Review- A Minute to Death by Ganga Bharani

Blurb: Young, vivacious and an aspiring writer, Riya wants nothing more from her longtime crush/boyfriend than to let her in on one of his exciting investigations. After all, what better source material for a book than a real life tragedy? No-nonsense veteran cop, Rohan picks a case of probable suicide to satisfy Riya’s needs. Little does he know that there is more to this case than meets the eye. What made the victim hang herself at the break of dawn? What is the secret that her group of friends is hiding? Will Riya be able to salvage a workable plot for her upcoming novel out of this case of seemingly simple suicide?







Writing a book is a tough job. One gives their sweat, blood and time to finish a manuscript, then through the rigmarole of editing, multiple drafts and beta reading, and then readying the book for publication. Finding the right publisher and getting accepted is another task altogether.
The world judges a book by its cover. I don't judge a book at all. I live it, love it and breathe it.
Ganga Bharani's second baby is good. I am not saying it's not.
But as an avid reader of crime fiction and suspense novels, there are some things I have picked up about writing a crime novel from the greats like Sir Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie and James Patterson and others.
1. Not everyone can condense a crime story into a 100 pages and still manage a credible tone throughout. One does it only after extensive practice. Some good examples of the perfect crime novella would be Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, and Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced. In this case, the author should have stuck to writing a longer version- a novel.
2. I liked the theme of the novel- an aspiring crime novelist going to crime scenes to do some research for her book. I also liked the way the relation between Rohan and Riya has been portrayed. What I didn't find convincing, however, is the dialogue between them- it sounds phony and sketchy.
3. Also, Rohan spends more time playing Romeo than doing his job, working the case. Cops don't have that sort of time, underpaid and overworked as they are. They don't have the leisure to hang out in coffee shops with their girlfriends. In a romantic suspense, the romance should be very carefully interspersed with the main crime story-especially in a police procedural.
4. The novel should have been, ideally, a 200 plus page affair, where the psyche of the killer, the media attention the murders garnered and the impact of the killings on the cops investigating and the victims' families should have been explored. I would suggest that the author, apart from reading extensively, watch crime shows like Criminal Minds, CSI, True Detective and Castle to learn more about handling the various aspects of a crime story in a novel form.
5. I liked the idea of how Riya uses analytical software to study the social media profiles of the victims. I also like how the suspense builds up, but the ending sounds contrived. That's why, the novel should have been longer so that the climax had looked inevitable and logical rather than forced. 97 pages leave no meat of a story for a crime novel aficionado to chew. A good story, with great potential, comes to an incipient-looking ending- like when you immerse firecrackers in water.

That covered, let me now come to my biggest problem with the story- language, the big L. And, of course, grammar. It goes without saying that there are errors in grammar and punctuation- in almost every line. And the prose is languid and flaccid and uninspiring. What is inspiring prose? It's prose that not only ignites the reader's imagination, but also makes one want to write. This prose just made me want to edit and re-write the entire book- my entire reading experience was hampered.
It shows that inspite of having potential, the author didn't even self-edit. She hasn't read extensively in the crime genre, and also hasn't practiced writing enough- two VITAL instruments in any writer's toolkit. Perhaps she hasn't gone through the whetting process any writer must go through- writing  practice, getting the work critiqued by fellow writers, then finishing her first draft, rewriting, editing, and then getting feedback from beta readers, then readying the novel for submission to publishers. Having read hundreds of books, I can tell.

As a writer myself, I wrote, got my work critiqued, then wrote more and got more feedback from other writers for three years before my books got accepted. And today, I find myself a much better writer than what I was 3 years back.
The author's work is still in the preliminary stage, where it needs extensive whetting to mature.

Because a writer's work DOESN'T start and end at publication.

It starts with extensive reading, grows with extensive writing and critique, spreads through publication and never ends.

You can buy the book here: A Minute to Death

Review- Just You, Me and a Secret by Ganga Bharani

Blurb: Just You, Me And A Secret is a story of an amnesiac, Meera, who battles between her past and present. 

Meera Prabhu wakes up after a terrible accident with absolutely no memory of herself. She sees a stranger in the mirror and seems to be living with another stranger, Ashruth, a doctor by profession and a clown by appearance. He claims that he is her fiancé. They were engaged to be married and would have been married already if not for the accident. He keeps on emphasizing on how much she loved him and yet, he keeps her apart from her family for her 'mental state'. Armed with what seems to be her personal diary, Meera tries to grasp her identity and her reality. But no matter how hard she tries, she just seems to be unable to connect. 
In the present she develops a strange liking for Santhosh, a childhood friend. Does he love her the same way she does? Will the marriage be called off? 
Will Meera break through the hurdles in front of her and be able to connect to her friends and family again? Most importantly, will she ever regain her identity again? 
Disclaimer: I downloaded this book from Amazon while it was Free for a day.

