Makings of a Writer 

(Author interview - newbooks.space) 

https://newbooks.space/author-interviews/01a0cebb-5fbe-7132-b71e-14aa8f8aed87

1) What inspired you to start writing?

In a way, while my letter writing was a companion of my voracious reading, my creative writing was an extension of the same, inspired by an examined life of over forty years. But the spark was a story idea and Benign Flame got lit as Saga of Love. 

2) Can you tell us a little about your latest book?

In the creative sense, Of No Avail – Web of Wedlock, completed my cycle of fiction broken in between by non-fiction and translations.

Here’s its Blurb: 

Lured by the pitch - All marriages are made in heaven but some are delayed on earth: We endeavor to hasten them all - Priya goes to Renuka Marriage Bureau.

Scanning the prospects, when she spotted Venu, whom she slighted long ago, she rushes to him to bring about a dramatic encounter.

What brought about Priya’s change of heart to seek her former suitor and how Venu responds to his old flame’s fresh overtures lend suspense to their romance in this eclectic novella. 

3) How do you create your characters?

While some of my characters sprang up from the characteristics of people I happened to know or heard about, the others were the products of my imagination conditioned by my grasp on human psychology, and either way, it’s succinctly put by Raja Rao in Benign Flame, my maiden marvel thus:

“Characters of fiction are authors’ children and critics’ neighbours, even if we perceive them as inadequate, nevertheless, we should appreciate the fact that they are the products of someone’s imagination, however limited that might be. It’s not often that you come across a book from which you could quote much”  

4) What does your typical writing day look like?

From start to finish, books of mine mostly took nine months each for completion, and it had been a non-stop writing for over fourteen hours a day, save fatigue breaks, day after day,. Well, it was made possible by my having been an independent professional, not needing to toil 9 to 5 at an office.  

5) What has been the most rewarding part of being an indie author?

No denying that not finding a mainstream publisher was frustrating to start with but in the hindsight it’s as well that I remained an indie author that too in the ebook times of ours, for,

1_ Not being subject to editorial control or compromise, my writing has been the source of mine own self-expression as well as assertion.

2_ Being an indie author, I could place them in umpteen internet sites as free ebooks enhancing their outreach to reach out to readers all over the world. If I were a published author, I had to be a rare one in thousands to make a living out of writing, and if not, it would have been a case of neither here nor there.

3_ What kept me writing regardless is my conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas, and my fiction, of eight books, is just that. What is more, as all my works are purely original in concept and content, penning them afforded me immense creative satisfaction, never mind the mundane deprivations they caused.