#DesiRepDiscussions - Shudh Desi Romance by Pavi

Hey guys!

Over the past couple years, the #DiverseReads movement has gained momentum and people have become aware of reading books that have characters that are not just cis straight and white. After All, this world is a huge place and there are many different, diverse people here that are not straight or white. They have been poorly represented in media for a long time and that has taken its toll.

Desis are an example of such oppressed voices. We have not been represented in a good light in the western media, but, thankfully, that has changed in the last few years and with emerging authors such as Roshani Chokshi, Sandhya Menon, Tara Sim, Dhonielle Clayton, Sabaa Tahir etc, hopefully, people will see us in a better light and begin to understand our culture more.

The purpose of this discussion event is to make others aware of the lush, beautiful desi culture and to tell them more about us. So, for the next few days, my absolutely amazing friend, Prags from The Inkedin Book Blog (who, really, put all of this together) and I will be sharing various essays by desi book people – bloggers, bookstagrammers, twitterati etc for you guys.

I hope that you learn something new by reading what we have in store for you here and that you enjoy it. Thank you for stopping by!

Today, on #DesiRepDiscussions, we have Pavi, who's an amazing bookstagrammer and book blogger! She talks about romance in the desi way and I love it!

Shudh Desi Romance

- Pavi

First, I just wanted to thank Pragati, who has been quite patient for this guest post but most of all, for trusting me as a blogger to provide her with one that might resonate with all you Indian Bookworms!

And here is me, Pavi from For The Love of Fictional Worlds (http://www.indianbookloveaffair.wordpress.com/), and I am so glad to be here talking about a subject/genre that is so close to my heart. I might ramble on for a bit, so please bear with me!

I am an avid romance reader; I adore books that give me a sense of happiness with my characters’ struggle for HEA; and I do not hide it. I will never hide it. This is the genre that gave me hope when I was in a long dark tunnel with no end or light at sight or even possible.

I took refuge in fiction, and I experimented with whole lot genres before deciding that it was romance books that had me smiling and happy for the time I read it. Don’t get me wrong, I adore falling into fantasy or even thriller books, but romance? Now that is something that is something that left me feeling like I was cocooned in a giant warm hug.

Now, I should tell you that I was an avid reader before the time of tablets, or even e-readers, so only the most popular authors were available here in India then, so I grew up on a staple of Jeffrey Archer, John Grisham for thrillers and Nora Roberts & Julie Garwood for romance.

My first bookshelf was overflowing with these authors, but I still go back to my old favorites Ms. Roberts and Ms. Garwood all the time, even now. But I couldn’t go beyond them, for other international authors were expensive and ebooks hadn’t made their way to the Indian Book Market then!

Parallel to this, there was quite a surprise hit of Chetan Bhagat that hit the stands, and most around me called it the romance for the Indian population (I would still like to hit them where the sun doesn’t shine, but I self – restrained!) – And this was the reason why I gave up on this genre in the desi world! It was heartbreaking, but I just couldn’t leave my high standards for a well edited and researched book hang, just because I wanted to connect with the characters from my own culture!

So I Stopped. I stopped even looking at the Indian Author section anywhere I went. I stopped even conversing about Indian authors because this craze was killing me, and no matter how much I tried (and I tried, Gawd! I tried!) I just couldn’t get people to understand that there are better books out there, and that they, as readers, deserved the best they were in interested in!

Soon, it became so that I knew more about the American States than I knew about my own hometown, I knew more about their legal system than I knew about mine (I love the sub – genre of Romantic Suspense) and I knew more about their slangs than I knew about mine!

Did I feel a bit shameful? Yes I did, but I did not know how to rectify this situation; some authors from the subsequent ChetanBhagatpandenium had mostly destroyed my ability to even look at the books published later on.

This changed when I was invited to the book launch of Sakshama Puri Dhariwal’s (http://www.instagram.com/sakshama/) Man of Her Match (http://bit.ly/2xTlhAZ) by Penguin India (http://www.instagram.com/penguinindia/)– this was my first book launch and author meet, so in all enthusiasm I did my research on her and found out that she already had a book called The Wedding Photographer, so just in case I would be allowed to get the book signed as well – and I. FELL. IN. LOVE!


