Thursday, January 29, 2015

How I Beat the Nano Blues

50,000 words. To a greenhorn writer, that number seems like a mountain whose summit is invisible from where he stands. But I'd done it last year. And I did it this year too. So for the second year in a row, I completed Nanowrimo in which you have to write 50Kwords of a novel in 30 days. I feel like Virat Kohli, hitting a century in both innings of a test match.

Like last November, this time too I was restless until I reached the goal. When it was done, I was excited in a way that was different from last year. Last year my Nano experience was like a see-saw. Not in the writing, but in my heartbeats.

Then I was full of doubt. I was always afraid that I wouldn't be able to write that much. Either I would run out of ideas or I would run out of time. There were periods when I doubted if I could do it at all.

I knew how to write all right. I'd written some short stories - two were even published in Women's Era (in my wife's name). I'd even written a couple of screenplays hoping to make it as a film director some day. (They're not so bad, looking back.) I'd also ghost-written a novel for a friend. (As he had put in the money for printing and publishing, I was happy to get the credit of 'Edited By').

To be honest, I was shit scared before I started. 50,000 words in 30 days? Man, you got to be kidding. I can do that if someone adopts me for a month, taking care of my financial needs while I novel.

But it wasn't only the fear of the near-impossible target. I was one of a bunch of several writers who connected on facebook with other people participating in Nano, most of them from India. They were all new to me as was I to them, but we hit it off immediately: we were all in love with writing. One by one the others started posting their Nano victories in 4 days, in 5, others on 8 or 10, and my palpitation increased. As the 20th drew near I became nervous. I had still around 10K words to write.

Psychologically too, I was not on terra firma. I lived alone in Abu Dhabi, away from family, having to work for a living plus having to cook for myself and keep my place clean. Hell, I could go on and on and on. Wasn't so easy. When the Wrimos (members of Nanowrimo India fb group) met in person in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore Delhi and other places, I thought how hopelessly alone I was, and was just short of a depression. In spite of countless google and nanowrimodotorg searches I couldn't find a single Nano enthusiast in UAE who I could team up with. It was a long internal soulfight. Eventually, I won. But it was hard.

With all these pressures, I freaked out when I finished my goal. I jumped and danced with joy in my room. I called my wife to give her the good news. I went out to dine at an Arabic restaurant and then walked for nearly one and a half hours by the sea at night at the Abu Dhabi corniche.

And I announced my win with a photo of Ranbir Kapoor dancing to 'badtameez dil' on facebook.

But this year it was different.

Till October 28th I was undecided whether I would participate. I wanted to, but I wasn't able to come to a decision. "Something" happened that prompted me to plunge in with a murder mystery. (More on that later).

I cooked up a situation for a murder, but I didn't know how to go about it as mystery/crime was not my writing genre. So I asked for help from my fb friends and with their tips I managed to work out a thin plot with which I could work on in November.

Though I was unsure, I wasn't nervous. The SAW (story a week) an initiative of Wrimo India on fb had made me write a short story every fortnight so in the 11 months between two nanos I had written 17 short stories. Sometimes it took me two whole weeks to write a story while I remember writing a couple of them in just one night. The themes were all different - a fairy tale, a murder mystery, a love story, a hate story and a lot more.

Being a part of The Book Club, I'd also read and reviewed quite a few novels and that boosted my confidence too.

On November 1, I had no doubt that I could write a novel in 30 days or less. I made a bargain with myself: I would get up at 5 am and hammer out two thousand or more words or more EVERY DAY before I left for office.

That really helped me. For the first 7 days I managed to write nearly 2.5k words, then I began to lose my touch. By day 12, I had written around 23,000 words. Still, that wasn't bad. It wasn't very far from an average of 2k words a day, which was the goal I had fixed for myself.

I had a general idea of the story and writing scenes was quite easy. There were a lot of digressions, of course, as had happened in 2013 too.

Out of nowhere a viral attack forced me to quit writing for nearly 10 days. For the first couple of days I popped some pills and tried to write as much as I could, however little it was. But then the meds wouldn't work and I was unable to handle the office pressure, looking after my daily needs and my own illness. Score: 8 days - zero words.

