It’s demanding. It’s tiring. It’s crazy…but it’s fun! It is exhilarating to work on multiple projects as I am now doing. To look at it chronologically, I still do whatever I can to boost my debut novel, a psychological thriller called, “It Can’t Be You”. This was published in November 2010. I am awaiting the publication of my second thriller, “Lucky For Some, Thirteen.” This should be out in the shops in June-July 2012. I am waiting for it to be available on a pre-order basis on Flipkart first. Continue reading “Juggling Between Projects”
Author: Prem Rao
Author, Blogger, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Podcaster
Yesterday, at the Pan South India Alumni Meet of XLRI at the grand ITC Gardenia Continue reading “Lines from “It Can’t Be You””
We had a wonderful time up at Lovedale earlier this month. As part of the 154th Founder’s Day celebrations at The Lawrence School, Lovedale ( where I studied between 1959 and 1967), a Book Reading Festival was organized for the first time for Old Lawrencians who had published books in recent years.
I was delighted to hear that the 154th Founder’s Day celebrations of my alma mater, The Lawrence School, Lovedale,would have a unique event this year. A Book Reading Festival has been organized in which Old Lawrencians who have written books in recent years would get an opportunity to show case their writing. On May 2 and May 3, five authors , including yours truly, will participate in this event which culminates in our formally presenting our books to the School Library.
Some people were talking to me recently at a party. The topic turned to writing as a full-time profession. A young man said,”It must be fun to live the good life, earning so much that you just write all day long, which anyway is something you love doing.” I said, “I am doing this as a second career after retirement. Don’t forget I worked for more than 35 years as a professional before taking to writing.” I went on to say, “You have to be a top-notch writer, with a few lucky breaks thrown in for good measure, to be able to live only on the strength of your earnings through your writing.” I don’t mean to be discouraging but a lot of people in India, especially the young, seem to have too rosy a picture of the field of writing. They have a lot of spirit , which I greatly admire but sometimes in their enthusiasm lose sight of some harsh realities. Continue reading “Tips For Aspiring Authors”
I thoroughly enjoyed Peter Colaco’s “Bangalore :A Century of Tales from City & Cantonment.” Perhaps since I have been a long time resident of Bangalore, including some years in the Fraser Town/Cox Town area, every page of the book resonated with me. The illustrations by Peter Fernandes are splendid and go a long way in enhancing the visual appeal of the book.
In an earlier post, I wrote about an anthology of short stories from Unisun Publications called ” Only Men Please.” The book was formally launched on March 31, at a very well-attended function at The British Library at Bangalore. Annie Chandy Mathew and Meenakshi Varma, the people behind Unisun did a splendid job in arranging the function. Jagdish Raja, Shreekumar Varma , Mathew Vincent Menacherry and Jyoti Makhija read out extracts from some of the 35 short stories that make up this book.
After the book launch, we had an interesting debate. The topic being: “Do Men and Women Differ From Each Other In Their Writing?” Three writers whose short stories appear in the anthology represented the male viewpoint. They were Bangalore’s eminent theater personality, Jagdish Raja, the well-known Chennai -based writer Shreekumar Varma and Mathew Vincent Menacherry, co-founder and director of the Anthea Group. The women’s viewpoint was presented by a strong team of talented writers: Jahnavi Barua, Shinie Antony and Malathi Ramachandran. The content of the debate was interesting. Eminent writers, Shashi Deshpande and K R Usha contributed to the debate too, as did many enthusiastic members of the audience.
In my view, the choice of topics and the writing style, to some extent does differ but the hallmark of a great writer is being able to empathize and write from all points of view. If a male writer can describe the feelings and emotions of a female in a story just as well as a woman could, he would have done a great job. The same would be the case if a woman writer could do this about a male character in a story. There are many other aspects to be considered but I guess these very differences make for a wide variety of writing- and debate!
Fifteen months after it’s publication in November 2010, I am pleased to say that “It Can’t Be You” continues to be popular on Flipkart and can be easily ordered from there. I saw recently that it ranks 485 out of 45,408 titles listed in it in the “Suspense & Thrillers” category.
This writing project has gone for a toss! It was so dear to my heart and I had great hopes of it becoming a published book that Wodehouse fans the world over would enjoy. However, the plan seems to have become unstuck. I failed in my attempt to persuade the Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate to grant permission for its eventual publication. They didn’t seem to have been impressed by my preliminary inquiry. Perhaps I should have made out a formal book proposal. Continue reading ““A Toast To Plum: Celebrating P.G.Wodehouse”- An Update”
I picked up ” Survival Of The Savvy” by Rick Brandon, Ph.D and Marty Seldman, PhD, from our Club library. The byline on the front cover proclaims ” High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success.” That’s great so far. The copy in my hand was published in May 2007 and is a Free Press Export Edition from Simon & Schuster.
On the back cover, the first quote is from Ramalinga Raju, Chairman Satyam Computer Services Ltd. he writes,” Global leaders today recognize the significance of being connected…candidly and openly discusses the political health of an organization, beginning with the important lessons of closed shop, and the demand for a high-integrity culture.”
Below that, Rama Raju, Managing Director of Satyam writes, “Our commitment at Satyam is to recognize the impact of corporate power and influence and to orchestrate a climate of politically savvy leaders”
I don’t blame the authors one bit because they weren’t astrologers to predict the future. In January 2009, a scandal hit India which many observers believed was unprecedented in its audacity or scale. I speak of the Satyam Computers scandal which created a huge furor in the minds of corporate India, the investing public and the employees of that company.
How ironic it sounds to hear the Rajus say what they did! For greater perspective, here’s an insightful article by Prof. Sudhakar V. Balachandran of the Columbia Business School in Forbes. Sure, things have changed at the erstwhile Satyam over the last couple of years.
But coming back to the importance of back cover copy, isn’t it essential for the publishers to change the quotes in that back cover copy? They may have done so already. If they have, good for them. If they haven’t, my sympathies lie with the authors. I am sure they would not, even in their wildest dreams have imagined that the Rajus, who wrote so glowingly about the book would have ended up where they did.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 