Andaleeb Wajid's Blog, page 3

Micro-horror stories I wrote for the Juggernaut blog

Juggernaut asked me if I could write creepy scary stories in 50 words or less. Challenge accepted, I said. And this is what I came up with, and their illustrator helpfully upped the creepy levels.   Everyone loves a nice, chilling, horror story no? If you have any micro horror stories to share, send them over to Juggernaut, hmm? They’re… Read more →

It Waits

A long time ago, no wait, this isn’t the story, this is what really happened, a long time ago because that was when I was in school. So yeah, a long, long time ago, when I was in std. 6, my class was squashed into this classroom which had been converted from a dormitory. For some reason, our classroom was… Read more →

The Girls I Could Have Been

In January, while I was conducting creative writing workshops for children at a literature festival, I tried explaining to those present about the necessity of having grey shades in every character; after all, people are not completely bad or good in real life. I needn’t have bothered, because the children were completely into the bad guys. Who were their favourite… Read more →

A Never Ending Affair with Writing

Well, Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and it doesn’t make even a smidgen of difference to me. Yes, really. I write romances because I like the genre (and I enjoy reading them as well) but that’s about it. I thought it would be nice however, to put up this little chat I had with my friend Kanchana Bannerjee whose book A… Read more →

For the love of paperbacks

I’m an early adopter of all things technology. Well most things technology at least. Okay whatever-gets-through-my-brain technology. And I love it. I love my Kindle more than my phone and that’s saying something. Even if there’s no chance of reading anything, I make sure I have it with me because who knows I might get stuck in traffic and whatever… Read more →

Musing about Super Zeroes and Heartbreak with Jane De Suza

I met Jane a couple of years ago at Imli with a group of other writers where all of us were trying to figure out how we could market our work better. Jane and I met again in Atta Galatta for the first Super Zero book launch and we soon became part of a secret society that is trying hard… Read more →

On being prolific

Prolific is a word that I’ve begun to hate. No offense, but everyone exclaims that I’m so prolific when they hear that I’ve written ___ books, I don’t know how to explain it. How do you do it, they ask. Well, I thought I might as well put it down here, once and for all.

This is me trying to look creative although my mum has said it looks like my tummy is hurting.

a) I write every day. At least I try to. Immersing myself in the lives of my characters is so much more interesting than the real world any given day, so I don’t see why I can’t do it all the time. The truth is, I’m addicted to writing. It’s my vice and I let it control me. It’s not always a good thing, believe me.

b) I don’t have a job. I used to, but I wanted to write more than I wanted a dependable salary every month and so here I am. Again, this isn’t something I recommend to everyone. I’ve done this before – quitting job and focusing on writing, so I’m used to being broke most of the time. (Although now, thanks to demon(that which shall not be named) everyone around me also seems to be broke, so I don’t mind it so much.)

c) I love writing. I don’t look at it as a job but I treat it like I treat a job. When I’m in the middle of a book (writing one, I mean), I make sure I get at least a chapter written every day. It’s always tough to get started but once I hit around 10k words, the story, characters take life of their own and all I have to do is just show up at the laptop and let them unfold on their own.

Scribbling my name on notebooks in school prepared me for this. Who am I kidding? I *love* signing my books. Is the only time I feel I’m doing something remotely glamorous.

d) I write in a bubble. Writers are just as insecure as any other creative person. I don’t like being in that place where I’m jealous of another writer because of whatever they have accomplished, shortlists they’re in, awards they’ve won, deals they’ve signed, because none of it is in my control and if they’re getting all of the above, it’s because they deserve it. Since there’s no point in me lamenting about why I don’t get all of the above, I focus on doing what I know best. Writing.

e)  Determination – Or maybe ambition. I don’t know. Probably a little of both. The truth is, I just have an inner drive that propels me to write. And most of the time, the writing happens without any thought of publication. I don’t stop to think about who will publish it, or will it get published at all. I try to keep my focus on the work and finish it before all those aspects can factor in.

 

That’s it. I’m just a crazy person, a glutton for punishment (I hate weekends) and I love to write. This is why I’m so prolific.

In search of thrills and chills with Shweta Taneja

The best part about being friends with other writers is that you can press pause while reading their books and quickly fire off a Whatsapp message to them, asking what they meant by this or that. The other advantage is that you can harass them for longer answers which you can then proceed to put up on your own blog.