The Wedding Photographer (Read my Review) was exactly what I wanted to read in romance by an Indian author – a book that was relatable to the Delhi girl in me, but also the young 20s girl, who is open to the world of love, yet hasn’t lost her optimism in the face of a cynical city! I loved how she related to the city I lived in and bought to life, and I can’t even imagine telling you how amazing it was to read a word/slang and know exactly what it means without looking it up.

Man of Her Match (Read my Review) her second book, though in reality, a prequel to The Wedding Photographer, pretty much cemented my love for this author – and me as a fan for life!

I flew through both her books, and the fact that she has been the sweetest author to know is honestly just the icing on the cake!

All I knew was that my prayers had been answered – I had in my hands books in the romance genre that were exactly what I wanted – amazing characters, solid buildup of plot line, brilliantly written and edited, with it holding my interest from the start till finish.

And I knew, I KNEW, that holding out for a higher standard of books in this genre in Indian Market wasn’t a futility and I had Penguin India and Sakshama Puri Dhariwal to thank!

If you would like to have a chat with me on the thoughts I have shared here or even give me recommendations for authors you think would hold up top my standard, please please DO NOT hesitate to talk to me! Or you could just drop by to say hi! I would love that as well! <3 h2="" style="text-align: center;">Connect With The Author:

Blog | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

What do you think of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement? 

Have you read any books/ watched movies that celebrate the Desi culture?

Do say hi to Pavi ~ she'd love to hear from you!

ReMade Season 1 - Serial Box Publishing (I'm Eighteen #7)

HI! Welcome to the last day of the I'm Eighteen giveaways!

I recently got contacted by this AWESOME new publishing house called Serial Publishing House to review their upcoming series, ReMade.

ReMade is a fast paced dystopian series, written by MULTIPLE bestselling authors like Kiersten White, Andrea Philips, Matthew Cody, Carrie Harris and E.C.Meyres

AND THE BEST PART?

This series consists of 15 EPISODES, each released with a week between them. So, it's basically a BOOK, IN A TV SHOW FORMAT!

 ReMade is a serial presented episodically in 15 parts by Serial Box Publishing.

In one moment the lives of twenty-three teenagers are forever changed, and it’s not just because they all happen to die.  Remade in a world they barely recognize – one with robots, space elevators, and unchecked jungle – they must work together to solve the mystery and stay alive. They came from different places, backgrounds, and families, and now they are our only hope. Lost meets The Maze Runner in this thrilling serial that combines contemporary YA with classic Science Fiction to fling you headfirst into adventure.

Blurb Description:You live. You love. You die. Now RUN.
Every minute, 108 people die. On October 14th, 2016, from 9:31-9:32 p.m. EDT, 23 of those deaths will be teenagers. Now they are humanity’s last hope for survival. Awakened in a world they barely recognize and hunted by mechanical horrors, these teens search for answers amidst the ruins of civilization. Fate, love, and loyalty face off in this adrenaline -pumping YA adventure.    Team-written by some of today’s most popular YA authors, ReMade is brought to you by Matthew Cody (Super), Andrea Phillips (Revision), Kiersten White (And I Darken), Gwenda Bond (Girl on a Wire), Carrie Harris (Bad Taste in Boys), and E. C. Myers (The Silence of Six).
 Season One will unfold across 15 episodes beginning September 14^th, with a new installment dropping every Wednesday until the season finale on December 21^st. Jump into this digital serial, available in both text and audio, and find out what the future of fiction holds.

ReMade Writing Team

Matthew Cody hails from St. Louis and holds a Master’s Degree in Theater from the University of Alabama with a focus on Shakespeare. He is a graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop and currently resides New York City with his family. His published works include the award-winning Powerless and The Supers of Noble's Green series, the Robin Hood re-imaging Will in Scarlet, and his current series The Secrets of the Pied Piper. MatthewCody.com. @Matthew_Cody.

