On Saturday, December 3, 2011 a spike of disturbance shot upward from an otherwise relatively tranquil run of weeks.
I encountered my first major disappointment with online shopping – the pedaltrain board with integrated power supply that I’d ordered for my guitar effects rig turned out to be a dud. This meant I had to run around across the length of Mumbai — literally from south Mumbai to north Mumbai — to get in touch with the store and see if they would replace it and how I could get compensated for my expense. In the midst of all this, there was the possibility that one of the reviewers on my December book tour had not received a copy of the book and there was this guest post that had gotten missed. With all this on my mind and knowing I would not have much time to spare in between the weekend guitar tuitions that I give and practice for our band’s gig on the 31st of December I wondered what could I contribute to reviewsbymolly.com.
But on the night of December 3 as I worked on a chapter for my third book it struck me… I was going to write on the therapeutics of writing.
Flashback to a day in 2010. I was writing my second thriller when I hit a patch of severe mental fatigue. On that day nothing flowed; even the most basic of tasks seemed alien to me and simply to think brought a aching throb to my head. That’s the day I learned to let a story flow and never force it. It’s like any other learning curve: keep at it for too long and you’re bound to get frustrated. But if you let that skill develop at its own pace you will enjoy it more and it becomes a kind of worm-hole you can tunnel through into a parallel universe.
The fact is when you’re writing you get so drawn into the plot of the story, the lives of your characters as you direct them from place to place and through adventures and misadventures like some god of their universe that it’s almost like entering a mental space that is blotted out from everything else. Nothing else can touch you when you’re in that space — at least nothing short of a physical confrontation.
In that ‘zone’ I was in my element in control of everything and excited with the literary entertainment that was unfolding on my laptop computer. I forgot all the upheavals of the day because they were nothing compared to what I was putting my protagonist through and they didn’t matter in the fictional universe I had stepped into.
Even now writing this guest post, I know band practice is going to be okay… easy compared to hanging to the hood of a speeding car!
PS: I was about to mail this across to my tour coordinator when she sent me an email: the missing book has been found!
‘Hey hey hey it’s a beautiful day…”
FBI Special Agent Kirk Ingram’s life is torn apart when his family is brutally murdered before his eyes. Devastated physically and psychologically, he vows to destroy organized crime in all forms.In the Eastern bloc, a rogue dictator state is stockpiling Citex, a deadly nerve agent…Across the globe, an international trade house funnels Balkan organized crime activities through its business channels and now hatches a plot to distribute Citex to major cities in the world, creating a nexus with terror that threatens to bring the world order to the point of anarchy.And only one man stands in the way of global terror and paranoia. One man seeking redemption and waging a personal battle against the demons of his past.Get your adrenaline rush as the plot unfolds breathlessly from the gritty streets of Los Angeles to the remote fringes of Russia, from the depths of the Pacific to the skies over Panama and from the sun baked desert to the exotic villages of Costa Rica.
About the Author:
Douglas Misquita is an action thriller writer from Mumbai, India. His debut novel Haunted has been received very well by fans of the genre. Besides writing, Douglas enjoys reading about places steeped in history and mystery, and plays lead guitar with a rock n roll band. When he’s not doing any of the above, he puts in time as a project manager in the telecom industry.
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