L for “Let The Dead Stay Dead” # A to Z Challenge

The time comes when an author puts aside his writing hat and wears his marketing hat as he goes out to sell his work. Being in such a situation at present,  for me, L is for “Let The Dead Stay Dead” my 90,000 word psychological novel, which is ready for publication. This was my NaNo Novel for NaNoWriMo 2011 and the first 50,000 words were written during this period. What is the book about?They say you should be able to describe your book in two sentences. Here’s mine: ” A young woman battles mental illness to live out the past to acquit herself of a murder, she doesn’t remember having committed. The murder of a man, she is not sure she knows.”

The story is set in contemporary India. To elaborate some more on the story. It is about people who, at times, don’t know what they do. They do this for compulsive reasons which overtake them from time to time. At other times, they are normal folk, like you and me.

It was a wonderful experience to frame the plot, have the characters ready in my mind and start off on what was an extremely demanding yet interesting experience for me.

I take this opportunity to share some thoughts on the book:

• I guess the title was influenced by my love for the James Hadley Chase books I devoured during my childhood.
• In the book I explore some aspects of a huge subject, mental illness and schizophrenia as seen through the prism of one of the main characters. These needed a huge amount of researching on my part which fortunately is something I love doing anyway.
• Another subject which I had to research in some depth was the Indian legal system as the story involves a court case where a character stands trial for murder.
• The book has elements of mystery and suspense. I like to think it is a psychological novel influenced by my fascination for psychology and the human mind.

All said and done, I am excited about LDSD and am busy with the submission process to get my book noticed by a literary agent who will represent it, or a publisher who will publish it! You can follow my progress in “Prem Rao, Storyteller” my Author Page on Facebook.