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    The Madras Affair by Sundari Venkatraman

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    A romance with a powerful social message!

    The book starts with Sangita, the empowered, successful head of an NGO that works to improve the lives of battered and homeless women. We are introduced to her supporting and loving husband Gautam, an American.

     As the story unfolds, we find out about Sangita’s past. She is born to an orthodox South Indian family and married off at the age of nineteen. We find out about her abusive husband, his sudden death while driving drunk, and the impossible demands and blame her family places on Sangita and her little boy. Young Sangita falls head over heels with Gautam while working as a receptionist in a hospital,. But she has been brought up to follow the norms of her conservative society and finds it difficult to accept Gautam’s affection.
    Gautam is born to an American father and Indian mother, and lives with his grandparents in India, teaching at a local university. Having grown up in the US, he does not understand the traditions and taboos a young widow with a child faces.
    With the help of her sister-in-law, her son, and Gautam’s grandparents, Sangita finds the will to overcome parental pressure and establish her authority to finally free herself form the societal chains that bind her. 
    With strong and well fleshed out characters, an interesting plotline, vivid imagery and a satisfying conclusion, Sundari Venkatraman takes us on a romantic journey, which leaves us smiling in the end.
    Highly recommended!
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    Choosing a Point of View for a Scene (POV)

        If you’re writing in third person omniscient POV, you are able to describe the same event from the point of view of different characters. Personally, I decide the POV before I write the scene. But sometimes, I write down the dialogue and decide whose POV gives the story its maximum impact and provokes the maximum emotional response from the reader. Of course, it can be subjective, but let’s look at an example.

      Let's say you are writing a scene about an argument between a husband and a wife. The husband is a drunk, jealous of his wife’s success, and assumes she is sleeping with her boss. Wife is just trying to make a living.

    Let us take it from the husband’s POV: 

       Sam finished his third beer. He was hungry. Where the heck was Lilly? Gallivanting with her boss, no doubt. He was sure she was taken in my Brad’s fancy suits and perfumes. Sam had demanded that she return the pearl necklace Brad gave her after they got the last contract, but Sam was sure she kept it hidden somewhere. The lying bitch!

       A noise at the doorway made him look up. There she was, in a pant suit, pretending to be good people. And look at that blouse! He could see the curves she didn’t care to hide from her boss. Had she forgotten their roots? He had worked hard to put her through college! And this is how she repaid him! Flaunting her body in front of other people?

       Sam said, “Where have you been?” He put down his beer mug.

       Lilly looked startled and dropped her purse on the floor. “Oh! I asked you not to wait up.”

       He stood up and strode toward her. “You didn’t answer the question. Were you with Brad?”

       She took a step back and raised her hands in defense. “For the last time, there is nothing going on between me and Brad. He’s just my boss.”

       “Who keeps you in his office until late at night.” She was definitely sleeping with him!

       She took off her shoes and sank in the sofa, massaging her feet. “Don’t get mad! It’s just nine o’clock. He has a big presentation. If we don’t get this contract, I’ll be out of a job.”

       “You’ll find another!” A job that featured an elderly man with a potbelly, perhaps.

       She looked up, and her eyes glistened with tears. “If you didn’t stay at home drinking all day, I wouldn’t have to work so hard.”
     

    Let’s try it from the wife’s POV:

       The house looked dark. Lilly sighed and opened the door. She hoped Sam had gone to bed. She could not deal with his drinking anymore. 

       “Where have you been?” called a voice.

       Startled, Lilly dropped her purse on the floor. In the darkness, she saw his outline on the sofa, two empty cans of beer lying beside him. She watched as he put down his beer mug.
    So he was drinking again.

       She wished he had just gone to bed. He would no doubt tell her how he had worked hard to put her through college. But she hadn’t squandered the opportunity by drinking! She had worked hard to get where she was.

       She didn’t know how long she could carry on like this. “Oh! I asked you not to wait up.”

       He stood up and strode toward her. “You didn’t answer the question. Were you with Brad?”
     
       She knew he was suspicious of Brad. And maybe he was right about Brad’s intentions. But Brad had never made a pass at her, although she had caught him staring down her cleavage once or twice. And the pearl necklace he gave her when they got the last contract? Sam was right in asking her to return it. That had set the boundaries right.

       She took a step back and raised her hands in defense. “For the last time, there is nothing going on between me and Brad. He’s just my boss.”

       “Who keeps you in his office until late at night.”

       She took off her shoes and sank in the sofa, massaging her feet. God, will I never catch a break? “It’s just nine o’clock. He has a big presentation. If we don’t get the contract, I’ll be out of a job.”

       “You’ll find another!”

       She looked up, tears stinging her eyes. Why don’t you get a job? “If you didn’t stay at home drinking all day, I wouldn’t have to work so hard.”

     
    Looking at the two POVs, my personal preference is the wife’s, unless we are setting up the husband as the main character who changes his life based on the interaction. Sometimes writing the same scene from both POVs is incredibly powerful, and makes the reader empathize with both your characters.

    How do you choose POVs?
     
     

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    An un-put-downable Psychological Thriller

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    Until I Met Her by Natalie Barelli
    Before Emma Fern meets Beatrice Hodgson-Greene, she is a sweet, happy, and easy going store owner in a reasonably happy marriage.

