Hi Jeevani! I am thrilled to welcome you to my blog for the very first time and get to know more about you and your latest release, THIS STOLEN LIFE - wishing you much success and sales! Let's get started with my questions...
1.)
What is your
favourite thing about yourself?
I
have a sense of humour. I like that. It helps me get through life when things
get tough. It’s also the one of the things that brought me and my husband
together. If you can’t laugh… life would be so much harder.
2.)
What do you wish
you’d known before you started writing?
To be honest, if I’d known a lot of what I know now, I
might have been too scared to write a book in the first place! The thing that I
learned from writing book 1 was ‘learn about structure’. I’ve read what feels
like a hundred books on story structure and I’m still learning.
Oh, and don’t give up. Every
book has a suckage point around 15 to 20K words. Don’t give up. Every book
needs a few passes of edits before it’s ready. Don’t give up. Most books get
rejected a lot. Don’t give up. Your first book might not sell very well. Don’t
give up. Don’t give up. Don’t give up.
3.)
Share a romantic
moment in your life.
When
I was first married, I used to have a long commute. From the upstairs window of
our tiny house, you could see people walking out of the train station. I was
usually exhausted by the time I got home and dying for a cup of tea. My husband
got home early once and watched for me coming home. When I got to the front
door, he’d put a hot cup of tea on the doorstep for me. It made me laugh and,
of course, I got my to have a sip of tea before I even got through the door. It
was just what I needed after a long week.
4.)
Is there one
subject you’d never write about as an author? What is it?
I
can’t think of anything that I’d say ‘never’ about. Violence against children,
maybe. There are lots of things I don’t want to write about at the moment, but
for the right story, if I could find the right execution… there’s always a
chance. ‘Never’ is a long time.
5.)
Do you have any
suggestions to help someone become a better writer? If so, what are they?
First
of all, read. A lot. Read a lot in the genre you want to write in. Read outside
your genre too. Also, watch good stories on screen. I don’t watch much TV, but
between books, I’ll watch lots of films. That’s where you ideas come from.
Get
out and listen to people talking. If you pay attention to how people say things
in day to day situations, your dialogue will improve.
Write
a lot. The only way to learn how to write is by writing. Learn from each
scene/poem/story you write and use that to make the next one even better. When
I was breastfeeding my babies, I read the works of Terry Pratchett from The
Colour of Magic onwards in the order they were written. Aside from being a
great comfort read, it was fascinating to see how his writing improved with
each book. He was an incredible writer, but he started off as merely a good
one. Greatness came with practice.
6.)
If you could be
the original author for any book, what would it be? Why?
I was going to pick something
deep and profound… but I’m going to go for The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot. That
book was the one that made me want to write rom coms. It’s also cleverly
written using just emails and notes. It’s fast paced and witty. I’ve read it so
many times and it still makes me laugh. I wish I’d written something that
funny.
7.)
What did you do
growing up that got you into trouble?
I was a fairly well behaved
child. I got into trouble for reading at the dinner table and for disappearing
up a tree to read my book. We had a guava tree in the garden which had a
bifurcating branch that was perfect for sitting back in. My mum used to find me
happily sitting in the tree reading. It wasn’t very ladylike. She wasn’t so
bothered about that. She was more annoyed that she’d been calling me for ages
and I’d been so absorbed in the book that I’d ignored her.
8.)
If I came to your
house for dinner what would you prepare for me? Why?
Hmm.
Tricky. I think I’d cook Sri Lankan food for the main meal - it’s lovely and it
covers vegetarians as well as meat eaters. So there’d be chicken curry,
butternut squash curry, lentil dahl and maybe chickpeas. I’d add a coconut
sambol (my favourite) in case you liked your food spicy. Oh, and vegetable
pilau rice. That way you could choose which dishes you wanted to have.
For
pudding, because that’s just as important as the main, I’d do an apple,
raspberry and white chocolate crumble with custard. Pure indulgence on my part
because it’s one of my favourite desserts.
Cup
of tea (or coffee) to finish off.
Book title: This Stolen Life by Jeevani Charika
Published by Hera Books
Release date: 8th May 2019
Book link: books2read.com/u/mYr6AV
Would you tell the truth, if it meant losing your one true love?
Soma is a shy young woman adrift in a strange new country. After moving from Sri Lanka to Yorkshire to become a nanny to baby Louis, Soma tries to settle into life in the U.K., even if every day presents her with a new challenge, from trying new food or getting to grips with the language.
But the one thing Soma never counted on was falling in love. When she meets Sahan, a Sri Lankan student at the local university, the two feel an instant attraction. Meeting in secret so that Sahan can teach Soma English, their friendship quickly blooms into something more. But their differing backgrounds – Soma is from poverty, while Sahan is the son of a wealthy family and cousin to Soma’s employer – means they have to hide their love from the world.
While they bare their souls to each other, Sahan has no idea that Soma is hiding a huge secret from him – but as her lies come crashing down, Soma is faced with an impossible choice. Should she tell the truth – even if means losing Sahan?
A moving, unique and utterly engrossing love story about how well we really know the person we fall in love with – fans of Amanda Prowse, Jojo Moyes and Diane Chamberlain will be captivated.
Soma is a shy young woman adrift in a strange new country. After moving from Sri Lanka to Yorkshire to become a nanny to baby Louis, Soma tries to settle into life in the U.K., even if every day presents her with a new challenge, from trying new food or getting to grips with the language.
But the one thing Soma never counted on was falling in love. When she meets Sahan, a Sri Lankan student at the local university, the two feel an instant attraction. Meeting in secret so that Sahan can teach Soma English, their friendship quickly blooms into something more. But their differing backgrounds – Soma is from poverty, while Sahan is the son of a wealthy family and cousin to Soma’s employer – means they have to hide their love from the world.
While they bare their souls to each other, Sahan has no idea that Soma is hiding a huge secret from him – but as her lies come crashing down, Soma is faced with an impossible choice. Should she tell the truth – even if means losing Sahan?
A moving, unique and utterly engrossing love story about how well we really know the person we fall in love with – fans of Amanda Prowse, Jojo Moyes and Diane Chamberlain will be captivated.
Bio
Jeevani Charika (aka Rhoda Baxter)
Jeevani Charika writes multicultural women’s fiction. She started off in the South of England and spent her childhood living in places as diverse at Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Micronesia before settling in Yorkshire, where she now lives with her husband and two daughters.
Jeevani also writes romantic comedies and women’s fiction under the name Rhoda Baxter. Her books have been shortlisted for the RoNA awards, the Love Stories awards and the Joan Hessayon award. She is a member of the UK Romantic Novelists' Association and the Society of Authors.
A microbiologist by training, Jeevani loves all things science geeky. She also loves cake, crochet and playing with Lego. You can find out more about her (and get a free book by signing up to her newsletter) on her website.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
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