Fascinating Authors

Q: What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?

Author: My book is about a family in India.  I thought it fascinating that although the Indian family is halfway around the world from any American family,  the problems are still the same.  Although the traditions are very different, the values are the same in both India and the U.S.  I wanted to show this–both the differences in traditions and the similarity in values.  I chose this topic because I believe that the family is the heart and soul of any culture.

Q: How long did the book take you from start to finish?

Author: “The Flat on Malabar Hill” took me about three years to write.  I was teaching Middle School at the time, so I did my writing at night after I finished my school day and graded papers.  I started the book in a class on novel writing.  After the instructor and my classmates encouraged me to continue the story, I started writing a chapter a week so I could have it ready for the next meeting and the critique.  After the class was over, I slowed down.  I spent a lot of time editing and couldn’t  get motivated to write more.  Then suddenly one night a character from my book began speaking in my head.  So I got started again.   I did have dry periods, but I learned to wait for those little voices to show me the way.

Q: What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?

Author: Editing is the most challenging aspect of writing for me. It is never-ending–I am always ready to go back and change a word or a mood.  I was glad to see “Malabar Hill” published–because it meant now I couldn’t change a thing.

Q: What surprised you the most about the book writing process?

Author: I was surprised by how hard the process was.  Sometimes, sitting at the computer without a word on the page was torture.  Waiting for inspiration is a daunting experience.  There is always the nagging fear that all inspiration has dried up.  Thank goodness, it didn’t for me!

Q: Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?

Author: Well, I’d heard stories about authors who said that their characters spoke to them.  I half believed it.  Then I started writing–and it’s true!  My last chapter, “Kisan” came to me whole in my sleep.  I woke up at three in the morning and knew I had the end of my book!  I went  to my computer and wrote the whole chapter in twenty minutes. Here I must say that the chapter is a little over two pages. The next morning, I remembered what had happened.  I approached my computer apprehensively–what gibberish would I find there?  I found a coherent and emotional piece–and that is one set of pages I have hardly edited.  Then, the one page chapter toward the end of the book that is not written in any character’s voice was the result of the same experience.  I had been worrying about how to broach a very difficult subject–and it came to me at night.  Again, I booted up the computer and typed up the page.  I did not edit here either. I’m particularly fond of those pages!

Q: What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?

Author: I hope my American readers will gain a better understanding of family life in India.  Talking at book clubs after people have read “Malabar Hill”, I have found that they were surprised by the similarity of problems in India and the U.S. Some had a family member who had a drug problem. So many of them had to worry about the best place to raise and educate children.  And how many of us agonize about our aging parents, some of whom might be afflicted with Alzheimers.  What my readers found intriguing was the way the Indian family faced and dealt with these problems–in ways that were not American.

Q: What projects are you currently working on?

Author: I am working on my next book, also set in India.  I have known some intriguing families–some were almost Faulknerian–and I hope to make some of them the disguised basis of my characters.  Since this is a work in progress, I don’t want to say too much about it–it may change completely!

Q: Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?

Author: I taught English at the UCLA and later at high schools.  I finally settled down at a private school in Los Angeles where I taught for a number of years.  Now I enjoy doing volunteer work and traveling when I am not writing.

Q: Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?

Author: I wrote entirely from experience.  Whatever research I did was in calls to relatives in Mumbai to get the names of clubs, restaurants, colleges and stuff.

Q: How did you come up with your title?

Author: I played with many words mostly to do with family.  Then a dear friend suggested that the action was so centered on the location, The Flat on Malabar Hill seemed like a wonderful choice.  Everyone who has read it loves the title and the cover which is brilliant and vibrant.

Q: What books have influenced you the most?

Author: I think I am most influenced by Indian writers.  I love the writing of Rohinton Mistry, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Amitav Ghosh.  Their prose is so lyrical and powerful.

Q: Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?

Author: I went to Iuniverse for publishing.  I had read an article about them in Time magazine which spoke about the new era of publishing and of Iuniverse being in the forefront.  I had a very good experience with them and would use them again!

Q: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include?

Author:  Yes!  Part of the proceeds from the sale of my book will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Foundation and to Maitri, an organization in San Francisco which  helps abused women, particularly those from  Asia.

Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!

To learn more about the book and Author, please visit – http://chitrakallay.com/