Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Cover Reveal and a Contest: His Sunshine Girl

'Without You', my first book was published in June 2015. It brought home so much love that even before the month was over, I was thinking about writing a sequel to it. 
Then one day I came across this quote on Facebook.

 “Two damaged souls healing each other is love.”

It planted the seed of a story inside me and 'His Sunshine Girl' was born. A lot of things happened in the interim which saw me almost quitting writing, attending the famed ‘Anita’s Attic conducted by eminent author Anita Nair to hone my writing skills, and also a lot of hustle in between.
I am very grateful to Anita Nair ma’am, who was kind enough to evaluate my manuscript and give valuable feedback. The very fact that she loved the book gave me enough courage to go ahead and publish it. 
I have borrowed lots from the world I have seen and experienced to create this love story. 
Many of you might find traits of yourself in Vishal and Shalini. 
Arundhati Mukundan, the much loved 'Ammamma' from 'Without You' comes with a bigger role this time. Ananya and Arjun appear alongside a few other characters whom my beta readers have loved. 
This is a standalone story and will make sense even if you haven't read 'Without You.'
It is also a story where I talk about an issue that is close to my heart. Discrimination based on skin colour.

So without much ado, let me reveal the cover...




Blurb:

Shalini is dusky and has faced body shaming throughout her life because of it. She has gone through a lot in her life, including a failed marriage and divorce, and is at a crossroad when the story begins.
She arrives in Sreepuram as the live-in literary assistant to Arundhati Mukundan, an eminent author.
Dr.Vishal, the prankster cousin of Ananya from 'Without You', has seen love and loss at close quarters.
When the two meet in Sreepuram, it is a reunion of two childhood friends who were once inseparable.
Will their friendship help them heal?
Can the two damaged souls heal each other?
Isn't friendship turning into love the most beautiful thing on earth?


This beautiful cover is courtesy, my two wonderful cousins. Siraj Kannada, the photographer, and Naveena T.V, the pretty model.
Siraj Kannada, who has worked in the movie ‘Bonsai’ as still photographer is also a much in demand wedding photographer. 
Check his Instagram Profile to see more through his lens: Siraj Kannada
Check his Facebook page to contact for assignments: Chameleon
Naveena is graduating in English Literature and is a talented dancer herself.

Thank you dears for this wonderful photo.

CONTEST:

Dear readers, what do you think about discrimination based on skin colour? 

Comment below and the two best comments will win a free copy of my book.

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23 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous cover and wonderful idea!

    As someone who's half German and half Sri Lankan, I've been facing discrimination based on skin colour all my life. To most Germans, despite my citizenship and language, I was 'a foreigner'.

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    1. That is ridiculous. I guess this is universal. It needs to change.

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  2. Going to grab it! Having been there, seen that, I would love read how Your Shalini deals with it!

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    1. The story talks about her insecurities and fears. I hope you will like it.

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  3. Love the cover and the blurb! Sounds really exciting and Good luck with the release.
    Discrimination comes in various forms from colour, to size, to gender. The only way to deal with it is to be comfortable in your own skin and give a damn about what others think!

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  4. Discrimination of any kind is sad. What shocked me was when my daughter told me her new found friends were asking her to not be friends with a girl because she was brown. How can primary schoolers even think on those lines is beyond me! I hope and wish to help my daughter understand the color is just skin deep what we need to worry and fear is a dark heart as that cannot do any good.

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    1. Kids are the worst bullies ever! This aversion to darker skin is so deeply ingrained right from childhood. Sad state!

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  5. A big problem this skin colour thing.I think subsconsciously we continue to judge ourselves as the wound is very deep.I got to know I was not the right colour from many relatives when being compared to my mom (which is weird).It wa only later that I ignored such comments buy still feel weird when peole discuss my daughters colouring.I ignore .

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    1. Went through the same thing myself. I am the only one with a darker skin tone in my family. Have heard the weirdest comments about it. But I have learned to ignore it.

