Preeti Shenoy is among the highest selling novelists in India, with eight best-selling titles, the latest one being It’s All In The Planets. She writes a weekly column in the Financial Chronicle. She is also an artist, yoga buff, dog-lover and loves to travel.
Q. Why do you write?
If I don’t write, I will explode. I will also probably become a very horrible, grouchy, moody, angry person. Writing is my release, my therapy, my life.
Q. Describe your favourite writing space.
My bed.
Q. Your favourite word?
Petrichor.
Q. Do you have a writing schedule?
It used to be when my kids left for school, but now they are on the verge of leaving home for college. So now my time is all mine.
Q. Ever struggled with writer’s block?
Never. Touchwood! I paint and sketch too. So I write only when I feel like writing.
Q. Do you keep a diary?
Yes. I have always kept a diary. I have so many hand-written journals. My desk is full of them.
Q. What inspires you to write? Do you have a secret trick, or a book/author that helps?
If I didn’t write I would die! Writing helps me make sense of things I see around me. Even when I was not a published author, this was so.
Even if nobody reads what I wrote, I would still write.
Q. Best piece of advice you’ve ever got?
“Be unstoppable”.
Q. Coffee/tea/cigarettes – numbers please – while you are writing…
Black coffee, green tea. Only at the end of the day, when I see the empty mugs under my bed, I realise how many I have consumed. Usually 3-4.
I don’t smoke.
Q. Which books are you reading at present?
Just finished When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, and Goat Days by Benyamin. Both books are brilliant, outstanding and poignant.
Q. Who are your favourite authors?
Audrey Niffenegger, Michael Morpurgo, Neil Gaiman, Roald Dahl (his writing for adults), Liane Moriarty and Sonia Choquette.
Q. Which book/author should be banned on grounds of bad taste?
Any book with bad grammar and Hinglish. Sadly, some seem to be popular.
Q. Which are your favourite children’s books?
Born to Run and Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, The Secret of Platform 13 by Iva Abbotson and anything by Cornelia Funke.
Q. Which classics do you want to read?
I grew up reading classics. I have read many of them. If I had to re-read it would be Little Women by Louisa May Alcott or Treasure Island by R.L.Stevenson.
Q. Who is your favourite literary character?
I don’t have any! I fall in love with the protagonist and break up when the book is over—whether I am writing it or reading it.
Q. Which is the funniest book you have read?
The Best a Man Can Get by John O’ Farell.
Q. Which is the most erotic book you have read?
Erotica editions by Maxim Jakubowski.
Q. Which book do you wish you had written?
Aaaah! All the books which have made me cry, made me go weak in the knees, and the ones I simply could not put down because they were so riveting.
