Q.1 Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?
A. I am a simple man hailing from Gangtok, Sikkim. I currently work in the government sector in Sikkim. I like to kill time by listening to progressive metal music and watching cricket, movies, and sitcoms. And not many people know this thing about me, I love to sing.
Q.2 How many unpublished and half-finished book do you have?
A. None
Q.3 Where do you get your ideas?
A. Most of my ideas come from my imagination, but sometimes, I do get ideas from people with whom I interact or from something that I have read or watched.
Q.4 What advice do you have for writers?
A. Read a lot, brush up on your grammar, and punctuation, read writing tips on the Internet, write passionately without worrying if it will be published, and edit your work several times as critically as possible so that the final product becomes publishable and worthy of success.
Q.5 Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
A. I think you need to balance both. Obviously, you need to be original, but the content should be such that at least a generic reader should be able to understand it and be able to relate with the characters.
Q.6 If you could tell your younger writing self-anything, what would it be?
A. I have made many blunders over the years as a writer, the memories of which fill me with regret sometimes, but at the same time, I feel satisfied with the fact that whatever I have done, I have given it my 100%. So if I could tell my younger self-something, it would be—‘keep doing what you are doing sincerely’.
Q.7 What are the most important magazines or websites for writers to subscribe to?
A. I don’t subscribe to any particular magazine or website, but I do recommend reading several articles on the web related to writing tips, the various methods of writing, and the Do's and Don’ts of writing. That proved to be very useful for me.
Q.8 What is the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
A. Personally, I didn’t find much of a difference. After all, even a woman is a person, and she feels the same emotions as a man does. Moreover, you regularly interact with so many women in your life that I think that the implicit knowledge is sufficient to write about them.
Q.9 How do you select the names of your characters?
A. That’s a difficult one as I don’t have any particular methodology for it. I guess it comes naturally, loosely based on the nature of the character, their religion, their nationality etc.
Q.10 Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
A. I read all my book reviews in detail. The good ones give me confidence and encouragement to write more, and the critical ones highlight my deficiencies and areas for improvement. Although it does feel bad for sometime after reading a negative review, strangely, they help you more in the end compared to the positive reviews. Authors need to stop being stubborn and arrogant and read their critical reviews in detail and work on their shortcomings and thus improve their writing skills.
Q.11 Does your family support your career as a writer?
A. Yes, they support it, and it helps that it is a second career as I have a decent government job for security. It is difficult to write for a living even now, so authors do need to do something else to support them financially until they become a household name like a Chetan Bhagat or a Ravinder Singh.
A. My fans mean the world to me, and I am truly grateful to every one of them for liking my work and supporting me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them from my heart.
Q.13 How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
A. I have co-written one book with my friend, and my second book was my first solo work. My first book was very raw, and I regret publishing the book in the state at which it was, but I did learn a lot from the feedback I received. My second book, ‘The Fragile Thread of Hope’ is easily my favorite as my writing had developed by then, and I have given my heart and soul on this one.
Q.14 Do you have any unique and quirky writing habits?
A. Yes, despite the common writing tip to turn off the Internet while writing as it is a cause of distraction, I cannot write without the Internet. I need it to check the correctness of sentences, explore suitable words and phrases, and to do whatever research is necessary for my book.
Q.15 What do you consider to be your best accomplishment?
A. The best accomplishment for me is being selected as a Finalist of the Amazon Pen to Publish Contest 2017, which resulted in me being interviewed by a big brand like ‘YourStory’ and felicitated by ‘Sikkim Manipal University’. An equally great achievement is getting a 5-star review from my favorite author, Renita D’Silva. That holds a very special place in my heart.
Q.16 What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
A. I don’t know about unethical, but one unfair phenomenon in the industry that I can point out is: average writers gaining stardom due to their marketing skills and good fortune and exceptional writers getting lost in the crowd.
Q.17 Who edited your book and how did you select him/her?
A. Ms. Inderpreet Uppal edited my book. Madhulika Liddle ma’am, a renowned author and one of my honest critics and guides, strongly suggested me to go for an editor when I was still undecided. She gave me a list, and out of them, I found Inderpreet, her credentials, and her rates to be most suitable for my book. So I went for her.
Q.18 Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?
A. It is my dream to meet AB de Villiers, my favorite cricketer, and idol for more than ten years now. Recently, he retired, and after that, my interest in cricket nosedived.
Q.19 What is your favorite book and why?
A. My favorite book is ‘A Daughter’s Courage’ by Renita D’Silva. It edged out ‘The Kite Runner’ by a narrow margin. Not only is the narration captivating, the prose exceptional, and the characters beautiful, it made me emotional like never before. What more can you want from a book?
Q.20 How can readers discover more about you and your work?
A. You can find me on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_pankajgiri
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pankajgiri.ps/
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