Saturday, July 7, 2012
Road Trip
A large part of INDIAN SUMMER takes place on the road, and as part of my celebration of the release, I'm going on a little road trip to Leavenworth, an alpine village in Washington State for the next few days. There is nothing better than a good road trip--or a good road trip novel!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Romantic, Goofy Bollywood
I missed posting yesterday because it was the Fourth of July, but here are two fun bits of Bollywood for you.
The first is a truly romantic scene from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, my favorite movie ever. It loses a bit out of context, but it's still super-romantic.
The second is just a goofy song from Haseena Maan Jayegi, with a wonderful load of funky English thrown in (another thing I love about Bollywood films.) Govinda, the actor here, is often credited for his excellent dancing skills, a point I allude to in Indian Summer (although I do it in Hindi, so I imagine a large portion of my English-speaking audience might miss this particular allusion.)
The first is a truly romantic scene from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, my favorite movie ever. It loses a bit out of context, but it's still super-romantic.
The second is just a goofy song from Haseena Maan Jayegi, with a wonderful load of funky English thrown in (another thing I love about Bollywood films.) Govinda, the actor here, is often credited for his excellent dancing skills, a point I allude to in Indian Summer (although I do it in Hindi, so I imagine a large portion of my English-speaking audience might miss this particular allusion.)
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Worf!
Seven days to Indian Summer!
Bollywood movies are obviously a part of the mix, but would you believe Klingons appear in the novel as well (to an extent)? One of the main characters was a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a teenager, going so far as to have a cardboard cut-out of that character standing in his bedroom for over a decade. So in honor of that cardboard cutout, I give you: WORF!
(Note: I'm happy to say the Indian/Star Trek thing occurs in other places, like the first page of Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown, and one interesting scene in Meredith McGuire's Bollywood Becomes Her. Is it because Data mentions Diwali in one of the episodes, I wonder?)
Bollywood movies are obviously a part of the mix, but would you believe Klingons appear in the novel as well (to an extent)? One of the main characters was a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a teenager, going so far as to have a cardboard cut-out of that character standing in his bedroom for over a decade. So in honor of that cardboard cutout, I give you: WORF!
(Note: I'm happy to say the Indian/Star Trek thing occurs in other places, like the first page of Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown, and one interesting scene in Meredith McGuire's Bollywood Becomes Her. Is it because Data mentions Diwali in one of the episodes, I wonder?)
Sunday, July 1, 2012
It's July!
I can't believe it's July already! However, it's certainly staying lighter later, and I did turn the ceiling fans on for the first time this year, so the context definitely fits the definition of July. And of course the big news is that Indian Summer is almost here--nine more days and it is go for launch.
Thus, in spirit of the upcoming book launch, I present to you a bit of a countdown to the release. Every day I will present some little tantalizing treat related to Indian Summer. That's right; for the next eight days, I will present a blog that shows something that inspired the novel, or at least something that has to do with me writing the novel.
Here on Day One, I present the two Bollywood scenes that first got me hooked on "action musicals" and that ultimately led to me writing Indian Summer.
In the first scene, two young men profess their love for their mother in song. This is about five minutes into the 1995 film Karan Arjun, the first Indian film I ever saw, and I have to say I wasn't very impressed at this point:
But then, five minutes later, this is how those two young men end up (thanks to an evil uncle): Wow--I wasn't expecting that. The following two hours of the film are, like many Bollywood films, a mixture of many things: action, songs, drama, comedy, etc. I loved it, although maybe not so much as Don, one of the main characters in the novel... By the way, don't worry about the two men in the movie; they are immediately reincarnated so that they can come back and kick Uncle Durjan's butt.
Thus, in spirit of the upcoming book launch, I present to you a bit of a countdown to the release. Every day I will present some little tantalizing treat related to Indian Summer. That's right; for the next eight days, I will present a blog that shows something that inspired the novel, or at least something that has to do with me writing the novel.
Here on Day One, I present the two Bollywood scenes that first got me hooked on "action musicals" and that ultimately led to me writing Indian Summer.
In the first scene, two young men profess their love for their mother in song. This is about five minutes into the 1995 film Karan Arjun, the first Indian film I ever saw, and I have to say I wasn't very impressed at this point:
But then, five minutes later, this is how those two young men end up (thanks to an evil uncle): Wow--I wasn't expecting that. The following two hours of the film are, like many Bollywood films, a mixture of many things: action, songs, drama, comedy, etc. I loved it, although maybe not so much as Don, one of the main characters in the novel... By the way, don't worry about the two men in the movie; they are immediately reincarnated so that they can come back and kick Uncle Durjan's butt.
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