Still here, still writing…

Just a brief word to let you know that I’m still very much here, writing hard.

I’m deliberately avoiding posting on this blog about mundane everyday things because every amateur wannabe writer with a blog does that, and some of them are quite readable too, I admit, but I prefer to ‘save’ my energy for the longer, more demanding marathon of writing a long fictional series which requires me to immerse myself in a quasi-fictional or even itihasic world for years and to give it my all.

I’m avoiding reviewing the latest movies, books, music, TV shows, etc, because I watch, read and listen to far too many of them. Often, I’m reading more than ten books a week, watching twice as many movies and TV shows (always on disk, I almost never watch live commercial television – too many ads), and listening to a very wide range of audio experiences ranging from podcasts to lectures to poetry readings and audiobooks to all kinds of music. I also visit numerous art galleries and consume culture in every possible form. I would be a full-time reviewer if I was reviewing every cultural item I consumed! I compensate for this by listing a few selections from my recent consumptions in the right-hand sidebar almost daily (scroll down): those I list are usually worth a look, and some are highly recommended. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is which!

I also don’t comment on current events, political upheavals, terrorist attacks, and the like, because I think the media and the internet are full of such controversies and of countless such commentators and virtually every possible viewpoint is already out there. I also find such commentary to be either pointless muckraking, shameless exploitation or worst of all, blatant self-promotion. I’ve been a newspaper columnist, a fairly well-known one, and I hated every minute of it. There are worse ways for a writer to earn a living – writing for films and television, for example – but not many.

I also don’t do book readings, signings, soirees, literary festivals, interviews, media appearances, judge contests and the rest of the mutual backscratching and networking that passes for ‘being a writer’ in today’s literary world.

Which means I’m not just ‘low profile’, I’m pretty much ‘no profile’ all the time.

And that suits me fine.

At some point, my new books will be in stores, or available online, and those who are seriously interested in my work will read it, or not.

My job, as I see it, is to write, and only write. I love it truly, madly, deeply. And don’t see much point in having worked all my life to finally be able to write full-time, spend the rest of my days reading, viewing, being with my family and otherwise doing as I please, in order to become a slave of the system all over again!

I’m free. And intend to stay that way.

And I’m always accessible to you, dear reader and well-wisher, 24/7 through this blog’s Readerswrite Page or the various Facebook pages devoted to my various series.

Is that enough for you? Do you want more of me? Do you wish I would keep in touch more often?

Well…wait a few months and see how many books I’ve been finishing in the past couple of years (some of which I began over a decade ago!). And once you start getting your hands on those books and reading them, and, I hope, enjoying them as immensely as you enjoyed my Ramayana Series, I think you’ll agree that my time was well invested.

Jai Shri Story! Jai Shri Novel! Write on!