Definitely Not Reluctant To Read Shoban Bantwal’s New Novel

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft

Last year I read my first novel by Shoban Bantwal. Fullmoon Bride was an old fashioned tale in a contemporary setting. The novel presented a slice of life rather than a larger than life story but, even without nail biting drama, the gentle story held my interest to the end of the book.

Using simple details of domestic life, Ms Bantwal captured the nuances of family interaction. She also developed the protagonist into a believable character.

She has created an equally enjoyable story in her latest novel, The Reluctant Matchmaker. It’s a new plot but all the elements that make her books a good read are included. I would recommend The Reluctant Matchmaker to readers who enjoy relationship-centred stories.

The publisher’s summary of The Reluctant Matchmaker: “It starts with a bizarre accident. Petite and successful Meena Shenoy’s contented life turns upside down when she collides, literally, with her strikingly tall boss, Prajay Nayak, and suffers a nasty fall. But when she discovers that he’s a bright, caring, family-oriented man, she’s attracted to him. When he unexpectedly asks her to meet him in secret, she wonders whether he feels the same way about her.

Meena walks into his office that evening with high romantic hopes. Imagine her shock when instead of declaring interest in her Prajay makes an astonishing request: He wants her to craft a personal ad that will help him find a suitable wife – a statuesque, sophisticated Indian-American woman who will complement his striking height.

Despite her feelings for Prajay and the complications of balancing work and her “marriage consultant” role, Meena can’t refuse the assignment, or the generous fee attached to it. While she nurses her bruised heart, Meena comes to some surprising realizations about love, tradition, and the sacrifices she will—and won’t—make to fight for the man she loves.”

I’ve asked Shoban to join me today to talk about The Reluctant Matchmaker. Welcome Shoban.

SB: Dianne, first of all, thank you for reviewing my book, and for a great interview. I appreciate your interest in my latest novel, The Reluctant Matchmaker.

Tell us about your novel

SB: It starts with a bizarre accident. When young and petite Meena literally collides with her strikingly tall boss, Prajay, she takes a nasty fall, but doesn’t count on falling in love with him. So imagine her dismay when he makes an astonishing request: He wants her to craft a personal ad that will help him find a suitable wife — a statuesque, sophisticated Indian-American woman who will complement his remarkable height. Despite Meena’s attraction to Prajay, she can’t refuse his assignment, or the generous fee. While balancing the complications of work and her “marriage consultant” role, she comes to some surprising realizations about love, tradition, and the sacrifices she will—and won’t—make to win over her giant.

What prompted you to write this story?

SB: Being a very petite woman and happily married to a small-statured man for over three decades, I have always wondered what kind of a relationship a tiny woman would have with a giant of a man. All my stories have their roots in the concept of “what if?” The Reluctant Matchmaker started with “what if” a diminutive woman fell in love with a big man. To raise the stakes even higher and add some conflict to an already unconventional match, I needed my tall hero to want a suitably statuesque woman to complement his remarkable height, even though he is somewhat attracted to the tiny heroine. The Reluctant Matchmaker became the story of just such a conflict.

The Reluctant Matchmaker explores Indian culture in America which some readers may not be familiar with. Is your intended reader Indian American or from any ethnic background? How do you acquaint non-Indian American readers with the culture the book is set in?

SB: While all my books are meant for readers of all ethnicities, they are primarily oriented toward a non-Indian audience, and mostly women. Indian-Americans are already familiar with the immigrant experience since they are living it, so they are not all that curious to read about it in fiction. However, I find that second and third generation Indian-American women are avid readers of my books. They can genuinely appreciate and relate to the challenges and experiences my young characters confront while straddling two diverse cultures.

As for acquainting my non-Indian readers with Indian culture, I do it by offering them a different kind of fiction that is more entertainment than intellectual stimulation, what I call Bollywood in a Book. Most South Asian authors write serious literary novels, which are beautifully written, but are often short on plot. Not all readers are fond of slice-of-life literary books, so I decided to give them commercial fiction that introduces them to Indian culture in the form of fun, romantic stories, filled with drama, colorful characters, emotional plots, and intriguing cultural elements.

The main female and male characters in the novel are well drawn. Do you prefer to write one sex or the other. And, if so, why?

SB: My books are marketed as women’s fiction with romantic elements, therefore I write mostly in the female point of view. I find it a little easier to write in the female voice than the male, perhaps because I grew up in a family with all sisters and no brothers. Also, women’s stories are more emotional as compared to men’s, and I like to pour feelings and internal musings in my tales.

While some of my books do have alternating chapters with both male and female viewpoints, The Reluctant Matchmaker is entirely the heroine’s story, hence it is narrated in the first person. 

