Safe in our homes, but our hearts are on the street…
Just a quick note to let everyone know that my loved ones, relatives, friends are all safe and well, and in our homes watching the drama unfold on television…
but our hearts…
our hearts…
are on the streets…
THE GANESA PALINDROME to be published by Penguin Books in August/September 2009
Great news for all you AKB readers. My next novel to be published in print form will be the first book in The Ganesa Palindrome series. Those of you who read the excerpts I serialized online might recall it by its earlier working title, Iron Gods.
Penguin Books, my publishers in India, have finished reading the manuscript and have loved it. They will be putting it into the editorial-production process right away and plan to publish the book in August-September 2009. This is the Indian edition only, and is expected be in bookstores across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal by the end of September 2009. As some of you know from our correspondence on the Readerswrite Page and on various FB pages, I am not planning to offer foreign publication rights to publishers outside India for this book. It will be availably only in the Indian sub-continent and from this website.
Those of you who don’t know anything about the book may wish to click on the link in the right-hand sidebar to read an overview of the series.
I will no longer be able to share any excerpts with readers online now that the book is licensed to the publishers–they’ve specifically requested me not to do so.
But in about 10 months or so you will be able to get a copy of the published book itself and see for yourself why I consider it the best book I’ve ever written in my career to date.
I say ‘to date’ because I have many more books in progress and planned, and my goal as always is to improve with each new book.
What’s the point of writing if not to write something new, something different, something that never existed before in the world (in that form and style at least), and to better oneself each time?
The Ganesa Palindrome represents the peak of my abilities as of this point in my career. If I had to name one book out of the two dozen-odd that I’ve written so far, I would name this one and say “Read this one, it’s my best book”.
November’s Free Online Read: BOMBAY TIMES!
Hi.
I began the month with a hard disk crash that incapacitated my main computer. The data’s all fine and in the process of being recovered. But I’ll only get the computer back with the new hdd installed by 13th or 14th. Hence my delay in updating this blog, approving several backlogged comments, and starting this month’s serial.
I was originally going to run a new novel, which I’m currently writing, in keeping with the trend of the past couple of months (when I serialized TGP in Sept and Vortal: Shockwave in Oct) but that’s not possible now.
What I’m doing instead is sharing with you a full-length novel by me in a completely different genre from anything you’ve read by me before: This is my one and only attempt at the so-called ‘bestseller’ genre of glamour-suspense. It was first commissioned under a different name as a tri-weekly serial on an online web portal, back in 2000.
After the serial ended, I revised it extensively, restructured it as a novel, retitled it as well, and am now planning to bring it out for the first time in a print edition as part of my forthcoming new imprint.
In my opinion, it’ s not at all my best work, but it’s a fun romp through Mumbai Page 3 lifestyles and relationships as they were in the late Nineties, and has some interesting entanglements, twists and turns, emotional highs and lows, a lot of sexy shenanigans (though not nearly as much sex as you might expect–I’m just not interested in that kind of writing) and even a favourite character of mine, Anita B, who has appeared in several short stories by me, and was labelled “India’s first PI” by an American crime magazine about twenty years ago. All in all, it’s just meant to be read as light entertainment, a fun read.
The novel is titled BOMBAY TIMES.
I’ll serialize it here on this blog, password-free and completely free to read online, from 16th November to 30th November. Mark your calendars and get set!
Sold out on pre-order! 
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 
Available only from me directly. 