I received a copy of Vijayalakshmi Harish’s book ‘Strangely Familiar Tales’ through the Blogchatter Book Review Programme. I know of Vijayalakshmi Harish’s writing through the Womensweb platform where I, too, have been a contributor.
This short e-book consists of three short stories and comes with a content warning by the author. The first story ‘A fishy affair’ has characters who are bisexual, from minority communities and deals with computer hacking and murder. The second story ‘Bitter Fruit’ is about marital rape, murder and evil. The third story ‘A definition of evil’ is about yakshis, lesbianism, covenants and evil. After each story, the author writes about what inspired her to write the story and also suggests books that we can read. Her book draws on mythology she has read. The storytelling is engaging.
The book is available for free here
I’ve also been reading ‘To be or not to be a writer’ by Sweetycat Press in which my essay is one of 67 essays that answer questions such as “What did you think being a writer would be like when you began and how has it actually been? What are your personal tales of success, highs and lows? Name your muses or influences. Who is your literary role model? What is your advice for any beginning writer? Is it a lesson you learned yourself or from someone else? The book also consists of 21 flash fiction pieces and 20 poems. These are by writers all over the world.
The book is available on Amazon. Here’s the Amazon USA link , and here’s the Amazon India link. It is available for free on Kindle Unlimited. If you read it, please leave a review.