I met Shweta recently at lunch (with some other writer friends) and I had just started reading her book How to steal a ghost @Manipal on the Juggernaut app. So, I couldn’t ask her much immediately but once I was done with the book, I knew I had several questions to ask her.

Without further ado –

 

AW: Were you always interested in writing about ​the ​paranormal? How did you get interested in it​?

ST: Oh yes, my interested in the paranormal, in supernatural, in ghosts, monsters, aliens, and the idea of ‘others’ has been with me way before I chose the medium of writing. What continues to fascinate me is the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ conundrum. With monsters or the paranormal creatures, we always think of them as the ‘others’. I continue to look at this clash of what human versus others in most of my work in fantasy. And it’s been a fascination for as long as I can remember. When I was little, all I wanted to do was sit in a story circle with my cousins on a dark, stormy night when there was no electricity and scare the heebie-jeebies out of them with horror tales of a monster than had floppy, replaceable gooey eyes and claw-like hands. I love the freedom fantasy gives me to create and explore, to make new rules, new societies and new behaviours of creatures.

AW: Whenever I watch a lot of horror (like American Horror Story for example), I get a lot of dreams and nightmares about it. What about you? Do you get nightmares too?​

ST: Absolutely. Especially when I’m in the middle of writing a thriller scene—which considering I write thrillers for a living, is on a regular basis. The scariest I remember was in the middle of a scene from my tantric fantasy, Anantya Tantrist series. I was writing a scene where Anantya’s teacher Dhuma dances with skeletons for a ritual. Now I’m in the middle of this scene, it’s late at night, I also happen to be home alone. I lie in bed to sleep, close my eyes and maybe I doze off, or maybe my imagination is still rolling, but I see this old woman, very similar to the one I’m writing about, a halo of uncombed striking white hair around her face and she’s two inches away from my face and well…she screamed, like she was supposed to do in the scene, except this was right in my face and my eyes flew open and I was just so, so, so scared. With no one to console me, of course. Oh well. The pitfalls of the work we be in.

AW: I read How to Steal a Ghost @ Manipal ​and thought it was an interesting combination of sci-fi and paranormal fiction. Especially with all those gadgets that Twinkle uses. Did you do a lot of research into all of this?

ST: Thanks for your kind feedback on the Manipal book! It did take a lot of research for me to get there, for there are a lot of aspects I wanted to ring true in the book. On one hand were the urban legends, folklore and myths of places in and around Manipal that I wanted to include. Then I wanted to base these stories on real-life clashes, themes that we hear in the area, concerns that people have. My research included listening in to people, reading blogs, news from Mangalore coastal area, even a few books about the unique legends that lie in the area. Finally to build up a paranormal gadgety layer on the world and to create a paranormal fiction, I researched real ghost hunter groups and the gadgets they use across the world. It was a fascinating thing. A few gadgets I included in the book, like EMF meters actually exist, while a few gadgets we see Twinkle making are pure fiction. It was fun to create this layer of fiction on the rockbed of research. I like doing that. Mixing real and fiction so closely that you’re never sure what’s what.

AW: What are your favorite genres in reading?

ST:  I can’t get enough of science fiction, diverse fantasy, narrative non-fiction and sometimes for a change literary fiction. Favourite authors include William Darlymple, Samit Basu, Isaac Asimov, Ursula Le Guin, Hillary Mantel, GRR Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Terry Pratchett.

AW: Which is your favourite horror book/movie/tv show?

ST: There are so many. I’ve always loved the way Stephen King creates a horror tale. It’s not an obvious oh-my-god-the-monsters-attacking type of fiction, more psychological, like you’re never sure if the narrator is reliable or not and the character keeps on falling deeper and deeper into that ditch. Amazing. Other horror fic writers that I’ve liked are a few stories from Roald Dahl, thriller-horrors like The Silence of the Lambs. In movies I absolutely adore the B-grade Ramsay Brother Bollywood  ones (yes, I know, I know) and Korean horror gives me the absolute terrors. I like fantastical horror TV shows with a lot of blood and gore like Dexter and American Horror Story.

AW: Which is the favourite character you’ve written?