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  6. One thing, you picked a really bold topic and i am so happy that you are getting your second book out.
    My thoughts on color, The sky looks beautiful even when it is bright with the colors of sun and beautiful even with its dark with the color of moon. When the almighty does not discriminate, who are we to ? Who decides whats beautiful ? Dark or bright ? Its time to put an end to such thoughts.

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    1. Yeah. I agree. Every colour is beautiful. It is time we stopped discriminating.

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  7. My son always faced color discrimination at school. Kids would call him a black crow. Back in his childhood when he once When he came crying to me about it I asked him to retort back next time they tease him by telling them that 'Gore to Ghadhe bhi hote hai!' Donkeys are fair too! He smiled to that and has been using that reply ever since. It shuts up the shamers immediately!He's now a confident teen who is proud to be in his own skin.
    The book cover is fabulous, Preethi! Wish you all the best. I'm sure it's going to be received well knowing how much color discrimination plagues our society.

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    1. Thank you for the wishes, Vinodini!
      I loved how you handled the situation. Your son is lucky to have you as mother. I can see he has turned out to be a confident, handsome youngman! Kudos to you :)

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  8. It's sad to state that the discrimination based on skin colour still exists in society. I wonder what it has to do with something important in life.The colour ,texture of skin is something hereditary and something to feel proud for as it symbolises our roots.It's because of the mindset of the attraction towards a fairer skin tone that has led to the tremendous growth of beauty products. This mindset is so dominant in the society that people with darker skin tone live throughout their lives in this complexity and low level of confidence for themselves.For girls, it becomes a reason of rejection in marriage proposals.

    This mindset has to be replaced with something productive. Parents should not let such feelings of inferiority developing among their children at a tender age based on skin color.All racial comments and discussions should not be encouraged at any level.With a careful attitude towards rooting out this problem, this issue can be resolved to a great extent, I feel.

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    1. Rightly said, Swati!
      Root level awareness is the solution.

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  9. Discrimination based on skin tone or discrimination based on ethinicity or discrimination based on living standards- any sort of discrimination is absolutely unfair. I feel one should rise from such kind of thought process. We should treat others with respect for who they are and not based on their color or status any other element. I read somewhere, the meaning and reason behind doing "namaste" with folded hands mean "I honor the place within you where the entire universe resided" and I found this meaning so powerful. So why not one can follow this and respect every person for their individuality?

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    1. I agree. Any sort of discrimination is indeed unfair. We need to respect every person for his/her uniqueness.

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  10. Ever since my childhood, in my family only, I saw the heights of discrimination based on skin colour. My younger cousin is dusky. Although, she has a beautiful face, all her life she was hated by her own parents and brother. They gave her an ugly nickname and with that name, they often made her realize that she was dark toned, despite she was a bright child, studious, hard-working and soft-spoken. My mother, on the other hand, was always caring towards my cousin. Amma (my mother) always tried to encourage her and give her that little extra love. Now after 25 years hence, my cousin is a govt employee in the Police department. Suddenly people have changed. They are going ga-ga over her achievements and well-reputed job. I often feel, do such people feel ashamed of themselves in their heart now?? My mother always says that if better treatment was given to my cousin, she could have done even better in life. I completely echo her thoughts. After getting rejected in many proposal meets, my cousin finally found a life partner herself, who likes her irrespective of her skin colour. She is getting married next month. And the worst part, my cousin was hated by her own parents. My uncle and aunt made me believe that in some families, love is a conditional emotion that drives based on the skin colour of the child. I am so happy that my cousin finally proved herself and forced people to change their mindset. She is a proud woman now and I really salute her strong willpower. The society is reaching till moon but at its base, it is still the same old, narrow-minded and criticizing. When this will change, I still wondering as even in today's time such discrimination are happening!!

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    1. That is quite a story you have told, Shipra! I am so happy that your cousin has proved herself even after so much discrimination. More power to her. Thank you for sharing this story with me and the readers.

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