I have been full-time into writing for about two years now. I thought it made sense to capture how I go about writing. This could be use to me and not just for others who might be interested. These points are not in chronological order as I write them as they come to mind:-
Author: Prem Rao
Author, Blogger, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Podcaster
“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight.” Did you like what you just read? I did, and how! Continue reading ““The art and craft of writing””
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”
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.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 