By the time I recovered it was the 23rd - quite a few of the wrimos had completed their 50K words and boasting (no doubt they had every right to do it - even I would have done the same - after all, isn't that what Nano is for?)

Though I hadn't lost my zest, doubts began to creep in. What if I couldn't complete it this year? Well, no big deal - it happens to the best of them. Am I not human? I tried to convince myself but I was no good at it.

Then like in all good novels, the devil showed up. 'What are you worried about Neelesh? You've got two half-finished manuscripts both together can easily cross 50,000 words. Just put it up and get it over with.'

I didn't punch him in the face. Not right away at least. The idea was not impractical. It's as easily done as it is said. If nothing works out, what's the harm? It's all about winning, ain't it?

Well, I thought I'd think over it and in the meantime I continued to write. I'd crossed 35 K by day 25. Needed only 15K in 5 days which is about 3K per day.

And one of those days was a Friday - a holiday. I did the unthinkable - I wrote 5K words in a burst of inspiration. I don't know where it came from - but it sure as hell hit me when I needed it the most.

That left me with less than 10 K in 4 days. I kept punching the keyboard every day till I finished two days ahead of schedule. I didn't have to do the devilish trick - the writing just flowed.

Mission Accomplished! A clean straight drive to the long-on fence - and the trophy was mine for the second time in a row.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Cover Reveal of 'She Loves Him, He Loves Her Not' by Zeenat Mahal



Cover Reveal

She Loves Him, He Loves Her Not
Stripped of her illusions, Zoella creates her own twist in the fairy tale, beating him at his own game.

by 
Zeenat Mahal 

Blurb 


Zoella’s been in love with Fardeen, her best friend’s gorgeous older brother, since she was ten, but he’s always seen her as a ‘good girl’—not his type—and he can barely remember her name. Besides, he’s engaged to a gorgeous leggy socialite, someone from the same rarefied social strata as the imposing Malik family.

Zoella has no chance with him.

Until a brutal accident leaves Fardeen scarred and disfigured, that is. Suddenly bereft of a fiancee, Fardeen is bitterly caustic, a shell of the man he used to be, a beast that has broken out of the fairy tale world he once lived in. And a twist of fate lands him his very own princess—Zoella.

The beast, however, is a far cry from the Fardeen of her dreams. Stripped of her illusions, Zoella creates her own twist in the fairy tale, beating him at his own game.


About Zeenat Mahal 


Zeenat Mahal (@zeenat4indireads) is an avid reader and has been writing for as long as she can remember. She has an MPhil in English literature from Government College Lahore and holds a MFA in creative writing from Kingston University, London. She won a BBC short story competition in 2001 and has been a regular contributor to newspapers. Zeenat has eclectic tastes and an insatiable desire to learn. Her romances are a heady mix of the traditional and the contemporary, old world values face the challenges of a shrinking globe that impinge upon and help shape South Asian sensibilities.

‘Haveli’ is Zeenat’s first published novella. Currently she is working on a literary novel with elements of magical realism, while continuing to write romances. She can be contacted on her FB page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zeenat-Mahal.

Are you ready 
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Book Launch by:





Tuesday, December 16, 2014





Cover Reveal:
Hidden Passion 
…when the walls of monarchical politics rise high between them, will her passion prevail?
by 
Summerita Rhayne

A letter from the Author  

Hello friends! 

I'm very excited to share the cover of my new book which is a historical romance. Hidden Passion is the story of Princess Rukmani and King Deveshwarya, set in the early medieval India. I've always been fascinated by that period of the brave and wise maharajas and beautiful and courageous rajkumaris whose tales I read growing up in Chandamama and Amar Chitra Katha...I wonder how many can relate to those names *smile* But whether you can or not, I feel, no one can remain untouched by the romance and richness of that period. There’s a drama and intrigue in history that simply calls out to imagination. I’ve always wanted to write a historical and the idea for this book came to me in form an image: A princess seeking the sanctuary of a Maharaja whom she thinks she can depend on but that Maharaja being unwilling to help her. I had to think why he wouldn’t and why she had to run to him and slowly the characters took shape: Rukmani, a princess of the Kamboj clan who has been pampered by her family but now is suddenly without support and Deveshwaraya, a Samrat who was not born to a throne but comes to rule by following his convictions.

