Rakhi Jayashankar's Blog, page 56
November 22, 2017
Land of the Dawn-lit Mountains by Antonia Bolingbroke-kent- Review
Book Name - Land of the Dawn-lit Mountains Author - Antonia Bolingbroke-kent Publisher - Simon &SchusterBuy books from Amazon
My ReviewRating : 3.5
Grabbing a permission to enter the place is a herculean task, which was made easy for the author-Thanks to the corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy. With the help of a fictitious character John, authoress gets hold of the permission by the officials. Dangerous as it is authoress starts her journey from Guwahati in the two wheeler provided by her aide. Thenceforth starts the most adventurous, suspenseful real journey I have ever witnessed. A woman in her two wheeler travelling all the way from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh upto the Tibetan borders- I was literally having goosebumps where he rode through roads that are name sake amidst deluge. We become the pillion riders and forgets the fact that the trip was already over and I kept on worrying if she would be able to complete the book. The animal sacrifice and the heartlessness of the same send a shiver down my spine. It is difficult to believe that a land that is developing at an enviable rate has a state that is still in the 19th or 18th century so to speak.
The trouble she took in adjusting to the extreme conditions and the ramshackle buildings(Inspection Bungalow) is highly appreciated and surprising especially for a foreigner in India. The sequences with Dojre and the history of Guru Rinpoche is interesting to read. The experiences with different tribes is also refreshing. To remember all the names is difficult and to take the information blast forward we need to read the book more than once. The quest of the secrets of Tsangpo whether it is Brahmaputra is one of the highlights of the book.
Authoress has generously mocked the lack of planning and the corruption in the Indian bureaucracy. The perspective of the author is anti Modi and and she has at some point implied that the Manmohan government has been concerned about the environment and current government concentrates purely on the development and ignores environment and even made pseudo commissions to get sanction, which I felt could have been avoided. This is a travelogue and not political discussion. The deviation is a major put off.
The book is definitely not an easy read. Take this book only if you want to read something of substance rather than as a pastime.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher
November 19, 2017
The one apart by Justin Avery
Details:
Book Title: The One Apart by Justine Avery
Category: Adult fiction, 568 pages
Genre: Sci-fi & Fantasy / Paranormal
Publisher: Justine Avery
Release date: Dec 4, 2017
Tour dates: Nov 20 to Dec 8, 2017
Content Rating: PG-13
Book Description:
Only one obstacle stands in his way of enjoying a normal life.
He remembers—every life he's lived before.
Tres is about to be born... with the biggest burden any has ever had to bear. He is beginning again—as an ageless adult trapped in an infant body.
He and his teenage mother face life filled with extraordinary challenges as they strive to protect, nurture, and hide how truly different he is. But Tres alone must solve the greatest mystery of all: who is he? The answer is linked to the one question he's too afraid to ask: why am I?
In his quest, Tres discovers that all is considerably more interconnected and dynamic than he could ever imagine—and fraught with far more danger. He cannot hide from the unseen threat stalking him since his birth.
Life as he knows it—as all know it—is in peril. And Tres is the only one aware.
Buy the Book:
Amazon
Add to Goodreads
Meet the Author:
Justine Avery is an award-winning author of stories large and small for all. Born in the American Midwest and raised all over the world, she is inherently an explorer, duly fascinated by everything around her and excitedly noting the stories that abound all around. As an avid reader of all genres, she weaves her own stories among them all. She has a predilection for writing speculative fiction and story twists and surprises she can’t even predict herself.
Avery has either lived in or explored all 50 states of the union, over 36 countries, and all but one continent; she lost count after moving 30-sometimes before the age of 20. She’s intentionally jumped out of airplanes and off the highest bungee jump in New Zealand, scuba dived unintentionally with sharks, designed websites, intranets, and technical manuals, bartered with indigenous Panamanians, welded automobile frames, observed at the Bujinkan Hombu Dojo in Noba, Japan, and masterminded prosperous internet businesses—to name a few adventures. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree that life has never required, and at age 28, she sold everything she owned and quit corporate life—and her final “job”—to freelance and travel the world as she always dreamed of. And she’s never looked back.
Aside from her native English, Avery speaks a bit of Japanese and a bit more Spanish, her accent is an ever-evolving mixture of Midwestern American with notes of the Deep South and indiscriminate British vocabulary and rhythm, and she says “eh”—like the Kiwis, not the Canadians. She currently lives near Los Angeles with her husband, British film director Devon Avery, and their three adopted children: Becks, Sam, and Lia. She writes from wherever her curiosity takes her.
Avery loves to connect with fellow readers and creatives, explorers and imaginers, and cordially invites you to say “hello”—or konnichiwa.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter
Enter the Giveaway!Ends Dec 16
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November 14, 2017
~ Cover Reveal-You Came Like Hope
~ Cover Reveal ~
Title: You Came Like HopeAuthor: Jyoti AroraWord length: 53,000 wordsGenre: Contemporary Fiction / Contemporary Romance
Blurb: Peehu:“I heard them mourn my death. I lay in the next room. Motionless, silent, and staring at the ceiling.”Adih:“When it comes to a broken person, some of them are expert at blinding you. Spend an entire evening with such a person, but you may still not know how he is crushing inside.”Uday:“Who would say no to him? He is smart, intelligent, super handsome, rich, suave and sophisticated. He’s perfect!”Pooja:“Pooja gave no explanation. She asked no forgiveness. She just arrived in his home, resenting him for being her husband.”Arunav:“He had smiled as if nothing was wrong.He had behaved as if he still had his dreams and hopes.He had pretended as if it didn’t hurt.But it did.”Does Destiny hold the key to our happiness?Is it always the feeble that is the victim?Love can be the embrace of heaven. But what happens when it unleashes hellfire?Lose yourself in the intense narrative of You Came Like Hope as it unleashes a rollercoaster of emotions, uncovers some bitter truths, challenges widespread prejudices, and forces you to reconsider your beliefs.