Kiersten White is the NYT bestselling author of the Paranormalcy trilogy, the Mind Games series, Illusions of Fate, The Chaos of Stars, In the Shadows with artist Jim Di Bartolo, and the upcoming historical reimagining, And I Darken. She has one tall husband and three small children and lives near the ocean, where her life is perfectly normal. She also gives the world’s most awkward hugs. kierstenwhite.com. @KierstenWhite.

E. C. Myers was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts and raised by a single mother and a public library in Yonkers, New York. He garnered a degree in Visual Arts from Columbia University which he completely neglects to use in his current life as a freelance writer and editor. A graduate of Clarion West, his stories have been published in Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Space and Time magazine. His novel Fair Coin won the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. ECMyers.net. @ECMyers. 

Andrea Phillips is a transmedia writer, game designer and author. She is on the writing team for season 2 of the urban fantasy serial Bookburners as well as ReMade. Her debut novel is Revision, an SF thriller about a wiki where your edits come true. She has also worked on iOS fitness games Zombies, Run! and The Walk; The Maester's Path for HBO's Game of Thrones; human rights game America 2049; and the independent commercial ARG Perplex City. She also writes an ongoing column about video games called Metagames for Strange Horizons. Her nonfiction book A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling is used to teach digital storytelling at universities around the world.

AndreaPhillips.com. @Andrhia.

Carrie Harris was born in Chicago but if you ask her, she’ll say she’s from Ohio. Her interests include English Literature, brains, and hot geek boys. She has held a string of very incongruous jobs but in between autopsies and studying mad cows, she wrote for various tabletop roleplaying games and textbook companies. These days she writes books for teens, tweens, and adults while also being the Marketing Director for Evil Hat Productions. Her published works include Bad Taste in Boys, and Demon Derby. CarrieHarrisBooks.com. @CarrHarr.

Gwenda Bond writes for children and young adults. Her books include Lois Lane: Fallout, Girl on a Wire, and Girl in the Shadows, as well as the graphic novel Girl Over Paris with Kate Leth and Ming Doyle. She holds an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and has written for Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post amongst others. She currently resides in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband and their menagerie. GwendaBond.com. @Gwenda.

Serial Box produces and publishes fiction serials, blending story production and distribution practices from television, book publishing and narrative podcasting. These team-written original serials span a range of genres including sci fi / fantasy, espionage, contemporary and historical drama, post-apocalyptic, etc. Serial Box delivers episodes to fans’ digital devices every Wednesday over the course of 13-16 week seasons. Each episode is available in ebook and audio and takes about 40 minutes to enjoy. Learn more at Serial Box.com. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and our blog. 

If you want to check out what this is all about, the first episode of ReMade is FREE.

Episodes are available in text and audio and can be enjoyed through the Serial Box App, at SerialBox.com, or wherever eBooks are sold.

Prize: Three "prize packages" consisting of episodes 2 and 3. I'll provide them in epub, mobi, pdf, and mp3. 

Open INTERNATIONALLY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nicky Peacock - Traitor's Gate (I'm Eighteen #6)

I have with my today Nicky Peacock, author of Traitor's Gate! I haven't read her book yet, but it certainly sounds exciting and I will be soon.

Later today will I will be posting the final giveaway - with Serial Publishing House so be sure to check in for that.

And, today, EVERYBODY WINS! Below are the links for you to get a FREE copy of her book, Traitor's Gate. 

Be sure to thank her in the comments!

We'd LOVE to get to know more about you:

 1.  The funniest thing that has ever happened to you:
I have my older brother to blame for most of the funny things that happen to me! So, one Halloween I was at my parent's house while they were on holiday. I came in from work and thought I'd call my brother to see if he wanted to come round for dinner that weekend. As we're chatting on the phone, I walked into the living and started to notice that all my mum's china ornaments were facing the wrong way. They all had their backs to me like in the Blair Witch. I freaked out, and my brother said just to pack a bag and come over to his house. Frantic, I ran upstairs and, just as I grabbed my toothbrush saw that the toilet seat was up. My brother still had a key. I called him back and said some very choice words to him.  I think it annoyed me more that I had called him up, and he'd got to listen to the whole show!

