by Anupama Krishnakumar
[box]In an interview to Anupama Krishnakumar, Preeti Shenoy 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! Catch the interesting conversation here![/box] [box type = “bio”]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! To know more about Preeti and her work, visit her website.[/box]Congratulations on the roaring success of your second book, ‘Life is What you Make it’, Preeti! How do you feel? Did you see it coming?
Thank you very much. It is indeed great to see the effort I have put in to writing this book paying dividends. Frankly, this was a story that I felt was very inspirational and had to be told. ‘Life is What you Make it’ (LIWYMI) is now a National Bestseller and is also the topping the list
Preeti Shenoy
of books on Flipkart, Landmark and India Today top 20 Fiction books. However, success to me is not just about the number of copies that the book sells or it reaching the top of the list. Many, many readers have written to me after reading the book, about how touched they were. They have showered me with their love and affection and some have even narrated their own personal lives which are similar to Ankita’s story. When I receive such mails and when someone tells me it has left an imprint on their lives, I feel very satisfied and that is true success to me. LIWYMI took a lot of hard work, intense emotion and a whole lot of research to write and the whole process did initially leave me very drained out physically and emotionally. Now it feels great that people are enjoying it and it is making an impact on hundreds of people.
You have chosen to focus on Bipolar Disorder in your second book. What made you decide on taking up this theme?
The focus of the book is not Bipolar Disorder. Instead, it is around an individual, who had Bipolar Disorder, and rather than sit back and accept it, she decided to change her own destiny and make life what she wanted it to be. Bipolar Disorder is slowly gaining awareness in India but continues to be treated as somewhat of a taboo topic in most households. The book is based on a true story and when I first heard the story, it moved me so much that I decided it had to be written and shared with the world. The real life Ankita is a very inspirational person and since she had Bipolar Disorder, I had to do quite a lot of research on the disorder to be able to put myself in her shoes and write her story in a realistic fashion. This could happen to any of us and her courage and attitude is definitely worth emulating and hence LIWYMI.
You must have done a lot of research on this topic. How did you go about it?
Months of effort! It took me two years to write this book. I spent a lot of time researching on the Internet and read a number of books and articles written on this topic. In addition, I spoke to a number of doctors to get a better understanding of the subject, symptoms and treatments. I also visited a few treatment centres where I got a first-hand experience of seeing what Bipolar Disorder is all about, understanding the treatment conducted and getting a feel of what Ankita must have gone through. Since I was based in the U.K. at the time, I had access to a whole lot of organisations and support groups. In U.K., there is even a Bipolar Artists organisation and some of their work is amazing. My respect for Ankita went up threefold, when I comprehended what a person with Bipolar Disorder goes through and how much of a struggle it truly is to lead a ‘normal’ life.
What do you think are some of the reasons for the popularity that ‘Life is What you Make it’ is enjoying among readers?
It is a story that could have happened to anybody. It is a story of courage in the starkest of circumstances. My writing style has always been very down to earth and simple and I write from the heart. The amount of research that I did before I wrote the book helped tremendously in portraying the characters in the book and bringing their emotions alive. A number of people ask me if it is my story and that is when I feel that my effort, research and work have paid off, since only if you actually get into the skin of someone who has gone through something like this, would it turn out so well. The real life Ankita loves the book. I also find that there are so many readers who have gone through life facing similar challenges and this formed an instant connect with the book.
It would be interesting to know how different your experiences were in writing fiction and non-fiction (your first book ’34 Bubblegums and Candies’).
Very, very different. It is like comparing apples and oranges. As mentioned earlier, the common theme about the two books was that it came straight from the heart.
‘34 Bubblegums and Candies’ was at a time when I was trying to get over the grief of losing my Dad and had started blogging. The response I
received on my blog (Justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com) was like an inverted pyramid! It saw a sudden explosion in readership, with a number of readers relating to my posts as incidents that I wrote about had happened to them too. Quite a few readers kept asking me to put it all in a book and ’34 Bubblegums and Candies’ was the outcome. LIWYMI on the other hand, was an outcome of my meeting up with the real life Ankita, hearing her story and then being deeply inspired by it. The genre for both is different. There are a number of readers who like both and on the other hand, some who prefer one or the other. Both experiences have been extremely satisfying and have taken a lot of effort.
You have been blogging for quite some time now. How much of a role has your blog and its readers played in shaping your writing career?
Blogging was what I started off with. It connected me to people and the responses I received from various people motivated me to write more and more. Writing regularly has paid rich dividends when my books were published, since it was my writing over a period of time that helped evolve my own, personal style of writing. My blog is now amongst the top 10k blogs in the world and I will always have that connect with my readers and am thankful to all of them for motivating and encouraging me when I had started off and continuing to be with me on my blog.
Is your third book going to be a second jar of bubblegums and candies? Or is it going to be another work of fiction? Tell us about it.
I am working on second full length fiction. I cannot disclose more details about it at the moment! Am also working on a 4th book which will be a second jar of bubblegums and candies, based on popular demand.
Your writing revolves a lot around life and its beauty, the challenges and the aspect of facing them. If I were to ask you to tell us five things you would tell anybody to live life like it should be lived, what would they be?
I think my post, ‘It’s all okay really’ answers that question.
If you were to ask me to list five things that I believe in and follow. It would be
1. Chase your dreams—never give up on them.
2. Laugh a lot.
3. Tell the people who are closest to you, how much they mean to you. Cherish the time you spend with them. Life is so uncertain and so short.
4. Stand by your words. Keep up your promises and do not let people down. Be true to yourself and to others.
5. LIVE! (not just exist)
Lastly, there are many bloggers out there who are aspiring to get their work published. What would you say to them?
A lot of people think that by writing a few blog posts you could easily become an author. Becoming a published author and that too a successful one, is not as easy a task as most people normally perceive. There is a lot of back-breaking hard work involved. You need to breathe, dream and think about it. You need to write, write and write more. In addition, read a lot. All this will help you define your own writing style, improve your writing skills and will help you succeed. There is no short cut involved and this will take a lot of time and effort. I have spent hours writing late into the night and not sleeping properly for days on end since there were so many things that needed to be done simultaneously including managing a family. Initially you could feel disheartened and want to give it all up, but stick to it. And finally, when it does happen it is exhilarating and completely worth it.
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