Ever since I was a child, I have been a voracious reader of crime and mystery novels. Starting from Enid Blyton to Sherlock Holmes, to Agatha Chrsitie to modern writers like James Patterson, Michael Connolly, Mary Higgins Clark, Thomas Harris and others, I have internalized crime and suspense stories as if they are an evolutionary adaptation mechanism, a basic need. I live, breathe and even write mysteries.

Therefore, I cannot take a badly written mystery novel. And I've read one or two of them too.

Problem is, Bharani's novel is NOT one of the bad ones.

Story-wise, the book is quite good.

I like the intriguing note on which it starts- a girl, waking up, in a hospital, with absolutely no idea of where she is, or who she is. Sure, it's not a new trope in suspense. But the author handles it quite well.

The story develops well. I like the way Meera's story has been narrated, and her ordeal shown, being caged inside a house with a man she doesn't remember, and whom she instinctively shies away from. I also liked the way Meera and Santosh's characters have been developed- even Ashruth's character is mildly interesting.

But I found some parts very odd- like the abrupt, unrealistic way in which Meera gets her first boyfriend. On the other hand, the way she falls for the wrong man, after her break-up, has been handled quite well.

That brings me to my first grouse with this book: Language and Grammar.

There are many, many language problems in this book- basic problems. There are typos, wrong or awkward use of words, odd sentences and turns of phrases, purple prose and even wrong grammar, like over or under use of articles etc. I have a language fetish, therefore I like a well-written book, which is clean of the aforementioned errors. Bad language hampers my reading experience, and puts me off the book faster than I can blink. The prose is languid, jarring and distinctly uninspiring.

I wish the book was better written. It is not sufficient to have a good story- language and grammar IS important. If the language used to communicate the story is bad, how will the story connect with the reader?

Did the author or the publisher not realize, or bother to correct those mistakes during proofing or editing?

My second grouse is the way the author has handled the climax of the novel.

For us suspense lovers, the denouement of a mystery is the highest point of our reading experience. A well-written suspense novel builds up the mystery in a manner that sets readers' hearts pumping- and then gives us a climax to the story, a climax befitting of our admiration and that makes us go 'Wowie! X was the killer! Or- Oh! So Y is actually Z! And Z is actually A!'

Here, the author rushes through the climax, robbing it of a necessary dramatic flair that one sees in novels by the great Sir Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie. Every suspense novelist must know how to incorporate this dramatic flair in the structure and prose of their story, or the flawed execution just kills the joy of reading the book.

Had the author shown us the explanation at the end, rather than making the culprit narrate it, it would have been a much more hard-hitting story.

Verdict: I would suggest the author practice writing to improve her language, style and prose. Here, her writing is precocious and needs refinement- which will come from reading plenty of books- and I mean PLENTY- and writing practice every day. The author must write short stories to hone her craft, and get her work critiqued by more experienced authors. I would also suggest she critically read more thrillers to see how the climax is executed.
The book also needs extensive editing and rewrites. I have been critical and harsh in this review because I expect better from the author. She is a friend, and I would love to see her grow as a writer and produce better literature.

Just You, Me and a Secret is a badly written good story, to sum up.

As a side note, let me point out that there is no need to say 'Suspense Romance Thriller'- redundant wording and odd phrasing. Just saying 'Romantic Suspense' or Romantic Thriller' would suffice.

But if you're not to hung up on language and grammar, and want to read a good mystery to kill time, you can buy the book here: Just You, Me and a Secret

Picture prompt #2: Shrine of the Morosaurs

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1046575382028702&set=gm.1628096857468040&type=1

The Shrine of the Morosaurs stood in the distance, looming over the barren landscape, silhouetted against the dank blue skies. Anneliese closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to absorb the experience, as she sat astride Johannes, her faithful horse, a gift from her father.

This was the tipping point of Anneliese's life, the pivot around which her destiny revolved. This was the answer to her life, the secret behind her birth.

 Finding this Shrine, built centuries ago, which no one in her family had been able to locate in the bowels of the Tundras before Anneliese had.

It was her destiny to find and enter the Shrine built by her ancestors- the long dead Morosaurs. The alien race of Marauders, from the planet Woho, in the galaxy Andromeda, who arrived on Earth centuries ago and cross- bred with Dinosaurs. It was Anneliese's destiny, as the last surviving part-Morosaur to open the prophecy they had left behind. Before their near complete extinction with the Dinosaurs, and the establishment of New Earth. And before the few surviving Morosaurs cross-bred with humans to survive.