Thanks for visiting Ascroft, eh? and answering my questions, Shoban. Good luck with your new book.

About Shoban Bantwal: She is an award-winning author of six multicultural women’s fiction books with romantic elements and numerous short stories, branded as “Bollywood in a Book.” Her articles have appeared in The Writer magazine, Romantic Times, India Abroad, India Currents, and New Woman. The Reluctant Matchmaker is her latest novel. Shobhan lives with her husband in Arizona.

For more information: about The Reluctant Matchmaker and Shobhan Bantwal’s other books, visit her website  or the book’s Amazon page to order a copy. The full virtual tour schedule is available at: http://bookpromotionservices.com/2012/06/03/reluctant-matchmaker-tour

Posted in July 2012 | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ebooks Can Be Any Length

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft

Ebooks can be any length – that may be evident to you but I just started thinking about it recently and it really pleased me. I’ve only had a Kindle reader for about a year but I’m a ‘convert’ – you’d have to wrestle with me to take it away.

For me this revelation means that I can put my huge trade paperback copy of Diana Gabaldon’s Breath of Snow and Ashes back on the bookshelf. It was always too heavy to carry around with me and it takes up too much space on the coffee table. I now have this book and the sequels on my Kindle.

It also means that I have access to lots of shorter works, like Tim Hodkinson’s All the King’s Thanes and Nina Croft’s Chosen. And I can also publish collections of my own shorter works, like Dancing Shadows, Tramping Hooves,

For more of my meandering thoughts on this topic see my post on Writers Abroad’s blog today.

Posted in June 2012, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reasons For Writing Short Stories

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft

A writer friend of mine often says that he wants to create edgy writing. Another writer friend says she’s not sure what he means. I think I know what he’s talking about but I decided to look up ‘edgy’ in Dictionary.com.

Here’s the 3 definitions it gives: 

  1. nervously irritable; impatient and anxious.
  2. sharp-edged; sharply defined, as outlines.  
  3. daringly innovative; on the cutting edge.

I imagine my writer friend doesn’t mean ‘nervously irritable’ or ‘sharp-edged’ writing. So he must be referring to ‘daringly innovative’. He’s passionate about developing this writing style but I’m afraid I don’t share his enthusiasm. And I doubt the short stories in my collection, Dancing Shadows, Tramping Hooves, will be ever described as ‘edgy’. But that’s ok because I wanted these stories to captivate readers not because they are dramatically different but because their familiarity touches readers’ hearts.

I hope the characters’ struggles will resonate with many readers: negotiating mother-daughter relationships, letting down barriers to form new relationships, grappling with fear, dealing with past mistakes and embracing a new life in a strange land.  

Words like ‘heart-warming’, ‘uplifting’ and ‘cheering’ are sometimes considered old fashioned but they fit these stories. And the stories fit the magazines and anthologies they were originally written for. I sometimes explore the dark side of life in my writing but not in this book. These stories are the kind to be read when you want to be entertained and reminded that life is good. I hope they will leave readers with a warm glow.

I’m launching Dancing Shadows, Tramping Hooves today. For more information about the book visit it’s Amazon page.

Posted in June 2012, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wondering About Vivaldi’s Muse

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft

I read a review of Sarah Bruce Kelly’s Vivaldi’s Muse on the Historical Novels Society webpage page recently and I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know more about the story. Loads of questions popped into my head and I couldn’t resist adding the book is in my to-be-read pile. I’ve also invited Sarah to tell me a bit about the novel.

Welcome to Ascroft, eh? Let’s get started, shall we, Sarah?

Tell us about your novel.

Set in early 18th-century Venice, Vivaldi’s Muse explores the life of Anna “Annina” Girò, Antonio Vivaldi’s longtime protégée. Annina first falls under the spell of the fiery and intriguing prete rosso (red-haired priest) at a young age, when Vivaldi is resident composer at the court of Mantua, her hometown. Stifled by the problems of her dysfunctional family, she has long dreamed of pursuing operatic stardom, and her attraction to the enchanting Venetian maestro soon becomes inseparable from that dream.

What prompted you to write about this episode in history?

I’ve always felt a special attraction to Vivaldi’s music, and in graduate school I decided to write my thesis on Vivaldi’s opera career, which no other music scholars were working on at that time. My research revealed the little-known story of his 20+ year association with a young singer, Anna Girò, whose name kept popping up in the documents. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became with this mysterious and intriguing relationship.   

How closely did you stick to the historical facts? If you used them loosely, how did you decide whether to deviate from them?