Releasing on 23rd November 2017!
About the Author:
Jyoti Arora is a novelist and blogger from Ghaziabad. You Came Like Hope is her third novel, coming after Dream’s Sake and Lemon Girl. She is Post Graduate in English Literature and Applied Psychology. Besides reading and writing novels, Jyoti enjoys checking out latest technological innovations, watching movies, and listening to old Bollywood songs.
Website * Facebook * Twitter
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Title: You Came Like HopeAuthor: Jyoti AroraWord length: 53,000 wordsGenre: Contemporary Fiction / Contemporary Romance
Blurb: Peehu:“I heard them mourn my death. I lay in the next room. Motionless, silent, and staring at the ceiling.”Adih:“When it comes to a broken person, some of them are expert at blinding you. Spend an entire evening with such a person, but you may still not know how he is crushing inside.”Uday:“Who would say no to him? He is smart, intelligent, super handsome, rich, suave and sophisticated. He’s perfect!”Pooja:“Pooja gave no explanation. She asked no forgiveness. She just arrived in his home, resenting him for being her husband.”Arunav:“He had smiled as if nothing was wrong.He had behaved as if he still had his dreams and hopes.He had pretended as if it didn’t hurt.But it did.”Does Destiny hold the key to our happiness?Is it always the feeble that is the victim?Love can be the embrace of heaven. But what happens when it unleashes hellfire?Lose yourself in the intense narrative of You Came Like Hope as it unleashes a rollercoaster of emotions, uncovers some bitter truths, challenges widespread prejudices, and forces you to reconsider your beliefs.
Releasing on 23rd November 2017!
About the Author:
Jyoti Arora is a novelist and blogger from Ghaziabad. You Came Like Hope is her third novel, coming after Dream’s Sake and Lemon Girl. She is Post Graduate in English Literature and Applied Psychology. Besides reading and writing novels, Jyoti enjoys checking out latest technological innovations, watching movies, and listening to old Bollywood songs. Website * Facebook * Twitter
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November 13, 2017
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke-Review
Book Name - Dragon Rider Author - Cornelia Funke Publisher - Chicken HouseBuy books from Amazon
My ReviewRating : 4.5
Plot begins when a little rat runs to the dragons to deliver the message of the humans intending to attack their abode by drowning them. Sorrel, the brownie and Firedrake, the dragon sets out to find another abode for them, away from the humans. The trip is a revelation that there is nearly nothing the humans have left untouched. Their journey ends up in a hatch, where they meets a tiny little creature that looks like human and smells like rats. It doesn't take much for the acquaintance between Ben, the little boy and Firedrake the dragon to turn to friendship and together they sets out to find the Rim of heaven along with Sorrel, the brownie. The one scenario in itself is a base for the development of the plot. The tete-a-tete between them is enough to engage and amuse the readers. It reminded me of Ice-Age movie. Reproducing the same quirkiness with words is a quite difficult task but author has nailed it brilliantly. From the hatch the three of them reaches the land of mountain dwarfs who give them a map which later becomes their companion in the quest. The news of the silver reaches their greatest enemy, the golden dragon who sends his cronies to confirm what the dragon and the boy are upto. Further the encounter with humans makes sure that the plot is not getting monotonous. What happens next? Well, I would not want a spoiler here. To find what happens further, grab a copy of this fantasy cocktail.
Effortlessness in narration is the highlight of the book. Author has created every magical incident with so much conviction that the reader would forget at some point that it is afterall a fantasy. Having grown up reading Harry Potter, fantasies failed to impress me since I tend to compare every book to Harry Potter. But this time i must say that Dragon rider is par excellence. After say around 7 years I read a fantasy book with so much interest.
Authoress proved the point that Bestsellers does not always need making out sequences or bizarre youth sloshed out in drinks or drugs.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher
November 10, 2017
In conversation with Braham Singh.
It's a perk for the reviewers to get connected with too many talented writers. Today I find myself lucky to get to know about Braham Singh, author of Bombay Swastika published by Om Books.
Since I could not hold my anxiety, without much preface, let me ask straight away, How did the idea of Bombay Swastika come to your mind?
