Guest post: Romi Mooni talks about her series, Year of the Chick

Welcome to The Book Bag, Romi. I have really enjoyed your books and I love your sense of humor. Last-Minute Love is book two in the Year of the Chick series. Tell us how the idea for this series can to be. Did you know when you wrote Year of the Chick that this was going to be a series? If not, when did that become apparent?

And are there more stories that will make up this series? How many more do you foresee being written?

Thanks for the opportunity to guest post Susan, and I love your topic because it really makes me think about how I even got here!

So it's true, "Last-Minute Love" is book two in the "Year of the Chick" series, but I really had no idea that book one would even turn into a series!

When I wrote the first book "Year of the Chick" in 2009, it was inspired by my blog of the same name. That blog was an "at times based-on-real-life and at times ridiculous" endeavour, about a quest to find love and avoid arranged marriage (this part is very much based on real life, haha).

When I went through the whole process of finding a literary agent but failing to find a publisher, the "Year of the Chick" book kind of...started to gather dust on my hard drive.

By May 2011 I had self-published my first book, which wasn't "Year of the Chick" but rather a parody collection of essays. I spent that summer learning about screenplays and then writing one, since I'd had a real-life experience which really felt like a movie (heartache and all!). To my excitement, the screenplay "Best Before" fared well in several of the international competitions I'd entered, which made me think: this might actually be a story that people would like to read!

Then I thought: if this screenplay is inspired by real life just like "Year of the Chick," then I could adapt it into the sequel of "Year of the Chick." Which means I should totally self-publish "Year of the Chick"!

(and yes, I literally had these conversations with myself, exclamation marks included)

And so, in November 2011, I self-published "Year of the Chick." It wasn't easy finding an audience initially, but after a couple of giveaways that helped increase my exposure and garner some positive reviews (along with some post-free sales), I was reminded of that sequel-like screenplay. This led to taking a week's vacation in March and writing the entire first draft of the sequel. Having the screenplay helped, but you can't exactly copy and paste short scene descriptions and dialogue blocks, so it was definitely an organic first draft, to the tune of 61,000 words written by week's end (and yes I almost went insane from that word count!).

The sequel "Last-Minute Love" has been out for over three months now, and the feedback and following it's received has been amazing. There will definitely be a book three, but much like the first two books, I need the right inspiration and events to transpire in my life, before I can write the next book. I have a plan for that which I won't discuss here (it would be a spoiler for "Last-Minute Love"!), but I'm willing to wait a bit, because I'm not the type of author who will churn out books like they are made in a factory...it will only happen when I feel that I can put my best writing foot forward (but my goal for the release? September 2013).

And will there be a book four? I haven't decided that yet, but for now I'll say "let's see how book three and life itself goes, and in the meantime, I hope readers will follow along with my journey!"

Sincerely,
Romi

**Everyone who leaves a comment on the tour page will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Last Minute Love before October 8 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**

Other stops on the tour

About the author

I am Canadian, and here are some strange personal facts:

- I wore denim-top-to-bottom in high school (there is a direct inverse relationship between how much denim I wore and how few tongues were launched down my throat at school dances...or anywhere in high school at all).

- A homeless lady in New York once told me "You're just a bitch on vacation with no money!"

- I always hated those insufferable couples who would cuddle and make out on the subway...until I became half of one. But now I'm back to being none of one so I hate them again.

The thing I love most in the world is writing. When I first started publishing on Amazon it was my "crazy" humour side (The Book of Awful and NOT Love Poems For Real Life). Since then, everything has focused on my Year of the Chick series, because it's the most important thing to me in the world right now. I guess that would tend to happen, when your writing is inspired by real life, including all the satisfaction and risks that come from that.

My Year of the Chick series can be described as "edgy rom-com," which helps me account for the blunt conversations and mortifying family moments in the book ;-).

Book 3 in the Year of the Chick series will be written and released in 2013; until then I have some adventures to go on!

Connect with Romi!

Facebook | Twitter | Blog

Buy the Book!

Last-Minute Love (on Amazon) | Last-Minute Love (on B&N)

(Also available for Kobo and iTunes!)

Year of the Chick which is book one in the series
is available for free at all e-tailers!

On Tour and Giveaway: Last-Minute Love by Romi Moondi

What's a girl to do when she meets the Internet man of her dreams, he's better than she expected, but he lives an ocean away? And let's not forget her parents,who are trying to lock her up in arranged-marriage doom...

