Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Interview with Falguni Kothari, Author of Bootie and the Beast

Fairytales don't end with True Love's Kiss, they begin with one...
Diya Mathur (aka Beauty), celebrated supermodel and Party Princess of India, is adored by everyone. She works hard, plays hard, and has the biggest shoe fetish on the planet. But after she purchases one baby bootie, Diya's reputation is in ruins. There's only one place to escape the rumours - Texas, under the protection of her lifelong friend, and secret love, Krish Menon (aka the Beast).
Financial whizz-kid, CFO and entrepreneur, Krish is a brooding workaholic with a charisma that still brings Beauty Mathur to her knees. He has no idea, of course! They've shared a bond since childhood - a special friendship that thrives on sparring, teasing and goading - but with Diya back in his life and under his roof, Krish's latent desire for her explodes. And when he finally admits to the secret that has never allowed him to commit to any woman - especially Diya - everything changes. Krish might finally realise how much he wants his Beauty. But he won't get her until Diya has tamed her Beast.

Book Links:

Tell us a bit about the person that Falguni Kothari is when she is not writing.
When I’m not writing, I read…a whole hell of a lot. I dance. I take Latin dance lessons 2 to 3 times a week and have become competent enough to take part in amateur dance-sport events and win :) Other than that, I’m pretty much a homebody, taking care of kids, hubby, house and dog.

How did your journey as a writer begin?
It so happened that around five years ago, on the insistence of my mother to occupy my mind with things other than ladies luncheons and kids squabbles, I decided to take some online classes to further my education which until then had been lamentably incomplete. I took a course on “Romance Writing Secrets” because it sounded like a fun thing to do and I hoped it would ease me into taking more serious classes at some point in the future. Well, the class did result in my getting serious, though not about studying further. I loved that class and love what it brought me…the absolute joy of story telling. 

What are your writing quirks?
One thing that I do when I’m at the planning stages of a book and which I find a bit scary is that I daydream about my scenes. I can literally transport myself to whatever place or setting I’m thinking of, both deliberately and inadvertently. Imagine—and believe me this is a true story—I’m driving down the road and its snowing and suddenly I find myself making sand castles on a beach in Bermuda. The daydream got so vivid once, that I almost ran a red light. These days, I try not to step out of the house when I’m like that.

What was the first piece you ever wrote for yourself? Was it prose or poetry?
Do you mean when I “officially” started writing or when I wrote stuff in school? Let’s hope you mean when I started writing…as in serious author stuff. It was an assignment I did for the “Romance Writing Secrets” class. I think it was an exercise on description. I had to sit in a dark room with a lit candle and describe the flame: how it moved, smelled, looked. What it made me feel…stuff like that.

Do any of your characters have a bit of you in them?
Most of them have bits and pieces of me in them. :) They come from my head, ya? How can they not have me in them?

Who are your favourite authors?
Let me list them age-wise: Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Tolkien, George R R Martin, Nora Roberts/J D Robb, Chitra Divakaruni, Indu Sundaresan, Diana Gabaldon, John Green…and many more.

How have your favourite authors influenced your writing?
By showing me the magic words can create.

What is your dream cast for Bootie and the Beast? 
Deepika Padukone for Diya and Sendhil Ramamurthy for Krish.
 


What’s next?
I’ve finished the first book in an urban fantasy series that I hope I’ll have news on soon. I’m very excited about this series as it encapsulates some of my favorite legends from Indian Mythology and presents them in a very funky, Marvel Comics sort of way.
As for my current project, I’m 5 chapters down in a story about three friends. I’m not sure how it might be classified as it reads like women’s fiction but I want it to be a romance. We’ll just have to see at the end.

Any message for my readers?
As I mentioned before, words are magic. So keep reading, dear readers, and keep spreading the magic.

Falguni Kothari is a non-traditional homemaker who accidently tripped on a misplaced soccer ball and fell down the writer’s rabbit hole. Having no more experience with the whole writing/publishing shebang than being a voracious reader and movie buff, it more than surprised her that she could, in fact, write a full-length novel. 
Now, several manuscripts down, when she is not trying to find a way out of her many domestic duties or cajoling her Latin dance coach to compose a rumba on Bollywood music, she is found embroiled in some or other scandal—sorry, creating stories—on her ever-faithful laptop.
She’s authored Bootie and the Beast, It’s Your Move, Wordfreak! and Scrabbulous Impressions, a short story. She rumbas across a whole smorgasbord of Social Media daily and loves to connect with most living things.

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