2. Five of your favourite books (cheating is allowed here)
I guess then that I should say my own :) But that would be cheating. Here are five books that I'd recommend:
The Wages of Sin by Jenna Mclaine
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Cuts by Richard Laymon

3. An author you would kill to collaborate with:Hmmm, there are lots of authors I'd like to kill! No, wait, that's not what you mean ;) Okay, I'd love to get hold of Charlaine Harris and help her re-write her ending to the Sookie Stackhouse series - her last book in it was such a disappointment compared to the others in the series.

And now, moving into your masterpiece:

4. Tell us a little about what inspired you to write Lost in Wonderland.
It was inspired by Alice in Wonderland's 150th anniversary last year. I wanted to write a book that honoured the themes without just transposing the whole story into another genre - and Lost in Wonderland was born. I'm currently working on new books in this series based on other children's books. The second book is The Assassin of Oz, and I'm working on a prequel to the series that is inspired by The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

5. Tell us about the day you found out you were getting published:
My first published book was Bad Blood, and it was a bit of a shock, to be honest. Writing is a lot of work, and it doesn't stop when the book is published, you have to keep promoting and hoping that readers like it and recommend it. Authors only benefit from their books when readers rally behind you.

6. Give us a few songs in your writing playlist!
Music is so important to the writing process. When you write it's kind of like acting; you need to conjure certain emotions on cue and filter them through your words. For Wonderland, I listened to a lot of Imagine Dragons and Against the Current and my favourite song right now is I get to love you by Ruelle.

I guess I’ve always been a storyteller, not in a ‘liar liar pants on fire’ kind of way, although I do work in advertising! When I was little, kids would crowd around me in the playground and I’d tell them tales of blood soaked horror filled with vampires, werewolves, ghosts and more.

Writing was really a natural progression for me. So far I’ve had 35 short stories included in anthologies produced by publishers all over the world; my latest was included in Little Brown Book Group’sMammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories. I have two YA series with the publishers, Evernight Teen:Battle of the Undead and The Twisted and The Brave. 

I run a local adult writers’ group called Creative Minds Writing and have been asked by my local library (Corby, Northants, UK) to run a group for budding authors aged 13-25.

Title: Traitor's Gate

Author: Nicky Peacock

Publisher: Evernight Teen

Publication Date: August 14th 2016

Blurb Description: Only time will tell who the traitors really are… 

Sixteen-year-old Lucinda is getting the home-coming from hell. England is in the grip of the War of the Roses and her tyrant father has promised her hand to a vile man three times her age. In need of aid, she seeks sanctuary with an old childhood friend only to find him accused of treachery and harboring a supernatural secret. All too soon Lucinda is caught in a fight that’s not her own but, to be with the man she loves, she’ll gladly take up arms. 

When you stand at Traitors’ Gate, keep the vampires close, and the zombies as far away as possible! 

14+ due to violence and adult situations

Get the Book on Amazon US!

Get the Book on Amazon UK!

Eileen Cook - With Malice (I'm Eighteen #5)

WELL HELLO! And welcome to day five.

Today I have with me Eileen Cook, author of With Malice.

The lovely people at Bloomsbury sent me a review copy early last month and IT WAS EVERYTHING. Filled with the "WHO DID IT" and also articles and interviews to support the MC's mized memory, this book is a BEAUTIFUL display of how the media plays judge, jury and executioner in cases like this.

Don't forget to read through her lovely interview before getting to the International Giveaway Eileen has been so kind to host!

We'd love to get to know more about you:

1. Your favourite place in the world ( fiction or otherwise)

This is the most boring answer in the world- home. I love to travel (I just got back from London and Paris) and I enjoy an adventure to see new places and meet people, but my most favourite place is home.  I love being surrounded by things I love. The house is done in my favourite colours (greys and blues), there are lots of comfy chairs for reading, stacks of books in almost every corner, and my two dogs running around messing up the place. 

2. Five books you'd recommend to a new young adult fan:

Oooh hard question. Part of the challenge is that I like to match books to people. Some people like more thrillers, others prefer fantasy and of course it depends on hobbies and interests too.  If I pick five books that have been really influential to the genre of YA and show it’s range, I would go with:

1) The Harry Potter books.  These bridge middle grade and YA, but if you haven’t read them you are REALLY missing out. 