In this fast-paced story of culture clash and romantic pursuits, there's a big fat Indian wedding, the struggle to keep a long-distance flame alive, and an unexpected mystery man who could set a new course in motion.

All the while, our heroine abandons what was once an all-consuming man-search, which helps her remember the person she used to be, and the person she hopes to become; the history-loving nerd, the hopeless romantic, and the emerging author with dreams of ditching the corporate rat race.

This is the book of living in the moment, making the grand gesture, and putting it all on the line. This is when Romi Narindra comes alive...

Last-Minute Love is book two in the fictional Year of the Chick series. It follows closely from book one, but contains enough detail to be read as a stand-alone.

DISCLAIMER: this book contains occasional F-bombs and mild sexual references; hide your daughters! ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts on Last-Minute Love ~~

Last-Minute Love is book 2 is a series. I read book 1, Year of the Chick, at the beginning of the year and loved it ~ it was so hilarious! Read my thoughts here.This book is just as entertaining, maybe not quite as funny, but by this point I have come to know and care about the main character, Romi and I don't really need all those LOL moments. It's still a funny read and I was thoroughly entertained.

I loved this part ~ Romi falls down on the icy sidewalk ~ that part's not funny, this is.... 'A gloved hand in a wool coat reached out to help me up, and for a second I thought it was just like the movies, where some knight in shining armour would swoop in out of nowhere and change the very course of my life. I turned to him as I stood back up. He was practically seventy years old. Welcome to real life.... '

And ... 'the only thing that's better than a guy? Ice cream... '

And ... 'People fade in and out of your life, but they never have to actually leave. And when they do abruptly leave, that just means something isn't being dealt with.'

Romi is getting on with her life and still hoping to find love. And she has dreams of going to Paris. Who wouldn't love to do that? Maybe in Paris, she will find love? But to get to Paris, her first book has to sell enough copies and she has to get her second book written.

I love how this book is a autobiographical-fictionalized story of Romi's life. I loved reading about how she promoted her first book and kept checking her sales on Amazon. She was living that life and writing about it as I and a lot of other readers were discovering her funny sense of humor. It almost felt like I was a part of her story.

By the end of Last-Minute Love, Romi has made some major changes in her life and I can't wait to see what happens next! Hurry Romi, get book 3 written for us!

Come back tomorrow when Romi talks about how this series, that didn't start out as a series, came to be.

**Everyone who leaves a comment on the tour page will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Last Minute Love before October 8 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**

Other stops on the tour

About the author

I am Canadian, and here are some strange personal facts:

-I wore denim-top-to-bottom in high school (there is a direct inverse relationship between how much denim I wore and how few tongues were launched down my throat at school dances...or anywhere in high school at all).

-A homeless lady in New York once told me "You're just a bitch on vacation with no money!"

-I always hated those insufferable couples who would cuddle and make out on the subway...until I became half of one. But now I'm back to being none of one so I hate them again.

The thing I love most in the world is writing. When I first started publishing on Amazon it was my "crazy" humour side (The Book of Awful and NOT Love Poems For Real Life). Since then, everything has focused on my Year of the Chick series, because it's the most important thing to me in the world right now. I guess that would tend to happen, when your writing is inspired by real life, including all the satisfaction and risks that come from that.

My Year of the Chick series can be described as "edgy rom-com," which helps me account for the blunt conversations and mortifying family moments in the book ;-).

Book 3 in the Year of the Chick series will be written and released in 2013; until then I have some adventures to go on!

Connect with Romi!

Facebook | Twitter | Blog

Buy the Book!

Last-Minute Love (on Amazon) |Last-Minute Love (on B&N)

(Also available for Kobo and iTunes!)

Year of the Chick which is book one in the series,

is available for free at all e-tailers!

Romi Moondi admits she's a little 'head crazy'

Today I have the wonderful and very funny author of The Year of the Chick talking to us about the voices in her head. I posted my thoughts on her book yesterday and you can read them here.

Romi, I have heard other authors say that they 'hear voices in their head' and that is how they write their books ~~ the characters are telling their stories. Not being a writer myself, that concept has always intrigued me.

When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others end up becoming writers. Does this happen to you? How do you come up with your stories?

