Finding another new Elmore Leonard book

One of the most exciting finds in recent times was the book I found yesterday at the MR sale at Begumpet. I found a new book by Elmore Leonard –Mr. Paradise. I was excited to see this new title which I had not seen in any list. I picked it up instantly. It was a hardcover copy and was in brand new condition with the jacket intact. I was excited with the find and was eager to go home and check it out in detail. But I lingered on and browsed the thousands of books in the sale.

I saw ‘Dave Barry Turns 50’, ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ by Frances Mayes, Joe Queenan’s ‘My Goodness; A Cynic's Shortlived Search for Sainthood', and also two other Elmore Leonard books- Killshot and Out of Sight which I have at home. I wanted to buy the Dave Barry book but I have one copy at home. I might pick up all these books sometime next week and give them to friends who might appreciate them.

After I got home I was pleasantly surprised to find that the William Morrow edition of ‘Mr.Paradise’ published in 2004 was a First Edition. I’ve read about how coveted First Editions are and here I was with one. I have to check out more about it on the net. There was a list of 39 books by Elmore Leonard and realized I don’t have these titles-

-When the Women Come Out to Dance
-The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories
-Stick
-Cat Chaser
-Gunsights
-The Switch
-The Hunted
-Unknown Man No.89
-Swag
-Fifty Two Pickup
-Mr.Majestyk
-Forty Lashes Less One
-Valdez is Coming
-The Big Bounce
-Hombre
-The Bounty Hunters

On the flap it was mentioned that the first two books were collections of short stories of his. I had read only one short story of Elmore Leonard, Three Ten to Yuma, in the collection of classic western short stories that I found a few weeks ago.

On the back of the book, like most of his books, there’s a picture of Elmore Leonard wearing a dazzling white full sleeved shirt tucked into a pair of jeans. I was glad to notice I have one thing in common with the great writer. I too don’t wear a belt with my jeans.

Halfway Through My NaNo Novel

Today, I sailed past the halfway mark of the 50,000 words of my NaNo novel. I wrote 25,006 words so far. I am pleased no end with my progress because I have only another 25,000 words to hammer out in the next fifteen days though at the rate at which the book is moving my word count is likely to be around 60,000 words. Now that I’ve managed to cross 25,000 words I am confident I can do it.

It has been a crazy month so far with the mind focused on only the writing of the novel and the day’s word count. On some days I was able to write two thousand words (the limit I set myself for each day) and on a few days I was not able to write even five hundred words. One day I managed to write 4500 words though I had actually planned to write five thousand words that day. In the next fifteen days I plan to write five thousand words on some day.

But writing the NaNo novel has been a learning experience. It is certainly insane to attempt to write a novel in thirty days but I feel there are advantages to this method. First, you get the novel down from your mind to paper (or screen). Then next, you begin to think of actually finishing it. If you persist then you can finish the novel and I am determined to finish it come what may.

Writing the novel, I am feeling some of the lessons on writing I read about, begin to sink in. The basic rule is to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Then the other rules about having characters, dialogue, etc are also beginning to sink in. But what has permeated more deeply is the advice I read somewhere that a writer should think of his book in terms of scenes. Writing my NaNo novel I am trying to follow this advice and am actually thinking of the next scene and how many words it will take to write it. I hope to actually practice all the bits of advice that I’ve read so far.

What is helping me is that my novel is a satirical magic realism novel in which I am able to write literally anything that comes to my mind. Much of it is pure drivel and utter nonsense but I feel that once I finish it, it will begin to make sense (at least to me!). I cannot say I am having fun writing the book since it is making me edgy and impatient to finish it as soon as possible. But it is one wonderful learning experience that I hope to repeat every year from now onwards.

This Sunday's Haul of Books

After the long festival season, this Sunday all the book sellers were back at Abids. However, the lane housing the Hollywood shoe shop and Meena Bazar extension continue to be off limits for the booksellers. This was the nerve center of the book bazaar with the three biggest booksellers having their spots in the lane. Without any booksellers in this lane, the Abids book bazaar doesn’t appear the same. I hope the shopkeepers would see reason and allow the booksellers to set up shop in the lane.

