Author, Editor & Creative Specialist
Books. One word that spells many things for me – magic, fulfillment, ecstasy; a parallel universe, surreal, sublime. Being a bookworm is an absolutely enchanting way of life. The world of books has constantly knocked on my door and like a hyper-excited child, I have tried to capture their magic and essence in interviews with authors, essays and reviews. Like, you know, how you catch fireflies in a jar. Well, here are the fireflies, for you.
Vijayendra Mohanty is an Indian comic book writer. He has written stories and scripts for publications such as Comic JUMP and COMIX.INDIA. He is the writer and co-creator of Ravanayan, a 10-issue comic book series based on the story of king Ravana of Lanka. He talks about Ravanayan and the experience of writing a comic series, including feedback and challenges. …
Kartik Iyengar, author of ‘Horn OK Please’ – HOPping to Conclusions’, in addition to being a successful corporate professional, dabbles in a multitude of areas. He is an avid blogger, a self-proclaimed moron, an unlucky Las Vegas loser, a compulsive road-hog, a Red Bull addict and an adrenaline junkie who has tried everything from scuba diving to bungee jumping. A cockroach-loving heavy metal maniac, Kartik has thousands of hyper-active fans on his Facebook fan page, who live his journeys vicariously with him. His fans call themselves HOPpers. In fact, many of them have actually changed their middle name to include “Hopper” as a mark of belonging to this social-media cult. Want to have a good laugh and giggle a bit? Then all you got to do is to read this interview! And when you are done, you will realize that there’s a smile or a grin on your face! There’s lot of humour, a little bit of thought and tons of attitude waiting for you out there! …
Amish Tripathi is a 36 year old, IIM (Kolkata) educated boring banker turned happy author. His debut book, ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ (Book 1 of the Shiva Trilogy) has been an outstanding success and has topped bestseller charts. Encouraged by this, Amish has given up a 14-year-old career in financial services to focus on writing. He is passionate about history, mythology and philosophy. ‘The Secret of the Nagas’, the second book of the Shiva Trilogy is set for a mid-August 2011 release. Amish is presently working on the third book of the Shiva Trilogy, ‘The Oath of the Vayuputras’. In this interview, he demystifies everything about ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ – from how the idea was born to the actual writing to how he smartly marketed his book. And there’s more too. It’s an interview you can’t afford to miss! …
Preeti Shenoy is the bestselling author of ‘Life is What you Make it’ and ’34 Bubble Gums and Candies’, both published by Srishti Publishers. Just as the tagline in her blog, ‘Just a Mother of Two’ goes, Preeti is an author, poet, artist and a mom! She gets talking about both her books, their roaring success, her blog and of course what she is most popular for among her readers, her thoughts on life! …
Anjali Joseph was born in Bombay in 1978. She studied English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has taught English at the Sorbonne. More recently she has written for the Times of India in Bombay and been a Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). She studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. ‘Saraswati Park’, published by Harper Collins in 2010 is her first novel. In 2011, Anjali won the Betty Trask Award and the Desmond Elliott Prize for her debut novel. Further, ‘Saraswati Park’ has been shortlisted for the Vodafone-Crossword Award for 2011 under the Fiction category. Anjali Joseph shares her thoughts on writing, her first book, the experience of writing it and of course, awards. …
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. Her themes include women, immigration, the South Asian experience, history, myth, magic and celebrating diversity. In this dream-come-true interview for me, she shares her thoughts on her writing journey, her books as well as some advice for aspiring authors, among many other things. Excerpts. …
Abha Iyengar is an internationally published freelance writer and poet. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines and literary journals, both in print and online. She is a Kota Press Poetry Anthology contest winner. In an interview, she talks about her poems, stories and writing in general. …
Mridula Koshy is the author of ‘If It Is Sweet’, a collection of short stories released in May 2009 by Tranquebar Press. The book won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize for 2009 and was shortlisted for the 2009 Vodafone Crossword Book Prize. In an interesting interview, she gets talking about writing, her book, and exploring relationships through writing. …
Radhika Menon is the Managing Editor of Tulika Publishers, an independent children’s publishing house based in Chennai. Tulika has produced over 200 titles, for the age group 0-16 years. They include picture books, bilingual books and folktales, contemporary fiction and non-fiction, and much more. Tulika publishes in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, and Bangla. She opens up on the inception of Tulika Publishers, the books they publish, the challenges they face, future plans of Tulika and her thoughts on the Indian children’s publishing industry. …
