K Harikumar, author of ' When strangers Meet'

I have couple of friends who write well too. K Harikumar is one among them. Surprisingly, unlike others, he started his blog after writing his debut book ' When strangers meet'. I will review his book soon in this blog.You can know more about from his blog http://www.thetimesofhari.blogspot.in/  Apart from writing the book, Harikumar has also come up with trailers for his book with live characters. Perhaps, such an attempt is first of its kind in the country. He himself acted as one of the characters of his book for the trailer. He was kind enough to answer some of my questions.


What kind of a person is Harikumar?
Simple, at times arrogant, loner on most occasions, always weaving a tale or two in my mind.

Your debut book has just hit the markets. How was your experience while writing them and also about books and its characters?
To be honest, I was bed ridden during the writing process. However, I had created my own world and was living in it, as the One who created it and as each everything created. The World of my story...

How did writing occur to you?
By pure fascination. My mother used to read me stories from Balarama & Muthashi ( children story books in Malayalam, the language of Kerala, a state in India ) back in the 90s when I was a 6 year old Dillivala (from Delhi, the capital of India )(since I could not read Malayalam). Later on, when I started reading (which was quite late as I did not have a solid base in any language due to my dad's transferable job) I was even more fascinated, especially by the stories of Sherlock Holmes & novels of Roald Dahl.

What were your struggles in becoming a writer and also the person you are today?
My greatest struggle was to overcome the writer's block which was the direct result of my laziness. One should have a beginning and an ending, rest can be weaved in between. After years of sitting down and trying to write something, I finally had a short story which had a beginning and an ending, which I first prepared as a short film. The struggle evolves phase by phase, first it was writing, then finding a publisher and then it was marketing the book (which I am still doing). The experience was amazing, since I was the one who did everything right from writing to drawing to filming the trailer to distributing the books in local markets (esp in Kerala) to online marketing to PR to giving talk sessions in schools in the North etc etc etc.

Which is your favourite genre that you would like to write a book on?
Period Thriller

Tell us about your new blog?
It's more like a journal where I put up all my thoughts, and yea, my new craze 'doodles'. Since, many people do not have accounts on facebook, so having a personal blog makes it easier for everyone to join in.

Are you a voracious reader. Do you have a special liking for any particular genre to read?
I am an occasional reader and my favorite genre being Thriller. I simply love reading Dan Brown, Conan Doyle & Roald Dahl. I also love to read Paulo Coelho and Khalid Hosseini.

What are your tips for writing?
I can give one simple suggestion. When I write, I try to put on a situational soundtrack to go with the mood of the chapter/story.

Share some of your beautiful moments associated with writing?
The time I was finishing the climax and the soundtrack from The Da Vinci Code was raising it's tempo in my jukebox. I could actually feel myself in the shoes of Robert Langdon inside the Westminster Abbey (Tom Hanks from the movie) and all I had to do was swap places and people. 

Have your ever thought of any other job other than writing? What are your other passions?
I have made three documentaries, filmmaking completes my passion of storytelling. I have worked as an Assistant Director and Screenwriter in over 25 ad films and directed 8 short films. Just to keep things neatly wound, I am assisting my dad in his farm too and that's his passion- Farming.

Do you write a book with both the readers of east and west in your mind?
While writing I try to place myself as a ordinary reader, nothing above or below that mark. When I like it and can connect with the particular emotions, then every reader (the majority) would like it because I am myself an ordinary reader. 

Your 10 favourite books and 10 favourite movies?
In the decreasing order: 
BOOKS
The Da Vinci Code, Alchemist, Deception Point, Fifth Mountain, Witches, The Study in Scarlet, The Kite Runner, The Lost Symbol, Pet Sematory, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And well of course, a new addition WHEN STRANGERS MEET ;)

MOVIES
GURU, Delhi 6 , Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya , Transformers Trilogy, The Dark Knight series, The Da Vinci Code, Rab ne Banadi Jodi, Raavanan, Jab tak Hai Jaan, Dasavatharam.

How would you like to see you after five years?
Lets take one thing at a time, the present moment.

PS How many books you have in your library?
I guess over 100, have only read a dozen or more.

