A Wicked Old Woman blog tour!

Summary:
Drama. Masquerade. Mischief.
 
A sharply observed, witty and confident novel. Linguistically playful, entertaining and provoking.
 
In a bustling British city,  Kulwant mischievously masquerades as a much older woman, using her walking stick like a Greek chorus, ‘…stick-leg-shuffle-leg-shuffle…’ encountering new adventures and getting bruised by the jagged edges of her life. There’s the Punjabi punk who rescues her after a carefully calculated fall; Caroline, her gregarious friend from school days, who watched over her dizzy romance with ‘Michael the Archangel’, Maya the myopic who can’t see beyond her broken heart and Rani/Rosalind, who’s just killed a man …
 
 
Vividly bringing to life a bit of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
 
Information about the book
Title: A Wicked Old Woman
Author: Ravinder Randhawa
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Matador
Format: Paperback & Ebook
Published: October 24th 2015 (republished)
Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26856759-a-wicked-old-woman
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1784624586/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_uk-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738

Interview

Can you tell us all what A Wicked Old Woman is all about?
Can you please ask me a simpler question? Ok. I’ll try. It’s about a woman looking back at her life, and using the re-visit to transform herself, dig herself out of the rut into which she’s fallen, and become passionate about life again, with all it’s ebbs and flows, successes and failures, tragedies and comedies.
 
A fair few people write fanfiction based around their favourite stories, how would you feel if your novel inspired fanfiction?
Goodness, I’d feel absolutely honoured. I’d love to read the results.
 
How long did it take you to write this story?
I can’t remember exactly, but it could have been about a year or nine months, as I was certainly pregnant during much of the time I was writing it and remember sitting at the computer with my bump growing bigger and bigger.
 
Were there many days of writers block or did it all just seem to flow?
I don’t believe in writer’s block. I have a sneaky suspicion a man invented that phrase, women don’t have the time to have writer’s block. I know there are periods when you ‘dry up’ as it were, when the words aren’t coming, or they’re stale and lifeless, or you just don’t know where to go next, how to move the story along. In those situations it could just be that you’ve been working too hard and need a break to recharge your batteries, or you need to go away from the computer screen, load the dishwasher and let your brain work on the problem, or you can just carry on typing and power through. There were many times when I seemed to hit a blank, or a big rocky obstacle, with A Wicked Old Woman (and still do when I’m writing), but I’ve found there are definitely ways through it.

Is there anything you can say about your novel that would help to bring it to reader’s attention? What is unique about it?
Another difficult question. Can I cheat and give a quote? It has been called a ‘brilliant, ground-breaking novel.’ But that kind of obscures it, doesn’t really say anything about it. I think it’s a novel about us all, our good and bad sides, and our efforts to understand our lives and backgrounds, and our tremendous connection with each other. ‘No man is an island,’ is really true of this novel. Everyone has to come together, work together, otherwise the ending can’t happen.

Author

Ravinder Randhawa is the acclaimed author of the novels Beauty and the Beast (YA), A Wicked Old Woman, The Tiger’s Smile and the short story collection Dynamite. She’s currently working on a trilogy: The Fire-Magician. Ravinder was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Toynbee Hall, Queen Mary’s University, the University of London, and founded the Asian Women Writer’s Collective.
 
Ravinder was born in India, grew up in leafy Warwickshire, now lives in London and agrees with Samuel Johnson’s saying (though of course, in a gender non-specific way) ‘…if a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’  Loves good coffee and really good thrillers.
 
Author Links
Website: http://www.ravinderrandhawa.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealRavs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ravinderrandhawaauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3518698.Ravinder_Randhawa
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Monday 23rd November
A Novel Haul
 
Tuesday 24th November
Books with Bunny
 
Wednesday 25th November
Chouett
 
Thursday 26th November
Kirstyes
 
Friday 27th November
Live Otherwise
 
Saturday 28th November
So Many Books, So Little Time
 
Sunday 29th November
Big Book Little Book
Jane & Bex Book Blog
 
Monday 30th November
Have Book Will Read
 
Tuesday 1st December
Linda’s Book Bag
 
Wednesday 2nd December
Ali the Dragon Slayer
Reviewed the Book
 
Thursday 3rd December
The Review Diaries
 
Friday 4th December
The Bibliophile & Tea
Poppy Peacock Pens
 
Saturday 5th December
The Reader’s Corner
BiblioBeth
 
Sunday 6th December
Tales of Yesterday
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