://www.magicauthor.com) in the year 2012. Since then he has helped authors and creative artists build their reputation online. He spent most of his time exploring how authors can leverage the internet benefiting both themselves and the communities around them.

Catch up with Saptharishi Suresh On:

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Debdatta Dasgupta April 02, 2020 0

#ReleaseDayBlitz :: Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by @shilpaauthor

~ Release Day Blitz ~
Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by Shilpa Suraj

Releasing Today on Amazon!

About the Book:

She believes in love, family and…squiggles!

Alisha Rana is not your typical single desi girl. For one, she is on the wrong side of 30. For another, she is divorced. And last but definitely not least, she is still, gasp, a virgin!

Alisha doesn’t want much. But what she does want is that elusive thing all women search for – A man who gets her…but a man who gets her hot! She calls it “feeling the squiggle.”

Enter Dr. Vivaan Kapoor, cute, hot, squiggle-worthy. The younger brother of her cousin's prospective groom, he’s got the squiggle factor in spades. The only catch? He's never been married and is years younger than Alisha. Basically, completely off-limits.

And then there is Arjun. Widowed, older than her by the right number of years and a genuinely nice guy. He's Vivaan’s cousin and a so-called perfect match for Alisha. The problem is, Alisha’s squiggle-o-meter refuses to budge for him.

What will Alisha choose? A lifetime together with the 'right' man or a chance at happiness with the 'wrong' one?

Book Links:
Goodreads * Amazon

Enjoy the Quotes from Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by Shilpa Suraj

About Shilpa Suraj:

Shilpa Suraj wears many hats - corporate drone, homemaker, mother to a fabulous toddler and author.
An avid reader with an overactive imagination, Shilpa has weaved stories in her head since she was a child. Her previous stints at Google, in an ad agency and as an entrepreneur provide colour to her present day stories, both fiction and non-fiction.

Shilpa on the Web:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Debdatta Dasgupta March 15, 2020 0

#CoverReveal :: Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by Shilpa Suraj

~ Cover Reveal ~
Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters
by Shilpa Suraj

About the Book:

She believes in love, family and…squiggles!

Alisha Rana is not your typical single desi girl. For one, she is on the wrong side of 30. For another, she is divorced. And last but definitely not least, she is still, gasp, a virgin!

Alisha doesn’t want much. But what she does want is that elusive thing all women search for – A man who gets her…but a man who gets her hot! She calls it “feeling the squiggle.”

Enter Dr. Vivaan Kapoor, cute, hot, squiggle-worthy. The younger brother of her cousin's prospective groom, he’s got the squiggle factor in spades. The only catch? He's never been married and is years younger than Alisha. Basically, completely off-limits.

And then there is Arjun. Widowed, older than her by the right number of years and a genuinely nice guy. He's Vivaan’s cousin and a so-called perfect match for Alisha. The problem is, Alisha’s squiggle-o-meter refuses to budge for him.

What will Alisha choose? A lifetime together with the 'right' man or a chance at happiness with the 'wrong' one?

About Shilpa Suraj:

Shilpa Suraj wears many hats - corporate drone, homemaker, mother to a fabulous toddler and author.

An avid reader with an overactive imagination, Shilpa has weaved stories in her head since she was a child. Her previous stints at Google, in an ad agency and as an entrepreneur provide colour to her present day stories, both fiction and non-fiction.

Shilpa on the Web:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Debdatta Dasgupta March 12, 2020 0

#CoverReveal :: Murder in the Chowdhury Palace by @shenoy_sharmi

~ Cover Reveal ~
Murder in the Chowdhury Palace
by Sharmishtha Shenoy

About the Book:

What if someone you loved... was murdered? How far would you go to bring a killer to justice?

Orphaned in her childhood, Durga has always longed for wealth, security and, above all, a sense of belonging. She finds it all when she marries Debnarayan Chowdhury, heir to an immense, multi-crore estate. But the Chowdhury family has been under a curse that dates back to the British era. The first-born of each generation dies young, purportedly killed by the spirit of Kadambari, a young woman murdered by the notorious Shankar Dakat, the founder of the Chowdhury family and their Zamindari. When her father-in-law Birendranath dies unexpectedly, Durga and Debnarayan come down to the ancestral home in Kakdihi, a small village near Kolkata. The moment Durga enters her new palatial home, she crosses a threshold of terror. She loses her husband within a month of her marriage and finds herself a widow in a house full of strangers. Are Debnarayan’s and Birendranath’s deaths accidental? Everyone in her new family and the neighborhood appear to be friendly. Most of them have a motive to kill her. A well-meaning neighbor tells her, ‘Run from this place. You have no friends here.’ Is she, the current owner of the estate, now on the murderer’s radar?