Amritorupa Kanjilal - an interview with a book reviwer

It's been a long time since I interviewed some one. Hence I started surfing the blogs for  bloggers and blogger writers. And it was by sheer coincidence I chanced upon Amritorupa Kanjilal's blog ' Rivers I have Known'  and I was quite awed by the selection of her books. It encompassed various genres. Her reviews are great. I have decided to  read five particular books after reading her reviews.  For a change I am interviewing a book reviewer for the first time. This is my fifth interview. My other three interviewees were published authors. I love book reviewers for I started my blog to be a wonderful book reviewer who could lure others to read what I liked. That's why Amrita topped the list.

About Amrita ( Short form for Amritorupa Kanjilal )

Amritorupa Kanjilal was a corporate shark before she decided she would be much happier being a goldfish, blowing bubbles in her little bowl. She lives in Kolkata, India, and reads too much for her own good. When she isn't reviewing the hell out of books, she works on ideas for her novel, and makes tiny sculptures from construction putty......

( Taken from her blog )

To read her wonderful reviewshttp://riversihaveknown.com/

Could you tell a few words about yourself?
I’m a supremely laid back person who loves to read.

When did you realise that you want to be a gold fish and not a shark?
2011, when I had the epiphany that I’ll never be able to care too much about material success, and will be miserable if I spend my life seeking it. I quit my job the next day. I took up another job 6 months later, but took the conscious decision never to try to become a shark again.

Your book reviews are wonderful. What are the criterions select a book for reading and also for book reviewing.

Thank you! I read a lot of reviews and generally try to read anything that sounds interesting. I also go by the recommendations of those friends whose tastes in reading are somewhat similar to mine. I also try to read other books by authors whose other works I’ve enjoyed. Sometime, very rarely though, I pick up a book that has an interesting name or cover. 
I want to review all the books I read, but since I read much faster than I blog, I end up reviewing just those I really liked or really hated.

Are you a full time book reviewer or a blogger?
Nope, I have a day job. I wish were, though. Maybe someday.

How many days usually you take - a) to read a book ?
Depends on the size of the book. I manage to read approximately 40 pages on weekdays and 200 pages on weekends. I spent 2 weeks reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which is the longest I’ve spent on a book in recent years.

b)to review a book?
2-3 hours. It would be less, but I have to think up puns and witticisms become somehow those have become expected of me.

Are you in the habit of keeping notes while reviewing a book?
Haha, I wish. I have tried doing that several times, but it never works because I generally forget everything else while reading. Also because I read in public vehicles a lot. Also because once I tried and my dog stole my pen when I wasn’t looking and chewed it till it became transparent.

Your favourite genres and authors and why do you like them?
Humour, horror, fantasy, and graphic novels (not sure if that is a genre). Not sure why I love humour and horror so much. Possibly because they appeal to my fundamental instincts – I love the absurd and the grotesque. Fantasy I love because I always wish I were living a cooler, more awesome life, and fantasy literature helps me achieve that illusion temporarily.
Too many favorite authors to name, here are some though- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Hilary Mantel, Joseph Heller,  John Kennedy Toole.Toni Morrison, Stephen King, Sue Townsend, Neil Gaiman, Milan Kundera, John Steinbeck, Helen Fielding, Ogden Nash, Wendy Cope, Bill Watterson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Douglas Adams, Ian McEwan, JRR Tolkien, J K Rowling (Going to stop now before every single author I love guilts me into mentioning them)

Which genre you prefer to read?
Fiction primarily. In fiction I love reading all sorts of books

Apart from reading and writing, what are your other interests?
Playing with my dog. Cooking weird things with my husband. Eating out. Being lazy.

What are your tips for writing?
None. Can’t think of a single one.
Oh, here’s one. Every once in a while pretend you are the reader. That saves your writing from becoming self indulgent.

Do you buy books you need to read or just collect books to read in future?
Unfortunately I am a raging bookshopaholic, so I always buy faster than I can read. Any given time I have at least 10 books on my shelf waiting to be read. I promise myself I wont buy any more books till I finish every single one I already own, but then I have a bad week and accidentally buy 8 more.

