The Tales Pensieve

She took to writing through her blog, justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com, to cope with the pain of losing her father and there has been no looking back. A best selling debut with non-fiction followed by fiction National bestsellers – Life is What You Make of It and Tea for Two & A Piece of Cake. Preeti Shenoy – the Bangalore based poet, artist and author is now ready to launch her third fiction this December. Will it be a hat-rick of National bestsellers this time? We get inKonversation with the creative multi-talent on love, relationships and secret wish lists. Read on:

Love & relationships have always been at the core of matters in your stories be it or . Where do you take us with The Secret Wish List?
Like my other two, this one also is about love and relationships. But you will see that there are far more layers to all my stories. They aren’t just love stories. This one is also about finding the courage to follow your heart.

You started writing to cope with a personal tragedy; do the stories too stem from personal experiences? What inspires you to write any particular story?
As writers, we always borrow from our own experiences as well as from the experience of other people. There is no one particular thing that inspires me—it frankly could be anything. It could be an overheard conversation, it could be some interesting news item, it could be a friend’s life—anything really. Once I decide to write about something, I then do a lot of research. There are times for instance,when I have read up at least 10 pages of information just so that one single sentence that I write is accurate. I am very true to my readers and while my stories are fiction, the facts that they are woven around are always well-researched.

Artist, Poet or Author which roles would you say completes you the most?
That is like asking me if I like my left hand more or my right! Frankly all of it and more. I am also a yoga buff, a fitness enthusiast, a photographer, a nature lover and  a dog-owner, apart from being a wife, mother, sister and daughter!

One characteristic in Diksha, your protagonist from The Secret Wish List that Preeti identifies with the most.
Diksha is a complex character. I would leave it to the readers to discover her for themselves. I guess her ability to surrender to her passion is what I would identify with the most.

Any book you recently read and wished you had written something like that.
Oh—any good book I read leaves me in awe. But I do think there is place for all kinds of writing.

Three bestsellers and now into your fourth book. The best/worst compliment/ comment you have received as a writer.
I always look at the best. People tell me my writing has changed their life and sometimes they tell me they owe their life to my writing. That is the biggest compliment for me.

One reason why everyone out there would want to read The Secret Wish List?
It will tug at your heart string and make you want to live your life fully and who knows, maybe draw up your own wishlist too. Life is too short to not follow your heart. This is the core message of the book.

What do you find the most calming thing about being a storyteller?
Calming? You got to be kidding me. As a story teller there is drama, chaos and conflict going on in my head 24x 7. Even today, though it is more than four years since my first book came out, there are a hundred things that I wish I had said differently. For calmness, I have my meditation. Otherwise, I have my writing 🙂

If you have to draw up your secret wish list, what will the top three wishes?
I truly am so darn fortunate to have fulfilled all that I wanted from life. I feel overwhelmingly grateful for that. So if I were to draw up a wishlist, it would just be more from a fun point of view.

Here is what I would want:

1. Own a very stylish, modern, comfortable houses overlooking the sea, in all the lovely beaches of the world (so that will be many houses)

2. Spend all my time in an air bubble reading all the books I want to read and watching all the movies that I want to watch with an unlimited supply of wine.

3. Have a super-fit body without having to exercise like I do now.

Your words of wisdom to newbie writers.
Read , read and read as much as you can and write at least 500 words every day, if you aspire to be a writer. Most important, do not give up!

Know the Author: Website | | Blog

The Secret Wish List: Facebook | Goodreads | | in bookstores from December 14, 2012

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