I had a lot of fun delving into history while charting out the setting and the events of this novella. As my characters were not blind followers of tradition, I was able to let my imagination loose a lot. But I also made use of the customs prevalent in the period in the story. For instance, in those times, the princesses could choose their own husbands by the ritual of swayamvara yet the outcome of these was often tied up with many political consequences. Rukmani also finds such a situation hindering her path to love. Even princesses had to struggle sometimes to get their heart's desire. So even for them life wasn't easy! 
This is my first historical getting published, so it’s a huge moment for me. Hope you all love the cover!

What the Book is all About ....

Rukmani, the youngest of her family, has always had her way and she thinks she would too when the question of her marriage arises. But when she expresses her wishes, her world comes crumbling down because she has fallen for the wrong man. Who can she run to but the strongest ruler of the region, Deveshwaraya?

Devesh finds himself torn between duty and desire. He is drawn to her yet being with her jeopardizes everything he has worked for.…when the walls of monarchical politics rise high between them, will her passion prevail?

                                       Are you ready?
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Book Launch by:





Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Think Like An Indian

No. I haven't forgotten my lucky guy articles. I know at least some of you were expecting the next episode but then I simply felt I had to write about this first. Since this is my own blog, I can do what I want, can't I?

Nanowrimo just went by and I managed to complete my 50,000 words in the nick of time. But I did not allow myself to relax, I managed to finalise the first chapter of my novel before I decided to chill.

And since there's not much happening in Abu Dhabi right here right now, I fished out 'Bang Bang' and watched it last night on my lappie. (Psst - please don't tell anyone about this.)

I'd heard a lot about the movie, mostly bad stuff. The story is ridiculous. They bought the rights from Hollywood but still they botched it up. It's an insult to the intellect to watch Hindi movies etc.

But Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif are not people who I can ignore. (TBH, I'm a fan of most stars, though in my opinion Aamir is better than the others.)

Well, what can I say? Yes, the movie was a rip-off of 'Knight And Day'. No, I've not seen Knight and Day but even if I had, I'd give Hrithik and Katrina a standing ovation any way.

Ok. I confess - I was born with a manufacturing defect.

Really? I'd make that two defects. The first defect is I love both movies and books. The second defect is that I am an Indian to boot.

I've had a torrid affair with English literature since the age of 8. It began with an Enid Blyton book on my birthday. Holding her hand, I walked through picturesque places in England, Scotland, Wales. Then I graduated to American cities with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. In my teenage years and till my late twenties, I was besotted with fair ladies who ran across the pages of the books I read and screens of the movies I watched - wearing skimpy, sensual, dresses and acting coy, cocquettish and bitchy as directed by their writers and directors.

But the second manufacturing defect never really healed. I read scores of novels and was emotionally touched by many of them - David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, We - the Living. For a long time I thought Sidney Carton was the most tragic character whom I identified with (don't ask why, please, just read 'A Tale of Two Cities'). Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock were heroines I'd have loved to fall in love with.

But none of the books I read brought tears from my eyes until the day I read Rabindranath Tagore's short story 'The Kabuliwallah'. I never laughed at English comedies the way I laughed when I read P L Deshpande in Marathi. Girish Karnad's play 'Hayavadana' left me gaping at the man's capacity to shake me from my 'satisfied' life.

Though I was impressed with movies like 'The Sound of Music', it took me a Gulzar and his 'Parichay' to really understand that however glossy, dazzling and shining Hollywood movies and actors may be, the actors I really liked were Rajesh Khanna, Dharmindar (it's deliberate - not a spelling mistake), Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Kapoor, Jaya Bhaduri, Hema Malini, Madhubala, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Shilpa Shetty, Kajol and now girls like Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif and dudes like Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik, Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra and of course the three Khans. (Drat! I don't want to miss anyone but then this is a blog, not a Who's Who of Bollywood.)