In my “digging” for the truth, a wealth of evidence emerged that I realized provided almost all I would need to write a great story. So all the major events in the novel are historically documented, with a little poetic license taken here and there to spice up the story.

What research did you do for this book?

My research for Vivaldi’s Muse took over ten years, and involved trips to Northern Italy and parts of Austria. During this time I translated dozens of documents, anything I could find that would shed light on Anna’s life and the nature of her relationship with Vivaldi.  

Do you use a mixture of historic figures and invented characters in the novel. Which is more difficult to write? Which to you prefer to write and why?

All the major characters in Vivaldi’s Muse are historic figures. However I found it necessary to add a few fictional background characters to flesh out the story, such as a costume designer, gondolier, etc. These fictional characters were fun to create, and I was free to make them as colorful, and even comical, as I wished. The historic figures were more difficult to write, especially Vivaldi, because I was so concerned about finding his authentic “voice.” I feel I finally achieved this by reading every letter, and listening to every piece of music, he wrote. I really felt I got to know him that way, and eventually his character pretty much wrote itself. This ended up being the case with other historical characters as well, of which there are many. In general, I prefer to write the historic figures because I find them so endlessly interesting.

In an historical novel you must vividly re-create a place and people in a bygone era. How did you bring the place and people you are writing about to life?

I spent a great deal of time researching the operatic culture of the time, as well as customs of daily life in Venice and Northern Italy, etc. People often confuse the fashions and customs of the early 18th century with those of the late 18th century, even though they were vastly different in many ways. There has actually been very little written about early 18th-century Venetian culture, so I had to do a great deal of digging. My goal was to authentically re-create the distinctive culture of Venice in the 1720s and 30s. In bringing the Venice of that time to life, it helped a lot that the city is virtually the same now as it was then, so my sensory experience of that beautiful place was much the same as it would have been for the characters in my story.   

There often seems to be more scope in historical novels for male characters rather than female characters. Do you prefer to write one sex or the other. And, if so, why?

The story of Vivaldi’s Muse allows equal scope for male and female characters, since both sexes played significant roles in the Venetian opera world of that time. At first it was easier for me to write the female characters, but as I explained above, especially with Vivaldi, his voice slowly revealed itself for me and became a pleasure to write.

Thanks for answering my questions, Sarah. I’m even more eager to read the book now.

About Sarah Bruce Kelly: A native of Richmond, Virginia, Sarah Bruce Kelly lives on the South Carolina coast with her husband, Frank, where she spends her time writing, reading, teaching, and enjoying the sun and surf.

For more information, visit Sarah’s Amazon page.

Posted in June 2012, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Caught Up In Highland Storms

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft

I’ve been trying to wade through my to-be-read pile lately and Highland Storms was at the top of the list. It’s the second novel I’ve read by Christina Courtenay. I enjoyed its prequel Trade Winds last year and so I was eager to continue the story of the Kinross family in this novel. And I wasn’t disappointed – the characters were real and appealing to me and I got lost in the story. It was a very entertaining read.

I’ve invited Christina to join me today to answer a few questions about Highland Storms. Welcome Christina. Shall we get started?

Tell us about your novel
Highland Storms is a historical romance and adventure story, set in Scotland in 1754.  It’s about a man who goes back to his roots, following what he sees as a betrayal by his brother and his childhood love. Brice Kinross needs a fresh start, but when he takes over the family estate in the Scottish Highlands, there’s trouble and he finds himself unwelcome. The estate has been badly managed, money has gone missing and someone wants Brice gone. He discovers an ally in the beautiful housekeeper, Marsali, but can he dare to trust her?

Marsaili is determined to build a good life. She works hard at being housekeeper and harder still at avoiding men who want to take advantage of her. But she’s irresistibly drawn to the new clan chief, even though he’s made it plain he doesn’t want to be shackled to anyone. And the young laird has more than romance on his mind. His investigations are stirring up an enemy.  Someone who will stop at nothing to get what he wants – including Marsaili – even if that means destroying Brice’s life forever …

What prompted you to write about this historical event or era? 

1754 was not very long after the Jacobite uprising, a period which has fascinated me for a long time. I’ve read a lot about it and I was particularly interested in the way the Highlanders were treated (or rather mistreated!) after the rebellion was quashed. The English seem to have been intent on erasing all Highland culture completely and some of the reprisals were extremely brutal. This left scars, naturally, and I decided it would be interesting to use this as the background for my novel. Although half Scottish by birth, the hero has grown up in Sweden, so he is to all intents and purposes an outsider, even though he’s officially the new clan chief of his father’s Scottish estate. I tried to imagine the sort of reception he would get from tenants who had just learned to mistrust anyone who wasn’t a true Highlander. How would he deal with that and overcome their prejudices? He would have to prove himself worthy of being one of them.