Do you encourage ebooks as a reader and writer?
I read ebooks often, but I cannot bring myself to love them. If I really like a book I read in e-format, I usually buy the paper version soon enough. I encourage other people to read ebooks because it is good for the environment and also because I hope popularity of ebooks will help make paper books cheaper for people like me. But I also worry that paper books will go the way of vinyl records and cassettes and just become extinct. What will become of book collectors like me then?

Your 10 favourite books and 10 favourite movies?
Catch 22
Love in the time of cholera
Wolf Hall, Bring up the bodies
A confederacy of dunces
Good Omens
Midnight’s children
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Calvin & Hobbes
The Master and Margharita
One Hundred Years of Solitude

Not a huge movie buff. I like dark stuff like those by Tarantino or Kubrick.

How did you start blogging?
Don’t remember. It was something a lot of my friends were doing back in 2008, probably one of them inspired me.

You have talked in your profile about working out ideas for novel when you are not reviewing. Is there a novel in the pipe line.
Haha, nope. Lots of ideas in the pipeline though.

 How many books you have in your library
578. ten of these I have not read yet.

You belong to me - Mary Higgins Clark

Book: You belong to me
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Publication Date: 1998

I do not have any regret that I have joined Mary Higgins Clark reading contest.

'Unputdownable until you finish it'.

You belong to me was a usual MHC book. But the writing was not winding but straight and stellar that you could put it down only after finishing it.

The story is about a killer who stalks beautiful and lone women and murders them.  The killings remained subdued until Dr Susan Chandler, an assistant district attorney turned psychologist churns it out through her popular radio show ' Ask Susan'. 

She invites Dr Donald Richards, another psychiatrist to her talk show to discuss his book ' Vanishing women' and the safety issues encountered by lonesome women. In the process, she discusses Regina Clausen who had vanished mysteriously about three years ago. Thus ensues many other killings.

When you thoroughly scrutinize the book, it offers nothing new. One of the criticisms I came across about this book was that MHC was interested in successful women who undertake rich cruises, falls for rich men.  Absolutely true regarding this book. But what matters finally is whether you have enjoyed the process of reading. If you think that you have wasted your three and half hours, then it is a sheer waste of time. 

But for me, it was the other way round. It was an easy read and enjoyed it.

Post Mortem by Patricia Cornwell

You will like Patricia Cornwell, if you have keen eyes of every meticulous forensic details. Ms Cornwell introduces Dr Kay Scarpetta  in her first published novel ' Post Mortem'. Every night in Richmond has become nightmarish as women were brutally murdered and strangled to death. When the story opens Dr Scarpetta was woken up from her sleep by Sergeant Marino that a fourth case of strangling was reported. The murderer was leaving clues. But they could not trace him. Though she scrutinises the cases with the unerring eyes, bottlenecks are sown on his way as there was an attempt to sabotage the investigation from within. It becomes all the more precarious when her life was in danger.

would like to finish reading these books

would like to finish reading these books within three months. Got good reviews of these books from http://riversihaveknown.com/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-by-susannah-clarke-a-review/. Her reviews are great.

Mystery writer Barbara Mertz dies at 85

NEW YORK – Barbara Mertz, a best-selling mystery writer who wrote dozens of novels under two pen names, has died. She was 85.

Mertz died Thursday morning at her home, in Frederick, Maryland, her daughter Elizabeth told her publisher HarperCollins.

Mertz wrote more than 35 mysteries under the name Elizabeth Peters, including her most popular series about a daring Victorian archaeologist named Amelia Peabody. She also wrote 29 suspense novels under the pen name Barbara Michaels, and under her own name, she wrote nonfiction books about ancient Egypt.

Born Barbara Louise Gross, Mertz grew up in small-town Illinois during the Depression and went to the University of Chicago on scholarship, where she wrote on her website, “I was supposed to be preparing myself to teach — a nice, sensible career for a woman.”

But her true love was archaeology, and she soon found herself drawn to the department of Egyptology. She received a Ph.D. at the age of 23.

