Book Launch Day is Here!

It’s the morning of Nov 29 as I write this. Sitting at my desk where I wrote most of “It Can’t Be You”. The day has come. Some 12 hours from now, if not earlier, my debut novel will be launched at Crossword, Residency Road, Bangalore. My feelings are of excitement ( that a dream is coming true), of anxiety (that things will go off well) and anticipation ( to meet friends and family who will gather to join me in celebrating the event.

Ian Fleming on Writing a Thriller

I have read all of Ian Fleming’s books being a huge fan. I can never forget that my school chum, Pratap Pothen, who went on to become a well-known actor, once gifted me with the entire set of James Bond books. Years after reading them I still remember ” Dr. No” and “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. You can imagine my delight then when I chanced upon  Ian Fleming himself had to say about writing a thriller. This was written by Fleming way back in 1962 and is from Cabbages and Kings, a blog by P J Parrish.

Waiting for the Launch

The excitement is palpable and there are only 4 days to go for the launch of ny debut novel “It Can’t Be You”. This is being published by Cedar Books, an imprint of Pustak Mahal, one of India’s largest publishing houses. The book will be released by an old friend, Subroto Bagchi, Vice-Chairman and Gardener of MindTree Ltd, himself an author of repute.

John Shore on “The Platform”

As is often said these days, just writing a book is not enough. It is only one part of the story. The bigger challenge comes in selling it! We hear so much about the need for authors to have a “platform”. Here’s what award-winning author John Shore has to say about this in a recent article in The Huffington Post. I have been

End of a Chapter

In the old days, a chapter was a kind of milestone  or guidepost, if you will, in the novel. It sort of led you from one major point to another, often depicting sequential events in time or points of view of different characters in the story. They were fairly long and usually of varying length. Recently, I came across a very different treatment of what I imagined chapters would be in James Patterson’s “Cross Country”

The Value of Editing

Yay! I have just finished NaNoWriMo 2010 having reached 50,000 words for my novel “Lucky For Some, Thirteen”. I recognize that the novel is far from being complete though I have much to celebrate about. I have finished the first step- that of writing the foundation of the novel. Typically, novels in the genre I write in of thrillers/mysteries should be of at least 70,000-80,000 words.

Quotations On Writing

When ever I find the time, I feel like browsing the pages in The Quotations Page, a website which gives you thousands of quotations on a wide variety of subjects. Here for example is the page on Quotations on Writing. I find myself inspired, amused and provoked to think as I browse through them. If you have a writer’s block, drop in here and see these quotations. There are over 100 quotations on writing here. They may just inspire you to write more!

Plot or Character

The debate continues. Should your novel be plot-driven or character-driven? A J Humpage has this interesting post which speaks of the differences between the two. On reading this I immediately thought of my soon- to-be published debut novel “It Can’t Be You”. This is hitting the stands at the end of November 2010. I started off believing my story was largely character-based. I tried to delve into the minds of  my characters to think as I believed they would. As things moved on and the story took shape,

NaNoWriMo, So Far So Good!

I first thought of what I would write for this year’s NaNoWriMo when I was recuperating after my heart bypass surgery in July 2010. I was advised to walk about for a little while every day, starting  with 3 minutes and going on to reach 45 minutes, which is now the prescribed duration of my daily walk- for as long as I live! While walking I naturally thought of NaNo 2010 and a few ideas came to me which looked quite promising.