Tuesday 3 March 2015

WIP Blog Tour

So here I am on another blog tour. You may know what it's about, but if you don't its basically a bunch of writers talking about their current work in progress. It's a great way for writers to talk about what they're working on and readers to find out information on upcoming new releases - basically a win-win situation for everyone!

The talented Tim Arnot nominated me for this blog tour. Tim is a prolific writer who has written several post-apocolyptic books, novellas and short stories set in 23rd Century Britain. You can read his post on his blog and you can buy his books on his Amazon page!

The rules for this blog tour are as follows: 

1 Link back to the post of the person who nominated you.

2 Write a little about and give the first sentence of the first three chapters of your current work in progress.

3 Nominate some other writers to do the same.

So what am I working on? I have three books on the go, but the one that I'm finalising and hoping to have ready for publication this May is Under the Coconut Tree. It's a lighthearted detective novel set in rural Goa (Something like The White Tiger meets Ladies No.1 Detective Agency) and it's also the first in the series of The Chupplejeep Mysteries. This book is particularly close to my heart as I was inspired to write  it when visiting my father's ancestral home in a tiny village in Goa - in fact the villages that feature in The Chupplejeep Mysteries are all loosely based on this village!

So here are the first sentences from the first three chapters :

Chapter 1


Lavita found his body at dawn on her way to clean out the chicken coop. At first she didn’t notice poor Sandeep lying there. She was just going about her usual business, humming along. His body lay limp, camouflaged by the thick hairy discarded coconut husks piled high under the tallest coconut tree in Utol.

It was the whites of Sandeep’s eyes that eventually caught the young woman’s attention. She took a step back dropping the kapai, brush, and the bucket of water that she had painstakingly drawn from the well. The soapy water seeped into the dry earth underneath the hardened soles of her feet. It wet the hem of her petticoat. Granny would be angry, having washed the hem only yesterday, but Lavita put her thoughts of Granny Monji to the back of her mind; Sandeep Shah was dead.

Chapter 2

‘Ohhhhh!’ Mrs Lalji let out a gasp when she saw the dead body lying on the ground next to her niece and Bala.

‘Mrs Lalji, madamji please close your eyes. It is not for women to see,’ Bala said.

‘Shut up, man. I’m the lady of the house, no? I have to see what terrible happenings are taking place in my own backyard.’

‘I’ll get Baba,’ Bala protested, ‘It really is no place…’

‘You’ll get Baba will you? Ok-ay be my guest.’ Mrs Lalji crossed her arms and smiled at Bala.

Bala weighed up the options. He had woken Baba up before, and the sight was not a pretty one. The baker certainly didn’t want a repeat of that belching man’s anger. Who knew how he would react to a dead man under his coconut tree? And what was the harm in Mrs Lalji dealing with the death in the first instance? After all, she had already seen the body.

Chapter 3

The telephone rang just as the detective was booking a houseboat in Kerala. Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile had been his inspiration for a romantic weekend with Christabel, on a riverboat. He was certain that this experience would make him more like the Belgian detective Poirot.

‘Stupid slow government machine,’ Chupplejeep grunted as he tapped the yellowing computer monitor, hoping for a response.

That's it from me. For more information about my books and other works in progress take a look a my website.

Now for the nomination of an author whose work I admire.

Olivier Bosman has recently released  the first in a series of novellas following a Dutch couple settle into life in Columbia.  I recently read the lighthearted Berta, the first novella in the Muchacha series and it instantly transported me to 1970's Columbia. With his striking book covers and his skilful way with words Olivier Bosman is the one to watch!