In Bombay, every gully has a story to tell. In the case of Bombay Swastika, bits and pieces come from a mildewed building on 3rd Pastor Lane in Colaba. My father’s best friend, a German Jew, lived there. The penhouse floor of that building was a whorehouse. I was filled with awe when old enough to understand what that meant, but I digress. Back to my father’s German friend. His life could be a book in its own right but there are legal issues. With true stories, one can end up spending more time tap dancing around landmines, than writing. That’s why writing fiction is such a trip.The trick is to take true tidbits from whereever one finds them and weave a yarn, which is what I did. For good fiction, lack of restraint is a must. One learns over time nothing can be more outlandish than what real life throws up.Luckily, I was cut out for outlandish stories. Most people want to write their memoirs. Clearly, they had exciting lives. Mine wasn’t. I was the fat kid in class, and a Sikh to boot. That’s a double whammy. It confused classmates accosting me—should the fat boy joke come first then the Sardar joke, or the other way round? I became a what-if expert. What if I was the slim captain of the criket team? What if I could fly? What if girls in the nearby convent school fought over me? Each such query led to long flights of fancy, driving my parents to despair and the teachers to label me a daydreamer. When you’re in school, daydreaming is a capital crime.For a writer however it’s a prerequisite. What if the hero’s Jewish wife in Bombay Swastika, went back to Nazi Germany? What if refugees fleeing Karachi during Partition, had their escape blocked by Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s ambulance while he lay dying in it? What if this, what if that, and before I knew, we had a story that ends up being surprisingly relevant to today’s India. Who would’ve thunk?
Bombay and Swastika, the Nazi connection is not lost to the readers from the title. How did you coin the title?
What can be more obvious than the nexus between the Hindu Swastik and the Nazi Swastika? And yet this connection is barely explored in school texts or literature. It puzzled me. Growing up, we had World War Two comic books full of Nazi bad guys with Swastikas on their arms. An Indian kid with an iota of curiosity could compare that to the rangoli swastik on the floor of his house, or the little swastiks adorning his doorway. When I sat down to write about a German Jew in India, the good luck swastik became a sort of talisman in the story and after that, the name was a no-brainer. It came so easily, that at one point I thought, too easy, and wanted to change the title to, ’The Haunted Whorehouse, and the place of the Hidden Moon’. Luckily, good sense and a determined editor prevailed.
Which genre would you categorize your book?
Bombay Swastika is Historical Fiction. A comfortable fit, except that these days if you search under Historical Fiction on Amazon India, the first title that pops up is Immortals of Meluha—a book on Lord Shiva. A novel on Sita was actually #1 a few months ago, until Shiva came displaced her, one mythological character taking down the other, neither having anything to do with history, but who’s asking.
Between Virginia and Hong Kong, how do you schedule your writing time?
4am to 8am every morning, before leaving for my day job. Mornings work for me in Virgina. Strangely, in Asia it’s evenings. Why, don’t ask.Flying time, with no interruptions, is a huge bonus. When boarding, I always pray they have crappy movies.
How vast was your research?
Well, let’s try list all the topics researched to death for this book. There’s 1935 Berlin. Did you know before the Nazis got their hands on it, Berlin was a Jewish city, with forty percent of the population intermarried into Jewish families? Gentile (non-Jewish) women prefered marrying Jewish men because they didn’t drink or beat their wives, and because they worked hard. The Jewish Hospital in Berlin figures prominently in Bombay Swastika and in itself took up months of research. The book had to be dead accurate about locations in 1935 Berlin, 1948 Karachi, and 1964 Bombay. Bombay Swastika also famously tackles India’s nuclear program and the spectacular failure of Dr. Homi Bhabha’s plutonium reprocessing plant that no one talks about.
Then in what turned out to be the the Yin to the nuclear program’s Yang, one got educated on tantric Krishna bhakti. It’s part of the layered plots that make up Bombay Swastika. I had to study it from scratch, not that I am complaining.
How was your publishing experience?
Two ladies at Om Books sum it up. Dipa Choudhuri and Ipshita Mitra, editors extraordinaire. Bombay Swastika is not an easy work to handle. Especially since India has become such a prickly nation. I mean, at one time, the best Sardar jokes came from Sardars. Today, they protest. Marathas protest. Hindus protest. Muslims protest. Everyone wears their animus proudly for all to see. Om could have asked to tone down the book. They didn’t. Om Books are also supurb marketeers, going that extra mile for a debut novel. Overall, I can pat myself on the back for signing up with them.
Where do you find yourself as an author, ten years from now?
I have four books to be done sequentially and they are eating away at me. They include a history of the Internet that I have to write and be done with. It’s called, Packet Wars— how the Internet became a video playground. Non-fiction, but a fun read. Then we have, Emperor, The Little Eunuch and, Her Browser History. These four books mean the next five years are spoken for. Besides writing these books, new stories have to be spun. What if this & what if that, is a habit that’s not going away. All in all, I’ll be disappointed if after ten years I haven’t continued to offend the right people and entertain the rest.
Do give a glimpse of The Little Eunuch to the readers.
In 1974, a farmer digging his field outside Xian, stumbled across the mausoleum of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi. It was like nothing the world had seen. A vast underground city guarded by a life-size terracotta army totaling 7000 warriors, infantrymen, horses, chariots and all their attendant armor and weaponry. Here’s the thing. Each terracotta soldier has distinctive features, different from the others. This leads us to believe these were statues of real people. There were statues of civilians too, in the underground mausoleum and one of them is a boy in a kneeling position, dubbed The Little Eunuch. Attempting to unite China’s warring nations into one country, First Emperor Huangdi was merciless in imposing his rule. Castration was a pretty standard punishment at the time of the First Emperor. So no surprise there are statues of eunuchs in the mausoleum. The Little Eunuch however, is special and in the novel becomes a symbol of Huangdi’s ’strict but just rule’.The ’strict but just’ Emperor Huangdi was Chairman Mao’s personal favourite. The communists lauded Huangdi’s oppression and killing of scholars and burning of books, as necessary. They used him to justify the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution. The novel, The Little Eunuch, is about how the little eunuch’s statue becomes a symbol for the necessity of harsh punishment, if society is to be ruled justly. The boy must have commited a terrible crime to be castrated. The novel is about what he really did.