Arius, the last Chief of the Morosaurs, had come into her dreams repeatedly, to show her the purpose of her life. "You have to save humanity from annihilating itself, Anneliese. You have to broadcast the prophecy, unlock its power, and spread our genes in the population. You have to keep New Earth alive. We cannot let the bloodthirsty Nessyrians take over this beautiful planet and violate it," he had said.

 "Come on Johannes," she spurred her horse on, as they proceeded to climb the hillock, towards the Shrine. To tell the story of the Morosaurs again. To fulfill her destiny, and to preserve New Earth from being conquered by the most bloodthirsty race of beings in the Universe.

Blog spotlight- Devika Fernando and Mike Wells- Tornado Giveaway

Name of the Book : FORBIDDEN Books 1, 2 & 3 Author: Mike Wells & Devika Fernando Read some reviews: 1. Adisha Kariyawasam 2. Babus Ahmed 3. A. P. Bullard The Story : When Lady Eleanor Sotheby unexpectedly enters the life of Jayne Clark, a 23-year old waitress from Wichita, Kansas, Jayne's world is turned upside down. Not only is she welcomed into a family that she never knew, but she is thrust headlong into the highest strata of European society. Nothing is too grand in the fairy tale lives of the uber-rich--the spectacular seaside villas, the sleek, chauffeured limousines, the outrageously expensive designer clothes. When Jayne plays her part and learns to fit into this new world, she meets Robert Astor, the man of her dreams. But her feelings for Robert are forbidden. Jayne's heady new life begins to unravel into a dark web of deceit, domination and greed...and she ultimately finds herself confronting an evil that truly has no limits. You can also buy @ About The Authors Mike Wells  About Mike Wells in his own words: I'm American bestselling author of the Lust, Money & Murder series and over 20 other thriller and suspense books. I also have taught in the Creative Writing program at Oxford. I'm known for my super fast-paced, 'unputdownable' novels. Stalk him @ Website | Twitter | Facebook Devika Fernando Almost as soon as Devika Fernando could write, she imagined stories and poems. After finishing her education in Germany and returning to her roots in Sri Lanka, she got a chance to turn her passion into her profession. Having lived in Germany and in Sri Lanka with her husband has made her experience the best (and the worst) of two totally different worlds – something that influences her writing. Her trademark are sweet, yet deeply emotional romance stories where the characters actually fall in love instead of merely falling in lust. She draws inspiration from everyone and everything in life. Besides being a romance novel author, she works as a self-employed German web content writer, as a translator, and as a faithful servant to all the cats, dogs, fish and birds in her home. What she loves most about being an author is the chance to create new worlds and send her protagonists on a journey full of ups and downs that will leave them changed. When she’s not writing, she’s reading or thinking about writing. Stalk her @ Website | Twitter | Facebook Go to Book No. 3 Now for the Rafflecopter: Gather as many points as you want to. The more points you get, the more you have a chance to win it all. Show your love for books.. Tweet, Like and Spread the Word... Thank you for being a Reader... You keep the Authors motivated... This is our way of saying a Thank you :)  a Rafflecopter giveaway #TornadoGiveaway is an initiative of The Book Club. Click on the icon to go to the event page of the Tornado .. Lots of fun awaits you :)

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Why banning porn is excessively asinine

My own views on pornography don't matter here.

Here, the thing we must focus on here is personal liberty, plus how we must approach topics like these.

Recently, the Government of India 'banned' 857 websites because they had 'pornographic content'. Why? The reason was some vague nonsense about 'their concerns over child pornography' and, as some accounts go, to 'also reduce sex crimes'.

How asinine. How incredibly stupid. How myopic and ill-informed.

It reveals the short-sightedness of the people who control policy-making at the highest levels of the administration.

Now, I'm not opposing the ban because I support porn. I don't- I think it demeans women and reduces them to sex objects and humiliates them. And porn which promotes bestiality and sexual violence against women is especially disturbing.

And of course, child porn is disgusting, vile and a punishable offence.

But the question here first is- will a forceful ban on porn work as a deterrent to sex offenders? Then the question comes- How do we approach a slippery slope like whether to ban or not to ban porn?

Yes, it is true that many, many sex criminals- rapists, molesters, child sex abusers and child rapists-, all over the world, have confessed to watching porn before they committed their heinous acts. And why not? Porn encourages a very misguided, perverted, view of both women and children, hypersexualizing them, reducing them to mere sex objects, to be raped, and then killed or left for dead.

