Three Times A Charm With Neha Garg

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry.

This week we are joined by a new friend I made over on Google+. I love social media! Neha Garg and I would never have bridged the 5000 mile gap between our cities without the internet.

Neha, tell our readers more about yourself.

To use the age old cliché, I am IT Manager by day and Writer by night. I live in London UK and work in IT as a day job. At least, that is what I am calling it since I am hoping to have my writing paying the bills soon.

When not writing or IT managing, I am trying my hand at cartooning. In addition to being funny, I find that there is something immensely satisfying in blowing up people's noses and giving their bodies exaggerated proportions.

Love the visual that evokes! What kind of projects do you have going on right now?

I work as a children’s columnist for a UK newspaper called Asian Voice. For now, I am publishing 400 word short stories, weekly. I am working on expanding the column to include poetry as well, which is the same as the short stories only rhyming and, in my opinion, more fun.

All my current work can be found on my website, www.scribbledesk.com 

On a more unpublished note, I am also working on two books alongside everything else (I do feel a bit like Super-Woman these days). The first, a Middle Grade genre fantasy and the second a collection of short stories about the adventures of the fine folk of FaerieRealm.

I also publish general thoughts on things that I have found useful while going through the learning curve of the craft of writing. These can all be found on www.scribbledesk.com 

Now, for the Threes. Share with us your top 3’s to help us know you a little better.

• Top 3 pieces of advice for people in the field of writing

1.      Write, Write, Write as much as you can. Write anything. Journal entries, blog posts, fiction, non-fiction, emails, beautifully phrased facebook status updates etc will all do. Practice makes perfect.

2. When starting out don't worry about genre. One genre might lure you more than another but try your hand at everything. Soon you will find a niche. As an example, when I first started out I was determined not to have anything to do with writing Picture Books but now, what with my new found love in cartooning, I think picture book writing is a grand idea.

3. Find Crit friends. Friends who will help critique your work. These can be your family members as well if they can be objective enough. My mum tells me I am awesomesauce but that doesn't really help my writing. Building a critique group is very important as it helps you learn about your mistakes from very early on and avoid them as you go.

• Top 3 authors.

1. Roald Dahl – I specially love him as a person. I mean he used to write his daughters' names in the grass and then tell them that fairies wrote it using fairydust. I mean how awesome is that?
2. J.K. Rowling – Her books come alive and that is the kind of writing all of us want to achieve
3. William Sears – In his book, God Loves Laughter, his subtle sense of humor leaves me in stitches and it is the kind of humor I want to achieve in my writing and cartooning.

• Top 3 illustrators

1. Quentin Blake
2. Elizabeth Jones (http://lizjonesbooks.livejournal.com)
3. Helga Pearson (http://helgaharrumphs.blogspot.com/)

Where can our readers learn more about you and your work?

My permanent home is www.scribbledesk.com but I can be reached using the following

email: garg.b.neha@gmail.com

twitter: @nehagarg83

Neha, thank you so much for joining us on Strands of Thought. It is a pleasure to get to know you and learn about your work. Best of luck!

THANKS!