A couple of weeks ago Skarlett answered these questions on her blog, which can be found here... http://missscarlettflame.blogspot.co.uk/ and comes highly recommended by me, and nominated three more authors to answer the very same questions and pass the baton on. I was one of those authors, but am as usual late and missed the deadline haha.
So here we go with the questions, and answer session, which I hope introduces you all a little to my work...
1, What are you working on right now?
I am actually working on two versions of the same book "Bollywood Nights" inspired by a conversation I had with my beautiful friend, and Bollywood Actress & poster girl, Bhairavi Goswami. The conversation set me thinking about doing a story based around the Bollywood the World never sees, but it is a pure fiction rather than being based on any real events.
There will be two versions, a XXX Erotic version for my Western Audiences (Probably published as an I.T. Heurtze book) and a more romantic version without the graphic sex scenes for the Indian audience.
The story centres on a beautiful, and intelligent Bollywood Actress called Priya, who meets an English Man at the launch party for her latest film. It sets in motion an unlikely romance, which is surely doomed to failure given the very different public image they have to maintain, yet love it seems is stronger than the barriers placed in its way, and they overcome some challenges as the story progresses.
I have tried to give a taste of the magic of Bollywood, with visits to film sets, and a little drama and comedy to keep you hanging on the next page.
There may be more news regarding this story and I may be persuaded to write a sequel to bring it up to date if there is enough response from readers.
2, How does it differ from other work in it's genre?
I haven't consciously tried to be radically different with my work. But with my comedy I have tried to keep the situations believable. In my erotica I try to write from a different perspective and allow readers into the story.
With Bollywood Nights I set out to tell a short story taking my western readers into a World they have not seen, and by removing the sex to create a more romantic edition of the story I am trying to reach a new audience in India.
I suppose by having two different versions of the same story it is a little bit different to the norm, but it is proving to be an enjoyable challenge.
I am always keen to broaden my reach and find readers to read my comedy novels as well as the erotica and sports books.
3, Why do you write what you do?
That is a good question... The comedy like Religious Pursuits, which is, my best work to date, comes to me as I look at the World and see comedy in the everyday situations we all encounter.
With the erotica I am usually encouraged by female friends to write more, and as readers become new friends the requests keep coming in.
Bollywood nights came from me being a film director and wanting to work on a project someday with Bhairavi. The conversation led to a challenge for me to come up with a story set in India, and as I know about film sets the idea of peering behind the scenes came to me, but I have not based the story on any person or set of events, although there is a certain element of the English character which is quite close to home.
I have also tried to add my voice to the strong political pressure to change perceptions towards women in India following several high profile rape cases. I wanted to add to the debate through the scenes and elements of a fictitious book which is really my way of putting my viewpoint across to the audience.
I feel it important that men understand that women have the right to dress or act as provocatively as they wish, but we should always respect their right to say no. Sex can be a wonderful thing to explore, but it is always so much better when there is consent. It is a woman's basic human right to be allowed to conduct themselves with equality and respect, and some elements of my book try to convey that message.
4, How does your writing process work?
Another good question... It's a little different between my short stories and my novels. With the short stories I have a situation and create characters to play out those scenes.
With my novels it's a bit more complicated... I usually have a basic idea for a story from start, through the middle to the end. I then create characters and give them their own separate stories to play out around the central bones of the story... so call that the flesh of the story, and then I add a few touches and you have a book.
Going back to Religious Pursuits, in that case I took some characters I felt were believable, and gave them all a funny secret back story. I then gave them a set of circumstances that would flush their secrets out and let them loose on one another in the safe isolation of an innocent village. The book pretty well wrote itself then.
Once again though, with Bollywood Nights, I have found that by creating the characters this is the first book since Religious Pursuits which has been pretty well writing itself in this way.
I hope this has been interesting and an insight to the way I work as a writer, and now it is my turn to nominate three more writers to be tagged and they will hopefully post their responses by 14th October.
They are...
Marie Rebelle
Charming Man
Angel Gone Bad