For more, please read http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/118967/mystery-writer-barbara-mertz-dies-at-85

Mystery Writers

They are my newly found mystery writers 

Patricia Cornwell

Ruth Rendell

Tami Hoag

Tess Gerritsen

Last Voyage of the Valentina, Santa Montefiore

Review from Good reads

Exotically beautiful but desperately unhappy, Alba lives on a houseboat on the Thames, where she enjoys a life of leisure and entertains an endless and unfulfilling succession of lovers. But then she discovers a portrait of her dead mother, Valentina -- a woman she'd hardly known, whose story has been kept from her by her still grieving father. Determined to learn the truth about Valentina, Alba returns to the olive groves of the Amalfi coast of Italy. There she uncovers a mysterious tale of decadence, deception, murder, and betrayal involving partisans and Nazis, peasants and counts. Alba's journey leads her not only to the truth of her mother's hidden past but to the possibility of happiness in her own future.

" I like lemons and arum lilies, the smell of the dawn and the mystery of the night. I like to dance. I wanted to be a dancer as a little girl. I`m frightened of being alone. I`m frightened of being no one. Of not mattering. The moon fascinates me; I could sit all night just staring up at it and wondeng. She makes me feel safe. I hate this war, but I love it for having brought you to me. I`m afraid of loving too much. Of being hurt. Of living my life in pain and suffering for loving someone I am unable to have. I`m frightened too of death, of nothingness. Of dying, and finding that there isn't a God. Of my soul wandering in a terrible limbo that is neither life nor death. My favorite color is purple. My favorite stone a diamond. I would like to wear a necklace of the finest diamonds just to sparkle for the night, to know what it feels to be a lady. My favorite part of the world is the sea. My favorite man is you."

Santa Montefiore, Last Voyage of the Valentina

Seeking your suggestions

Though I have been reading books without a break, I am not able to update my blog with its reviews. I have currently found out some good mystery writers. I would be obliged, if you would help me with the names of mystery writers. Except Agatha Christie and Perry Mason. I would really like to be acquainted with some good mystery writers.

I am currently reading

The Sky is falling - Sydney Sheldon

After a considerable gap, I have read a Sydney Sheldon's book, The sky is falling. It was Sydney Sheldon with whom I got acquainted with when I first ushered into the realm of mysteries and thrillers. Years have gone and I have read so may thrillers and mysteries. But Sydney's craft always allured me. After these long years, I still feel the same. When I was reading ' The sky is falling', I felt like I could even have a wink of sleep before knowing what would be ' Dana Evans', next step. It was as if Dana was leading the way. The reading becomes enjoyable when you start moving along with the characters. There exist no barriers.  The long wall that separates the reader and the reading no longer exists. You go along with that character wherever he or she goes. That's what it happened with Sydney.  I have been to London, Rome, Russia........When I started reading him ( 10 years back), there were many who constantly asked me ' still in Sydney Sheldon's books. It's high time you moved on. After such long years, I am shouting out ' I am still with him and he is one of the best'.

'Dana Evans', the young and vibrant television anchor was back from Sarajevo after her war reporting. The twist in the tale comes as Gary Winthrop, the last in the Winthrop was family was murdered by some art  stealers. It was just a few days before Dana interviewed Gary Winthrop in her television show. But in peculiar circumstances, Dana founds out that it was not only Gary but Winthrops were obliterated from the earth. The book will slowly unravels how she was playing with danger, unknowingly.

 

The confessor back with cold feet - Meenakshy Reddy Madhavan

For please log on to http://www.compulsiveconfessions.com/

The picture of a seven year old girl, hiding a small notebook when she goes to her class room, just to jot down whatever comes to her mind was like stating the obvious. No other vocation would interest her but writing. Besides, by bequeathing a strong legacy of writing, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan could not be anything else but a woman of letters.

But surprisingly whenever she wrote she did not hesitate to take a detour from her parents’ style. Unlike her father, the veteran writer, N S Madhavan who loved to fathom the depths of literary fiction and mother Sheela Reddy who always delved into non-literary fiction, Meenakshy loved to ferret out the possibilities of commercial fiction. Ask her why, she says “I realised that no writer talks about a woman like me, a metro and urbane woman whose heart is global but has not lost the link with the tradition. I wanted to explore the pull between these two extremes,” she says. And because of that, there are no clashes as the family has three different genres of writing, she adds with a mischievous smile.