    ​Enter Beatrice, a best-selling author of crime fiction, who comes to Emma with an offer: Beatrice needs someone to be ‘the author’ of her yet to be published novel, because it is of a different genre. Emma has unfulfilled literary ambitions, and finds the offer impossible to refuse.

    As they begin their imbalanced and bumpy ‘friendship’, things take a turn for the worse, and you find yourself rooting for poor Emma, as she takes decision after self-destructive decision, in a journey of shocking discoveries and unexpected turns.

    I enjoy a good psychological thriller, and Natalie Barelli’s Until I met Her didn’t fail to entertain. In fact, instead of going out for a jog, I found myself glued to the exercise bike at home, with the iPad in my hands, waiting for the next mind-boggling twist.

    A fast paced, interesing read.
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    A Funny, Quirky and Heartwarming Love Story

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    Clean Break by Abby Vegas

    A Clean Break is, at its heart, a romance with elements of suspense. It is the story of a down-on-her-luck, used-to-be-rich girl Lane, who is trying to get a clean break and start over. She may have lost everything, but her greatest asset is her personality.

    ​When she loses her deposit for an apartment in New York and must live in the basement of a suspicious Russian-mafia-type organization, she has no choice but to accept her fate. But Lane is such a spunky, strong, impulsive, loving young woman with a quirky sense of humor, that I fell in love with her character from the first page.

    Viktor is everything Lane should avoid: devastatingly handsome, with a quaint accent and startling blue eyes, numerous tattoos, and a past he prefers to hide. But he keeps showing up when she needs him. He seems like a really good guy at heart. Hurting, just like her. But he also seems linked to the Russian mafia, and her only friend warns her not to get too close to him. But their attraction is irresistible.

    What I like most about the book is Ms Vegas’s ‘voice’. For a debut novel, Ms Vegas has such a great voice, that it almost seems she’s talking from experience, about herself. In addition, her descriptions of places and people are vivid and enriching. The character arc is well built for all the characters, including Lane’s boss, eventually leading to a satisfying end.
    I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was rooting for Lane all the way!
    Kudos!

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    Evocative saga of love, lies, and heartbreak

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    A Mother's Secret by Renita D'Silva
    5/5
    ​A Mother’s Secret is a sweeping saga that weaves the lives of three women seamlessly, drawing the reader into the story with breathtaking imagery. As we delve deeper into the secrets, deceit, and heartbreak, D’Silva reveals the story bit by tantalizing bit, and unfolds a tapestry of richly textured characters with flaws and strengths, and we find ourselves cheering for each in turn until the satisfying end.

    The three main characters are Jaya, who is mourning the loss of her baby and her mother, Durga, who blames herself for her parents' accident, and Kali, who loses the love of her childhood sweetheart because of family drama.

    But my favorite was Kali, whose deception has a childlike innocence, whose pride is fragile, and whose love for life is triumphant.
    Another evocative book by Renita D’Silva. A must read!
    ​Buy on Amazon

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    Author of the Month: Pamela Kelley 

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    What do you like to write about?

    I read widely, across several genres and tend to write similarly, depending on what catches my interest. Small town romance, women's fiction, historical westerns and mystery suspense primarily.

    Tell us about your latest release. What was your inspiration for this book?

    My latest release is a Kindle Worlds book, The Wedding Photo, which is part of a launch for Bella Andre's sweet romance series, Four Weddings and a Fiasco, which she writes as Lucy Kevin.  In my book, Jenna is a photographer who often shoots weddings and has a gift for seeing how true their love is by looking at the pictures she takes. She is taken aback when she reviews the pictures for her most recent wedding which is for her best friend, Charlie's cousin. When she sees Charlie's individual photo, it seems like he's staring directly at her and she sees something in his eyes that she's never noticed before--intense interest. But does she want to risk their friendship on a romance that might not last?  It's a friends to lovers romance, which is always one of my favorite story lines, and I'd been wanting to write one for a while.

    What is your writing process? Tell us one unique or quirky habit you have when it comes to writing.

    I don't recommend my writing process. But for the last few books it's gone like this. Spend a few weeks thinking about the story and putting off the writing. Then sitting down and writing the first half of the book slowly, as I figure out what the story is. Then, write the second half in a few very long days. I keep saying it would be so much easier if I just wrote a little each day, but it just doesn't seem to work that way often for me.

    Can you tell us something about your ‘work in progress’?

    The book that I am working on now is a bit different. It's more of a saga that spans a number of years. I think of it as my soapy saga. It's set in the world of country music and is called Nashville Dreams. It's about a young couple that are planning to marry and have their lives mapped out when something awful happens that sends things spinning in an entirely different direction and changes the course of their lives and dreams. The short synopsis I've been using is "True love torn apart by amnesia and an evil billionaire with political ambitions."
     
    What is the single greatest challenge for indie authors today? What is your advice to aspiring writers?

    The biggest challenge is standing out among the tidal wave of books that are being released. The very best advice I can give it to focus on the book and make it as good as it possibly can be. That is how you will stand out. People are always looking for a really great book.

    What is your most important message to your readers?

    Thank you for reading, and for making this author's dreams come true. :)
    _
    Connect with Pamela Kelley at http://www.pamelakelley.com/ or Twitter
    Latest Release: The Wedding Photo