There’s a quiet joy in pressing “submit” after months of living inside a story.

 Today, I began sending my new novella, From the Window: The City of What-Ifs, to literary publishers and contests. 

Set in late-1990s Kathmandu, the story follows a young woman who spends her nights watching the workers in the shoe factory across her alley. When a fire changes everything, she must confront what it means to witness suffering — and the cost of silence. 

I wrote this book with the sounds and smells of my own childhood still echoing in my mind — the clang of factory bells blending with the bells from nearby temples, the smell of rubber and rain, the faces that looked older than their years.

 Though it’s a work of fiction, From the Window carries the pulse of real lives and the tenderness of memory. 

A Fight for a Cup of Chai was my first attempt to make sense of survival and voice.

From the Window continues that conversation — about empathy, labor, love, and the quiet rebellions that often begin in silence. 

Whatever happens in the submission process, I already feel grateful. This story reminded me why I write: to remember, to bear witness, and to honor those whose stories might otherwise be forgotten. 

Thank you to the friends, mentors, and readers who have walked beside me.

 Wish me luck as From the Window searches for its home in the wider world. 

— Sanman Thapa