Hi Susan, that's a great question, and one that will ultimately reveal that I'm mentally imbalanced. I'll start by saying that I should've been getting medical or psychiatric attention for years now, but instead I became a writer. I'm sure myself and a lot of writers have that "head crazy" in common. Usually we can contain it, but sometimes it trickles out in social gatherings, when we have that sudden "aha!" burst of inspiration. Usually when that happens people look at us weird.

It's awkward.

The first book I published was a collection of humorous essays, so not a lot of voices in my head for that one, but fiction? Fiction and its characters can drive a writer mad.

In my case it was doubly confusing, since the main character and story of "Year of the Chick" are loosely based on my own life. Therefore it was OH SO EASY to play conversations in my head and decide how the dialogue should flow, because I know my character inside and out. In fact, sometimes a conversation or topic that began in real life, expanded and blew up to become a brand new scene for the book. Anytime that would happen (many times), I had to re-organize my brain, to make sure the fiction stayed on the fiction side, and that the real life memories stayed catalogued in the actual events of my life.

At this point I should mention that taking a shower is essential in coming up with brand new scenes. That may sound a little weird, but taking a shower is a regular activity where I know I won't be disturbed, so my imagination immediately takes off once I turn on the water. It has almost become a Pavlovian dog-like psychological experiment (i.e. water turns on, voices in my head commence).

It's hard to explain all the "head-talking" to friends, but I'm grateful for it, because I've never been more proud of anything I've done than I am for "Year of the Chick," and I'm beyond excited to turn this book into a trilogy.

So thank goodness for A: an active imagination, and B: a long mane of hair that takes FOREVER to shampoo and condition :-)

Romi

Brief bio:
 
I am Canadian, and here are some strange personal facts:

-I wore denim-top-to-bottom in high school (there is a direct inverse relationship between how much denim I wore and how few tongues were launched down my throat at school dances...or anywhere in high school at all).
 

-I'm continually baffled by that Malaysian baby whose father let him smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. That baby had so many fat rolls, and I thought cigarettes were supposed to be slimming.
 

-I always hated those insufferable couples who would cuddle and make out on the subway...until I became half of one. But now I'm back to being none of one so I hate them again. 

Connect with Romi

Facebook

Twitter

Website

Buy the book

On Tour: Year of the Chick by Romi Moondi

An awkward family homecoming at Christmas.

A humiliating public weigh-in, with two judging parents as the audience.

The announcement of a deadline for arranged marriage doom.

And that's just the first two chapters.

In "Year of the Chick," Romi Narindra must find love before her parents find her a husband. This is a difficult task in a world where self-consciousness is at an-all-time high, and dating experience at an all-time low.

Severely lacking in seductive skills and uninspired by her corporate job, Romi turns to what she loves, by writing about her quest to find love on her brand new blog.

From whiskey-breath scum bags to uni-browed creeps and everything in between, Romi and her wingmen come up empty time after time. But hope floats again when she meets a fellow writer unexpectedly.

On the Internet.

So will it be arranged marriage doom, or an Internet affair that's not as creepy as "To Catch a Predator?"

Time will tell in the "year of the chick," a twelve-month quest to find love.

Tick-tock. ~~synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts on The Year of the Chick ~~

Loved this book! The author has kind of a weird, but wonderful, sense of humor and I don't remember when I have laughed so much, reading a book. I 'get' her sense of humor ~ what a great read!!

It was great following Romi's quest to find a man ~ her parents were going to do it for her in a year anyway. She wanted to find one on her own, for love, before they selected one for her. The adventure that Romi goes on is hilarious and enlightening at the same time.

I marked some of my favorite lines. You need to read the book to understand what exactly these mean in the context of the story but these were some of the ones that made me LOL!

• In front of our parents we were robots with the "horny" button disabled, but when the moon shone bright our howls of desire could be heard across a hundred mile.
• My sister and I were victims of the "envelope adhesive." (love it!)
• Fifteen pounds was the same as fifteen solid chocolate Santas. 
• I wondered what it was to like have your default button set to "logic" versus "psycho."

And the great lines go on and on. Like I said, I loved this book and loved that it made me laugh.

I can't wait to read the next installment of Romi's life 

~ this author is writing a trilogy!  

Come back tomorrow to hear what Romi has to say 

about the voices in her head! 

Author's website

Author on Facebook