Bilateral Life

Just last week, started a new blog with Russia & India Report - part of the Russia Beyond the Headlines project.

Called Bilateral Life, the blog perfectly describes my story (so far) i.e. born to one nation and forever longing to be in another!

Here's the intro. Hope you guys find the blog interesting. Comments and feedback always welcome!

With an Indian passport and self-proclaimed Russian heritage, Aanchal Anand took a year out to fulfill her childhood dream of living in Russia and learning the language. Whether it’s walking on the frozen canals of Petersburg, visiting Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow, eating pirozhki with locals along the Trans-Siberian railroad, or rubbing shoulders with Mikhail Gorbachev – she has been there and done it all. With this blog, she shares her adventures, reveals the best travel-tips, and brings to you the socio-cultural and political aspects of life in Russia, often with an Indian twist! Aanchal has a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. This year, she begins her Masters at the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC to major in Russian and Eurasian studies. You can follow her on Twitter @aanch31, send story suggestions to bilateralDOTlifeATgmailDOTcom and tell us what you think by leaving comments on blogposts.

A Writer's Guide to PR

I've recently started taking myself more seriously as a writer. So I'm reading more, scrutinisng more and doing much better against the dreaded writer's block. I've also joined a couple of writers' and freelancers' groups on LinkedIn - an incredibly useful source for at least 3 reasons:

- Being a writer can get lonely but when you find other lonely people like yourself, guess what happens? You stop feeling lonely
- It's an excellent way to be in the right company. I find that incredibly powerful and hope that some of their authorly awesomeness would rub off on me
- It's the one place I've found so far with oodles of excellent free advice for writers! I'm now going to share one that author Leslie Stern (whom I recently friended on Facebook) told me:

First PR rule for writers: market yourself everywhere.

It's so simple that it almost didn't inspire me. BUT it did kick me in the right place and made me wonder why I had never thought of it myself. To see that advice through, I've decided to post links to my previously published online articles on this blog. After all, like charity, PR begins at home! :)