Ten years ago, Jenny failed to save Rubina and the infant from the charming leader of a dangerous cult who led folk to a mass suicide. Later, Jenny's journey to find the boy leads her to a sleepy village in Rajasthan where she comes across a police who is investigating the mystery of the decomposed leg from the construction site. Are these cases linked? I mean, both the cases, are they interlinked? What is the connecting link between them? What is the suspense and how does the mystery unfolds?
Sonali Sharma
@authorsonali · 1:17
How are you? How have you been? And please tell us something more about your journey 18 years into freelance writing. Like how did you started writing and how has the journey been like from the beginning until now?
Hi. Hi, everybody. This is Kanchana, and I am so happy to be here on the Swell app talking with Sonali about my book. The name of my book is until I find you. And I'm so excited to be talking about my book. Yeah, before I became a fiction writer fiction author? I used to write for various publications and for different companies, reputed multinational companies like Hindustan, Lever, Colgate, RadioMirchi, et cetera
Sonali Sharma
@authorsonali · 0:40
Hi, Kanchana. Good afternoon once again, and it is such a pleasure and honor to connect with you. And I'm super excited to dive deep down into our conversation and know more about your book, about you and your journey. So let's start right away. The very first question that I would like to ask is about your book. Until I found you, the book delves into the themes of cults, mass suicide and the search for a missing child
It's that I am very fond of surfing the net for interesting old cases, criminal cases that have not been solved or true crime events and unsolved cases in the past and et cetera. So that's one of my hobbies. And I kind of stumbled upon the story of Jim Jones, the cult leader who had formed his cult People's Temple in the US. In 1970s
Sonali Sharma
@authorsonali · 0:55
The book is set in the arid landscape of Rajasthan, so whenever we talk about fiction, it has a lot to do with character building, the plot, setting and the roleplay. So how did setting a role play in shaping this story? And what inspired to choose Rajasthan as the location for your story, for your novel?
And about the same time, when I was thinking about writing the story, thinking about the cult suicide and planning the story, plotting the story, my husband and I, we made a trip to Rajasthan in the Shakawati region and we went and stayed in Mandava. Now Mandava, the moment I stepped into Mandava mandava is like a small, little village and Shakawati has quite a beautiful history to it. It was one of the last places on the ancient silk route
Sonali Sharma
@authorsonali · 1:10
Hello. That's pretty interesting that you actually went and stayed there. You experienced and shared the firsthand experience. Very few authors do that actually. And I think this gives the real essence in the book and story within the story. I think this is a very surprising element that will later keep unfolding for the readers and will intrigue them to read further and further. So the book also describes as a grim and a brutal thriller
So I'm inspired by the works of Alice Feeney, Mary Cubica, Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins and many others. So these are very dark, psychological twisted thrillers. So somewhere deep inside, I think I also want to be able to write like these international bestselling authors. And that makes me think a lot about the plot and come up with twists and turns and make it a very kind of edge of the seat, nail biting kind of a story
Sonali Sharma
@authorsonali · 1:08
Hello. I liked how you have answered and to the point. And definitely we should actually write what we really enjoy reading, because until and unless we ourselves, as writers, if we don't enjoy or if we don't feel what we write, how will the readers relate?
And when I saw this little kid running around in the art gallery I just knew that he's Sandeep's son because he's a carbon copy, he's a Xerox copy of Sandeep. So this little incident stuck on in my head. And when I was thinking about how I should get Jenny to Banod I came up with the idea that an international photographer would be kind of passing through Rajasthan and he would come to Banod and he would take pictures of the local school or somewhere
Sonali Sharma
@authorsonali · 0:53
Indeed. It requires quite a deep thinking and observation. I think as authors, as writers observation each and every incident that happens in life. Observing around the scenarios around the society and the surroundings where you live observing the incidents that happen to you day in and day out and then extracting a the ideas out of it. I think definitely authors are very good at that. So since we are talking about Jenny in the book Jenny and Virat they get involved in cat and mouse game with the diabolical climax
The ending is brilliant of these ombooks and a good ending is what endears the story to the reader and the readers. Remember the book forever. Now you'll be able to relate to what I say, that there are a lot of nice thrilling movies or web series that have been made, but somehow the plot has gotten lost somewhere in the middle. It has dwindled and the ending is a very weak ending. And a weak ending is the worst thing that can happen to a thriller
Sonali Sharma
@authorsonali · 2:41
What others will think, will they like it, will they not like it? The fear of being judgmental. So what are your thoughts on this and how would you guide someone who is just a beginner or looks forward to start their writing journey? And by this personal, I would like to thank you for coming over and it was such a great experience and the honor to have the conversation with you and I look forward to this answer as well. Thank you once again
And all the best from me for all your endeavors and thank you, Ombooks. Thank you, sonali. Thank you. Swell. I did not know about this app and I'm so glad that I found this. I'm going to keep recording stuff and uploading it on here so you can look forward to hearing a lot more from me. And if you want to know more about writing fiction, I've started conducting online writing courses. So you can message me on Instagram or on Facebook