ST: Till now? Definitely Anantya Tantrist. I’ve written three books of hers so far and I know I will be writing more of her in future. She’s this kickass tantric who is confident enough to walk on the streets of Delhi at night, solving supernatural crime. She is sassy, with a lot of attitude, a breathless freedom and don’t-care attitude about her which I absolutely adore. I also love the world I’ve build up around her that’s full of rich and colourful takes from Indian mythology and the books kind of run from one scene to another as she faces tantrics, deals with monsters, creatures, supernatural beings, alternating between ruthlessness and empathy. It’s been quite a rich experience and quite fun creating her and the world she inhabits.

AW: How much of all your ghost/paranormal stories are inspired by real-life?

ST:  It’s a mix of both reality and fiction. I get a lot of my ideas from real life stories I either read in blogs, in social media updates or now that people know I’m interested in both paranormal and supernatural, people message me or tell me stories on phone! I’ve always believed and continue to believe that reality as much, much weirder than things I can ever imagine myself, so yes there’s definitely a tadka of real-life in my stories, though the setting, the way the story plays or the characters might be different.

AW: What’s the creepiest thing that has ever happened to you?

ST: Oh well. The above episode I mentioned was pretty creepy. Then these was this ghost sighting I mentioned in a blog on real-life ghost stories I heard. A long time ago, as a teen, I’d gone to a camp from my school. We camped in a valley near Manali. It was a beautiful clear night, the sky was laden with stars. We’d finished dinner. It was late and we sat on a ledge away from the camps, chatting. About 30 meters behind the ledge, I saw a figure in white. At first I thought it was girl, but there was something weird about the figure. It was hazy and gliding towards us. Not walking. I blinked and asked others if they saw the same thing as me. The figure shimmered in the starlight almost like she had a torch under the white ensemble. And kept gliding towards us. All of us were now looking at the figure, wondering what it was. We tried to fit a lot of logics, but nothing worked. The figure vanished a few minutes later. Till now I don’t know what it was.

 

Whoa, that was creepy. If you love this kind of fiction, then you definitely should read Shweta’s books. I do enjoy horror (recent development) so I’m surely going to give her Anantya books a try!

6 signs you are about to be dumped

So, relationship advice is not really my thing. I listen to friends when they want to vent and commiserate but that’s about it. I feel rather inadequate when it comes to giving advice.

The reason why I’m talking about relationship advice is because in my book, Will the Oven Explode?, my protagonist Ayn has no clue that her husband is not happy. Not until he walks out of their marriage, leaving her stunned.

So, according to the Juggernaut blog, here are 6 signs that you are about to be dumped. Don’t be like Ayn. Be forewarned.

Also, it’s been a week now, since the book was published on Juggernaut and the response has been overwhelming and fantastic. In case you’re not aware, Juggernaut publishes books on their mobile app and now website too. So, Will the Oven Explode? is in e-book form only for now, and is priced at Rs.30 (yes).

Download the book today and do rate/review it on the website. Would also love comments etc here too.

 

Thankfully, the oven didn’t explode!

I’ve always found baking very therapeutic. No wait. Glamorous. It was why I tried my hand at it from the time I was 12. Several rock hard cakes and broken molars later, I’ve managed to get the cakes right. But last year I kind of miscalculated the size of a baking pan for my son’s birthday and got one that wouldn’t rotate inside my microwave/convection oven.

Ideally, I should have removed the batter into smaller tins but that was *such* a pain because I’d already lined this tin with baking parchment and I was lazy to redo the whole thing. So I went ahead and pushed the pan inside and managed to bake the cake, despite my oven’s protests. So, what happened was that the pan would rotate, get stuck and go beep, beep, beep. Then I’d pause the timer. Open the door. Turn the pan a bit and close the door. Rinse. Repeat.

Obviously, this kind of misuse has hurt my oven. It has not been the same, ever since. It creaks, groans and makes the most horrifying noises, to remind me that I have done irreparable damage to it. Once I was reheating something and it started making a lot of loud beeping noises that sounded like a precursor to an explosion. I immediately switched it off and stepped back, but thankfully, the oven didn’t explode, that day, or ever.

But it was like someone switched on a bulb right above my head. That’s a wonderful name for a book! Write it down.

I decided to do one better and write down the book too.

So, here we are people. Will the Oven Explode? is available exclusively on the Juggernaut app. And the good news is that the book is available as an e-book on the Juggernaut website as well!

What are you waiting for? Hit the download button already and come back to tell me what you think of it!