But.

But, not all people who watch porn are sex offenders. Also, we need to ask ourselves- will banning porn bring down sex offences and child sex abuse? How? Why?

By forcefully banning porn in a society where sexuality is repressed,sex is a 'dirty thing' and not talked about openly, and men and women cannot easily mingle, fall in love and live together happily, DOES THIS GOVERNMENT REALIZE WHAT A COLOSSAL BLUNDER IT IS COMMITTING?

No, it doesn't. Because it seems to have thrown all sense out the window.

In a sexually repressed society, a lot of people find their only succor in porn, because of many reasons. Whether porn is wrong or right, it is what keeps them sated. Take that away and one day, they will turn on real women and rape them brutally.

Let's not talk about pedophiles here-they need a shrink anyway. And child porn involves child sex abuse- so it's a crime. Adult porn, at least to some extent, is filmed by consent.

We must be careful to see the gap porn is filling. Porn is illegal, porn is taboo, and yet, people across the world watch it- in secret. No one wants to announce they watch porn- it has been known to destroy relationships too. And yet, the porn industry thrives. Why? There is some need it is exploiting by filling it, some gap it is addressing.

So how do you find that gap and find another way to fill it?

By having a scientific, open discussion. On sex, sexuality, psychosexual aberrations and sexual violence, and the psychosocial implications of pornography. Because all these things are related to pornography- very deeply related. We need to involve men, women, even parents, sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, criminologists and behavioral scientists. Even writers, academicians and other such intellectuals should be involved. We need to have an open, healthy debate on these topics. We need to establish the link between porn as a cause of sexual violence and child abuse too perhaps- develop a scientific correlation, present empirical evidence. THAT is the right way to do it. Informed, scientific, ratiocinated debate, and an educated consensus reached.

And then, the consensus to ban porn, or at least, not watch it, must come from the public themselves. Because the gap that had to be addressed has now found a way to be alternatively addressed. No need to watch porn any longer, perhaps.

But what does this government do?

Look at the hypocrisy. The government will shy away from sex education, saying it's against 'Indian culture' and that 'adolescents will want to have sex if we teach them about it'. What bullshit! Adolescents and young adults indulge in risky sexual behavior because of the LACK of knowledge. They are not so dumb that a sex education class will spur them to try sex in real life. Instead, it will encourage them to be open and frankly talk about sex, and not have to turn to porn to fulfill their curiosity and assuage their libidos.  Their curiosity is being fed not with trashy porn sites and Fifty Shades of Grey, but with proper, interesting knowledge about sex, sexuality, sexual behavior and how to live with one's partner.

But they won't listen.

They won't make the streets safer for women and kids. They won't maintain a registry of sex offenders and child abusers, and keep a watch on them. They won't build rape crisis centers for rape survivors, they won't sensitize and train doctors to deal with, and provide care to survivors of sex crimes. They won't sensitize society towards gender violence and respecting and supporting women, acknowledging their rights and freedom, and kicking patriarchy and misogyny in the butt. They won't sensitize the police to register FIRs and be sensitive and helpful to sex crime survivors and abused children. NO. Because this takes REAL effort. Besides, how will they sensitize the public when MPs and MLAs are famous for making sexist comments, without shame, and they won't even apologize? MPs watch porn during running Parliament sessions. How the hell can they tell the lay citizen to not watch it?

So what do you do when you don't want to put any real effort to change the ground situation?

You ban porn. As if that is the sole cause of sexual violence against women and children, and banning porn will make the rape and child abuse rates go to ZERO.

This is one of those half-baked, ill-informed, asinine, irrational methods one adopts when they don't want to take any real action, or make a real, concerted effort to being about positive change.

This ban, and then revoking it two days later, holding the ISPs responsible for 'filtering child porn' show how much judgmentally impaired this government is. It does not make its decisions based on scientific data and educated opinions, but instead, on whimsy and its changing moods. Is this a responsible government? Is this the 'Acche Din' bullshit that was being bandied about in May 2014? Can this government be trusted to make proper decisions to bring about progress and development?

NO.

And thus, we sit and watch as this government makes an ever greater fool of itself in the future.

Why I write- A Short Essay

Because Chuck’s finally asked a very basic question- why we writers write- let me attempt to summarize the answer in a few bullet points. I write because:

Ø  I believe I was born as a human sponge- destined to absorb, in heart and in mind, the essence and the truth behind everything that was going on around me. Love, loss, grief, evil, longing, joy, sex, art, books, births, deaths…you name it. To drink eat, and lap up the universe around me, so that the gist of everything resides in me, a microcosm, to be more aware of my surroundings than others.