What is your advice to aspiring authors?
Young writers always ask, how did you get published? Dumb luck, I suggest, but advise not to bank on it. Instead, enforce time discipline. If you can’t block at least two hours every day for hard core writing, don’t bother.Put your daydreaming to work. Make notes after you’ve indulged yourself. What can you take away from your flights of fancy?Buy Syd Field’s book on scriptwriting and learn the discipline of writing a tight script. That discipline will help you stay on track when you write your novel or short story.Write poetry to learn how to have the right beat, the right tempo in your paragraphs when you write prose.Develop a voice. For this learn from your favorite authors. If you aren’t a massive reader, you’re never going to be a published writer. Steal ideas from what you read. Stealing is allowed. Plagiarizing isn’t.Polish and polish and re polish your manuscript. Then polish again before polishing some more. Read a chapter from your favorite writer. Then read your chapter. Compare the feel. Keep doing this exercise. Compare, polish, repeat. Then, get a line editor to okay your work. Then get beta readers to pummel it further. A beta reader cannot be friends or family unless it’s your spouse or partner after a massive fight.Make rejections work for you. I’m talking about the ones that are more than a sentence and which implicitly or explicitly tell you where you’re going wrong. Wait for a day or two for the anger and disappointment to subside and then get back to correcting your manuscript. Bombay Swastika was completely re-worked four times because of rejection letters.And lastly, have the reader learn something new from what’s in your book. Provide her information that otherwise would require reading some boring textbook. This is HUGE and will get the reader hooked to your work. But it means you have to spend time on research. Real research and not just Google.
How can readers reach you?
Shoot me a message on facebook. I always reply. https://www.facebook.com/brahamauthor/posts/135674820490959
Since I could not hold my anxiety, without much preface, let me ask straight away, How did the idea of Bombay Swastika come to your mind?
In Bombay, every gully has a story to tell. In the case of Bombay Swastika, bits and pieces come from a mildewed building on 3rd Pastor Lane in Colaba. My father’s best friend, a German Jew, lived there. The penhouse floor of that building was a whorehouse. I was filled with awe when old enough to understand what that meant, but I digress. Back to my father’s German friend. His life could be a book in its own right but there are legal issues. With true stories, one can end up spending more time tap dancing around landmines, than writing. That’s why writing fiction is such a trip.The trick is to take true tidbits from whereever one finds them and weave a yarn, which is what I did. For good fiction, lack of restraint is a must. One learns over time nothing can be more outlandish than what real life throws up.Luckily, I was cut out for outlandish stories. Most people want to write their memoirs. Clearly, they had exciting lives. Mine wasn’t. I was the fat kid in class, and a Sikh to boot. That’s a double whammy. It confused classmates accosting me—should the fat boy joke come first then the Sardar joke, or the other way round? I became a what-if expert. What if I was the slim captain of the criket team? What if I could fly? What if girls in the nearby convent school fought over me? Each such query led to long flights of fancy, driving my parents to despair and the teachers to label me a daydreamer. When you’re in school, daydreaming is a capital crime.For a writer however it’s a prerequisite. What if the hero’s Jewish wife in Bombay Swastika, went back to Nazi Germany? What if refugees fleeing Karachi during Partition, had their escape blocked by Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s ambulance while he lay dying in it? What if this, what if that, and before I knew, we had a story that ends up being surprisingly relevant to today’s India. Who would’ve thunk?
Bombay and Swastika, the Nazi connection is not lost to the readers from the title. How did you coin the title?
What can be more obvious than the nexus between the Hindu Swastik and the Nazi Swastika? And yet this connection is barely explored in school texts or literature. It puzzled me. Growing up, we had World War Two comic books full of Nazi bad guys with Swastikas on their arms. An Indian kid with an iota of curiosity could compare that to the rangoli swastik on the floor of his house, or the little swastiks adorning his doorway. When I sat down to write about a German Jew in India, the good luck swastik became a sort of talisman in the story and after that, the name was a no-brainer. It came so easily, that at one point I thought, too easy, and wanted to change the title to, ’The Haunted Whorehouse, and the place of the Hidden Moon’. Luckily, good sense and a determined editor prevailed.
Which genre would you categorize your book?
Bombay Swastika is Historical Fiction. A comfortable fit, except that these days if you search under Historical Fiction on Amazon India, the first title that pops up is Immortals of Meluha—a book on Lord Shiva. A novel on Sita was actually #1 a few months ago, until Shiva came displaced her, one mythological character taking down the other, neither having anything to do with history, but who’s asking.
Between Virginia and Hong Kong, how do you schedule your writing time?
4am to 8am every morning, before leaving for my day job. Mornings work for me in Virgina. Strangely, in Asia it’s evenings. Why, don’t ask.Flying time, with no interruptions, is a huge bonus. When boarding, I always pray they have crappy movies.
How vast was your research?
