Compiled

It was a pleasure to receive your manuscript of Pen with True Stories recently. In my capacity as Commissioning Editor, it is my duty to assess the publication potential of every manuscript that we receive, prepare a Reader’s Report and, with my colleagues, decide whether or not we wish to make an offer of publication.
I have now had the opportunity to read and appraise the manuscript and as expected it proved to be of great interest. As you may be aware I receive many works for consideration but I do feel that yours stands out in terms of quality, publishing potential and readability. If I may, I will use extracts from the Reader’s Report that I have had prepared to illustrate my findings:
“Although it comes in the form of a manuscript, it appears that this fascinating and enjoyable collection of professional and personal anecdotes by an Indian gentleman, who describes himself as an ‘Ayurvedic Physician’ and ‘Nature Cure Specialist’, appears to have been previously published, presumably in India. I base this assumption on the fact that it prefaced by ‘A Word by the Publisher’, a note summarising the author and his previous publications. He appears to have quite a track record: aside from books and lectures, he has published articles in English-language magazines, usually on philosophical and psychological subjects.
Before moving on to describe it in detail, I will just mention here (since it’s the first thing one notices about it) that the only criticism I have of the manuscript as it stands is the title. ‘Pen with the True Stories’, although assuredly accurate, doesn’t tell the reader anything about the content. True the stories may be, but what are they about?
As we read on, we find that they are about the author’s life and his work in alternative medicine. Some are similar in intent to Oliver Sacks’ long series of case-stories in neuropsychology, being accounts of real-life medical incidents which have been written and assembled with the dual purpose of entertaining and educating the reader. Unlike Sacks, though, Dr Kerai has fashioned his stories as more of a personal memoir, including tales which are personally important to him.
The manuscript opens with a series of prefatory pieces. There is a foreword by the author’s wife, the aforementioned publisher’s note, a brief biographical note about the author, and then a preface by the author himself, entitled ‘No Comment Please’. In this, as is customary in works of this sort, he reaffirms the truth of his stories, remarks that individuals’ names have been changed, apologises for any embarrassment caused, but assertively states his determination not to be swayed from publishing the stories: ‘If anyone concerned has something to say, he or she is welcome but none of the interference or the nonsense of that sort would be tolerated.’
There are fifteen stories in all, covering a period going back to the late 1950s and set variously in India and Kenya, where there is a large Gujarati population and where the author spent many years, received some of his education and was closely involved in the independence movement as under-secretary of Jomo Kenyatta’s Kenya Freedom Party. The first story in the collection is about this period. As well as being a dramatic and horrifying tale, it helps explain how he embarked upon the career in spiritual alternative medicine for which he is known. His transformation occurred during a period as a political prisoner, when he was subjected to terrible torture. During this period, on the very brink of death, he underwent an out-of-body experience, in which he met a spirit guide and discovered that his time had not yet come. Miraculously, his apparently dead body came back to life.
In even more dramatic style, the next story whisks us forward four decades to the great Gujarat earthquake of 2001. Kutch, where the author and his relatives were living at the time, was at the very epicentre of the disaster, and he gives a harrowing description of the aftermath, as he took part in the efforts to aid the injured and release those buried under the rubble. His account of the shock is vivid, as are the emotions – the stark phrase ‘shattered into pieces’ keeps recurring.
This pattern of lively, vivid narration of startling but true stories continues, as the episodes take us backward and forward in time – from his arranged marriage at the age of eighteen to a fourteen-year-old girl (this was his second marriage, his first having been to a ten-year-old when he was just twelve) to his work as a quarry manager in Kenya in the 1970s, a touching account of his elderly father’s last days, witnessing a murder in Kenya in the 1980s whilst engaged in his medical work, to list just a few of the fifteen.
At all times the author is at pains to emphasise the truth of his stories (as well he might, since they are so extraordinary), especially through his chapter titles, which evince a certain dry humour: Chapter 13, ‘It Happened Like That’; Chapter 14, ‘It Did Happen That Way’; Chapter 15, ‘Really, It Happened So’. (Most of the titles are more conventional than these – I quote them because their sardonic, knowing style appeals to me.)
In conclusion, this is remarkable collection of stories from a remarkable gentleman who has led a fascinating life. The incidents themselves are interesting, and his storytelling is very good. His sense of drama and narrative is strong, and he is skilled at bringing out telling details and evoking characters with an admirable economy of description. His prose is vivid and lively, and although his subjects are generally serious – often moving – there is always a warmth and even a strand of subtle humour.
Importantly, the way in which he has sequenced his stories is very wise. Most memoirists tell their stories in strict chronological order, regardless of themes; Dr Kerai is aware that narrative drama is best served by eschewing chronology in favour of thematic and narrative sequencing. Subject to my misgivings about the overall title, I recommend this manuscript highly.
I turn finally to an appraisal of the manuscript text from a technical editorial point of view. Dr Kerai is clearly – and justifiably – very proud of his command of English. However, as with all non-native speakers, some of the finer subtleties of the language elude him somewhat, and there are oddities of syntax (as well as a few malapropisms). For the most part, there is nothing wrong with these – they are not necessarily ‘incorrect’ – but from time to time they make it a little hard to understand precisely what he means. With attention from a good and skilled editor, these minor flaws can be cleared up without marring the author’s distinctive prose style.”
As you can see from the Reader’s Report, we found Pen with True Stories to be a work of considerable merit that has many things in its favour, not least the vivid and fascinating content and the well-paced narrative of the work. Any resulting publication would have a potential target readership amongst a wide mainstream audience. For all of these reasons I would be delighted to make an offer of publication for Pen with True Stories as a most worthy book would result, which could generate a great deal of interest.

Women Only    (Pages:- 130 Words:-31000 Articles:-24)

This is the collection of the selected articles of the author meant for women only. Most of the articles are women oriented. But they are worth reading for men. The male readers would learn much about the women sector after reading this edition. The collection is recommended for Men and Women of adult age Few of the articles like “Menopause, “Prescription for Happy Marriages and Unmatched Couple are prize winning article for the author.