So by now you've realized where my ship is headed. Yes. I loved 'Bang Bang'.

If you've not closed my blog by now let me tell you that this is not blind love (or maybe it is, in a way.) I've had a long tryst with the film industry, and I've read over 200 books in my lifetime. I know there are always glitches in Hindi movies, but then I've also seen enough Hollywood and world movies stuff to know that there are almost an equal number of trashy movies churned out by Uncle Sam.

Bang Bang doesn't have a fault-free script, but you can't say the script isn't innovative. Yes, Hrithik carries off improbable stunts but then you might revisit the James Bonds, the Mission Impossibles and The Bourne Identities and then try convincing me that any human being could do what was done by the leading men in those movies.

Who cares? As long as I have Hrithik Roshan doing stunts and dancing to music by Vishal-Shekhar. Who cares? As long as Katrina Kaif looks drop-dead gorgeous whether she's shown up close or from 10 miles away.

For those of you who are writers or who aspire to be writers, Bang Bang is about the fantasies of a beautiful girl jailed in a small-time bank in small-town Shimla. I think the scriptwriter/director won by showing what happened in this single and simple girl's life when a macho man rushed into it like a tsunami and turned it upside down. I've lived quite an exciting life but I've never been a James Bond and never had an affair with a woman as beautiful as Katrina. Does that mean I should shut out all the fun from my life? Well, I won't, certainly not because you say so. I'll leave myself to decide that.

And then the songs. I love songs. Indians are a very musical people. We have songs for various occasions from when a child is born to even after s/he dies. And we are indisciplined. We are not like the westerners who have an etiquette for everything. We sing when we feel happy and we sing when we are sad. We do not bother much about what the world thinks of us. This is the way we are.

So, to cut a long story short, Bang Bang is for me a welcome release from my dull and drab life. And I look forward to the next instalment.

 
And as a proof that times have changed in Bollywood, the producers had bought the rights of 'Knight and Day' so for all practical purposes, it's not a rip-off but a properly designed movie to entertain the Indian audience. I wouldn't compare it with the original, because that was designed for an American audience while Bang Bang is for people like me - the aam aadmi.
 
Plus, once you've sold your house and filled your bank with the money, you have no right to object whether the buyer is living in your house or he has pulled it down and erected a totally new structure. So there's really no point in comparing notes between 'Knight and Day' and 'Bang Bang'.
 
Hell, I don't feel apologetic for saying all this. You see, I was born with a manufacturing defect - I think like an Indian.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Matches Made in Heaven - Cover Reveal



Cover Reveal:

MATCHES MADE IN HEAVEN

Romantic Short Stories by

Sundari Venkatraman

Sneak Peak

Swayamwar on TV reality show; Dating Clubs; Matchmaking websites; parents setting up their children with one another; friends getting married and more – there are many ways that couples get together for hopefully a “Happily Ever After” experience. MATCHES MADE IN HEAVEN explores the various premises in the form of short stories that one can relate to in everyday life. There is even one based on Gods falling in love. Shh! I am not going to say anything further. It’s for you to find out.

And there are thirteen of them. While many insist that “13” is an unlucky number, I am quite fascinated by it. I absolutely believe that it’s a lucky number for me. That’s why I decided to publish this anthology with 13 romantic stories. 



About the author

Sundari Venkatraman has authored four novels and a short story anthology till now, Matches Made In Heaven (anthology) being the latest. The Malhotra Bride; Meghna; The Runaway Bridegroom; Flaming Sun Collection 1: Happily Ever Afters From India (Box Set) and Matches Made In Heaven have all been self-published on Amazon under the banner of Flaming Sun. The three novels are regularly seen on Amazon’s Top 100 Bestsellers’ Contemporary Romances list. The Box Set and Anthology are bound to catch up soon. 



A great fan of Mills & Boon romances over the past four decades, Sundari has always believed in ‘Happily Ever Afters’ and all her books promise happy endings. 

