Mou ii kai? –Madadayo!

Updated 1st Sept: Scroll to end of post if you’ve read it already.

“Mou ii kai,” is Japanese for “Ready or not, I’m coming”.

The proper response is “Madadayo!” which means “Not yet!”

It’s what children shout to one another while playing hide and seek in Japan.

It seemed appropriate since after all, two of the five protagonists of Gods of War, Akechi and Yoshi, are Japanese and the book is partly set in Japan.

Gods of War Penguin India edition

As far as I can tell, it’s still delayed.

The revamp of this website (www.ashokbanker.com) was due to be launched when Gods of War was published and in stores, hence the launch date of 31st August.

Since the book is delayed and now can’t possibly be in all bookstores before the middle of September, perhaps even later than that, I’ve had to postpone the relaunch of the website as well.

The same goes for the upcoming bookstore – while my AKB Books edition of Gods of War is proofed and ready to print and offer for sale (it’s a PoD edition so each copy gets printed when ordered), I can’t offer that for sale on the bookstore till the Penguin edition is in Indian bookstores. Ditto.

All I can say is wait a little longer. Those of you who’ve waited for my next book probably know by now that publishing is often plagued by such delays.

All I can do, as an author, is what you as a reader are forced to do: Wait patiently.

Meanwhile, if you like you can go run and hide…

And when I yell “Mou ii kai?”

You yell back “Madadayo!”

Until it’s time.

UPDATE (1 SEPT 2009): Just got this from my editor at Penguin: “Production says the books are in transit from the press so you’ll be getting an advance copy any day now and they’ll also be sending out copies from the warehouse to the market very shortly.” Whew! Finally!
That means that the books should start popping up in bookstores across India anytime from 7th September onwards. And the official launches are likely to start from mid-September onwards. Will update as and when I have more info.