With her third book Cold Feet hitting the markets, Meenakshi was all excited and was in Kochi as part of its promotional tour conducted by Penguin books. The book is all about the lives of five women who live in the metropolis - Mumbai and an account of their daily lives. But primarily it takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions. “I have also talked about a character who is a lesbian,” she says.

The author appeared extremely happy when I told her that I came to know about the promotional event of her book from her blog Compulsive Confessions.

“I should update it more often,” she says with a grin.

Incidentally, her father N S Madhavan who carved a niche in the perceptions of the Malayali readers with his renowned work Lanthan Batheriyile Luthiniyakal, translated as Litanies of the Dutch Battery, was born and brought up in Kochi. Meenakshi says that she is all excited to be here for her father always said it has one of the prettiest bookstores. “It’s right on the sea front with a huge glass window and you can watch the ships sailing through,” she says. I have been to Kochi several times and I love Fort Kochi the most, she adds.

With more than twenty lakh visitors for her blog, she says that she never expected such a huge response and is happy that she could maintain it for the past ten years. “I started the blog with a pseudonym eM as I was a bit bothered about how people would react to the kind of stuff I was going to write. But in no time, the readers identified and I had to come out of the cocoon. But I am so happy that I could maintain it for such a long period,” she says.

About her parents' reaction to her blog, she says, “They were ‘super supportive’. They like my writing.  Hey, I am their daughter, they will definitely not discourage me!” she says.

Asked why is she often referred as the Bridget Jones of India, she says “Honestly, I have no idea. Since you are the one who put this question, I have to seriously think about it.”

Most of her stories were centered in the two metropolitan cities - Mumbai and Delhi. As the author lives shuttling between these two cities, she says that most of her writing contains the pulse of them. “Both cities have different feelings. When you land in the Delhi airport, the waves of tension starts hitting you, unlike Mumbai. When Mumbai is crowded, Delhi gives you privacy. But you just can’t take auto in the middle of the night relaxingly in Delhi as you do in Mumbai. You know the kind of stories we are getting now-a-days from Delhi,” she says. She also cautions to stay safe when I said that I usually leave office very late.

Apart from writing Meenakshi is the editor of Brown Paper Bag.

Dragonmede by Rona Randall

" Dawn sliced through the curtains as the ghostly edges of a hoar frost," says Rona Randall in her Gothic mystery ' Dragonmede'. Eustacia Rochdale, the female lead in the story also experiences similar fate. Though she married the man she loved and wanted, it sliced her life as the ghostly edges of hoar frost. When she married Julian Kershaw , little did she know that her yearning for a marital bliss would be a bane of her life. 

The story was set in the London of 1800's, when every doors opened for the nobility. It was this privilege which brought Julian Kershaw to Luella's ( Eustacia's mother's )gambling house. A born nonconformist, Luella never wanted her daughter to have a bohemian life which she was indulged in. She gave anything and everything to her daughter which was required for a girl to be a lady. Luella's efforts also did not go in vain as  Eustacia grew up with everything needed to be a lady though born to a bohemian mother.

Luella was overtly delighted when Julian, the heir of Dragonmede reached her threshold. Gambling on his passion for cards and his attraction for Eustacia, Luella realised that the time had come for Eustacia to tie the knot. Unaware of her mother's manipulations, Eustacia married Julian and reached Dragonmede, her husband's home which offered her nothing but a house full of mysteries.

Though I am a die hard of Gothic fiction, the story initially failed to lure my interest. As any other mystery fictions, I was expecting a twist at the very outset which was completely absent in the story. The only cue, the writer leaves is that there is some mystery but not easy for the reader to identify it. No murder, stealing, kidnapping, murder attempts, deaths but an all pervading sense of mystery. But when the story progressed, I could feel my pulse raising and closed the book only when I finished reading it. The reader could definitely identify the culprit but only at the very end, with just two or three pages to complete.

 I felt a sense of satisfaction after reading 'Dragonmede'. The moment I finished it, I saw four stars shining. Yes, I am giving it 4/5.