How do you deal with these challenges?

By writing one word at a time. That’s what my editor mentor taught me. It’s always one more word I need to write. In time, it always adds up, amazingly! I am also getting more organized about my writing and devote particular time chunks to different projects. This has certainly made a big difference vis-à-vis my productivity.

What will your next book be about?

I am plodding my way through a memoir. It’s the story that spans across three generations — from my grandmother’s to mine. The book has layers of history, politics, family dynamics, and personal stories of trials and triumphs.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

In tangible terms, not much. However, being a writer has probably made me more sensitive and less apathetic to social dilemmas. I don’t know if that would count as an achievement, but it certainly makes me care for this world more passionately.

You've also been having a few problems with your publisher. How are you dealing with these problems?

The publisher of Cavern Press, Tammy Perron, offered me a contract in December 2005 and verbally promised me to bring out my book by 2006. The contract, however, mentions no publication/release date. I was also promised a three-part advance, of which I only received the first installment.

The printing for the book kept getting postponed. The publisher mentioned financial constraints a few times. My last interaction with her was in October 2006, when she said she still didn't have a firm release date for the book.

Since that time, the publisher has pulled a vanishing act. She hasn't responded to any of my emails or snail mails. This coincided with her not paying the authors and editor of Shadow Regions, a horror anthology she brought out in the latter half of 2006. She has failed to respond to all their efforts to contact her, as well.

So far that's the update. I have since sought legal view on the situation and decided to pull out of the contract and pitch my book to literary agents.