Last December a young, audacious Delhi-based technology company approached me to create an unusual brand extension for them. They wanted to commission a novel, set at a Delhi-based technology company. ‘We need Hemingway,’ they said. Of course, as a six-time finalist for the International Imitation Hemingway Competition, my interest in the project soared. Wasn’t the first I’d heard of the idea (Bulgari commissioned a novel several years ago, stipulating that the main character be a string of their pearls—it became something of a best seller in Europe) and I jumped at the opportunity to write it.
Technology’s not regarded as that sexy a business, and the association with creativity was a compelling angle—plus I have grown quite comfortable here, and was given carte blanche to craft the story. I wrote passages for the book all over planet Earth, in India, Europe, and an especially productive week last July on the windblown Scottish isle of Orkney, where I cranked out 8,000 words. I submitted a first draft from California in August.
In October the finished manuscript was delivered, and though there remain a few final edits to complete, the book is now being readied for release. Runtime will hit the market under the imprint of a major Indian publisher, available at bookstores all over India some time next year.—Stanley Moss, Travel Editor