Read an Excerpt from Murder in the Chowdhury Palace

We walked back to the main house and, crossing the hall, went to the east wing on the ground floor. This wing also consisted of a verandah with doors leading to various rooms on the left. All the rooms were closed except for one. We entered the room, and I became aware that there was something strange about it. There was an air of studied naturalness as if the occupant of the room had left just a moment before. A pair of bedroom slippers were placed near the bed, and a pitcher of water was kept on the side table along with a copper glass. On a small platform, a sitar, and harmonium and a tabla were arranged in a way that seemed to suggest they were still played regularly. It was quite a spooky room, or maybe it felt that way because it belonged to a man who had been dead for quite a long time and yet gave the sense that it was currently in use.
Debu pointed out to the sitar with pride and said, ‘This is a very expensive sitar, one of the Kanai Lal sitars which Pandit Ravi Shankar himself used to use. These sitars are very valuable and not available in the market nowadays.’
On one wall hung a painting of a young man. I immediately recognized it as that of Debendranath. He must have been blessed with the best genes in the family. Apart from his prowess at music, he was the most handsome of all the Chowdhury men that I had seen. He had wavy shoulder-length hair and an attractive nose. The mouth was curved into a smile. It was a beautiful face, and the picture was painted in such a way that the eyes seemed to follow you wherever you went. I stepped back, and eyes followed me, appearing sad at one moment and smiling the next.
‘So, you are looking at my Deben,’ a female voice spoke at an unnaturally high pitch that sent shivers down my spine.

About Sharmishtha Shenoy:

Sharmishtha Shenoy is the author of the Vikram Rana Mystery series. The books under the series are “Vikram Rana Investigates,” “A Season for Dying,” “Behind the Scenes” and “Fatal Fallout”. She has also published a book of short stories, “Quirky Tales.”

Her short stories have been published in efiction magazine and Woman’s era. She loves writing murder mysteries, the kind of books that she likes to read. Her favorite authors are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. She also likes the work of Satyajit Ray – especially the Feluda Series.

Before starting to write, she had been an IT professional and had worked in TCS, Satyam, Infosys, and Microsoft.

She is a big foodie and enjoys Biriyani (both Hyderabadi and Awadhi versions) and rasgullas like most Bengalis. She is also a lusty singer of the bathroom singing variety.

Though she is happily married to Mr. Shenoy in real life, in her fantasy world she is wedded to her creation Vikram Rana. You can get to her blog by typing the word “Sharmishtha Rana” into Google. No, seriously, try it.

She was born in Calcutta. She is an M Tech from the University of Reading, Great Britain and had received a 100% British Government Scholarship to study there. She lives in Hyderabad.

Sharmishtha on the Web:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * YouTube

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Debdatta Dasgupta February 13, 2020 0

#ReleaseDayBlitz :: Something Old, Something New - A DRA Production - @RT_Writes

Something Old, Something New
- A DRA Production

Seven bestselling authors. Seven incredible second chance romances. One epic anthology.

What would you do for another chance with the one you love?

Something Old, Something New - a unique novella anthology - tries to answer this question with fantastic, different, desi dramas.

Whether it is shapeshifters or shifting interracial relationships, single moms in small towns or rich alpha heroes, friends-to-lovers or passionate ex-husbands; this anthology has something for everyone.

Something Old, Something New explores the many different facets of love, forgiveness, fated mates and more in seven, distinctly Indian tales!

No Other Love by Aarti V Raman

Can they live with the reality of each other, when no other love will do?

Once upon a time, Drs. Vikrant and Anika had their happy ending...until they ruined it with pride, ego, and ambition.

When Vikrant Pandit, GP, left his wife to go back to Aronda, the small town he grew up in, he imagined it was forever.

A year later... he's back. Worse, he needs Anika's help.

Anika Banerjee, MD, was destroyed when Vikrant left. Taking her heart with him. But when he asks her for help, she is unable to deny the only man she's ever loved.

Anika agrees to pretend they’re still married. But living together brings to light bittersweet revelations and red-hot desire.

Can they live with the reality of each other when no other love will do?

Read an Excerpt from No Other Love

“You’re really doing this?” Anika asked, her voice rough with unshed tears.

Vikrant couldn’t answer. He continued tossing things in his battered suitcase. At this point, it was all he could do to not howl. He picked something from the cupboard and placed it next to his running shoes in the suitcase.

“That’s mine,” his wife said.

He blindly looked at the item he’d packed. It was a tee shirt, torn at the hem. Splattered with cream paint. The howl threatened to come up again. Because he remembered, exactly, how the paint had gotten there.

On a rare mutually free weekend, they’d decided to paint the ceiling of their bedroom a neutral cream. It was pouring cats and dogs in Mumbai and their air conditioner had stopped working. They’d listened to Sting and The Police, the whole time.