This Sunday too I found a couple of good books. The first find of the day was a hardcover copy of Elmore Leonard’s ‘Maximum Bob’ which I picked up from a heap of books selling for only twenty rupees each. It was a good find because the book was a hardcover copy with the jacket intact and it was also in good condition. I remember seeing this copy earlier but it was highly priced, hundred fifty bucks or so, a few months back. Sooner or later many of the books the booksellers sell them off at ridiculously low rates. I have another copy with me that I had picked up for fifty bucks or so sometime back. I picked up this second copy to give away.

The second find of the day was Pete Dexter’s ‘God’s Pocket’ which I got for the shocking rate of only five rupees. It was really a shame that such good books have no takers. I had picked up his other book ‘Paris Trout’ and incidentally Elmore Leonard in an interview I read in the ‘Writer’s Handbook 2002’ mentions that he liked Pete Dexter’s writing. I haven’t yet started “Paris Trout’ but I hope to finish it this year.

Another book I found was Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Not After Midnight’. Again this was a hardcover copy and it was a discard from the British Library. It wasn’t in such a good condition but since a friend asked to look for it I picked it up for seventy rupees which I felt was too high a price.

This week I found a book on writing. I am sucker for books on writing and buy up any book on writing with the expectation that I would find something that would help me write well. The book I found this Sunday was a sort of writing textbook aimed at college students. The title was ‘Writing Voyage’ by Thomas E Tyner. It seemed good and I picked up after I leafed through the pages and found an essay on writing by Anne Tyler in it. I bought it for fifty rupees. It was in good condition and was in the size that textbooks come in.

The last find was another Conde Nast Traveler magazine. This was an issue of March 2005. It was in pretty good condition and I got it for twenty rupees only. This seemed another addition to the growing collection of Conde Nast Traveler magazines that I was picking up regularly at Abids.

Armchair Travel with Conde Nast Traveler

My travels to exotic locations abroad mostly happen on days when I read travel magazines like Conde Nast Traveler. In the post about the book finds last Sunday, I had forgotten to mention that I had also found a magazine- the April 2006 issue of Conde Nast Traveler. I got this almost-new magazine for only twenty rupees.

The issue contains articles on the French Riviera and other lovely places I’ll never get to visit unless I suddenly become a bestselling author overnight earning millions of dollars with my NaNo book!

But seriously, I read about socially responsible hotels in this magazine. It is written that many hotels in poorer countries are soliciting donations from travelers which are being ploughed back into the local economy to help the poor. I found this idea quite good.

I always look if there is anything on India in these magazines but always end up disappointed. The magazines don’t cover Indian places as often as I hope, but I have on a few occasions read about Jaipur and other such places. The South isn’t so extensively covered. Maybe I have to wait for some more time or I might have missed out those issues that have covered them.

I was struck by an article in it about seven unusual buildings titled ‘Next Wonders’. There was Hotel Puerta America in Madrid designed by Zaha Hadid, De Young Museum in San Franscisco but the most spectacular one was the one with a heart-stopping view of the Aurland Fjord.

With this issue of Conde Nast Traveler I guess I now have more than a dozen of them on my table. I don't feel like parting with them ever.

An Embarrassed Reader and Writer

While I eagerly await ‘The Literary Review’ of ‘The Hindu’ every first Sunday of the month, at the end of reading it leaves me sad and feeling empty. I feel sad that there are so many books and so many authors I haven’t yet read. The excellent articles on different authors and their writers makes me want to go out and buy their books. But how many books can one buy and how many can one read? Even if I manage to lay my hands on them where is the time to read them?

