Monsoon
Tide
1. What really inspired you to write your book, to force you from
taking an idea or experience and conveying it into a book?
The original story was in the form of a screenplay by
Nick Fletcher. These are his words…
As a young
man, I went to live in an old Indian beachside house. The house had belonged
for generations to the family of a man back in the UK who had now made London
his home. I volunteered to go with his
daughter to close up the house for its imminent demolition and put down the
family dog who still lived there. The
house had a small dark room, where I found family albums - evidence of when the
house was alive with extended family, socialites and parties. However, I also
found articles on the owner pertaining to a darker past and perhaps a reason
for him to leave the country forever. However, there were other things to think
about - notably the dog. I had the
feeling that she had long resigned herself to the fate that now awaited
her. On her last day we walked her by
the sea, where she bit the waves relentlessly as they broke upon the
shore. A futile and desperate gesture in
the face of something immeasurably powerful.
In a fanciful moment I saw the sea as something symbolic, something that
represented the force of life and death.
Twenty
years later, my own father’s passing had a profound effect on me. I began writing after a long lay off. It was a cathartic experience and I allowed a
story to evolve as I wrote. It began to
take form almost on its own with those distant memories of India propelling the
story. Soon a universal theme became
apparent in the narrative, that the spirit of loved ones can indeed live on in
our hearts.… and inform and inspire us.
We just have to let them. Monsoon
Tide was born.
2. What is it about and whom do you believe is your targeted reader?
Monsoon
Tide is the story of Anni, a young Anglo-Indian aid worker who returns to her
beautiful, tropical birthplace in India in the wake of the Asian tsunami. There she encounters her reclusive and
seemingly haunted stepfather in his isolated beachside house. She soon discovers that her mother's death
sixteen years before was not the accidental drowning she had been led to
believe. Armed with her mother’s diary which she finds hidden in the depths of the
house and with the aid of the local Chief of Police, Anni embarks on a mission
to discover the truth whatever the cost. It is a haunting story of loss, love
and secrets told in a unique way.
The
target readership for Monsoon Tide is quite wide-ranging as it encompasses a
number of popular genres; mystery, suspense and romance. Basically, if you like books and films and
are willing to try a new format which combines the two types of media, then
Monsoon Tide may well be for you.
3. What do you hope will be the everlasting thoughts for
readers who finish your book? What should remain with them long after putting
it down?
The
theme of the book was certainly reinforced on a film-location expedition by
watching ashes being cast into the Indian ocean and contemplating the eternal
cycle of life and death, with loved ones living on in the hearts of those who
are left behind. We hope these
sentiments live long in the minds of the readers after they’ve read the book.
4. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers?
There
is already a host of information available to writers to help them hone their
writing skills but an important factor for any aspiring author who wants
commercial success is to consider how his or her book is going to stand out
from the rest.
To use
business terminology; what is your unique selling point? Is there something in
the content of the book, its unique perspective, its topicality, its author or
any other factor that would attract media attention? Although this might sound like it’s not a very artistic basis to start writing a
book, if you consider a book’s marketability beforehand, you
will reap the rewards further down the line.
In the case of Monsoon Tide we have received a lot of media interest
because of the unique concept of the cBook or Cinematic Book in telling a story
through both written chapters and film clips.
5. What trends in the book world do you see and where do you think
the book publishing industry is heading?
A lot is being made in the press currently about the relative demise of
ebooks and the resurgence of their conventionally printed counterparts. People seem to be reconnecting with the
printed book form and a major factor in our opinion is that e-books, for the
most part, are just replicating conventional books in an electronic
format. Why are ebooks content to plod
alongside conventional books when they can do so much more? Although there have been a number of enhanced
e-books which have featured audio tracks, film clips, ambient background noise
and interactive games, these are not redefining the format but merely icing the
cake.
Our new concept – the Cinematic book or cBook – actually cuts up the
cake and puts in whole layers of filling.