Ø  Since I could read the alphabet, my mother put a book in my hand. Not just picture books, but children’s story books.

Ø  I’ve faced things in life. Rejection, antagonism and lack of understanding from near ones, ridicule for being different, for being overweight and awkward, for being real and not a faked version of someone else, for not caring what people think of me. I’ve been through many dark phases- so writing helps me come to terms with that darkness and realize that I’ve found the light, finally.

Ø  I think the genres I write also define me as a writer. I write crime, psychological suspense, horror and erotica. All four genres are inter-related and help me explore the darkness, the negativity that underlies everything, and how people come out of it. How everything is covered in shades of grey, and how we must have the insight to recognize that not everything’s black and white.

Ø  Writing helps me bust the stress of everyday life. I write every day, and I write a fairly lot. I work on two to three manuscripts at the same time. So my mind is always busy plotting murders, intrigues and who will fall in love with whom, who will take whom to bed, who will lecture whom on what, who will cuss whom and who will kill whom etc…you get the drift. Writing a lot helps me put things in perspective, and helps me take failure and success in stride.

Ø  Writing has helped me improve my memory, logistic and analytical skills. Since it helps me get everything into perspective, writing has made me more rational, more pragmatic and more intelligent. It has helped me greatly as a student and researcher. I never take anything at face value, but try to look deeper to find out the truth. As a writer, I observe people and events around me, and it helps me understand the world better. Therefore, I believe that writers don’t look at the world- they see through it.

Ø  Writing helps me find my voice, what I stand for, what I believe in, what I despise. That’s why no two writers are the same- a good writer writes in their own distinctive voice and creates beautiful prose.

Ø  Writing makes me feel better about myself. I’m not wasting time over stupid social gatherings (except book launches, write-ins and chat with close friends- those are not a waste of time), dumbass parties, or bitching about people to other people, wallowing in frivolity and mediocrity, or worse. I’m utilizing my time to create something hopefully of good redeeming value, something which will connect with other people on a profound, personal level, and perhaps make them happy, and let them know that they’re not alone. When I sum up what I’ve done in my life, creating something valuable and beautiful will give me an indication of a life well lived, and well spent.

Ø  Writing gives me a great excuse to eat chocolate, savor good food and drink lots of coffee ( I call it The Writers’ Nutrition).

Ø  If I don’t write, I will not be able to vomit the thousands of worlds, experiences, people, and other things residing in my neurons. My experiences, the things I observe and learn, the stories I absorb from books and which morph into other books in my fertile imagination, the untold feelings- all of these are constantly knocking on the inside of my head. Write us down now, they always say. If I don’t write, the knocking grows insistent till I’m forced to open the laptop and type down my thoughts.

Ø  Writing has helped me navigate through the dark, the negative and turn myself into a positive, confident, outspoken, self-assured person, and made me unafraid of my naysayers and detractors.

Ø  Writing is part of my identity. It gives meaning to my life, and helps me relate to other writers- sentient beings who live for almost the same ideals as I do.

Ø  PROUD TO BE A WRITER.

Discussion- The antagonist as the protagonist in a novel

I have been grappling with the concept, as of late, of the Antagonist of a story being the Protagonist.
Usually, the protagonist is the good guy/gal- their thoughts and actions steeped in shades of grey but ultimately they prove their mettle.
But I'm developing the concept for these three erotic suspense novellas which I'll write as an armada.
All three protagonists are women. No, it's not a feminist things- it's just centered around three woman characters, all different and disparate from each other.
Now, my characters are rebellious, independent minded, the my-life-my-rules kind.
And as I still remember a line from Chuck Wendig's brilliant article on strong female characters in books- the character choices must push on the plot mostly- the plot must not push on the character's actions all that much.
I have tried to make the situations such that my character's actions push on the plot- motivation, action, consequence.
Thing is, these actions are not always good. In this case, some of them are outright reprehensible. But the thing is, these women make choices- even if bad ones- and that's how the story moves forward. But the nature of these actions make my characters the antagonists too, and not very likeable.
No one likes people who cheat on their spouses, bitch about others, cuss excessively or, in extreme cases, kill. But that's how I'm shaping the protagonist-cum-antagonist in these novellas. 
My aim is not to glorify these things- in fact, I believe some of the things done by my MCs are condemn-able, but it's for the audience to decide, not for me. I'll not impose my view-points on them.
My question, can these characters be considered 'strong'? Strong as in not the kind who beats up goons, but the kind who makes their own choices- no matter how bad those choices are.
If strong protagonists are the cornerstone of compelling stories, so are strong antagonist-protagonists for some stories, right?