AMA: SANDHYA MENON (AUTHOR)
ANSWERS
Author @Sandhya Menon has answered YOUR questions in Smashbomb's AMA.
On your FAQ, you mention you re-read Twilight. Do you enjoy re-reading any other books?
I re-read The Shining by Stephen King every autumn in preparation for the winter months! It’s the perfect creepy winter book, I think. I also tend to re-read Sophie Kinsella—I’m a diehard fan!
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Keep going. There’s definitely a seat for you at the table if you keep writing what you love and keep improving at your craft.
Do you base the characters in your books off of people you know?
My characters are always amalgams of people I know or have known, including me!
What magical creatures do you wish were real?
Fairies! I’ve wanted to be friends with Tinkerbell for a very long time now.
What is a genre you would love to write a book in but been too scared to touch and why?
I don’t think there’s any genre I’m afraid to touch, necessarily, but I do wonder if some genres I’d love to write in are a good fit for my brand of fiction. For instance, I’d love to write a few super-dark, twisty, atmospheric books, but I might have to write those under a pen name!
What plot device do you feel has been overly used in books?
I don’t think any plot device is overdone unless it’s harmful or bigoted in some fashion. Other than that, it’s all about the author’s unique voice and the spin only they can put on the tropes and devices we know and love (or love to hate)!
What do you believe is the most underrated franchise in literature that should get more readers?
Quite a few!
Most recently, I really wanted the book The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton to blow up and get its own movie and TV show and graphic novel and theme park and I’m still bitter that hasn’t happened (yet). I also really adore the Timber Wolves series by Tammy Blackwell and am sorely disappointed they haven’t caught on as much as I feel they deserve to! And I absolutely loved Damocles by S.G. Redling, but almost no one I know has read it, which makes me very sad.
Do you have a favourite character from your books and why?
Gosh, an author picking a favorite character is kind of like a parent picking a favorite child; almost no one could bring themselves to do that! I love all my characters for different reasons.
Which book did you have the most fun thinking up and writing?
I’m really super-excited about my upcoming contemporary fairy tale retelling series. The first book is called Of Curses and Kisses and has a sprinkling of Beauty and the Beast. It follows an Indian princess who must con a misanthropic British aristocrat into falling in love with her to avenge her family’s honor.
There’s no outright magic, but there’s a lot of “is the curse real or isn’t it” ambiguity that was so much fun to write. I dreamed the story three years ago and am so excited it’s finally going to be in bookstores soon!
I’m thrilled to say my UK publisher Hodder and Stoughton has picked it up, so Of Curses and Kisses will be available in the UK in February of 2020!
How much of the books did you write based on personal experiences vs purely fiction you thought up?
All of my books are based loosely on my own experiences with a heaping helping of fiction thrown into the mix! For instance, like Rishi in When Dimple Met Rishi, I struggled a lot with the arts (in my case, writing) not being a “real” or acceptable enough career path for my family. And like Dimple, I struggled with well-meaning adults who told me my biggest mission in life was finding and keeping a husband!
Like Twinkle in From Twinkle, with Love, I worried a lot that no one would be interested in the stories I wanted to tell with my pen (she wants to tell them with her camera). I looked at all the bestselling books or the books being taught to me, and none of the writers looked like me or had a name like mine. Twinkle faces something similar when she looks at the biggest, most successful movies and the often white, male directors who direct them.
And Sweetie’s struggle with her weight and fat-shaming in There’s Something about Sweetie came directly from my own experiences as a fat adult at various points in my life.
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
So many things! In high school, I read the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and for the first time truly understood how powerful an unreliable narrator could be. Reading Ellen Hopkins’ Crank back when it first came out was such an eye-opener for me about the flexibility of story structure.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
I don’t! I’m one of those authors who believes that reviews are for other readers. I get my feedback from a trusted few sources who’ve been with me since the beginning.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Too many to count, honestly! I think all authors have a metaphorical trunk full of unfinished work and I’m no different. I have all of these folders on my computer with half-finished stories and novels I’m still very partial to. Sometimes bits and pieces of them make their way into my current books and that’s such a satisfying feeling!
