Merry Christmas to All. A few days back I got an opportunity to interview author Anumita Sharma on her latest work '99 Moon Avenue'. In this exclusive interview she has discussed in detail about her writing process and shared about her upcoming works.
A.D: First of all, Congratulations on the publication of your latest novel '99 Moon Avenue'. Would you like to share with us in brief about your new book?
A.S: It revolves around a small-town girl who has come to Delhi for higher studies and the kind of challenges she faces in a metro city along with the usual crisis of a young life; her relationships, coming-of-age, heartbreaks, and little triumphs. Another story runs in parallel of a different era; a British lady who was murdered in 1940s in the same bungalow where our heroine lives. The impact of her mysterious life of decades ago on contemporary situation is the sub-plot.
A.D: You started your journey as an author with the novels 'The Curse of Yesterday' and 'Some Very Dignified Discourses'. You have also written a hindi short story collection 'Kuch Aapbiti, kuch Jagbiti'. How was the transition from writing in english to writing in hindi? Have you observed any similarities or differences in writing in both the languages?
A.S: It wasn’t too difficult because Hindi is my mother tongue. However, I am not used to writing in Hindi so mentally I translated my thoughts from English. Writing process is similar but it isn’t easy to instantly switch from one language to the other. I tried reading and writing only in Hindi during the time I was working on my Hindi book to stay in that flow.
A.D: Would you like to share with us about the writing process and research for your book '99 Moon Avenue' ?
A.S: For the historical part I had to do extensive reading. Being from History background and fond of reading classics helped but for a proper hang of life in colonial era I read books set in early twentieth century by British writers who lived or travelled to India during that time. It was also a learning process. I discovered some interesting facts about the colourful life of English residents in Delhi, for e.g.- the term ‘Anglo-Indian’ was previously used for the Britishers living in India and ‘Eurasian’ was the word used for people of mixed races. Later ‘Anglo-Indians’ came to mean people with mixed British and Indian ancestry. A simple thing, but I had not paid attention to it before.
A.D: Have you ever created a character based on a real person? Is there any person or situation that has inspired you to write about it?
A.S: All my fictional characters are inspired by reality. They aren’t entirely like one person but are a mix of various people I’ve known, exaggerated or toned down by my imagination to suit fiction, and they face real situations any common person can identify with. I like to mix fact with fancy so my true-sounding stories are loaded with the magical and supernatural.
A.D: You are an avid reader. Would you like to share with us some of your favourite works and authors?
A.S: Edith Wharton is my all-time favourite author. I started reading her work in college and still love re-reading her books. Apart from that Victorian fiction is my go-to genre. I dig classics like House of Seven Gables, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Woman in White, Lady Audley’s Secret, Carmilla and series like The Forsyte Saga, Chronicles of Bersetshire etc. I read all kinds of books but enjoy historical, gothic, and magical-realism the most, and try incorporating those elements in my writings. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Isabel Allende, Philip Roth, Markus Zusak, and Salman Rushdie are some of my favourite authors.
A.D: All your works have beautiful cover pages. Do you think the cover of the book and promotional activities helps in creating a buzz around the book and its sales?
A.S: Certainly. My very first book cover received some flak. Few readers loved it but many detested it, so we changed the cover in second edition. Since then I’ve been very careful about having a pleasing cover. Promotional activities are quite important these days, there are so many authors/books that we need to create a buzz for attention, many good works are overlooked in this clamour.
A.D: Your latest work '99 Moon Avenue' has been published by Redgrab books. How was your experience with the publisher?
A.S: Hassle free and great. My job was writing and they took care of everything else smoothly. Looking forward to working with them again.
A.D: Are you planning to become a full time author or would you like to keep it as a hobby?
A.S: I already consider myself a full-time author.
A.D: You have done your masters from JNU in History. What is it that fascinates you about the subject?
A.S: Stories. I was always been fascinated by bygone times, beautiful architecture of yore, and wondered how people lived back in those centuries. What better way to be transported on a magical carpet to fantastical places than reading history? We do construct history on evidences but we have so little fact in possession that a lot seems flight of fancy and fiction.
A.D: Can you tell us about your future plans?
A.S: I am currently working on an erotic romance. My only Hindi book was a story collection and all my English books are novels. I would love to write a full-fledged novel in Hindi and also a story collection in English in future.
Thank you for sharing your valuable insights with us. I wish you all the very best for all your future endeavours.
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