Maya’s New Husband, the newest entrant in the Indian horror fiction world, has been released in its print version at a unique online event.
The book tells the story of a schoolteacher in Mumbai, named Maya Bhargava, who feels drawn towards a strange man and marries him. Post-marriage, the husband’s lifestyle shocks her and takes her to a path of horror. Though the book is a work of fiction, it draws some inspiration from occult practices of India, which add to its horror quotient.
The author, Neil D’Silva, makes his debut with Maya’s New Husband. A resident of Mumbai, Neil D’Silva is a teacher and a freelance writer. His teaching journey began in 1998, whereas his tryst with professional writing began in 2004. Having written both nonfiction and fiction in diverse genres, he has notched up several positive reviews on freelancing portals such as Freelancer.com. His website at http://NeilDSilva.com/ sees a steady flow of visitors each day. A legion of fans has grown around his short stories that are freely available on his website.
Maya’s New Husband is a self-published work, which is already creating the right buzz for its content and its unique marketing moves. The book was initially made available in various eBook formats on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (http://bit.ly/1IVYToM) and Smashwords (http://bit.ly/1IQQ7bu) . After receiving strong reviews for the eBook version, the print version was released through Pothi.com (http://bit.ly/1IQQ7bu)and other portals. The book will be soon available in its print format for foreign readers through CreateSpace on Amazon. It currently enjoys a 5 star rating on Smashwords and 4 star ratings on Amazon and Goodreads.
The story of Maya’s New Husband is set in contemporary Mumbai, the story spanning over the last three years in the city. It has several cultural references and mentions Mumbai’s middleclass neighborhoods as well as its seedy underbelly in its extended suburbs beyond Borivali. Being a Mumbaikar himself, Neil D’Silva has ably managed to capture the ethos of the city and used it as a plot device for his story.
Maya’s New Husband will be shortly followed by two more books, titled Sapna’s Bad Connection and Kalki’s Bundle of Joy. These three books are standalone stories each, but they constitute an overarching series named The Beast Within Trilogy. The stories deal with three women of Mumbai who are trapped in insidious relationships. All three books will belong to the horror genre, thus contributing to the scarce resources of Indian horror fiction. The subsequent books are scheduled to be released in March and May respectively.
The book was launched at a Facebook event with several self-published and traditionally published authors such as Rasana Atreya, Surya Vaidyanathan, Deep Downer, Sujata Rajpal, Amar Vyas, Saurabh Garg, Roy D’Silva, Rachna Gupta and Devika Fernando in attendance. The coming together of indie authors is a harbinger of good things to come in the self-publishing world, which is a growing market worldwide.
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