The Write Stuff Featuring Multi-Genre Author Shraddha Sahi
Interviews with Amazing Authors!
Welcome to The Write Stuff, a feature on Substack offering you a chance to get to know new authors and understand more about some of your favourites too. This week we are chatting with Multi-Genre Author Shraddha Sahi who has kindly agreed to share her time with us as we talk about her latest book, research trips of the imagination, the hardest and easiest things about writing and her excellent advice for budding authors!
Let’s do the part that makes all interviewees uncomfortable… Stand up, please, and introduce yourself to the class!
I’m Shraddha Sahi, ophthalmologist and writer from Pune, a city near Mumbai, India. I write children’s fiction, YA fiction, and more recently, mysteries with a dash of romance. I’m trad published so far, but seriously researching going indie.
Reading is a passion, as is food, but not cooking!
(Chuckles) What’s your latest project?
My newest book just released – Shivaji and the Mystery of the Bhavani Sword – a historical adventure about a group of children in a tiny village in 17th century Maharashtra.
Fascinating!
What book is on your bedside table at the moment?
Currently reading This is Happiness and re-reading Save the Cat Writes a Novel.
Tell us about a favourite book or piece of work you’ve written.
I like to think I’m improving with every book, so the latest one is my favourite, but my WIP is a romantic mystery with humour, and is in the last stages of revision. It’s my best work so far!
Tell us about your favourite book/s by other people.
I loved Hamnet and cried - at the story, and at the beautiful descriptions, and also in despair at my relative lack of skill.
We’ve all been there! I know I often feel that way! Share a book that you’ve always wanted to read but haven’t yet.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
Share a classic you tried to read and just couldn’t finish.
The Grapes of Wrath
That’s one I haven’t even attempted as yet! Tell us about the best, or worst (!) research trip you’ve taken.
This is embarrassing; I’m very lazy, and all my research so far has been reading or online. I’ve planned a few trips but dropped the idea in a few days.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a research trip in the imagination! So tell us, what’s the hardest thing about writing?
Getting started every day, and plotting.
What’s the easiest thing about writing?
The second draft
And what’s the best thing about writing?
When the words flow and you stop doubting your talent.
How did you start out?
I wrote a rom-com that was ‘inspired’ by my experiences. It started as a journal for my own mental health and then became a book.
Any advice for budding authors?
Read as much as you can – in your genre and across too. You can never master writing, just improve every day. But you have to work at it.
Excellent advice!
Now on to the important questions…
In your opinion, what is the best biscuit/ cookie/ snack in the world?
Carrot cake.
What drink do you prefer when writing?
Coffee
Silence or music whilst you write?
Silence. No one can even breathe around me! Strangely, I put on music or Netflix as soon I take a break. I work in tiny sprints. No way is wrong, just find what suits you best.
I am also a person who needs silence. I understand!
Describe your writing area for us.
On the couch with books, pens, coffee cups and the remote next to me.
And lastly… Where can we find you?
And where can we find your books?
All my books are on Amazon and on my website.
Here’s the link for my latest – http://srishti.pub/shivaji
And fin! Big thanks to Shraddha Sahi for taking the time to chat to us today and to all my readers I hope you will check out the work of this amazing author!
Wonderful interview.
Lovely interview, and interesting too.