An Interview with Children's Author, Rachna Chhabria

   

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But first,  a bit of back-ground:

I first met Rachna online when I had just begun blogging and was looking for online writing friends. I especially was pleased to meet her, because my husband is from India, and Rachna lives in Bangalore, where one of our nephews lives with his family and another niece and her husband live. I was new to technology, and from the beginning, Rachna was helpful and guided me through the ins and outs not only of blogging, but of using Facebook and Twitter. After about a year of interacting online, on a trip with my husband to visit his relatives in Chennai, Rachna and I mailed each other our books of the time. A couple of years later, while visiting the nephew in Bangalore, she and I met in person, and she was as gracious as ever.    

And now, the interview:

Q: You’ve been a journalist for a newspaper, a writing teacher at university level. And you’ve written stories for children. Which of these aspects of writing do you enjoy the most?

A: Though I love all three aspects of my writing, I enjoy writing for children the most. Children’s writing gives me a lot of satisfaction, it gives free rein to my imagination, encourages the child in me to explore the world again. Infact, I would say it keeps the eternal child in me alive.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your writing journey? Have you always been interested in writing? What are other books you’ve written? How did you find your agent and publisher? How did you come to write this book? 

A: I have always been interested in writing and reading. My English teacher in school praised my essays and urged me to write more. My interest in writing led me to pursue Literature and Journalism in college. During my college days I wrote for the college magazine. My Journalism teacher encouraged me to write for newspapers which I did. I wrote lots of articles and stories in newspapers at the start of my writing career. I still write for newspapers. My short stories have appeared in many anthologies. My other books are Lazy Worm Goes on a Journey (Scholastic), this is an early science for young readers, it’s a picture book with snippets of science about the human body. The Lion Who Wanted to Sing and Bunny in Search of a Name (Unisun Publishers) are illustrated collections of jungle stories. The editor of HarperCollins Children’s Books emailed me in the second week of July 2018 as they were looking to commission an author to write festival stories. I worked on two sample chapters which were approved immediately and the entire deal fell in place.

Q: Fiction and Non-fiction combination is a wonderful idea, how did this come about?

A: When my editor at Harper pitched the festival idea to me, in the course of our conversation I told her a non-fiction book on festivals may become boring, I thought that children will enjoy festivals through the eyes of protagonists. My editor liked the idea and asked me to create a bunch of characters. Nikhil and Natasha my two eleven-year-old protagonists were born from that idea. The book is about Nikhil and Natasha and how they celebrate a year of festivals in their unique way. I have explained the festival bits, that is the non-fiction part, through Natasha’s journal and Nikhil’s blog.

Q: How did you research for this book? And what were some of the difficulties?

A: Most of my research happened online. I saw videos on YouTube, waded through scores of pictures on Pinterest, read newspaper articles about festivals and their celebrations. I also spoke to many people. Though it was fun researching for this book, it was also difficult, as there were so many dissimilarities in what came up in my research. To corroborate this, my editor at Harper Collins – Tina Narang, got 2 copy-editors on board who verified all the non-fiction bits. And this was a huge relief for me. I was assured that whatever I had written was verified by the two editors and whatever I had missed was pointed out to me. Tina was a God send. She ensured that everything went smoothly and per schedule.

Q: Will there be a sequel? If so, will the twins be learning about other festivals through the year, or will they learn of other Indian traditions?

A: As of now no plans for a sequel. But one never knows. I’m sure I would like to feature the twins in other books, perhaps they can learn more about other Indian traditions.

Q: Have you thought of writing a version of the Bhagavad Gita for children or some of the other Hindu stories from scriptures?

A: Yes, this has been on my mind from quite some time. A couple of Indian editors have asked me for retelling of some epics and stories from the scriptures. As of now we haven’t zeroed in on any theme.

Q: What are you working on now?

A:Right now I’m focusing on a chapter book. I’m developing one of my short stories for children into a chapter book.

Q: What is your writing process like?

A: I like to have a basic plot structure in mind and on paper. After I roughly plot the story, I start writing. I do a lot of pantsing between two plot points. My first drafts are super fast, but I like to take my time with the revisions, its during multiple rounds of revisions that the actual story starts taking shape. I have an amazing critique partner who gives me wonderful feedback. After his thorough feedback I do another round of revisions.