Matches Made In Heaven is a compilation of thirteen short stories – all romantic – based on many situations anyone can come upon in their day-to-day lives. The stories revolve around the different ways a couple can get to meet and tie the knot in a culture rich country like India. Those reading the stories will definitely be able to connect realising that one of the situations has definitely been a part of their lives. 


So here you go........

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Book Launch by:







Wednesday, November 5, 2014








The Ekkos Clan 
by 
Sudipto Das

Review

Sudipto Das’ Ekkos Clan begins with gusto. The eerie feeling that something is not right in the village Noakhali, the simmering fears of a backlash by majority Muslims on the minority Hindus of East Pakistan has been described alarming accuracy. Das brings out the uneasy calm of a village in the interior whose inhabitants co-existed for centuries without fear or favour.
Just when you begin to marvel at Das’ insight of a small East Pakistan village caught in the throes of partition, comes the rather rude punch – Das has designed this novel as a kind of Indian reply to Dan Brown’s 'The Da Vinci Code' and several of its cheap clones that emerged in the wake of its success.
The story shifts from Noakhali and Kolkata of 1947 to contemporary US where Kratu the protagonist is an ex-engineer who teaches music to kids using only three basic notes, which he had heard from his elder sister who had died in a car accident. A Pakistani girl, Afsar Fareedi happens to pass by this strange outdoor music class and befriends Kratu and both begin to search for scattered bricks from Kratu’s ancestry to build a castle without any foundation.
Das scripts an incredible Hindu organization, Hiranyagarbha Bharat, which believed that they were descendants of the original Aryans and the Aryans originated in North India, in the Hindukush mountains and from there spread to the Middle East and Europe. The members of this organization strive towards the death of any evidence that proved otherwise.
The plot may not have seemed so hollow had the writer crafted the story well. First of all, if you compare the Christian church with a fledgling Hindu organization, the Church is far, far more powerful with an unending flow of funds from billions of believers. Das clips the wings of this (fictitious?) organization by stating that the RSS was not in favour of their philosophy. If the fiercely fanatic Hindu RSS does not back the theory that the Aryans originated in the Greater Indian territory and then spread to the West, then who will provide the tiny organization with the funds required to carry out assassinations spread over nearly a century? And why are the killings executed by only members of one family - were there no other members of Hiranyagarbha Bharat? Granted that Kubha was the sole survivor of an Aryan-culture tribe, would all the erstwhile historians of the world have changed their opinion on the basis of verbal evidence of one woman who was not even educated properly?
Second, the possibility of Aryan rituals (4000 BC) being preserved by a few villages in the Hindukush mountains (present Afghanistan, ruled by Muslim rulers ever since the spread of Islam) is rendered laughable when Das takes one of Kratu’s grand-uncles to the Hindukush from Calcutta in the 1920s and has him bring back a young girl who remembers all the customs of the Aryans (from 4000+1920 = 5920 years ago) who volunteers to be raped in order to save her children from certain death, later marries a Bengali Muslim and avenges her rapists years after the incident, rises to become an important social worker in Bangladesh with unfettered access to diplomatic privileges.
The entire novel meanders through a maze of characters of whom Kratu is the protagonist. Kratu keeps shifting his affections from his (unknown to him) half-sister Ananya, his cousin Teesta (nicknamed Tits - it is a riddle why a girl educated in America would allow herself to be called by a name which would invite leery comments all her life), then to the Pakistani girl Afsar and then to Bahrouz.
The story includes a vendetta angle which stretches from one generation to the other, from Afghanistan to Bangladesh to Maharashtra to the US of A. I fail to understand what a fanatic university student hopes to achieve by digitally changing a Harrappan seal into a horse: it's only a digital reproduction of the real seal - will other universities/museums not have the original with them?
The characterisations, apart from the first part that describes partition riots in erstwhile East Pakistan, are too flimsy to be taken seriously. Though Teesta and Kratu seem to share many things in common, the writer almost makes Teesta fall in love with Kratu but he chooses just that time to fall for Afsar. However, when Teesta learns of Kratu's affection for Afsar, she joins in with Jhimli to pull his leg. Won't a girl in flesh and blood feel bad if the boy she had an affection for turns to another girl? Agreed there was no commitment, but commitment is a legal feeling. Emotions always exist in minor forms and come to the fore when they are hurt. That aspect has not been explored by the writer.
To his credit, the author has spent a lot of time researching the history of the Aryans but instead of fiction, he converts the novel into a classroom of ancient history, archaeology and etymology. Though some of the analogies seem plausible, there are plenty of loopholes that the writer is unable to fill.
This novel had promise, the writer has a flair for writing. However the plotting and overall structure of the novel make it confusing. India's Dan Brown will have to wait. The question is: do we really need one?












