Some excellent advice from A J Humpage who has been writing fiction for more than twenty years. She writes on how reading helps writers improve their writing! The best part of the article I thought was the “Questions to ask” after you have read a novel. For me, this process of seeing a novel through these questions, came as a new and interesting input. I am sure we would gain from the valuable feedback the answers to these questions would provide:
Author: Prem Rao
Author, Blogger, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Podcaster
As the book becomes more easily available , both in shops in various cities in India and through on-line chains like Flipkart, Rediff Books and Pustak Mahal, (my publishers) of course, reviews will start coming in. “It Can’t Be You ” was recently reviewed by Sonia Safri in The Book Chums. Read the review here.
Every author dreams of writing what becomes a best seller! The New York Times list of best sellers is in a sense a hallmark of having “got there”. Here is the list of Top Ten Books for 2010 from the New York Times. I was happy to find that amongst them was a book about cancer from an oncologist, Dr. Siddarth Mukherjee’s “The Emperor Of All Maladies”.
December 16 is celebrated as Vijay Diwas or Victory Day in India. It was on December 16, 1971 that the Pakistani forces in the then East Pakistan surrendered to end the 1971 December war between the two countries. Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, General Officer Commanding in Chief, Eastern Command accepted the surrender from Gen A A K Niazi. This is a memorable picture.
I was the guest of RJ Shweta of Radio Indigo 91.9 FM, Bangalore’s hit music radio station on her show Planet Indigo a few days ago. We spoke of my debut novel. It was a very interesting experience for me.
I had an interesting experience in this year’s NaNoWriMo. As you know, the objective is to write 50,000 words of a novel in the calendar month of November each year. I was doing NaNo for the second time this year and decided to incorporate a few of my learnings from last year.
Have started a discussion on the Facebook Page on psychopaths.What does a psychopath mean to you? Who is a psychopath? Do join in and share your views.The topic stems from the need to correct an impression that all psychopaths are rapists, wanton killers and clearly a menace to society.
Before I wrote my first novel, a psychological thriller called “It Can’t Be You”, I had written a few short stories. Like all my stories, they are set in India, where I have lived all my life. I am pleased to say that one of these short stories is to be featured in an anthology of short stories by men being published by Unisun Publications.
I might add that “Route 32”, the short story being published, is one that I particularly liked. It is the story of a bus driver in Bangalore, where I live. I shall post more details about this anthology when I get more specific information.
It Can’t Be You can now be ordered online from Flipkart.
Guess what? I haven’t looked at my NaNo 2010 effort since I finished the required 50,000 words to qualify as having completed NaNo successfully. I find that editing and polishing your writing take much more time and effort than writing the first draft. I am sure this must be your experience too. As I have learnt over the short time, I have started writing in earnest ” Write In A Rush, Edit At Leisure”.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 