I have an ace up my sleeve. Now that I am back in the saddle, I want to go back to the drawing board and work on the case of mistaken identity. I am willing to spend countless hours to give a down to earth description of what’s going on in the area with an ear to the ground! You get the idea, I am sure. I have used a long list of clichés!
Month: September 2010
Most introductions to authors on their website are, let’s face it, quite drab! They are conventional and say the usual things in the usual way. Recently, I came across one that grabbed my attention. I am sure it would grab yours too. It remains one of the best introductions to an author’s website that I have seen in recent times.
Is “It Can’t Be You” a whodunit? In which you keep wondering who the killer is. Is it a mystery? With a plot that makes you follow several leads. Is it historical fiction? In that the story spans historic events covering a fair amount of time. Is it a suspense story? In which you don’t know what’s coming next. Is it an action-packed thriller? That keeps you spell-bound and on the edge of your seat.
There’s an old story – origins unknown- about a traveler whose car broke down late one afternoon at the outskirts of the town. To make things worse, it was raining heavily. He got down in disgust to find that he had a flat tyre. He was in a hurry as he had to reach town for an important meeting. He saw he was in a desolate place. An old signboard told him that the adjoining grounds belonged to the local mental asylum.
Did you know that publishing a book is the second highest goal in the United States? I am still in the category of being one among many who has this goal. Which makes me proud that shortly, I shall become a published author. My debut novel “It Can’t Be You” is being published by Cedar Books, imprint of Pustak Mahal, one of India’s largest publishers in a couple of months.
This post appeared in the Facebook Page for “It Can’t Be You” but not everyone who reaches here necessarily follows that Page, right? This is about an interesting conversation I had with an old friend recently. I was asked ” How come you chose a military kind of background for your book? You weren’t in the Army were you?”. No, I wasn’t- though many seeing me and my mugshot often conclude I was!
You probably know this. Facebook has over 500 million active users. But this was in July 2010. God knows how many more have been added on since then. It is a very active social network which helps you stay connected with your friends – irrespective of where they are or what they are doing:). I have created a Facebook Page for It Can’t Be You ( or ICBY for short).
A story like this needs to come from deep within the characters. This was the premise on which I started writing “It Can’t Be You”. To give you, the reader, a sense of their thoughts and feelings, I chose to use the first person narrative for the most part of the book.
Over 2000 people from 44 countries participated in the recent 2010 Commonwealth Foundation’s Short Story competition. I am delighted to share that Anuradha Kumar won the prize in the category of Science, Technology & Society. Her short story titled ” The First Hello” is worth a read.
Thanks to a tweet by Jon Winokur’s Writers Digest, I got directed to Janet Fitch’s 10 Rules for Writing. I loved the point about sentences. I have found myself guilty of writing in almost the same way- most of the time. The need to vary sentence length has made an impact. I hope to improve. From now! Continue reading “Janet Fitch’s Rules for Writing”
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 