20 December 2016

Author Q&A Session #87: With Sukanya Venkatraghavan along with a Giveaway

Good Morning, Afternoon and Evening to my world wide readers,

Hope y'all are having a fantastic day or just going to start a lovely morning. The holiday season has kicked in and my mind and soul is yearning for merriment, a short escape to someplace sunny and sandy and for lots of love and kindness. Although the winter's bitter chill and severing cold is yet to set into the systems of the folks of my city, Kolkata.

Okay, enough of chit-chat, now it's time for some good news, meaning I'm giving away Christmas gifts, like, books! Yes you're right my dear reader! One lucky reader and follower of this blog can win him/herself a copy of Dark Things by Sukanya Venkatraghavan.

So what are you waiting for? Keep reading and keep scrolling........

And the author herself is present here today to talk about her debut book, about her journey and many more bookish and exclusive stories about her life, so don't go anywhere, stay tuned.

Read the review of Dark Things




Me: Hello and welcome to my blog, Sukanya. Congratulations on your new novel, Dark Things. How will you express your feelings about your debut book that has already won the hearts of so many readers?

Sukanya: It feels great to have a book about in the world. To be honest, fantasy is still a very young genre in our country and it is difficult to garner the kind of attention a mythological series or a romantic novel might get. Having said that, for a book that came out of nowhere Dark Things has got a lot of love and I am grateful for it. 


Me: What was your source of inspiration behind this story?
 
Sukanya: I grew up in Kerala, listening to folktales and urban legends about Yakshis and other fantastical creatures from my grandparents. I am also obsessed with fairy tales and I suppose when I set out to write a fantasy novel, my love for both would meet. The main inspiration for this story was actually my obsession with the fairy tale of Snow White. It's very subtle and not really evident in the story but if you look close enough...


Me: The backdrop of the fictional universe is beautiful and striking. How did you come up with such a fictional world?

Sukanya: Its a bit like putting together an enormous jigsaw puzzle and the pieces fit in slowly. You have an idea in your head and anything - a story, a memory, an object or even a song can trigger the visual landscape. I placed my monster in an underworld and I borrowed the name from the first layer of Patala in Indian mythology which is Atala. No, I didn't make the name up. I needed her to haunt earth and so I named it Prithvi. And I almost went with the traditional name of Amravati for the sky city and then settled on Aakasha. Somehow the names were important in how I shaped these worlds. Once I had named them, they just sprung up, like stories and they always feel familiar. Like I've visited them in some parallel life perhaps. 


Me: Tell us one trait about your protagonist, Ardra, that intrigues you the most.
 
Sukanya: I like her unrelenting curiosity. She demands answers. She will not give up until you give her answers of some kind. She is a lot like me in that respect.


Me: How will you describe your journey so far as an author?

Sukanya: I never intended to be a author. I always wanted to do something else and then maybe write on the side. But it turns out I am not very good at much else other than writing. I sort of 'growed' into it and honestly it found me than the other way around. It hasn't always been easy and never believe an author who says it is. So far it has been an adventure. Some days are great and bursting with action, and the others are spent in bed in caffeinated contemplation.


Me: What other passions do you have apart from writing?
 
Sukanya: I deeply interested in tarot. I pickle things, a trait I seem to have inherited from my grandmother. And I am obsessed with collecting old books.


Me: What's next up on your writing sleeve? Please tell us briefly about it.

Sukanya: I am currently working on something that is again very loosely inspired from mythology. But too early to say anything except that it will be darker than Dark Things. It is still growing all its limbs and organs and I have to be patient.  

Me: Thanks Sukanya for joining me today on this interview session. I wish you luck for all your future endeavors.

Sukanya:
Thank you for having me on your blog. It was great doing this interview.

Giveaway:
And for the giveaway part now, head over to my Instagram page @adi_bibliophile91

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOOzPO0gnPs/?taken-by=adi_bibliophile91&hl=en

Follow the rules and sit back tight, you might be the lucky one!
Good luck!
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Sukanya's Bio:


Sukanya Venkat is an Indian writer, partial to the fantasy genre of fiction.

Currently based in Mumbai, Sukanya lives with her husband and a large congregation of cat and owl figurines collected from all over the world.

Sukanya’s first brush with fantasy was as a film journalist in Mumbai, covering the glamourous, yet daunting world of Bollywood with publications like Filmfare and Marie-Claire.

Having grown up listening to tales of Indian mythology and folklore narrated by her grandfather, as well as reading western classics from the library in the attic of her childhood home in Kerala, it was but natural that her progression to life as a writer would revolve around gods, apsaras, rakshasas and the like.

These days, her waking hours are spent trying to balance out the magical and the mundane. Between painting, tarot reading and writing, she enjoys toeing the fine line between fantasy and reality.

She slips through the veil sometimes and brings back tales from elsewhere.

Dark Things is the first one.­­­­­


Connect with Sukanya on: GoodreadsFacebook| Twitter


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