Author Bio 

Rachna Chhabria has a fascination for words. She is at her happiest when she is writing her stories and creating fantasy worlds for her books. Animal stories are her favourite. She is the author of Lazy Worm Goes on a Journey published by Scholastic, The Lion Who Wanted to Sing and Bunny in Search of a Name both published by Unisun Publications. Her short story Ganesha’s Blanket of Stars won the Special Prize in the Unisun- Reliance Time Out Writing competition 2010- 2011. Her stories have been published in several anthologies and her articles have been featured in course books for schools. She is a regular contributor for many papers and a columnist with Deccan Chronicle and The Asian Age. Her children’s stories appear regularly in Young World. She taught creative writing in a college in Bangalore for many years. 

You can learn more about Rachna and connect with her at the following links:

Rachna’s Scriptorium - http://rachnachhabria.blogspot.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Author/Rachna-Chhabria-367609189996800/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/RachnaChhabria1

To purchase her book go to Festival Stories Through The Year on Amazon.in - https://www.amazon.in/Festival-Stories-Through-Rachna-Chhabria/dp/9353023521/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538238353&sr=1-1       - or - 

Festival Stories Through The Year on Amazon.com - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9353023521/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

How about you? How would you describe your writing process? Have you met any of your online author friends in person? Does your own writing call for research? If so, how do you approach research? 

A Writerly Week

                   

Even though we are on "vacation", in Galicia once again, I work part-time most days, either writing or doing research. Rajan takes pictures, mostly black and white, that he develops when we get home. I take my point and shoot camera everywhere and snap less professional shots. I couldn't resist this one on the left: in the far distance on the hill is the Parador of Monforte de Lemos, the town that has built up all around it, below.

Meanwhile, this has been a "writerly" time for me. First, shortly after our arrival two and a half weeks ago, I received word that a short story I had submitted was accepted. The title is "Going Home" and it was published on April 13th by a cool magazine called Page & Spine. If you are interested, you can read it HERE. 

Second,  I've been doing research for a character in my current WIP. In my  book, one of the characters turned out to have been in Vaudeville in  her earlier years. (I'm sure all you writers know how that happens. You suddenly learn something about a character you didn't know earlier. She let me know she had been in Vaudeville.)

Well, I knew next to nothing about Vaudeville, and I love research, so off I went to find information. I've been mesmerized by a book called No Applause — Just Throw Money, by Trav S. D. (Yup, that's the author's name.) The book is expensive online, unless you go for a used copy. I did, and I was fortunate to get copy in pristine condition. Here's the book:

The writing is fast-paced, humorous, and at times brutally honest about the racism and prejudice that permeated the industry. (Vaudeville was one of the few avenues open to minorities and immigrants, but the actors themselves played off their own stereotypes in the early days.) The author gives a comprehensive history. I hadn't realized the differences between music halls, saloon variety shows, or how gradually respectability was worked into shows that once were a step away from medicine shows, freak shows, etc. They had an unsavory past, too, thanks to after-hours entertainment before they gradually evolved into what became known as Vaudeville. Then Vaudeville became cut-throat business for managers, theater owners, agents, etc., until the movies came along. I'm only halfway through the book, but since one of my characters wants to be a movie star, I'm glad to see this book has information about the early days of the movies as well.

Third, while doing the research I need for this character, I've been writing poetry. A blog friend mentioned a poetry challenge for April ( National Poetry Month). (She writes Haiku and has a wonderful blog called Words and Such; she always has rewarding posts, which you can read HERE.

The challenge was actually a contest: You register to write 30 poems in 30 days around a theme of your choice. At the end of it, you have a chapbook. I started on April 1st, but I didn't register in time, so I missed the contest. Still, I gave myself the challenge anyway, because I felt I needed to be writing while I worked out what I was learning in my research in terms of the characters. I felt I couldn't afford not to be writing.

Well, "I did it!" I wrote 30 poems in 30 days. Today I wrote my 30th. I'm done! Whew! But it really was a nice way to start each day. I actually woke up many mornings thinking about the new poem for the day.

How about you? Do you like poetry? Do you like research? Do your characters surprise you with revelations about themselves? Have you ever written a chapbook? (If so, I'd sure like some information about how to put one together.)