This month’s issue of ‘The Literary Review’ carried in-depth articles on Doris Lessing, Anne Enright, Joseph Conrad and Montaigne. The only thing that cheered me up was the knowledge that I had managed to buy a smaller version of Montaigne’s ‘Essays’ that was reviewed in this issue. It was the article on Joseph Conrad that brought on the gloom. I am embarrassed to admit that I haven’t yet read any of his books. I haven’t also read many other classics that others manage to read in school and college. I am fifteen years into a job and I still haven’t read many classics. One New Year’s resolution I am planning to make is to read at least half a dozen classics in the next year and fill up this yawning gap in my reading.

Another reason why reading the articles on great writers and their books brings on the gloom is the knowledge that their talents are so superior that I feel it would require me to take several births to even imitate their style of writing. It is so very difficult to write well. On such occasions I am embarrassed to call myself a writer, it seems so presumptuous

A SUNDAY PACKED WITH BOOKS AND PENS

The Literary Review of The Hindu


It was a packed Sunday this week with lots of books and pen related stuff happening.
First it was the ‘Literary Review’ of ‘The Hindu’ that set the tone for the rest of the day. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, ‘The Hindu’ carried the supplement I look forward to very eagerly. This year’s Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing was profiled on the front page as also another prize winner, the Booker winner- Anne Enright. Shashi Deshpande wrote that men are prejudiced against women authors but I don’t agree with her. An author’s gender doesn’t influence my reading choices and I guess if a guy doesn’t want to read something written by a woman why crib about it? I think this is taking the ‘discrimination-against-women’ thing too far. There’s more to be said about it but not now. Also, there is so much in the ‘Literary Review’ of this month that it needs a separate post to write about it all.

The Abids Routine- Finding two books and a catalog


Then as usual, I went to Abids. The festive shopping forces the book sellers out of their regular hangouts. This week too there were enough booksellers for me to fish out a couple of books. I found extra copies of books I’ve already read but I bought the books because they were too cheap and I wanted to give them away to friends. I found both these books at one place where each book was for ten rupees only. Surprisingly, the books were almost brand new. The first book was Elmore Leonard’s ‘Bandits’ and the second books was Philip Roth’s ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’.

The Caran d'Ache Catalog



The last book I found was not exactly a book but a catalog. After finding Mont Blanc catalogs all along until now, today I found a pen catalog of a different brand- Caran d’Ache. It was a small black,slim book lost among a heap of catalogs for jewelry. I got it for twenty rupees. The catalog had stunning pictures of some really beautiful pens. Some of the names were ‘Collection Joallerie’, ‘Privee’, ‘Hexagonale’, ‘Leman’, ‘Varius’, ‘Madison’, ‘Ecridor’ and ‘Dunas’. Needless to say each and every pen featured in the catalog was too exquisite to be described in words.


Meeting a Fountain Pen Collector

Later in the afternoon I met a serious fountain pen collector- a distinguished gentleman who had been an advocate. He had the most beautiful collection of fountain pens I have ever seen. The pens were lovingly stored in two wooden boxes and I could experience how the people who write with such pens must feel owning such pens when I handled the beauties. He had several Parkers, Namiki, a Conway Stewart and several other pens. We both were smiling away delightedly enjoying that rapport that comes with sharing a passion- a passion for fountain pens.



I am seriously thinking of putting pictures of the books , fountain pens and their catalogs I find, on the blog. But I need a good camera which I don’t have. Too bad I can’t share my finds with others.

Another Book on Writing

Another Book on Writing- The Writer’s Handbook


Last Friday, I was going to meet some writer friends in the afternoon and I passed a bookstore on the way- MR at Abids. I saw a new magazine- Monocle- that I had not seen earlier anywhere. It appeared quite good and I decided to buy it later in the week. But as I was leaving the store, I decided to take a quick look at another rack. It is odd how the eye locks on some specific words that connect to the important things in our lives. I noticed the word ‘Writer’ and I picked up the book to take a closer look. It was ‘The Writer’s Handbook- 2002’ brought out by ‘The Writer’ magazine. I bought it without a second thought. I got the book for a hundred rupees only.