He’d scraped and sanded for two hours, then Anika had worn scandalously short shorts and this tee-shirt and climbed on the step ladder.

He’d watched her in fascination like she was Mumtaz Mahal and their bedroom ceiling was the Taj Mahal.

He’d always been fascinated by her. That was the problem. Fascination was unrealistic. Impossible to live up to in real life. Anika wasn’t fascinated with him anymore. If she had ever been.

“Vik,” Anika spoke again.

He grabbed the tee-shirt and threw it back into the cupboard. The howl of misery and lost love continued to simmer at the back of his throat.

“Sorry,” he said, in a low voice.

“For what?” His wife asked, like she really meant it.

Vikrant looked up at the ceiling. The cream paint was peeling at the edges, because of leakage and seepage problems with their upstairs neighbor. And the landlord had asked him to wait for a year before doing any repairs, another monsoon season was imminent.

He wasn’t going to be able to give it a year.

“The rent is paid for till August,” Vikrant said, locking the overflowing suitcase. The muscles in his wrist protested at the added pressure. The physio had told him to stop using excessive force in his right hand, after the last visit.

“The utilities are automated in PayTM. But I will keep checking in between and paying them anyway, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“I can pay the damn utilities on my own!” Anika snapped. “I have the app on my phone. And with the new promotion, I can save up and take care of these things.”

“I know,” Vikrant said. “I’ve heard of nothing but your new promotion for months now.”

About the Author:

Aarti V Raman is a hybrid author of more than ten bestselling novels of romantic women’s fiction. She is the co-founder of Desi Readers Adda, India’s first Facebook community by bestselling multi-genre authors for readers to discuss books and reading in a safe, inclusive space.

A former business journalist turned full-time writer, Aarti’s more notable works include Kingdom Come, the Geeks of Caltech series, More Than You Want, The Perfect Fake among others. Aarti is also a columnist, public speaker, and an amateur poet.

Giveaway:
First Prize - A Kindle
Second Prize - 6 Months Kindle Unlimited Subscription

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit the other blogs to read 14 different excerpts from the 7 novellas in the anthology!

Monday, January 6, 2020

Debdatta Dasgupta January 06, 2020 0

#BookBlitz & #Giveaway :: Saved by Love by @shilpaauthor

About the Book:

They meet under impossible circumstances.

She is kidnapped by terrorists blackmailing her father, a Supreme Court Judge. He leads the team sent to rescue her.

Trekking to safety through Ladakh... They are in danger of falling in love. But, Lt. Col. Arjun Rathod knows that Naina Ahuja, engaged to politics' rising star, is not meant for him.

Forever changed by her trauma, Naina walks out of her controlling family and forges a new life.

And then, she meets Arjun again. But this time, he is engaged to someone else.

Can they save their love or is it too late?

Book Links:
Goodreads * Amazon * Pustakmandi

Read an Excerpt:

“Miss Ahuja? Naina?”

The almost soundless whisper had Naina’s eyes snapping open in the dark. A hard hand came up to cover her mouth even as a terrified squeak left her lips. A pair of dark, intense eyes in a face streaked with camouflage paint floated into her vision. “I’m here to rescue you. Your father sent me. I need you to stay completely silent when I remove my hand. Can you nod if you understand?”

Keeping her eyes on his strong, reassuring ones, Naina nodded quickly. The stranger waited to make sure she wouldn’t scream, and slowly lifted his hand from her mouth. Slipping a knife out from seemingly nowhere, he cut the rope binding both her hands and feet within seconds and levered her up from her prone position. Helping her to her feet, he watched intently to see if she was steady on her feet. Reassured that she wasn’t going to faint at his feet, Arjun moved quickly to the door and looked out. The guards were still unconscious from the light taps to the back of their heads administered by his teammates, and so far there was no sign of any other movement in the camp. Coming back into the room, he put his lips close to her ear to whisper, “Can you walk?”

Nodding mutely, Naina craned her neck to get a glimpse of his face from this angle. The stranger was so tall that he towered over her by almost a foot. Dressed all in black, with a mini arsenal strapped on to him, he looked like he’d arrived straight from hell. Apparently, the devil was her hero tonight.

About the Author:

Shilpa Suraj wears many hats - corporate drone, homemaker, mother to a fabulous toddler and author.

Contact the Author:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Giveaway:
2 Winners. Signed Paperback copy of Saved by Love & Bookmarks. Open to Indian Residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Debdatta Dasgupta January 04, 2020 0

#BookBlitz :: Unusual Equations by @Anupriya_Guptaa

Read on Kindle Unlimited

About the Book:

Viraj is struggling to concentrate at work because he has a wife to worry about. But he is more apprehensive because he knows that she is currently parked at the apartment of his arch nemesis.

