Knocked Up- A Photo Journey of My Unplanned Inception

ONE NIGHT STAND

The course was just so good-looking, how could a girl resist?



Unplanned Inception


Oopsie, I couldn't stop and before I knew it...




NINE MONTHS LATER

Coming in at a healthy 350 pages







TERRIBLE TWOS 

Teething, potty-training, countless sleepless nights








ADOLESCENT ANGST

 Learning basic stepping stones of literary life:
Plot arc, sympathetic characters, protagonists and antagonists, sidekicks and foils,
setting, tone, mood, voice,
suspense, subtext, subplots, brevity of prose,
obstacles and pitfalls, incremental movement towards or away from character's ultimate goal,
chapter division, scene division, paragraph division, sentence variety, effective dialogue
be yourself, emulate others
be original
be marketable






RESEARCH AT THE DESK

RESEARCH ON THE GROUND

Overnight stay at the beach

Scariest part of any camel ride

Nothing to do with novel, just a proud aunt boasting





RESEARCH ON THE STREETS

REALLY IMPORTANT SENSORY-BASED RESEARCH



paan

Once you've eaten Pakistani food, there's no going back

Naryal  Pani (coconut water)






STRESS RELIEF


Teaching Bombay Jam, what a great distraction





IT TAKES A VILLAGE: TEACHERS

Elementary School Teachers:

 Community of Writers at Squaw Valley- the first teachers always lay the foundation...


High school and college teachers: 


Writing group, support line, sanity-makers




International Teachers

 Aspi Mama (L), opened his house, heart,  and fridge to a very invasive house guest
Maju Mama (R), put years and years (and years) of work, suffered countless emails and a hijacking to Starbucks,
 to help his (ex-)favorite niece develop a key concept in the novel

Danu and Sehr were drove me all over Karachi, while I drove them crazy with lists of places they'd never dreamed of visiting

Zarin Mami, kindest, most patient host

Danu and Freyoo, allowing for hours of being grilled on all subjects

Tech support: Kuraish Godsend Irani, answering frantic Facebook messages for the past three years and counting

Zane and Zara, for being my lifeline for all things Karachi,
for doing things they probably didn't want to do to help this novel grow.



And finally, no personal growth happens without a good shrink:

Monthly breakdowns, no cooking, binge cooking, bad cooking, tears, self-doubt, self-hatred,
this man put up with it all


COLLEGE GRADUATION

Complete manuscript- June 28, 2013



So that's it. Like any parent, I've done my best. I've provided the best education, the best teachers, the best therapists. And now my baby is going out into the big bad world and I have no more control over her life. Will she find work? Will someone find her attractive and take her in? Will she have a long and prosperous (shelf) life?

I don't know. All I can do is wait and see.

Totes kidding. Like a clingy stage mum, a book parent can do plenty. This one certainly is.
 More on that later...