Though more than half of the book contains details of magazines, publishers etc in the US, it also contains sixty essays on writing by famous writers. Writers like Stephen King, Sue Grafton, John Updike, Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishigoro and my favorite writer, Elmore Leonard have given their advice in this book.

I have older editions of this book, the 1977 edition and also the 1991 one. All three are big tomes, thicker than bricks and running into more than a thousand pages. But is a book worth owning by those who want to write. At hundred rupees it was a terrific bargain. I felt extremely lucky finding this book.

Getting Started on My First Novel

My First Novel

Writing wise it was a good beginning to the month. I started on my first novel (actually it is the second but more about it in another post) writing it for the NaNoWriMo thing. I have written ten thousand words already and am amazed at the rising word count. When I first began writing it on the first of November I felt I may not be able to complete and would leave it like so many of my writing projects. But I am determined to finish the novel, however badly it is written. I will work on it later and bring it to a shape. But right now, it is tap, tap, tap.

It feels odd writing a novel this way focusing on the word count rather than on the story. The priority is on writing the day's qouta. I am typing it off in half the day finding time whenever possible. I am trying to write more than the day's quota so that I don't have to worry if I miss a day's writing. Right now it appears fun but I guess the second week on wards it is going to be tough. My novel is going in all directions and I am struggling to keep it moving in the way I had planned to write it ten years ago.

As on today I have written ten thousand words and by the end of the day I plan to write another thousand words. I plan to write a 75000- 90000 word novel by the end of the month. It appears difficult but it is not impossible.

Writing My NaNoWriMo Novel

I had registered for the National Novel Writing Month Organisation few days ago. I have to write a novel of fifty thousand words before November 30. It sounds daunting and makes me wonder if it is any way of writing a novel. But I had been planning and thinking of writing a book since ten years and never got down to writing one seriously. I think this is the perfect opportunity to get the novel down.

Ten years ago I had done a course in Creative Writing in English from the Indira Gandhi Open University but I had not submitted my proposed project- a novel. I attended the classes for several months, met a few friends there with whom I am in touch even today but did not find the time to complete the project. Doing the course did some wonders to my writing ambitions first of which was that my first article, which was actually an assignment, was published in a newspaper as a middle. Incidentally, my first article was on fountain pens.


The project I had proposed to do was a fantasy novel and I had made some chapter outlines and had a general idea of the story. In the next month I plan to write this story. If I complete the novel then it would be a major achievement in my life. When I was young I told a friend that one day I would write a book. I was ten or twelve then and had absolutely no idea of writing much less about writing a book. I also do not know why I made that statement. But that promise stayed in my mind all these years. Now that I have a general idea of how to write a book (which I learnt from reading books on writing) I hope I would be able to achieve that childhood dream.

FIFTY POSTS AND OTHER THOUGHTS

The previous post was the fiftieth post and with it I’ve reached a small milestone. When I began writing the blog three months ago I had no idea how quickly I would reach fifty posts, and the only thing I had in mind was to write a post every other day. In the ninety days that passed I have written fifty posts. Not bad, I guess. A couple of the posts attracted some attention especially the one on Copywriters- Writers Who Were Copywriters- which was put on the front page of Elmore Leonard’s official website. It brought some visitors. The other post was the one on fountain pens and the environment.

My blog doesn’t attract many visitors. The average is three or four, I guess because I haven’t analysed any of the statistics. Some just see the front page and go off. Those who have stayed have read a few posts and stayed longer than five minutes. I hadn’t intended the blog to attract thousands of visitors a day. One reason why I am unable to attract many visitors may be that my writing may not be so good. But then I am learning to write and writing well doesn’t come so easily. Another reason may be that I am not telling about it to anyone. I don’t even have an idea of how to get your blog noticed.


I intend to write a hundred posts before the end of the year which means I have to write fifty posts in sixty days. It isn’t impossible. I can do it. I've set myself such goals before and reached them and I am confident I can reach this goal too.