Indian Summer has been out in the world for a whole month now, which means:
CONTEST TIME!!!!
So...the first three people to write an Amazon.com review of Indian Summer will get a prize (there will be three prizes to choose from.) All you have to do is go to Amazon, write and submit your honest review of Indian Summer, and let me know!
THE PRIZES (choose one)
1) A T-shirt with the Indian Summer cover
2) A free Daniel Rider book (either Indian Summer paperback, Indian Summer ebook, or Dreams in Shadow anthology ebook)
3) A DVD of my favorite Bollywood movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
CONTEST RULES
1) You must have read the book
2) Review must be at least 100 words long
3) Contest is not open to anyone who is named in the Acknowledgements section of Indian Summer. Sorry.
4) Contest will run until three winners are determined. In the unlikely event that doesn't happen before the end of 2012, contest will be null and void.
All right.... Get writing!!!!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Back to the Blog
I've been silent on this blog for a while, which is not a good thing. A writer should blog...always.
Yes, this mantra is a bastardization of the idea that a "writer should write...always," an idea I first heard when I was in junior high from the film Throw Momma from the Train, and it's true. A writer should always be writing. However, now, in the ice cold light of the 21st century, a writer has to do a hell of a lot more than write his or her book/script/poem, whatever. Now, unless you're huge, like Stephen King or Salman Rushdie, you have to do at least some of your own marketing, and one of the big ways to keep yourself on public view is to blog.
So, here's my new goal: for the rest of the year, I will write one blog every day. My blogs will mostly be about my writing process, and will be an intensely honest look at how I write on a day to day basis (or often how I don't write, how I spend my writing time zoned out staring at some point to the right of the computer screen, thinking "Duh.")
I'll write about the projects I'm working on (four, which is two too many, actually), how the work is going, what kind of stumbling blocks I come upon, be they internal or external, and how daily life and my writing bleed into each other despite seeming to be completely at odds most of the time.
I'm not promising genius in these blogs. After all, I've only got twenty minutes a day scheduled to blog. But I do promise honesty. So come along on this crazy artistic trip with me if you dare; it's bound to be fun!
Yes, this mantra is a bastardization of the idea that a "writer should write...always," an idea I first heard when I was in junior high from the film Throw Momma from the Train, and it's true. A writer should always be writing. However, now, in the ice cold light of the 21st century, a writer has to do a hell of a lot more than write his or her book/script/poem, whatever. Now, unless you're huge, like Stephen King or Salman Rushdie, you have to do at least some of your own marketing, and one of the big ways to keep yourself on public view is to blog.
So, here's my new goal: for the rest of the year, I will write one blog every day. My blogs will mostly be about my writing process, and will be an intensely honest look at how I write on a day to day basis (or often how I don't write, how I spend my writing time zoned out staring at some point to the right of the computer screen, thinking "Duh.")
I'll write about the projects I'm working on (four, which is two too many, actually), how the work is going, what kind of stumbling blocks I come upon, be they internal or external, and how daily life and my writing bleed into each other despite seeming to be completely at odds most of the time.
I'm not promising genius in these blogs. After all, I've only got twenty minutes a day scheduled to blog. But I do promise honesty. So come along on this crazy artistic trip with me if you dare; it's bound to be fun!
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.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The Curse of the First Novel
My wife said something interesting last night.
I am now in final edits for Indian Summer--meaning basically just rereading to check final formatting for the ebook versions--but as I'm going through, I'm once in a while finding sentences that I don't quite love. The problem is that I know why I wrote them. One is intentionally unnecessary, but I have kept it because it reflects something about the character of the narrator at that point in time. Another serves as an action transition. Another.... Well, the bottom line is that I'm keeping some sentences that I don't think are top quality, but because they have other importance.
This is where we get to what my wife said.
When I told her about one of these sentences, which I'm keeping despite it being just a little bit "off," she said "You will always be embarrassed by your first novel."
I want to write that one down again for truth:
"You will always be embarrassed by your first novel."
No matter what, that first attempt, that first time you stick your neck out there and do something new, will be a bittersweet moment. This is what my wife was saying. No matter how good the first book is, no matter whether it gets critical acclaim from every source from here to Estonia, I as an author will always be supercritical and somewhat weary of that first shot.
And when I say "I," I mean every author. In fact, I mean every author in every way. I mean, every author of any moment. If you've ever done something for the first time, I mean you.
It's like your first kiss. Or first sex. Or the first time you performed on stage. Or any first. I don't care how great it was; in your mind, the great is always tempered by the newness of the thing, the naivete of the thing's doer, the greenness.
The important thing, though, is that we do that thing. The "first," while there may be a few points of embarrassment, is also the one that will always stick to the mind with all the exciting trappings of nostalgia.
I'll be excited--and very proud--to introduce Indian Summer to the world in July. It's a fun book, and I think many of you will like it. Hopefully a lot. And you probably won't even notice that the third sentence on page 57 is one that the writer grimaces at.
And you shouldn't. The good thing about the Curse of the First Novel is that it only applies to the author, not the reader.
I am now in final edits for Indian Summer--meaning basically just rereading to check final formatting for the ebook versions--but as I'm going through, I'm once in a while finding sentences that I don't quite love. The problem is that I know why I wrote them. One is intentionally unnecessary, but I have kept it because it reflects something about the character of the narrator at that point in time. Another serves as an action transition. Another.... Well, the bottom line is that I'm keeping some sentences that I don't think are top quality, but because they have other importance.
This is where we get to what my wife said.
When I told her about one of these sentences, which I'm keeping despite it being just a little bit "off," she said "You will always be embarrassed by your first novel."
I want to write that one down again for truth:
"You will always be embarrassed by your first novel."
No matter what, that first attempt, that first time you stick your neck out there and do something new, will be a bittersweet moment. This is what my wife was saying. No matter how good the first book is, no matter whether it gets critical acclaim from every source from here to Estonia, I as an author will always be supercritical and somewhat weary of that first shot.
And when I say "I," I mean every author. In fact, I mean every author in every way. I mean, every author of any moment. If you've ever done something for the first time, I mean you.
It's like your first kiss. Or first sex. Or the first time you performed on stage. Or any first. I don't care how great it was; in your mind, the great is always tempered by the newness of the thing, the naivete of the thing's doer, the greenness.
The important thing, though, is that we do that thing. The "first," while there may be a few points of embarrassment, is also the one that will always stick to the mind with all the exciting trappings of nostalgia.
I'll be excited--and very proud--to introduce Indian Summer to the world in July. It's a fun book, and I think many of you will like it. Hopefully a lot. And you probably won't even notice that the third sentence on page 57 is one that the writer grimaces at.
And you shouldn't. The good thing about the Curse of the First Novel is that it only applies to the author, not the reader.
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