Well, let’s try list all the topics researched to death for this book. There’s 1935 Berlin. Did you know before the Nazis got their hands on it, Berlin was a Jewish city, with forty percent of the population intermarried into Jewish families? Gentile (non-Jewish) women prefered marrying Jewish men because they didn’t drink or beat their wives, and because they worked hard. The Jewish Hospital in Berlin figures prominently in Bombay Swastika and in itself took up months of research. The book had to be dead accurate about locations in 1935 Berlin, 1948 Karachi, and 1964 Bombay. Bombay Swastika also famously tackles India’s nuclear program and the spectacular failure of Dr. Homi Bhabha’s plutonium reprocessing plant that no one talks about. Then in what turned out to be the the Yin to the nuclear program’s Yang, one got educated on tantric Krishna bhakti. It’s part of the layered plots that make up Bombay Swastika. I had to study it from scratch, not that I am complaining.
How was your publishing experience?
Two ladies at Om Books sum it up. Dipa Choudhuri and Ipshita Mitra, editors extraordinaire. Bombay Swastika is not an easy work to handle. Especially since India has become such a prickly nation. I mean, at one time, the best Sardar jokes came from Sardars. Today, they protest. Marathas protest. Hindus protest. Muslims protest. Everyone wears their animus proudly for all to see. Om could have asked to tone down the book. They didn’t. Om Books are also supurb marketeers, going that extra mile for a debut novel. Overall, I can pat myself on the back for signing up with them.
Where do you find yourself as an author, ten years from now?
I have four books to be done sequentially and they are eating away at me. They include a history of the Internet that I have to write and be done with. It’s called, Packet Wars— how the Internet became a video playground. Non-fiction, but a fun read. Then we have, Emperor, The Little Eunuch and, Her Browser History. These four books mean the next five years are spoken for. Besides writing these books, new stories have to be spun. What if this & what if that, is a habit that’s not going away. All in all, I’ll be disappointed if after ten years I haven’t continued to offend the right people and entertain the rest.
Do give a glimpse of The Little Eunuch to the readers.
In 1974, a farmer digging his field outside Xian, stumbled across the mausoleum of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi. It was like nothing the world had seen. A vast underground city guarded by a life-size terracotta army totaling 7000 warriors, infantrymen, horses, chariots and all their attendant armor and weaponry. Here’s the thing. Each terracotta soldier has distinctive features, different from the others. This leads us to believe these were statues of real people. There were statues of civilians too, in the underground mausoleum and one of them is a boy in a kneeling position, dubbed The Little Eunuch. Attempting to unite China’s warring nations into one country, First Emperor Huangdi was merciless in imposing his rule. Castration was a pretty standard punishment at the time of the First Emperor. So no surprise there are statues of eunuchs in the mausoleum. The Little Eunuch however, is special and in the novel becomes a symbol of Huangdi’s ’strict but just rule’.The ’strict but just’ Emperor Huangdi was Chairman Mao’s personal favourite. The communists lauded Huangdi’s oppression and killing of scholars and burning of books, as necessary. They used him to justify the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution. The novel, The Little Eunuch, is about how the little eunuch’s statue becomes a symbol for the necessity of harsh punishment, if society is to be ruled justly. The boy must have commited a terrible crime to be castrated. The novel is about what he really did.
What is your advice to aspiring authors?
Young writers always ask, how did you get published? Dumb luck, I suggest, but advise not to bank on it. Instead, enforce time discipline. If you can’t block at least two hours every day for hard core writing, don’t bother.Put your daydreaming to work. Make notes after you’ve indulged yourself. What can you take away from your flights of fancy?Buy Syd Field’s book on scriptwriting and learn the discipline of writing a tight script. That discipline will help you stay on track when you write your novel or short story.Write poetry to learn how to have the right beat, the right tempo in your paragraphs when you write prose.Develop a voice. For this learn from your favorite authors. If you aren’t a massive reader, you’re never going to be a published writer. Steal ideas from what you read. Stealing is allowed. Plagiarizing isn’t.Polish and polish and re polish your manuscript. Then polish again before polishing some more. Read a chapter from your favorite writer. Then read your chapter. Compare the feel. Keep doing this exercise. Compare, polish, repeat. Then, get a line editor to okay your work. Then get beta readers to pummel it further. A beta reader cannot be friends or family unless it’s your spouse or partner after a massive fight.Make rejections work for you. I’m talking about the ones that are more than a sentence and which implicitly or explicitly tell you where you’re going wrong. Wait for a day or two for the anger and disappointment to subside and then get back to correcting your manuscript. Bombay Swastika was completely re-worked four times because of rejection letters.And lastly, have the reader learn something new from what’s in your book. Provide her information that otherwise would require reading some boring textbook. This is HUGE and will get the reader hooked to your work. But it means you have to spend time on research. Real research and not just Google.
How can readers reach you?
Shoot me a message on facebook. I always reply. https://www.facebook.com/brahamauthor/posts/135674820490959
November 9, 2017
The Devil's Prayer by Like Gracias- Review
Book Name - The Devil's Prayer Author - Luke Gracias Publisher - Bee HiveBuy books from Amazon
My ReviewRating : 4.0
The plot starts with a nun namely Sister Benedictine, who commits suicide inside a church in front of thousands of witnesses. Next scene is Siobhan, with her sister Jess and her grandmother mourning the death of Sister Benedictine who apparently happens to be her mother Denise Russo, who left them six years back without a word. While Jess hates her mother for leaving them and being selfish, Siobhan tries to find reason. On the funeral day a priest who introduces himself as father Jakub hands over a book, which he claims to be her mother's bible, which was handed over to him by father Zachary. In the bible, there is a secret message from her mother for Siobhan asking her to come to Zamora.
