 Hello Readers, Its time you meet the ‘creator’ and the ‘creative’. Being an author for nearly a decade has helped me realize how vast the publishing industry is. Through my blog, ‘Thoughts and Plots’, I invite you to meet various professionals belonging to this milieu. Writers, Agents, Editors, Publishers, Graphic Designers, Publicists, Promoters! Peek into their minds and learn something new or simply enjoy being a part of my world... As the first guest on my blog, I heartily and happily welcome the very gracious and successful author, Kiran Manral. Kiran is the author of six books, the most recent being The Face At The Window. She is also on the planning board of the Kumaon Literary Festival, chair of the Women Unlimited Series, Taj Colloquium and mentor at Sheroes, Qween and Back 2 the Front. Over to Kiran… When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? I think I was and will always be a reader. The writing happened incidentally. As to realising I wanted to be a writer, I never did think I would ever write a book. It took two dear friends constantly hounding me to get me to write and send in my first book. I published my first book the year I turned forty. Getting published, you could say, is my mid life crisis. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? I must take every single thing off my hands when I write, watch, bangles, Buddha beads, rings. I feel weighed down if I don't. What was the hardest part of writing this book? The getting into the character. A 78 year old Anglo Indian retired school teacher has been the furthest from myself I've ever written. To imagine and research her and then slip into her skin was a challenge. What inspires you? Stories. The fact that every single person has a story and the story on the surface is radically different from the story about themselves they carry within themselves. What are some day jobs that you have held? Have they affected your writing? My day jobs have been in advertising, journalism, research. And from them I've learnt to write to deadline, to be dispassionately critical about ones work, to look for the unstated in what is stated. For instance in journalism, I learnt how to extract that one kernel of information around which the entire story would hinge. This works when one is working on plot. How do you find or make time to write? I believe if you want to do something you will make time for it. Everything else is just an excuse. What are some ways in which you promote your work and why is promotion important? I do try to promote my work on social media and by doing the occasional reading but this is part and parcel of the writing experience according to me, reaching out to as many people as one can because after all if you aren't going to be the fiercest advocate of your work who will? Please share something about your future plans and projects. I've never planned anything about my writing which is also why you would see I've written across multiple genres, from humour to chick lit to romance to parenting and finally now to horror. Let's see where I go next! You can interact with Kiran Twitter: @kiranmanral and Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/KiranManralAuthorPage/?ref=bookmarks Links to her books: http://www.amazon.in/s/ref=la_B00DWXCEJ2_B00DWXCEJ2_sr?rh=i%3Abooks&field-author=Kiran+Manral&sort=relevance&ie=UTF8&qid=1443775811 P.S. I will be posting new interviews every Monday, except for Holidays. Please do leave your comment. I would love to hear from you and so would Kiran. Thank you and have a lovely week. 😃 Leave a Reply. |
RSS Feed