How closely did you stick to the historical facts? If you used them loosely, how did you decide whether to deviate from them? 

I tried to stick to the facts as closely as possible and the attitudes of the Highlanders at the time, as well as those of the English soldiers posted in Scotland to keep order. By 1754 things were calming down a lot though, so when I needed a villain I had to invent a particularly nasty English captain with a personal grudge in order to carry on the reprisals. I think in reality that probably wouldn’t have happened this late (although you never know!). 

What research did you do for this book?
I did a lot of reading, obviously, about the Jacobite rebellion and its aftermath (I can particularly recommend a book by Maggie Craig called Bare-Arsed Banditti – love that title!). I also went to Scotland to research how people lived at that time, what they ate, wore etc. and I was lucky enough to find an outdoor museum, the Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore near Kingussie. There they had old dwellings (or huts) built to show people what the houses used to look like and how they were constructed. I was able to go inside one and sit by the peat fire – it was quite dark in there (no windows) and it smelled strongly of wood smoke. But it was wonderful to be able to experience this for real and I used that in the book. I also visited castles, drove through the beautiful Highland glens and stuck my hand in a loch to see how cold the water would be.

Do you use a mixture of historic figures and invented characters in the novel?  Which is more difficult to write?  Which to you prefer to write and why? 

Although I have used real historical figures in other novels, in this particular one the characters are all imaginary. I find it easier to make them up, because if I use real people I’m afraid I won’t do them justice or perhaps even unintentionally insult them! If you only have imaginary people, they can go anywhere and do whatever you like, whereas using real ones means you have to know where they were at certain times and fit in with that. Makes it a lot more complicated!
 
In an historical novel you must vividly re-create a place and people in a bygone era. How did you bring the place and people you are writing about to life?

To a large extent, I used my own experiences during the research trip, and of course my imagination. When you go to the Highlands, it is quite easy to imagine yourself back in time because although some things have changed, there is a timelessness about the whole place that makes you feel a connection with the past.  I usually try to add little details to my stories to make them feel more authentic, like for example the washing scene. Back in the 1700s, I read that Scottish women did their washing by standing in pairs in big wooden tubs with their feet bare and sort of treading on the sheets or whatever they were washing. I thought this must have been quite a treat for the local men as the women had to hike up their skirts in order to do this, so I couldn’t resist including a scene like that in my novel. Other than that, it’s just a question of trying to get the facts right without making it sound like a history lesson!

Thanks for answering my questions so thoroughly, Christina. I think what you’ve said has given readers an insight into Highland Storms – and, if they are like me, they’ll now be eager to read the book. If they’d like to sample an excerpt from it first, they can click here.

For a chance to win a copy of Highland Storms, leave a comment on this post. The winner will be drawn on Monday.

Christina’s next book, The Silent Touch of Shadows, is due to be released on 7th July. Readers can learn more about Christina and her books by visiting her website, Christina Courtenay and can follow her on Twitter – @PiaCCourtenay.

Posted in June 2012 | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Launching Into Summer With Books

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft

This seems to be the season for book launches – I can barely keep up with them all. As I prepare to release Dancing Shadows, Tramping Hooves, a collection of short stories, as an Amazon ebook on 20th June lots of people I know are also releasing new books.

M C Scott’s Rome: The Eagle of the Twelfth was released on Thursday and I believe she is busy making the rounds of bookshops, enjoying readers’ appreciation of her work.

Ian Butler, a new author and a fellow member of Fermanagh Writers, is releasing his first novel, Burger Bar Dad, published by M P Publishing on 28th May. The book garnered interest at the London Book Fair recently and Ian is busy working on the sequel.

 

It’s a busy time but this weekend I’m taking time to reflect on Tuesdays At Charlie’s book launch at the Ardhowen Theatre on Thursday evening. It was a great evening – wonderful weather, an enthusiastic audience and entertaining readings by several members of Fermanagh Writers.  I was kept hopping during the evening making sure everything was running smoothly but now I intend to sit back and enjoy the memories. Click here to share them with me.

Posted in May 2012 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I’m Getting Launch Fever

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft
It’s all happening next Thursday – there’s almost too much for me to choose from and I wish I could be in more than one place at once.On Thursday, 24th May Fermanagh Writers launches Tuesdays At Charlie’s and I’m really excited about it. We put lots of work into getting this collection right so now that the books have arrived – and none of them are printed upside down or in some strange, illegible font style – it’s time to celebrate. The launch details are on our group’s website at www.fcwg.wordpress.com. If you are in Enniskillen that evening – or want to come down – please join us!And while we’re launching Tuesdays At Charlie’s, the Alliance of Independent Authors is hosting their online launch. It starts at 8pm (GMT) and features a Q&A session called Ask Amazon with Thom Kephart, Amazon’s Community Outreach Manager. For more information about this event check out: http://allianceindependentauthors.org/campaigns.html.