2) The Hunger Games

3) Code Name Verity

4) The Fault in Our Stars

5) Speak

And of course anything of mine.

3. Your best memory of your school days:

I wasn’t a big fan of high school. I worried WAY too much about everything. Did people like me? Had I made an idiot out of myself? Was I wearing a cool funky outfit or was it just weird? In my school popularity depended a lot on athletic skill. Just my luck that I am about the most uncoordinated person on the planet. However, one way that I was lucky is that I had (and still have) an amazing best friend, Laura.  She could always makes me laugh and we had a lot of fun together.  It took me years to understand that it doesn’t matter if everyone likes you- what’s important is having people you like in your life. 

And now, moving onto your masterpiece:

4. Tell us about what inspired you to write With Malice

There were a few things that came together to form the idea of this book. I’m fascinated with long-term friendships and how they survive and evolve, or don’t.  I knew I wanted to write about two friends who had been in a relationship for so long that at times it was hard to tell where the good parts and the bad intersected. I’d also worked for over twenty years in the field of vocational rehabilitation assisting with people with injuries and illnesses as an expert for the BC Supreme Court.  I had done a lot of work with individuals with brain injury and taking the opportunity to explore identity and relationships when you can’t trust your own memory was exciting.

Once I wrote a full draft of the manuscript I knew it was missing something and two other pieces of inspiration fell into place. The first was that I was planning a trip to Italy and it occurred to me to set the book there. I felt it would give Jill an extra push to explore her friendship if they were out of their current element. As I prepared for the trip I started to read more about the Amanda Knox trial and that motivated me to add the pressure coming from the media- where everyone else is deciding your guilt or innocence based on very little information.

The final bit of inspiration came from the first season of the Serial podcast by NPR. (If you haven’t listened- download it- you’ll thank me.)  It’s a true crime story about a murder trial that happened in the 1990s.  With each person that told their story I would shift my feelings. “He’s totally innocent! He’s guilty! Wait-he’s innocent!”  I wanted to see if I could recreate that feeling for readers by providing them with new perspectives that might change how they felt about the storyline.

5. The book was filled with articles, blog posts and police interviews. Did you feel that this gave the crime a more holistic approach rather than just the protagonist's viewpoint?

There is a line in the book about how truth is how you tell it. We all want to believe that there are black and white, right and wrong answers to things, but often things are a bit more fuzzy. Any experience we have is filtered through our past history and our belief systems. Jill has no memory of what happened at the time of the accident so she is attempting to fill in that information, but people have different perspectives. As a result, she (and also the reader) have to decide who they will believe. 

I liked the idea of having different snippets of information in different forms so that readers could put the puzzle together in different ways. The reader gets to decide which information they give more weight to and what bits of information they might ignore.

6. You writing playlist?

I am one of those rare writers who almost never writes to music.  Mostly because if there is music on I tend to start singing along or get distracted. My playlist is my two dogs barking at some squirrel! 

Eileen Cook is a multi-published author with her novels appearing in eight different languages. Her books have been optioned for film and TV.  She spent most of her teen years wishing she were someone else or somewhere else, which is great training for a writer. Her newest book, WITH MALICE, will be out in June 2016. She’s an instructor/mentor with the Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio Program.

You can read more about Eileen, her books, and the things that strike her as funny atwww.eileencook.com. Eileen lives in Vancouver with her husband and two very naughty dogs and no longer wishes to be anyone or anywhere else.

Title: With Malice

Author: Eileen Cook

Publication Date: June 9th 2016

Publisher: Hot Key Books

Part of a Series?: No, Standalone!

I Got A Copy Through: Bloomsbury India (THANK YOU!)

Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || The Book Depository

Blurb Description: Wish you weren't here…
When Jill wakes up in a hospital bed with her leg in a cast, the last six weeks of her life are a complete blank. All she has been told is that she was involved in a fatal accident while on a school trip in Italy and had to be jetted home to receive intensive care. Care that involves a lawyer. And a press team. Because maybe the accident…. wasn't just an accident.
With no memory of what happened or what she did, can Jill prove her innocence? And can she really be sure that she isn't the one to blame? 

a Rafflecopter giveaway