The trip to Zamora is eventful where Siobhan is being followed and scrutinised and more or less attacked by unknown people. However she manages to get hold of the secret diary confession of her mother Denise. A sordid story of a young Denise unveils thenceforth. The story is painful, palpable and realistic. The shift in narration from third person to first person by Denise has raised the graph of the book. Even-though the story that mother tells to her daughter is full of graphic details that are cringe-worthy for a normal reader, the disclaimer or something of that sort by the mother in which Denise tells her daughter that in order to make her understand why she left them, the detailed account of what happened to her is necessary. This neutralises the prejudice if any by the readers.
After what happened to her and her deal with the devil, the whole mood of the story changes and we are taken to a prehistoric era of occult religious endeavour. A secretive yet effective practise to conceal the Devil's prayer which otherwise unleashes irreversible destruction and chaos in the world. Now here we can see why the book was compared to Da Vinci Code. The detailed research and the extreme hardwork of the author is visible throughout the book. The first half of the book is a women's fiction with more focus on the relationships while towards the end of the first half there is fantasy. Towards the second half, the life-story of Denise takes a back seat and the focus shifts on the historical cum mythological fiction. How author zeroes in on several facts with her logical reasoning is brilliant.
However, the climax failed to impress me as a reader. The foray into the Devil's prayer, which is the focal point as well as the title itself of the book proves to be pointless unless it calls for a sequel. The target audience is a mix but the book is clearly demarcated into the two halves and hence it is a tricky situation to prove worthy for the target readers.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher
November 4, 2017
Harnessing the Windmills of the Mind by Abraham Thomas- Review
Book Name - Harnessing the Windmills of the Mind Author - Abraham Thomas Publisher - Body &Soul Books (Leadstart)Buy books from Amazon
My ReviewRating : 4.0
The book provides a detailed account of how the brain works and which all parts of the brain acts in different emotional response. While science count the brain as a single windmill, author defines the brain as a nexus of windmills that trigger anger, anxiety, disappointment, jealousy, fear etc. The narration style is such a way that even beginners would not find it difficult to follow what is written. This might look like underestimation of their comprehensive capability by some.
Every emotion is discussed in details. The trigger or the route cause of the emotion, the new perspective to view it, a different approach to the problem and a solution. The solution is kept abstract and the concentration is primarily prioritised on the identification. Author has recommended different physical and breathing exercises to overcome the issues mentioned.
It is interesting to see that self awareness is given as and prime solution to major problems and hence the book could be considered as a spirituality lesson apart from the scientific point of view. The 'Know Thyself' or self awareness is the core of spirituality. Hence I would like to categorise the book as an applied nexus of philosophy, spirituality and science. More was expected from the book. I was expecting a detailed analysis with illustrations since the term Intuitive Algorithm calls for algorithmic illustration. Moreover the emotions discussed were all negative. Author could have dedicated a few chapters for positive emotion like happiness and the patterns that trigger them. Apart from this the perspective of the person on the receiving end could have been analysed.
Overall the book is an interesting account of viewing life under a different perspective.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher
November 3, 2017
Messed up! But all for Love by Arvind Parashar
Book Name - Messed up! But All for Love Author - Arvind Parashar Publisher - Srishti PublicationsBuy books from Amazon
My ReviewRating : 3.0
Neil a senior executive working with a leading brand name is in jail while the plot begins. We witness his release from the jail to rejoin his boss the next day. He narrates the events that happened in his life that eventually leads to his incarceration and divorce. Like any other happily married couple, Neil and his wife Gauri too had their share of arguments and differences but they successfully dodges the differences kicking the ego and taking the first step to make up by making out. Gauri introduces an overweight Neil to a fitness instructor Srinya whom Gauri eventually hates due to her interference in their life. Despite the knick knacks that tests the depth of the relation, Gauri and Neil goes strong as a couple. They are secured with each other to such extend that they set out for international trips separately with their set of friends. Later, to make the relation stronger, they go for a trip to Cuba. The trip turns out to be a topsy turvy drive in the life of Neil and Gauri, who meets Srinya at Cuba and the can of worms are set free, needless to say, the issue of misunderstandings. There they meets Drishya, the media person and her police officer husband. Back in India, with a snap of time, Neil is accused of molestation of a female as well as abduction of Drishya in two different incidents. This was enough to break the strong bond between the husband and wife. Will Neil and Gauri separate? Could Neil prove himself innocent? What is the role of Drishya in their lives?
The plot is a contemporary fiction in a literal sense. The dialogues and even the narration are brimful of terms that could be seen only in the urban dictionary. The book has definitely targeted the youth, who prefers easy reads. The first person narration is purely vernacular. The character development is moderate. While author has successfully delivered the idiosyncrasies of the characters, the way they look and the dress and other minor details are left to the reader's imagination. The disclaimer in the beginning about drunk and drive is a responsible attempt from the author but the scenes where the characters drink while they drive could have been avoided. A major message which I think the author tried to convey is that it is pointless of the couples to get separated for trivial issues. The book cites an example about how relations get sour and irreversible with pointless ego and misunderstandings. Without any boring paragraphs on relations, author has conveyed the same. The tendency of the media to blow everything out of proportion is also quipped generously. The application of cliche in the book is so much that DLF Phase 1 to 5 in Gurgaon has become a part of almost all bestsellers, so is the use of making out scenes. Unless book is an erotica, I don't find any point in explaining where each character touched the other and so and so.
