The Hidden Children By Reshma K. Barshikar ; Interview
1. What motivated you to become an author?
I have always written but I wanted to be a Investment Banker
growing up. But once I’d achieved my goal I found the job didn’t suit who I was
and I couldn’t see myself doing this for the rest of my life. Simultaneously I
began writing small travel articles because I was travelling a lot, both for
business and leisure and I found my style leant towards story telling. Even my
feature pieces would be lyrical and story like and the idea of writing
something fictional inspired by my travels led to the first few chapters of
Fade Into Red, my first novel published by Penguin Random House.
2. How did you come up with the idea for this book? Did you come
across any specific challenges in writing this book?
The book was born out of a series of dreams I had and scribbled
down as soon as I woke up. The tone of the dreams and my scribbles clearly
pointed to a young protagonist - I read a lot of YA and fantasy. 2016 was also
a year I began to spend some time on Instagram and a thought that often crossed
my mind was one about how young adults spent so much time curating their life
on social media, the work they put in to make their lives look extraordinary
and I wondered how far one might go and decided to explore that theme in the
novel.
I think I had to understand today’s teenager rather than fall
back on the teenager I had been but when I began to speak to them I realised
that while our environments were different, our issues remained the same- we
all still had to deal with the first flush of love, peer pressure, and navigate
friendships in an age when friendships are ferocious.
3. When you develop characters do you already know who they are
before you begin writing or do you let them develop as you go?
They absolutely develop as they
go. While I do create a basic character profile, I find out things about them
as I write the story and it’s easily the most fun part about the writing
process, because I never know what they’re going to do. I have a vague idea of
what they should do, but they can
surprise me and they did that a lot in this book because there are so many
characters and unlike my previous book, so much world building that meant I
could do anything I wanted once I had created the initial infrastructure. I
never knew what friendships would blossom or who would betray whom.
4. How did you develop the character of ‘Soumi’? What were the
troubles and challenges that you faced while developing her?
Shumi was going to be my quintessential teenager, full of
contradictions and insecurities but someone whose family backed her completely.
She’s a mixture of a lot of people I admire and what I knew for sure was her
exceptional deep bond with her brother. In some ways a lot of who she was, the
tomboy attitude, took off from being so close to her brother who I think is
also her best friend, and I look forward to seeing where that relationship
goes.
5. What is the most important thing about a book in your opinion?
If you mean ‘a’ book as in any book, I would have to say story
and
characters. But for fantasy especially, there needs to be a sense of wonderment and depth to the world the author has built.
6.
Any
advice you would like to give to aspiring writers?
Write, and read. And once you write,
have someone you trust give you feedback on it. A great way to write regularly
is to join a class - online works fine, where you can hone your writing, meet
deadlines and get constructive critisicm on your work.
7.
Is
there anything you are currently working on that may intrigue the interest of
your readers?
There is the sequel to The Hidden
Children of course, lots of people are already writing in about that. There’s
also another book I am almost done with, it has an adult protagonist but most
definitely a fantasy thriller.
8.
These
types of supernatural Young Adult stories are pretty common in western side but
not at all here, in fact it is the first one that I’ve read which holds these
capabilities, so why did you choose to write something like this?
I think its because its what I love
to read. I love reading fantasy YA and wanted to write a story that I would
love reading but also represented me - me being an Indian teenager with
influences and a culture I could relate to.
9.
You’ve
made this book a blend of U.S.(with it’s witchcraft and magic and high school
drama) and India(with it’s culture, heritage, setting, society and of course
school life) and I definitely love it but what do you think? Will Indian
teenagers be able to enjoy it?
One I think we have forgotten we have
magic too, and we have witches in our tradition. We have just forgotten that
magic is a part of our mythology and I dislike that. Religion seems to have
drowned magic the way it has all over the world and I think that’s hilarious
considering almost all of religion is based on a suspension of disbelief.
On high school drama, we have tons of
that as well. I think any Indian teenager that is a Potterhead or a fan of
Sarah J Maas, Rachel Hartman, Hex Hall will love this, but hopefully they will
love it more because it’s about them and set in a city they know and love.
10.
Last
question; tell us something about your future plans for this coming New Year.
Where do you want to see yourself?
So many things! Two new books, a lot
more writing for wonderful blogs such as yourselves as your community is the
last bastion of reading and reviewing, there’s a movie in the works and of
course my ‘Hidden Imagination’ workshops I hold at festivals all over the
country. I am also looking to publish one new writer so let me know if you have
anyone good in mind!
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I will absolutely do that! My big thanks to this wonderful woman for such a lovely review and also many thanks to Rakhi Jayashankar who made this happen.
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