Fiction Scribe

Hello and welcome back to Fiction Scribe, Ms. Bantwal!

List five things you feel define you as a person.

Active Imagination
Family
Career
Passion for reading and writing
Appreciation of beauty

You’ve visited this site before promoting your book The Dowry Bride and now you’re back to talk to us about your newest book: The Forbidden Daughter. What can your readers expect from The Forbidden Daughter? Tell us a little about the story.

The Forbidden Daughter is a good follow-up book for The Dowry Bride, because both books hinge on hot-button social issues surrounding Indian women. When a sonogram reveals that Isha Tilak and her husband Nikhil’s second child will be another girl their lives are altered forever.

When the doctor suggests an abortion and Isha’s in-laws are in favor of it, the young couple’s refusal to comply with the elders’ wishes leads to a bizarre chain of events, i.e. Nikhil’s mysterious death and Isha having to fight a high-stakes battle to protect her daughters.

You’re inspired – for the most part – by issues facing Indian women today. What is your process for putting those sort of hard cultural events into fictional stories?

When social issues need to be aired so the world is made aware of them, it can be done in several ways. Since I am a storyteller at heart, I decided to weave the topics into fictional stories. A good plot with intrigue, romance, and colorful characters makes reading about cultural-social issues much more fun and interesting. Fiction is a means to educate, inform, and entertain at the same time.

As with any political/cultural/religious/etc issues, especially ones that have been happening for a long time, not everyone is going to agree on what is right and wrong. Do you ever fear backlash for what you write, even though it’s put in a fictional realm?

Backlash is something any writer can be subjected to, whether she writes fiction or non-fiction. There is no such thing as pleasing everyone. There are always readers who find fault with something a writer puts into words. Social/political/religious issues just happen to be more volatile than others, but at the same time they make more interesting reading, in my opinion.

What are your dreams for your writing? What would you like your readers to take away after reading your books?

My dreams are to make a large non-Indian audience more aware of the events happening in contemporary India. Naturally as a writer I would like to see loads of my books sold. I would love to see my writers take away a glimpse of a culture that is both rich and colorful and yet has its darker side, like any other culture in the world. I would also like my readers to enjoy a satisfying and entertaining story.

Where do you see yourself in five years both as a writer and as a person?

I look at my writing career in terms of one year at a time. Anything beyond that is not possible for me since I have a demanding day job and very little time to devote to writing, so I don’t know how many more books I can successfully churn out. I am working on a third at the moment but I have very little down on paper at this time. As a person, I hope I continue to be blessed with what I have at this moment.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you have been given/learned in your life as a writer?

The most valuable piece of advice I have received is probably “write what you know.” That bit of wisdom works for me because it takes little effort and research to write about events, places, people and stories that one is familiar with and pretty much grew up with.

Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers here?

I enjoy receiving feedback from my readers, so please visit my website at www.shobhanbantwal.com and send me your comments on my book. The website also has book excerpts and trailers, my award-winning short stories, articles, recipes, and photos from India.

Thank you very much for coming by this blog. I wish you great successes with The Forbidden Daughter.

Just like the last time, I thank you for inviting me for an interesting interview.