Abracabadra: Author Blog Hop

A writer is defined as an articulate being trying to get across her message in a non-chatty way. Her/His writing can draw an impact on its readers, which can either help sway a change within or around the community.

I got an opportunity to meet and greet (virtually) some writers who have made their mark in the publishing world, and are making their contribution to this planet by their clean, crisp, and economical style of writing.

With great pleasure, let me introduce Saranya Iyer, who blogs at poemsshortstories.blogspot.com

She describes herself as:

I am Saranya Iyer, a MBA in Marketing, who loves reading and writing. After having worked in the corporate for 5 years, I quit my job and stepped into my passion and started working as a lecturer of academics and Spanish language. An ardent fan of Jane Austen, her works never stop to amaze me. I am one of the co – authors of a book named ‘The plantain leaf’ which is based on short stories from South India. In my spare time,My favorite genre is Drama and Romantic fiction. I love listening to music and spending time with my family.

I managed to get a peek into her writing style and penciled some questions to her. She has been kind enough to answer them.

1. What is your genre of writing? Why did you choose that?

I write fiction as well as non-fiction. I have ventured in romantic

as well as non- romantic short sagas. My genre is centered mainly

on drama. I have written lot of tragedies too. I like to talk about

human feelings and emotions. More than how they dress and what

kind of attire are they wearing; I like to focus on minute aspects of

their personality. As plot grows out of character, I like to give more

emphasis on my characters and how they shape the plot. Also human

nature is very intriguing. One can write large volumes about it. I am

working on other genres like humor, thriller and travel as well. I like

short stories as I think they are what we everyday do. Our emotions

switch from one to another in a jiffy. So each day has its own short

stories which are compiled in a big book/novel called life.

2. What inspires you to write?

Wow, this one is very interesting. I would say “Words”. Word is my

muse which makes me to pen down my feelings and experiences. I

have always liked writing. I have never ever dreamed of taking this

as my passion when I was small. I used to scribble my daily rants and

ramblings in my diary. After few years, when I started reading those,

it felt so good as each page had its own tale to tell. Then this blog bug

hit me. I created a site and entered my stories and experiences in it.

I got good recognition for my writings which motivated me to go on

in this journey. This journey is my learning. I will not say that I have

achieved in this domain. I have long way to go. As the saying goes,

“the greatest agony is having an untold story inside your head”, I

have many such stories which makes a fighting rush to come out of

my head. Untold story inspires me. Also, last but not the least, My

fellow bloggers who keeps on spinning the yarn beautifully makes me

to write more.

3.Any forthcoming publications to expect from you? Where and When, approximately?

Available at Amazon

I am working on “The plantain leaf – volume 2” with my co-

authors. We are expecting the release to be on the year 2015. Also,

I am working on my book “Mini sagas of larking bird” which is a

compilation of 50 short fictions.

4. Your article Pride and Prejudice in Timeless Austen gives us a peep into the quotes,

which have been translated beautifully. What inspired you to take upon

this project?

Jane Austen is my most favorite author. She is the one who has

motivated me to read fiction. I have read all her classics and “Pride

and Prejudice” has been my favorite of all her works. This book

is all about human emotions, personalities, and their encounter

with different facets of life. I am a part of Jane Austen book club

which organizes one of the finest events. We were releasing our

first publication at that time. We had given various other topics. I

always wanted to do some analysis on this book. I took this as an

opportunity to discover more truth about this novel. Also, it gave me

a distinct image of each character. Each character was unique and

spoke in a different manner. I had them in paper.

5. I got a chance to read your work, “Sacred Union” and

it was beautifully knitted around love and how fond hearts meet in one

way or the other. What were your thoughts when you were framing this

story?

“The plantain leaf” is my first child in this writing journey. This book

talks about stories from different parts of South India. South India is

a treasure trove of literature, arts, music and culture. This gave me

an opportunity to travel and know more about different places in

Chennai. I got to speak to a few interesting people to know the heart

of the city. “Sacred Union” is one of the stories in this book which

gives us a perspective on how two hearts are intertwined even after

death of one person in the relationship. It says “True love never fails.

It follows us in different form”

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Meet another writer, Sundari Venkatraman who has tickled pink many hearts by painting charming, dreamy, and glamorous characters in her two romantic novels namely, The Malhotra Bride and Double Jeopardy. She is an Editor and Proofreader at Flaming Sun.

Buy @

Meet the author

The Author's Thoughts

Even as a kid, she absolutely loved the 'lived happily ever after' syndrome as Sundari grew up reading all the fairy tales she could lay her hands on, Phantom comics, Mandrake comics and the like. It was always about good triumphing over evil and a happy end. Soon, into her teens, she switched her attention from fairy tales to Mills & Boon. While she loved reading both of these, she kept visualizing what would have happened if there were similar situations happening in India; to a local hero and heroine.

Her imagination took flight and she always lived in a rosy cocoon of romance over the years. Then came the writing - a true bolt out of the blue! She could never string two sentences together. While her spoken English had always been excellent - thanks to her Grandpa - she could not write to save her life. She was bad at writing essays in both school and college. Later, when it was time to teach her kids, she could manage everything from Science to Mathematics and History & Geography.

When it came to writing compositions, her kids found her of no help at all. All this changed suddenly one fine day in the year 2000. She had just quit her job at a school's office and did not know what to do with her life. She was saturated with simply reading books. That's when she got home one evening after her walk and took some sheets of paper and began writing. It was like watching a movie that was running in her head - all those years of visualizing Indian heroes and heroines needed an outlet and had to be put into words. That's how her first novel, The Malhotra Bride, took shape.

While she felt discouraged when publishing did not happen, it was her husband who kept encouraging her not to give up. There was no looking back after that. While publishing took a long time happening, Sundari continued to write novels and then short stories. Her luck turned when Indireads approached her to write for them and Double Jeopardy was born.

Then came the self-publishing on Amazon. The 2nd edition of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE has been successfully published on Amazon and is available as an ebook since February 2014. The book has been very well received by the reading public.

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Show some love to these Authors by checking them out.