Overall the book is a feel good metropolitan contemporary fiction with a suspense element.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher
Release Day Blitz- Tell Tale by Jeffrey Archer
Release day blitz- Tell Tale by Jeffrey Archer
ISBN 9781509867769 ǀ Fiction > Short Stories ǀ Macmillan ǀ Rs 399 ǀ 288pp ǀ PB ǀ B Format
Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Jeffrey Archer returns with his eagerly awaited collection of short stories, Tell Tale, giving us a fascinating, exciting and sometimes poignant insight into the people he has met, the stories he has come across and the countries he has visited during the past ten years.
Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out ‘Who Killed the Mayor?’ and the pretentious schoolboy in ‘The Road to Damascus’, whose discovery of the origins of his father’s wealth changes his life in the most profound way.
Revel in the stories of the woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League university during the 1930s in ‘A Gentleman and a Scholar’, and another young woman who thumbs a lift and gets more than she bargained for in ‘A Wasted Hour’.
These wonderfully engaging and always refreshingly original tales prove not only why Archer has been compared to Dahl and Maugham, but why he was described by The Times as ‘probably the greatest storyteller of our age’.‘If there was a Nobel prize for storytelling, Archer would win’ Daily Telegraph‘The short story has always been Jeffrey Archer’s strong suit and here he grips you quickly, puts you on the scent of a mystery, and moves you towards a charming moment of revelation’ The Scotsman‘Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining . . . Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories’ The Times
Jeffrey Archer, whose novels and short stories includeKane and Abel, A Prisoner of Birth and Cat O' Nine Tales, has topped the bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 275 million copies.He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (nineteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries).The author is married to Dame Mary Archer, and they have two sons, William and James, two grandsons and a granddaughter, and divide their time between homes in London, Cambridge and Mallorca.
ISBN 9781509867769 ǀ Fiction > Short Stories ǀ Macmillan ǀ Rs 399 ǀ 288pp ǀ PB ǀ B Format
Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Jeffrey Archer returns with his eagerly awaited collection of short stories, Tell Tale, giving us a fascinating, exciting and sometimes poignant insight into the people he has met, the stories he has come across and the countries he has visited during the past ten years.
Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out ‘Who Killed the Mayor?’ and the pretentious schoolboy in ‘The Road to Damascus’, whose discovery of the origins of his father’s wealth changes his life in the most profound way.
Revel in the stories of the woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League university during the 1930s in ‘A Gentleman and a Scholar’, and another young woman who thumbs a lift and gets more than she bargained for in ‘A Wasted Hour’.
These wonderfully engaging and always refreshingly original tales prove not only why Archer has been compared to Dahl and Maugham, but why he was described by The Times as ‘probably the greatest storyteller of our age’.‘If there was a Nobel prize for storytelling, Archer would win’ Daily Telegraph‘The short story has always been Jeffrey Archer’s strong suit and here he grips you quickly, puts you on the scent of a mystery, and moves you towards a charming moment of revelation’ The Scotsman‘Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining . . . Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories’ The Times
Jeffrey Archer, whose novels and short stories includeKane and Abel, A Prisoner of Birth and Cat O' Nine Tales, has topped the bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 275 million copies.He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (nineteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries).The author is married to Dame Mary Archer, and they have two sons, William and James, two grandsons and a granddaughter, and divide their time between homes in London, Cambridge and Mallorca.
November 1, 2017
Book Spotlight - The Blue Unicorn's Journey to OSM
About the Book:
“The metal horned unicorns are doomed!” That’s what Lauda Lead Horn wailed when she first saw the tribe’s new savior. OK, so his horn was not metal. . .and he did not have a magic power. . .and he was really a puny little runt. But doomed? Were things really that bad?
Well, things were pretty bad in the land of MarBryn. Magh, an evil sorcerer utilized unicorn horns and hooves to create his magical potions and spells. Those he used, to increase his power and to conquer everyone in his path. All of the unicorns from the Tribe of the Metal Horn were now gone . . . except for twelve survivors.
Before the blue unicorn was born, Numen told Alumna, the aluminum-horned oracle, that he had a plan to bring the tribe back home to Unimaise. His prophecy was, “Only the blue unicorn can join with the Moon-Star. Until then, no new unicorns will be born.” Blue was the last unicorn born. Twenty years later, his horn was still covered with a plain blue colored hide. There was not a glint of metal to be seen on it or his hooves. And he still didn’t have any magic. But he was no longer scrawny and he had his wits. Though no one else in the tribe thought he had a chance, Blue felt ready to make Magh pay for his evil deeds. And he went off to do it alone. That was Blue’s first mistake. If the entire tribe was not standing horn-tip to horn-tip at the proper time and the exact place to help usher the Moon-Star Spirit into Blue’s horn, he would die. Then, the rest of the tribe would really be doomed.
Readers will follow along two journey paths in this book. Blue is joined in his travels by his mentor Gaiso, the Stag and his friend, Girasol the Firebird as they try to find their way across a danger-filled MarBryn to Muzika Woods. The rest of Blue’s tribe is forced to follow another route due to Nix Nickle Horn’s unfortunate incident with a Manticore. Nix, the great unicorn defender must safely lead the way for Ghel, the Golden-Horned unicorn; Silubhra Silver Horn; Cornum the Brass-Horned unicorn; Steel Horned Style; Cuprum the Copper-Horned unicorn; Tin-Horned Tinam; Dr. Zinko; Iown the Iron-Horned unicorn and the others in an action packed adventure to their destination in Muzika Woods. Both journey paths converge there in the Nebulium Circle.
