When I tell people I wrote a book, the natural reaction usually is, "what's it about?" Well, sometimes they don't even ask that.
But when they do, I explain with a quick answer, "oh, well, thanks for asking. It's a love story". The typical reaction from women is "awwww". Ah, a signal of interest about the book! And then I get deeper into it for another few seconds: "Oh, "it's a travel adventure love story of historical proportions on the first days of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan." Huh? The looks become more quizzical at that point. I should have stayed with "love story."
If I'm telling a guy, I say it's about "traveling, meeting girls, fending off foreign invaders." The quizzical looks return.
It's coming up on two years of having this idea in my head, and even though the book is out, I still have a tricky time explaining it. If I go the historical route, I lose them at this juncture: "It's a love story on the day the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan in 1979". Oh boy, does that lose them. Afghanistan?
Ask my sister, who painfully sat through the first time I told the story out loud. It was at a Starbucks in Brooklyn and it was three hours of story telling. She was either being really nice (she's my sister) to sit through it or in total rapture about the story. Or, maybe because it was raining and we had no where else to go. Heck, the movie Dr.Zhivago wasn't quite three hours but that won like a million academy awards that year.
Nevertheless, I will let the book speak for itself. As you read into it, it is gripping, it's a page turner and you do really want to know what happens next.
So, if you read the book, I am open to your ideas on how to describe it and would be happy to hear from you!
Musings and posts about my novel OVERLAND, a love story travel/adventure of historical proportions.
Author Mark Stephen Levy
- Mark Stephen Levy
- Denver, Colorado, United States
- I was so inspired by my adventures while traveling throughout Europe, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, and other exotic locales that I had to write something. Then one day early last year, an idea started to take form quickly. I was finally enabled to weave some of my stories and integrate them into one of the best love story adventures to come along in years.
8 comments:
Bravo!
Your voice rings true...a delightful post to read. Thank you for sharing...:).
Jo
My book just came out, and so I'm also dealing with this question. Mine might be a little easier to explain, though: It's about people who are trying to fit in. Pretty much get uniform head nodding to that.
Thanks for the story, and good luck with the book!
Clifford Garstang
Hi,
The story sound pretty interesting! Is it your own kind of experience or you made it all up from your mind?
Good luck,
-- Ronen
Ronen- I traveled to Europe and then Asia, mainly India and Nepal and so many experiences, sites, sounds, tastes, smells, and touch are all in the book...and some creatively too. Some of the characters are loosely based on people I met, others I just let my imagination go wild!
Thank you for the question, good one!
Mark
Hi, Mark you had me at love story too. I have some tough sales under my bed too. Great stories, I think.
For you, when targeting women, I'd say, While in an exotic land, a woman finds loves in the arms of a miltary hero during a very difficult time in history.
Do you see Casablanca there?
For men: In the smoltering belly of a foreign land, when warfare was still more or less hand to hand, war hero takes out terriosts to save the world in the form of a beautiful woman.
Needs to be tweaked more, but I think you get the idea. Think James Bond, Jason Bourne, Rambo.
JMO. Hope I helped somewhat.
AJ
www.autumnjordon.com
Hi, Mark you had me at love story too. I have some tough sales under my bed too. Great stories, I think.
For you, when targeting women, I'd say, While in an exotic land, a woman finds loves in the arms of a miltary hero during a very difficult time in history.
Do you see Casablanca there?
For men: In the smoltering belly of a foreign land, when warfare was still more or less hand to hand, war hero takes out terriosts to save the world in the form of a beautiful woman.
Needs to be tweaked more, but I think you get the idea. Think James Bond, Jason Bourne, Rambo.
JMO. Hope I helped somewhat.
AJ
www.autumnjordon.com
Your story sounds interesting. I might, if I may, call it a love story with some guts. Could it be that you have written a love story with substance? I will have to read your book to find out. :-)
By the way, if your blog post is any indication of the ease you write with, your novel should be a delight to read.
Thanks Clifford, I appreciate you stopping by. If you read, please let me know!
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