Interview of Preetika Mehra author of "Let You Be My Puppet Once"
MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Delhi,
Economics Graduate from the University of Delhi. Currently working with an MNC.
Since childhood, have been passionate about social structures, economic
policies and philosophy, analyzing and finding connections in all of them. In
free time, love reading and learning about
Zodiac signs, practicing yoga, and cooking.
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Interview
1. Tell me something about yourself.
How does your personality affect your writing?
Ans:
Being an economics student, I have always been passionate about analysing
economic policies and social structures. There are many observations we make on
daily basis on these subjects and consciously or sub-consciously we have
opinions about them. I felt like writing on these subjects and simultaneously
gave it a shape of a story to make it interesting for readers.
2. When did you decided to write? What
was the inspiration?
Ans: As I mentioned,
the inspiration comes from the subject I will remain a life long student of
i.e. Economics. I kept penning down my thoughts and kept analysing economy and
situations. It all took shape over time.
3. How long it took to write the book?
Ans:
It took some years to put it all together. The real time of book writing is
when you read about all the aspects you have written about, when you analyse
them and when you form opinions. That process takes many years and then finally
you put it all together.
4. How do you schedule your time for
writing? Do you have specific time of the day or write whenever you get time?
Ans:
Some days I wrote voraciously and there were weeks when I wrote nothing. For
me, the journey or writing itself was quite exciting. Unless, I felt like
writing, I used to refrain.
5. Tell us something about your
writing process. Is it disciplined or you have creative bursts of energy in
between dull periods?
Ans:
Like I expressed above, there were peaks and troughs. I never felt the pressure
of writing as this was not some task for me. I’m not a writer by profession.
So, I wrote whenever wanted to, whenever enjoyed it and whenever got something
exciting to write about.
6. What kind of books you like to
read. Your favourite books, authors and genres.
Ans:
I like to read on the subject economics. “The undercover economist” by Tim
Harford and the “Tipping point” by Malcolm Gladwell are some of my favourites.
Of late, I’m exploring books by Taleb. I read “Fooled by randomness” and
enjoyed reading it.
7. What else do you do as hobby
(besides reading and writing)?
Ans:
In free time, love reading and learning about Zodiac signs, practising yoga,
and cooking. A tarot learner of late.
8. Is writing therapeutic/ energising/
enervating/ meditative/ frustrating or all of these?
Ans:
All of these mostly. Luckily for me it was not frustrating. It is quite
energising most of the times.
9. What is your advice to budding/
aspiring writers?
Ans:
Just write whatever you like. Write without any end objective. Don’t feel the
pressure of whether readers will like it or not. You may be writing for a very
small set of readers who would love your work and that is more than enough.
However, try and make it interesting for readers. At the end of the day,
readers want to remain engaged with the book a lot as we are not writing
academic books 😊.
10.
How
important is editing? How many drafts and rewrite it took to make your book
perfect? How did you choose your editor?
Ans:
Editing is important no doubt. But I believe message is more important than structure.
I’ll refer to one of the most useful concepts of economics. Beyond a point, the
marginal utility of editing is very less. It will not make much of a
difference. So, I got it edited up to a point where the message was clear. Even
for quick readers. The publisher took care of editing for me.
11. What
is the most difficult and easiest part of your writing process respectively?
Ans:
The easiest part is when you write with your full heart into it without any
stress or pressure. And that becomes the most difficult part as well. If you
beat yourself up with timelines or deliverables, it will be very stressful. Let
the stress remain for the office work 😊.
12.
Does
your family support your career as a writer?
Ans:
All this wouldn’t have been possible without full support and encouragement by
my husband, brother and parents. They always appreciated what I wrote and that
gave me a lot of confidence.
Ans:
Economics is quite a pervasive field. It ranges from daily transactions where
you would purchase your groceries from a general store to high level government
decisions. That is on the number crunching side. Economics is quite a
subjective and creative field if you refer to the “the invisible hand” by “Adam
Smith”. I can connect economics with almost everything. Some of the most
interesting works and institutions are based on economics like the reference to
the development of Monetary System by Yuval Noah Harari in “Homo Sapiens” or
the foundation of the “Santa Fe institute” explained in detail in the book
“Complexity” where Economics goes hand in hand with Physics, Biology and what
not. It was quite natural to gravitate towards writing from economics.
14. The
story starts as a light-hearted one but then turned into a political thriller.
Saima’s sister Meghna is idealistic which leads her into problems. Do you
believe rich kids can be so selfless?
Ans:
Absolutely, the value system of people develops through many internal and
external influences. Those who have a high EQ can easily develop into
idealistic personalities.
15. The
nexus detailing is very thorough. What research did you do to bring our
politicians, industrialist and criminal nexus?
Ans:
There is a lot that I have gathered through news. Many of us know about the scams
that have happened. There were an array of them some 6-7 years back. I kept
reading on issues across the country across industries and sectors like real
estate, gas production, power problems, law and order issues etc. That helped
me bring it all together.
16. Though
there is a disclaimer in the beginning but would you like to tell about on
which real life persons your characters are based? Or if not based there must
be some inspiration for these characters. Can you share that.
Ans:
When it comes to the main characters i.e Saima, Josh, Vedica and Karan, they
are general youngsters like all of us. There is nothing peculiar about them.
You would find them in yourself and among your friends and family.
17. Title
of book is very catchy. Was it planned or just came organically?
Ans:
It took some time to find a catchy and relevant title for the book.
Blurb
of the book:
Losing their faith in the System, a group of MNC-employed
youngsters decide to take revenge on some politicians and businessmen after
having suffered at their hands. Their masterplan also exposes the connections
of the powerful with the rich, of the mafia with politicians and of those who
exploited the poor. All this leads to a war. A war that had never happened.
The Chief of Intelligence had never dealt with such brilliant
people who were entangling him in multiple versions of events. After a while,
he is unable to differentiate between the real and planted evidence. The clock
is ticking. The media is on adrenaline.
The Chief is faced with several questions. How did it all
happen? Will he be able to solve the case? Can he get the accused politicians
acquitted? Should he find an escape for himself amidst the turmoil?
It’s time he found the answers!
Where
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