Goodreads* Amazon * Barnes & Noble
About the Author:
I'm Sybrina. . .. . .Just one of millions of wannabe author/singer/songwriters out there but I hope, after reading or hearing my books and songs, you'll think my contributions to the world have as much value as any other famous artist out there today.
Fame is all in being in the right place at the right time but at least with the internet and venues like this, all of us have opportunities to share our creativity with the world. I'm so happy that I am able to share my works with you. That is awesome!
The books I’ve written span a wide range between illustrated picture books, coloring books and YA novels to technical and how-to books. If you’re so inclined you can read a little bit about the inspiration for each one below.
My latest effort is “The Blue Unicorn’s Journey To Osm. It is a book I started writing 30 something years ago and never finished. At the time, it was meant to be an epic fantasy along the lines of novels written by Tolkien, Piers Anthony, Ursula K. Le Guin and other amazing fantasy writers. I’ve pulled out my notes, dusted off the outline and began rewriting and expanding upon the 50 pages I had began. This story is now available as an Illustrated Book for teens and older readers in full color and in black and white, too. The black and white version is a "Read and Color" book. Read a chapter, then color the following pages. How fun is that? There is also a picture book for pre-schoolers called Unicorns From Unimaise - The Magical Metal-Horn Trobe. A longer version of the chapter book will soon be available as an Illustrated Novel with a companion glossary called, The Marbryn Compendium. All of the fantastic fantasy illustrations are by Dasguptarts. There is also a companion coloring/character description book, edited by Calyie Martin. It will introduce potential readers to the myriad of characters, places and things in the story.
Website * Twitter * Goodreads
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“The metal horned unicorns are doomed!” That’s what Lauda Lead Horn wailed when she first saw the tribe’s new savior. OK, so his horn was not metal. . .and he did not have a magic power. . .and he was really a puny little runt. But doomed? Were things really that bad? Well, things were pretty bad in the land of MarBryn. Magh, an evil sorcerer utilized unicorn horns and hooves to create his magical potions and spells. Those he used, to increase his power and to conquer everyone in his path. All of the unicorns from the Tribe of the Metal Horn were now gone . . . except for twelve survivors.
Before the blue unicorn was born, Numen told Alumna, the aluminum-horned oracle, that he had a plan to bring the tribe back home to Unimaise. His prophecy was, “Only the blue unicorn can join with the Moon-Star. Until then, no new unicorns will be born.” Blue was the last unicorn born. Twenty years later, his horn was still covered with a plain blue colored hide. There was not a glint of metal to be seen on it or his hooves. And he still didn’t have any magic. But he was no longer scrawny and he had his wits. Though no one else in the tribe thought he had a chance, Blue felt ready to make Magh pay for his evil deeds. And he went off to do it alone. That was Blue’s first mistake. If the entire tribe was not standing horn-tip to horn-tip at the proper time and the exact place to help usher the Moon-Star Spirit into Blue’s horn, he would die. Then, the rest of the tribe would really be doomed.
Readers will follow along two journey paths in this book. Blue is joined in his travels by his mentor Gaiso, the Stag and his friend, Girasol the Firebird as they try to find their way across a danger-filled MarBryn to Muzika Woods. The rest of Blue’s tribe is forced to follow another route due to Nix Nickle Horn’s unfortunate incident with a Manticore. Nix, the great unicorn defender must safely lead the way for Ghel, the Golden-Horned unicorn; Silubhra Silver Horn; Cornum the Brass-Horned unicorn; Steel Horned Style; Cuprum the Copper-Horned unicorn; Tin-Horned Tinam; Dr. Zinko; Iown the Iron-Horned unicorn and the others in an action packed adventure to their destination in Muzika Woods. Both journey paths converge there in the Nebulium Circle.
Goodreads* Amazon * Barnes & Noble
About the Author:
I'm Sybrina. . .. . .Just one of millions of wannabe author/singer/songwriters out there but I hope, after reading or hearing my books and songs, you'll think my contributions to the world have as much value as any other famous artist out there today. Fame is all in being in the right place at the right time but at least with the internet and venues like this, all of us have opportunities to share our creativity with the world. I'm so happy that I am able to share my works with you. That is awesome!
The books I’ve written span a wide range between illustrated picture books, coloring books and YA novels to technical and how-to books. If you’re so inclined you can read a little bit about the inspiration for each one below.
My latest effort is “The Blue Unicorn’s Journey To Osm. It is a book I started writing 30 something years ago and never finished. At the time, it was meant to be an epic fantasy along the lines of novels written by Tolkien, Piers Anthony, Ursula K. Le Guin and other amazing fantasy writers. I’ve pulled out my notes, dusted off the outline and began rewriting and expanding upon the 50 pages I had began. This story is now available as an Illustrated Book for teens and older readers in full color and in black and white, too. The black and white version is a "Read and Color" book. Read a chapter, then color the following pages. How fun is that? There is also a picture book for pre-schoolers called Unicorns From Unimaise - The Magical Metal-Horn Trobe. A longer version of the chapter book will soon be available as an Illustrated Novel with a companion glossary called, The Marbryn Compendium. All of the fantastic fantasy illustrations are by Dasguptarts. There is also a companion coloring/character description book, edited by Calyie Martin. It will introduce potential readers to the myriad of characters, places and things in the story.
Website * Twitter * Goodreads
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