🧵1/ For a while now, I have been wanting to do a thread on how to make time for writing books if you are a woman caregiver, but I haven't had time. Today, I do, so here it is. Other thing that stopped me was ppl piping up saying "Well none of this applies to me" If so, ignore. 2/ I am also not interested in talking about why men don't have time to write books. Because they do. So start your own thread for that.

(1) Thread. When writing my book "Lady Doctors" about India's first women doctors, people often ask me who my favourite doctor is. Rukhmabai had the hardest road, but I have a soft spot for Haimabati Sen, pictured here. Let me explain why. (2) I call Haimabati "The Fighter" because she was born in 1866, married at 9 to a 45 yr old, widowed at 12, abandoned by her family, lived in Varanasi in grinding poverty, denied an education, and still managed to practice in rural West Bengal for 40 years.

Inane discourse over Westland is the gift that keeps on giving. Indie bookstores that don't stock my book- because it is a product of evil behemoth Westland- are asking why I do not support them. I support bookstores that stock my book. Have listed quite a few on here and Insta. It is rather cheeky to ask authors whose "dirty" books you don't carry to support you exclusively. Let me be very clear. My aim is to sell as many books as I possibly can. I am not interested in writing books that 50 people will read in a bookstore.

(1) Want to get published but no idea where to start? @Madhu_Bee and I are answering your questions for Covid relief. Between us, we have 8 books published or to be published. Madhu is the author of the Reema Ray trilogy from Pan Macmillan + an upcoming crime novel from Roli. (2) My second non-fiction book on India's early women doctors is shortly out from Westland, and I also had a novel published by indie publisher Kitaab. We can advise on how to get an agent, prepare a proposal, write a manuscript, deal with edits, find a publisher.