In Ep.3, Alka Joshi discusses all the sweat and love that went into the first page of her debut novel, The Henna Artist—which took her ten years and 30 revisions. After 25 years in the advertising world, Alka's debut novel was published at the age of 62, in the midst of the pandemic. That did not hold her back. She met with more than 350 book clubs in 2020 alone. Reese Witherspoon fell in love with the book and it shot to the NYT bestseller list and is being made into a Miramax TV series. Alka shares what it takes to persevere through years of revisions and anyone aspiring to write their own novel needs to hear this episode for a dose of inspiration. Alka's energy alone will lift your spirits and give you the hope to keep going!
Page One, hosted and produced by Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.
In Ep. 3, we hear bestselling author Alka Joshi discuss all that went into the first page of her bestselling debut novel, The Henna Artist. Alka was born in the desert state of Rajasthan in India. In 1967, her family immigrated to America. She earned a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts in San Francisco. Prior to writing The Henna Artist, Alka ran an advertising and marketing agency for 30 years. She has spent time in France and Italy and currently lives with her husband on the Northern California Coast. See her on YouTube and Instagram or visit her at alkajoshi.com.
About the host:
Holly Lynn Payne is the CEO and founder of Booxby , a startup helping authors succeed. Holly is also an internationally published novelist in eleven countries whose work has been translated into nine languages. In 2008, she founded Skywriter Books, an award-winning small press, publishing consultancy and writing coaching service. To learn more about her writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com.