Next Thursday really is the day for launches as it’s also the day that M C Scott’s Rome: Eagle of the Twelfth is published. I have to admit that I haven’t actually finished the previous book in the series, Rome: The Coming of the King, but I still have a week left…I am captivated by the world she creates – I just need a bit more time to spend reading. But I’m not really sorry I haven’t finished it yet – it’s good to know it’s still there to go back to as I enjoy getting lost in it.

Now how will I juggle all these events? Well, Rome: The Eagle of the Twelfth will automatically download to my Kindle – the wonder of pre-ordering! I’m not quite sure how I will juggle the other two though. If you see me checking my mobile frequently at the Ardhowen Theatre that evening I’m probably trying to keep up on what’s happening at the AIA launch while munching the most amazing mini-muffins that one of our members has promised to bring to the Fermanagh Writers’ launch. There’ll be wine, cheese & crackers and other nibbles too but the muffins are divine and shouldn’t be missed. But don’t tell anyone about them until I get my share! Hope to see some of you at the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen at 7.30pm next Thursday.

If you are curious about how Tuesdays At Charlie’s all came together, read my post on Writing.ie about how we did it – and survived as a group. You’ll find the piece here:

http://writing.ie/writers-toolbox/getting-published/more-publishing-options/591-tuesdays-at-charlies-fermanagh-writers-group.html

Posted in May 2012, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Share Your Foreign Encounters With Us

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft

My world seems to revolve around anthologies recently. I’ve been caught up in preparations for the launch of Fermanagh Writers’ first collection, Tuesdays At Charlie’s, for the past couple weeks and now I’m about to embark on helping to prepare Writers Abroad’s third anthology, Foreign Encounters.

Writers Abroad has opened submissions for Foreign Encounters. We want to hear from ex-pats or former ex-pats about the encounters they’ve had away from their home shores – with humans or animals. Author Julia Gregson will write the book’s forward and all proceeds will go to Books Abroad. For more information about our submissions call visit Writers Abroad’s website.

I enjoyed writing stories for last year’s book, Foreign Flavours, and also reading all the other submissions. I already have an idea for a story and I’m looking forward to this year’s book. But first I have to pitch in to make Tuesdays At Charlie’s launch a fun night then on to Foreign Encounters.

Posted in May 2012 | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Timely Piece For Ireland’s Own

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft
My piece in Ireland’s Own this week about Holy Cross Monastery in Rostrevor, Co Down is timely. More than a year ago I was intrigued by this new monastery that had been founded in the province and I went to visit and learn a bit about them. The resulting article appears in the magazine this week just as the monastery’s Superior, Dom Mark-Ephrem Nolan, was installed last Sunday as an ecumenical canon at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh. He is the first Catholic to hold this position in a Protestant church in Northern Ireland. The Ireland’s Own issue is on sale until Monday, 30st April.

Posted in April 2012, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Independent Authors Are Joining Together

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Dianne Ascroft
I’ve got lots happening at home this week as our local writers group, Fermanagh Writers, has just received the first print run of our anthology, Tuesdays At Charlie’s, we’re running a Pub Quiz tonight to help pay for printing the book and we’re also hosting a writing workshop with Queen’s University creative writing tutor, Emily DeDakis on Saturday. Check out the group’s blog for more info about these events: www.fcwg.wordpress.com.

But I’m also excited about another venture: the launch of the Alliance of Independent Authors. When Orna Ross, author and former literary agent, first mentioned it my ears pricked up. Since I’ve been involved in self-publishing – myself and also with local writers’ organisations – for several years I was keen to hear about the organisation.

The Alliance of Independent Authors launched at the London Book Fair yesterday with an author Q & A on the topic of ‘How I went Indie — and Why’ with members Linda Gillard, Amazon No 1 Hazel Gaynor and New York Times bestseller Joni Rodgers and others. The aim of this session was to educate the media and publishing industry about some of the realities of this way of reaching readers.

Today is the online official launch of the organisation. Why don’t you pop over to www.shindig.com and join us? And don’t forget to visit the organisation’s own website: www.allianceindependentauthors.org.

For writers in the Dublin area, the organisation is holding their first Dublin branch meeting on Tuesday, 24th April, 6.30pm in the Library Bar, Central Hotel, Exchequer Street. Drop by if you’re in Dublin.
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