We have a chapter of prose followed by a film clip followed by another a
chapter and so on each taking the story forward. We are combining the media, but in a
sequential manner. The result is that
the reader can get inside the characters heads and in so doing, deepen their
emotional investment in the story.
Conversely, readers often complain about not being able to ‘get into the
world’ of the book and find it difficult to visualise the characters and
location (sometimes this is not the fault of the book but a common difficulty
for the reader to disengage from the real world and enter the fantastical new world
of the book). A cBook transports you
right to that world after a first short chapter.
The electronic book market must continue to innovate to prosper - it
must do things that a conventional book can not do.
6. What great challenges did you have in writing your book?
Although
the general story and screenplay were written by Nick Fletcher, Elsa Evripidou,
who was the Script Editor for the film, wrote the chapters for the cBook
Monsoon Tide.
Elsa: The biggest challenge was the fact that no
one has ever really tried to do what we were attempting before, so we had no
blue print to work from. Monsoon Tide
already exists as a feature film and 15 clips from the film were selected as
the cinematic clips for the cBook. My
job as the writer of the chapters was threefold:
1. To
write in prose format the action between the selected video clips and to ensure
that these chapters combined in a logical way with the film clips.
2. To convey
the characters’ thoughts and motivations
3. To
imagine new events that happened before or within the same timeframe as the
events portrayed within the screenplay.
One of the greatest challenges was to use the
original story framework but at the same time come up with new events and explore the characters in
greater depth in a way that complemented and enhanced the original story. It
was important to keep a consistency of style and also to ensure that the reader
could move seamlessly from written chapter to film clip.
7. If people can only buy one book this month, why should it be
yours?
Because
Monsoon Tide is the first ever cinematic book (cBook) - a brand new
story-telling platform. By taking the
best of the written word and the best of film and using them to propel a story,
each element dependent upon the other, we are redefining what electronic books
are capable of and delivering a fully rounded reading/viewing experience in
under two hours. We hope that other
people will make their own cBooks in the future so wouldn’t it be cool if you
could say that you were one of the first to sample this brand new concept?
Author; Elsa Evripidou
Elsa was born in London,
England the daughter of a Finnish mother and a Greek Cypriot father and went on
to study foreign languages at university.
She has worked in a variety of fields including human resources, teaching and tourism but mainly in the film industry in the last decade.
She has written screenplays, worked as a script editor and is also a producer for Laid Back Films. She has always had a passion for writing and wrote the narrative of Monsoon Tide. She is currently studying for a Masters degree in creative writing.
Co-author; Nick Fletcher
Nick has worked as an award winning photographer, travelling the world and putting on exhibitions of his photo journalistic work. In the 1990's, he got involved in the toy and game industry, inventing and designing products for Manik Games and Seven Towns Ltd (they brought the Rubik Cube to the world). In the last twenty years, Nick has worked as a producer, writer and director in the film industry, creatively involved in projects such as 'Tales of the Fourth Dimension' with Richard O'Brien and 'Monsoon Tide' the film. Nick wrote the original screenplay and invented the concept of the cBook whilst in pre-production of Monsoon Tide.
She has worked in a variety of fields including human resources, teaching and tourism but mainly in the film industry in the last decade.
She has written screenplays, worked as a script editor and is also a producer for Laid Back Films. She has always had a passion for writing and wrote the narrative of Monsoon Tide. She is currently studying for a Masters degree in creative writing.
Co-author; Nick Fletcher
Nick has worked as an award winning photographer, travelling the world and putting on exhibitions of his photo journalistic work. In the 1990's, he got involved in the toy and game industry, inventing and designing products for Manik Games and Seven Towns Ltd (they brought the Rubik Cube to the world). In the last twenty years, Nick has worked as a producer, writer and director in the film industry, creatively involved in projects such as 'Tales of the Fourth Dimension' with Richard O'Brien and 'Monsoon Tide' the film. Nick wrote the original screenplay and invented the concept of the cBook whilst in pre-production of Monsoon Tide.
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