India Part One

I'm back! I know, I know. Your days have felt rather lonely and empty without me, haven't they? Well, put down that e-book and listen, I will enthrall you with my adventures in the far and exotic lands of Hindustan.

It was great. Very great. Even though I was there for about nine days I did get to see a lot of the things on my list and hopefully it'll all give the next book an authentic 'Indian' flavour. Amongst the highlights were:

1. The sheer BEDLAM. Varanasi especially is a city where the cacaphony is inescapable. The city's filled with thousands of temples, mosques, barking dogs, and the endless chatter of life. People in the old city live cheek by jowl and they all shout.

2. Monkeys. There were a surprising number of monkeys in Varanasi. No breakfast is safe. Bizzarely, they were going to be a feature before I got out there but their going to be crucial to the plot now. THERE WILL BE MONKEYS might be the new title.

3. The burning ghats. Unbelievable. Publis cremations on the steps of the river with people just milling around, cows and dogs sniffing around the remains and all under the shadow of the temple of Shiva. Never experienced anything quite like it.

4. The trains. Never experienced anything quite like these either. No wonder India invented Yoga. You need to be triple-jointed to get in the top bunk, that's for sure.

5. The food. I so stuffed my face. Embarrassing really.

6. The poverty and the mad drive towards modernity. You've children working on building sites, stirring the cement that'll be some new towering hotel for the coming Commonwealth games. But there are no easy answers to any of it.

7. The gods. Vishnu and Shiva. Hanuman, Kali, Rama and many more. Shrines tucked away in the corner of alleys, all garlanded and small plates of offerings at their feet. People pause automatically to offer prayers almost while they're still taking calls on their mobiles. It all blends into one.

The Knights Templar

It's a game ALL authors play, 'who would you cast as X if your book got turned into a movie?'.

Well, as some of you may know I have a, ahem, man-crush on two particularly fine British actors: Christian Bale and James Purefoy.

This picture is James Purefoy as Templar Master, Arthur SanGreal.

Okay, not really, BUT SERIOUSLY, IT SHOULD BE!

Don't you think?

We've got Wolfman due out next week, Percy Jackson, James Purefoy again as Solomon Kane, Clash of the Titans, Robin Hood and the Templar movie Ironclad (which I know nothing about apart form this poster but that'll do me very nicely, thank you) OMG, 2010 is turning out to be one promising year, film-wise. I could almost forgive Avatar.

This time next week I should be jet-lagged in India, which will be nice. Rather looking forward to a spot of sun. It'll be a bit of a mad dash to Varanasi, lots of wondering around a visiting temples and ruins and such, then mad dash home to start work on new book, that's been constantly put on hold as I carry out another rewrite on Dark Goddess. I must admit, I've written my first credible romantic scene recently. I'm not sure it's quite up there in the Bella love Edward sphere, because, hey, I'm writing it and my default mode is violence. There's kissing involved, and I tell you, writing a kissing scene from the point of view of a fifteen year old girl is probably the hardest thing I've even done.

So, see you all in a fortnight. Enjoy!!

Competition Time!

Right, are you paying attention? The last time I tried to run a competition it all got rather confusing for some, so I'll try and make this a little clearer.
1. What is your favourite book? Why is it your favourite?
There are no restrictions on genre, age group (if your favourite is the Hungry Caterpillar like George W.Bush, that's fine!). It can even be non-fiction, it really doesn't matter. I've just got to the bit in The Count of Monte Cristo (which was recommended to me by a neighbour) where one of the characters has been kidnapped by a transvestite and realised some books just can't be pigeon-holed, something that's become a bit of a trend of late. So I hope this competition will give me the chance to pick up books from your recommendations, books I would otherwise ignore or not come across.
See this as your chance to pitch your favourite book to the world (or at least the four or five people who visit this blog). Just put it in the comments section of the blog. Shall we say, comp ends end of March? I may have some more goodies by then.
Prizes? Glad you asked.
Well, for now, it'll be the cover of the Dark Goddess (see entry below somewhere), scribbled over with my fair signature. Obviously if you don't want my hand-writing spoiling what is an altogether gorgeous picture, tell me. I will understand.
There are a few random goodies I'll through in, postcards and the like, so we'll keep it fairly open. Those who are on my newsletter will have something EXTRA SPECIAL.
If you have more than one favourite, by all means enter twice! Just we'll draw the line at two, methinks, unless it's a part of a trilogy or something similar.
By the end I'll pick the winner from the book and pitch that appeals to me most of all. I know it's utterly subjective, but it's my competition.
Oh, BTW, you cannot recommend your own book (or mine, for that matter), even if your Phillip Pullman. Okay, I know it's not that likely he reads my blog, but we can dream, can't we?
Oh, if on the chance you ARE reading the blog, Phillip, I just want to say I'm a big fan and WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE THE BOOK OF DUST?

Why oh why can't I write like that?

There are times when, and they're usually in the middle of a rewrite and you're wondering if it's too late to go back to the day job, when you come across a book that so blows you away that you either:
1. Feel so totally inspired you give up all thoughts of food, sleep and company and attack the keyboard with a mania that is both terrifying and electrifiying
2. Wonder why you ever bothered with this writing lark because you'll never ever write anything good enough to be compared to even a line of said book.
3. Both of the above, simultaneously.
The Count of Monte Cristo. The book. The whole book and nothing but the book. Not the film. Not the abridged version. But the one with torture, with executions, with drug-fueled sexual fantasies, with madness and with noble-hearted evil and an anti-hero that would have Don Corleone crying for his mother.
OMG.
New Year Resolution No.5 was to read a lot more this year, but not any old drivel that had a cool cover and was hyped as the Next Big Thing. But the classics. Oh, and before you roll your eyes a conclude Sarwat's become an old fart all I can say is that you will never read a book as intense, desperate, wide-ranging and heart-gripping as this. It is a tale of revenge in the vein of Medea. Edmund Dante's descent from generous, kind and naive hero to (basically) revenge-driven madman is a masterpiece that defies categorization.
It's a chunky book and none of it is filler. Allow it's multitude of tales within tales, overlapping destinies and discussions on what best to wear for a execution consume your every waking moment. It's like taking the best bits of all your favourite things (sex, violence, revenge, fashion, philisophy, the Napoleonic wars, Italian opera, boat design and the habits of English stock-brokers) written by the best, and putting then all in one book. And THEN adding swordfights. Only a Frenchman could have written it and it not seem like showing off.
The only thing this book has made easy is my choice of birthday presents for the rest of the year.
For Heaven's sake, why aren't you reading it RIGHT NOW?