Madhuri fought with her husband last night and in her rage left the house. She knows there is one place in the world where she is always welcome. She only hopes that she is not crossing any lines.

Aman has for long given up hope. Yet he can’t help but get a kick out of the circumstances that have brought her to his place. Is this is chance finally to bring her back to him?

Lives of three people entwined by love, passion, urge and devotion. Will they survive these unusual equations? Or will it destroy their happiness forever?

Buy from Amazon

Read an Excerpt:

Despite his vanishing act, it was Aman who came to Madhuri’s rescue when she most needed it. He stood by her in the darkest hours of her life and provided the much-needed support when she decided to go against her family and marry Viraj.

In the months that followed her marriage to Viraj, Madhuri missed Aman a lot. He had gone back to remaining elusive from her life. When Aman called up almost six months later, she almost jumped to the roof with joy.

“Wow! So finally Saint Aman Sehgal is getting hitched too.”

Madhuri missed his wedding. Everyone among his relatives and family friends knew her. Moreover, her family would be there too and she couldn’t possibly add to the disgrace that she had already caused everyone. Madhuri saw the wedding pictures on Sreeja’s social media profile. As much as she wished to, she couldn’t dodge the jealousy she felt when she saw another woman standing on the dais with Aman. For days she fought with the distress before deciding to shift her focus back on her marriage.

But strangely, despite her jealousy, she was devastated when she heard that Sreeja had left Aman.

Actually, Madhuri and Sreeja had never warmed up to each other. While Madhuri continued to talk to Aman once in a while, she once tried to figure things out with Aman but was assured that Sreeja was just taking her time settling down.

“At the risk of sounding archaic, I must advise you to keep your distance from Aman and Sreeja. Not all spouses will be too accepting of their partner’s friendship with somebody from the opposite gender. Especially the kind shared by two of you.” Viraj cautioned her once.

The connotation of jealousy in his tone startled Madhuri for a second, but she dismissed his concern as absurd.

In the meantime, a couple of months after Sreeja left Aman shifted to Mumbai for work. Like a devout friend, Madhuri tried to play cupid and set him up for dates with her work friends and other interested ladies from his dating profile, which was created by her only. Even today, Madhuri winced at the memory of her Friday coffee outing with Aman a day after exactly second such blind date.

“What happened, you look quite spent? I guess yesterday’s date has done you some good,” she teased him. They were walking down the Nariman Point promenade.

Aman ran a restless hand to smoothen his hair and pinned her down with his blazing eyes.

“Let me get this straight, Mads, you are not to set me up for any dates from now on.”

“But…”

“If you do it, I promise you that I will never ever meet you again.”

That sent her heart diving down to her guts. But she was still not sure why Aman was upset. “I am sorry.” She felt like a slouch. “Aman, I understand that you are hurting. But you need to heal the scars from the past. A new bond and you too will be as good as new.” Aman fisted his hands and raised it to hammer it into something, but controlled himself. Madhuri was terrified of his raging eyes while his mouth twisted awkwardly.

“Listen to me, Mads. Don’t mess with my life. Just make sure to not set me up for any of these silly dates in the future.”

Madhuri was taken aback by the maniac picture that Aman painted in that moment. She recovered quickly and made a long face, her eyes digging the floor for non-existent gold.

“Hey, Mads, I am sorry. It’s just that… I get extremely awkward at such dates. It’s not meant for me yaar.”

She nodded in partial understanding.

“I said I am sorry. I will not do it.”

She raised her hands in the air in a gesture making peace and then hugged him. She categorically waited for him to hug her back, but he stood there like a statue. She immediately felt deprived of his warmth and affection. If Madhuri were to make a confession - IT HURT.

About the Author:

Anupriya belongs to that generation of Idiots (the proud ones though), who did their engineering first and then decided on what they actually wanted to do. She completed her MBA in Human Resources and worked in the corporate world for 8 years, before taking a professional break. A mom by day and a reader/writer by night, Anupriya is a die-hard romantic. Yet she believes that love (in any relationship) is a part of life, not, the heart of life. And she aims to bring to the world, stories around this theme. She can be found in the dot com world at her blog www.mommytincture.com, which contains her ranting about her experiences in her various roles as a mother, daughter, wife and foremost a human being, all churned together. It is also her outlet to the world where she doles out loads of gyaan on self-improvement and relationship management.

Anupriya on the Web:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest

Saturday, April 4, 2020

#Spotlight :: The most complete self service portal for authors! - @magic_author

Thursday, April 2, 2020

#ReleaseDayBlitz :: Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by @shilpaauthor