It must be Tuesday somewhere!

I am doing a MAJOR THING!

Mahalo,

I’m listening to Spiderman Into the Spiderverse’s What’s Up Danger by Blackway and Black Caviar) and the lyrics have me all pumped up for everything happening! FINALLY!

I am like two hours-ish late in sending this letter so it makes it on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday, but I figure it must be Tuesday somewhere, in an alternative dimension so I am going to go with it. Alright? :P

Thanks to everyone who answered the poll last newsletter around. I have a much clearer idea of what you, my dear Postmate, want more of. And the answer is unanimous lol - first-person POV.

I will admit, I am a bit bummed that not one Postmate had a Podcast show name they wanted to share with me. It makes me wonder….what is your inner monologue like? :) No worries, I get it. Podcasts aren’t for everyone. They weren’t for me till I stumbled onto The Office podcast and the one by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.

Before I dive into the bookish news portion of this newsletter, I’m going to recommend Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse to you. Drop whatever you’re doing and go see this movie. It’s there on Netflix. Miles Morales Spiderperson is all of us, struggling, beat up, optimistic, and stubbornly individual despite the obstacles facing him (like a collider sucking Brooklyn into a blackhole and a bunch of Spider-people stuck in the wrong dimension). That soundtrack is EVERYTHING!

And the animation is actually my favorite animation of them all, EVER! The colors, the swishes, the transitions, the textures…everything just fits so perfectly. You know?

So much so that it has made me reconsider my favorite Spiderperson/Spidey Sense heroes and characters and even mediums for that matter.

Paperbacks Update

As of the writing of this edition of TWGL, ALL four Geeks paperbacks - You Won’t Be Mine, The Pieces of Me, Tell Me Your Secrets, Love The Way You Lie - Renegade, Chaos, Burn, and Claim are all uploaded, and live on Amazon worldwide.

All of the books are in their gorgeous GORGEOUS object/discreet, jewel shiny toned cover glory! :D

In India, Claim, Burn, Blaze (with the model versions), as well as Renegade, Chaos, The Pieces of Me (Geeks 2), and Love the Way You Lie (Geeks 4) are live as of now. Apart from the Ruthless Billionaires, the books all have the gorgeous discreet covers I am so hecking proud of!

Click the shiny pink buttons to see them for yourself, Postmate :)

I’m in My ‘I’ Era

So, after your poll answers last week, I did a thing. I went and checked the number of times I used ‘I’ in the newsletter. And it was a whopping 30+ times in a newsletter that was barely 1000 words if that.

I use I a lot more times than even I consciously realize. Which made me really consider my resistance to write Crave in a frenzy of obsession and spicy angst.

Because of the way I left Nashit and Pehel hanging in Tempt, writing this book is the most anticipated event for me, rn. But, for some reason, the words have been stuck in my head since May end. Every time I wrote Nashit turned his head. Or Pehel looked at Nashit…it was…forced, Postmate. Like writing through sticky webbed honey.

I was a little freaked out because I thought I was losing my writing mojo. And I am not ashamed to admit that as a writer of more books than I have published, this is still a legit nightmare for me. That one day the words will dry up. And I’ll be a sad former husk of my vibrant, magical Writer Gal self.

So, just as an experiment, I did this.

A Crave Excerpt (Spiderverse Style)

“It’s ammi’s birthday today,” I murmured. “Do you remember?”

The man lying motionless on the hospital bed did not stir at my softly spoken words.

Actually, I wasn’t sure I had even spoken them out loud. This whole day, the last twenty-four hours was surreal in the extreme. Like I’d entered an alternate universe where I was Nashit Kishor Keshav, a simple horse-raising farmer, but everything else was fucking different.

In this alternate universe, I wasn’t just prepping for the year’s Thoroughbred Racing Season for Bhatnagar Race and Stud Farm, my fucking kingdom. I was thinking of competing with my horse – my Arabian Thoroughbred Pathaan – in it.

In this alternative universe, I’d put another man in this hospital stopping just short of killing him for daring to mistreat a gentle, showboat of a horse. My sweet Laxmi Bomb.

In this alternate universe, I was talking to my father. My convicted in prison till he dies father. Who was somehow out of prison and lying on this hospital bed because he’d been shanked by a fellow inmate and required life-saving surgery even though he had liver cancer.

In this alternate universe, I’d done the unthinkable a few short hours ago.

I had betrayed the person who trusted me implicitly.

---

I’m in my ‘I’ Era - contd.

It took me five seconds to get into this man’s head and peer into his insecurities, his vulnerabilities, and his insanity. And it took me about two hours to pound out the first two chapters of the next book in Nashit and Pehel’s heart-pounding, emotional, twisting, angsty romance.

In other words, I got my writing mojo back. (It hadn’t gone anywhere but it sure felt that way for the last few weeks…) It’s just that my writing mojo is like the Spiderverse now. It wants to do the exact same thing in a brand-new (to us) way.

So, Postmate, after careful consideration and much deliberation, I’m in my ‘I’ era from now on. Till further notice.

What does this mean?

It means this series and all future books will be written in first person, instead of third. With as many POVs as the story demands, if it comes down to it. And Tempt - which is the beginning of Nashit and Pehel’s romance - will also become first-person, dual voice.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THE STORY IN TEMPT IS CHANGING.

The plot and the scenes and the dialog remain the actual same. Just the way said plot, scenes, and dialog are presented will change from the eye-in-the-sky narrator to an I-narrator point of view. :) I know it will provide a more immersive and immediate reading experience for you, Postmate. And who does not want that, right?

I know, even I do. Even I read to immediately escape into a world of another’s making.

This is a HUGE change of pace for me, but after a long time, I feel like…settled in my heart?

Like this book is coming alive in my head and Nashit and Pehel are talking to me and I am them - which makes writing them easier.

Lol. Sorry, if that confused you, Postmate. The writing process is a strange and marvelous beast we writers beat into submission some days. But I chose this path as much as it chose me, and that means, this time, listening to the muse and the market and the little voice in my head that says it is time to take this risk and do this.

Stay tuned for more updates regarding Tempt’s new version as well as other things cooking in the Bhatnagar Family saga and more paperback news! I cannot WAIT to share it all with you.

Till next time, stay safe and get Spiderpeople’d!

Xx

Aarti