The Blurb
 "The Ekkos Clan" is the story of Kratu’s search for the killers of his family, his own roots and the mystery behind his grandmother’s stories.

It’s the fascinating account of Kubha and the basketful of folklore she inherited from her ancestors. The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. The family saga unfurls gradually, along with Kubha’s stories, through the three main characters – Kratu Sen, a grad student at Stanford, Kratu’s best friend Tista Dasgupta, and Afsar Fareedi, a linguistic palaeontologist.

Afsar hears about Kubha’s stories from Kratu in a casual conversation, but she figures that these stories are not meant to be mere bed time tales – they contain rich linguistic fossils and layers of histories.

In a bizarre incident Kratu miraculously survives an attempt on his life. His sister and uncle had not been so lucky. Were these murders acts of revenge, or a larger ideological conflict connected to Kubha’s stories which conceal perilous secrets that should be suppressed?

Afsar, Kratu and Tista travel across continents to unravel the mystery of Kubha’s roots and the origin of her stories.

At a different level, the novel subtly delves into the origin of one of the oldest civilizations of the world and the first book written by mankind.

Buy @


Watch It 







Meet the Author










Sudipto was born in Calcutta to a family which fled Bangladesh during the partition riots of 1947. He grew up listening horrid stories of the partition, something which he has used extensively in his debut novel The Ekkos Clan. He completed his engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1996. He lives in Bangalore.





You can stalk him @

                          

           Wikipedia 

Media Mentions 


"A promising debut in the growing realm of modern Indian fiction" - Jug Suraiya 

"An Indian thriller inspired by Dan Brown & Harrison Ford!... fast-paced thriller, replete with murder and miraculous escapes" - Telegraph 

"If you are a history buff and a thriller aficionado, then [it] might just be the book for you" - The Hindu 

"A tale of the Indian civilization and culture... takes you on a roller coaster ride" - The New Indian Express 

"An interesting read for an afternoon... One feisty woman's partition story" - Bangalore Mirror 

"Should be read for its sheer aspiration and the intelligent handling of historical material" - The Sunday Guardian 

"Is essentially a mystery novel, but is grounded in a substantial base of research and exploration into our past" - newsyaps.com
       




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Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Full Circle by Yamini Vijendran






Full Circle 
by 
Yamini Vijendran









The Blurb
Outwardly, Malini is a contented, sixty-something grandmother with a loving family and everything a person could wish for. But Malini has lived her entire life with a secret confined to the deepest recesses of her heart.

Haunted by the past, she travels to Kumbakonam, her native town, which she had left years ago. There, she comes face-to-face with her long-lost love.

After forty years, will Malini be able to reclaim her own life, when love comes knocking at her door once again?


Buy @


Watch It 







Meet the Author









Yamini Vijendran (@saimini) is the author of ‘Full Circle’, a romance novella published by Indireads. After being a Software Professional for 7 years, Yamini has been freelancing from home for the past 3 years. She loves to dabble in fiction and romance and drama are her favorite genres. Her short stories have been published in ‘Love Stories That Touched My Heart’, an Anthology published by Penguin India, New Asian Writing and Six Sentences. Yamini also likes to pen poems when inspiration strikes, and her poetry has been published in The Indian Review, Contemporary Literary Review of India and ‘A World Rediscovered’ a poetry Anthology by Cyberwit Publications. Yamini draws material for her stories and poems from the world around her. When she is not converting her experiences to stories or poems, Yamini reads, plays with her toddler, and fools around her laboratory, that is, the kitchen. 







You can stalk Yamini Vijendran @

                          

           
       




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