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Tears of the Dragon - Author Ankush Saikia in Conversation.
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Hello, everyone. I'm Ramya, and today on the Ask an Author series of conversations, I'm joined by author Ankush Saikia. With a background in journalism and publishing, Saikia is the author of eight books, including the hugely popular Detective Arjun Aurora series. The latest in this series, Tears of the Dragon, published by Speaking Tiger, is just out and has been receiving positive reviews for the way in which it combines literary writing with so much depth with the elements of crime
Ankush Saikia
@AnkushS · 3:42
Hello. Hi, Ramya. Thanks for having me on. Swell. And thanks for this segment on Tears of the Dragon. Well, to answer your question about how the idea for the book came about, th well, this is the fourth book in the series, which means obviously, there were three more before that. And after I had written the third book, I was sort of looking around and considering what I could write about and where I could send my detective
Thank you, Ankush. That was very interesting. So, the novel is very atmospheric and set across so many places delhi, London, Kolkata, and, of course, China. And the descriptions of these places create a vivid sense of place in the reader and drop them right into this place where all this action is happening. So, as you said, you've been to China recently, you've visited London, and maybe the rest of the places as well
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Ankush Saikia
@AnkushS · 2:48
Which is why, I suppose, that my books, in my writing, on my books, the setting is sort of very important in the sense that that sort of lays the groundwork for the atmosphere and for the characters. Move about. And so I think all that early work in observing accurately and noting things down, I think that has sort of helped me as I've moved along
I really appreciate the fact that you've based your book on an environment related crime. And without giving away too much about the plot, I'd like to ask you about the kind of research that you had to do while writing about the illegal wildlife trade and the whole ecosystem around it
Ankush Saikia
@AnkushS · 3:35
I mean, you're not writing a nonfiction book, so no matter how much that you do, you also, I think, have to have this thing of putting down less than you know about it so that you don't end up distracting people or boring them while they're following the actual investigation
Ankush Saikia
@AnkushS · 4:42
He sort of feels his way through the whole story, which I think then what happens is the reader gets a sense of that too, so it's satisfying for them, too. And coming back to the main point, since I never planned it for it to be serious, so now that it's sort of reached this point, there is the expectation of having to work on something better and more interesting
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