Announcing "Runtime"

19 November, from Delhi
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 6-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 bestseller 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 8000 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 sometime next year.