Disclaimer; random Bollywood GIF's will be used by yours truly because words are not enough to describe my emotions to all these answers, plus Bollywood GIFs are life.
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| Everyone's crush, just saying |
Thank-you so much
Sandhya for joining me on my blog and another big thank-you for writing such a
master-piece ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’. I guess I speak for most people when I
say, I’ve never connected with a character like I did with Dimple before.
I’m so glad you connected with Dimple! That makes me so
happy! :) - Sandhya
Where did the idea
for ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’ come from?
I was contacted by S&S with the kernel of the
idea—two Indian-American teens whose parents want to arrange their marriage,
and only one of them is really on board with the plan. I knew I had to flesh it
out and turn it into a book because there is such an incredible dearth of happy
stories about marginalized teens! It really appealed to me that this wasn’t an
issue book or a book about poverty in India or something depressing like that.
I wanted to show brown teens kissing, living life, chasing their passions, and
getting happily-ever-afters!
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| When Rishi and Dimple first met haha |
Are you working on
anything at the moment?
My second book, another YA contemporary, will be out next
summer! Hodder & Stoughton has bought the UK rights to that one, too, so
I’m so psyched that UK readers will get to read it. :)
Will you be
writing a sequel or a companion novel to ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’?
Well, never say never. ;)
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| OHMYGOD OHMYGOD |
If you could
describe Dimple and Rishi in 3 words each, what would they be?
Dimple: Spitfire, ambitious, feminist
Rishi: Romantic, traditionalist, artist
Where there any
difficult and/or fun parts of ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’ to write?
Oh, so many of each! The difficult parts were when I had
to put them through tough times. *sniff* I really felt sad doing it and I can’t
say exactly what without giving away some spoilers, but readers can take solace
in the fact that it totally broke my heart, too.
The fun times were anytime I got to write banter and
sarcastic jokes (of which there were many!), kissing scenes (especially the one
at Bernal Heights), the “I love you” scene, and the end!
What are Dimple
and Rishi doing beyond the book, how are things going?
I’m happy to say they’re both chasing their dreams,
living life to the fullest, and sneaking kisses every chance they can! :)
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| YAAASSSSSS |
What inspired you
to make Dimple an aspiring tech student?
Another paucity we see in YA—a lack of STEM
(science/technology/engineering/mathematics) girls! I wanted to show a strong
female character who could totally kick any boy’s arse in a STEM field.
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| YAS! So nice to get some rep in YA as a tech student |
Top 3 tips you’d
give to struggling writers?
Read as much as you can in various genres. If you hate a
book, take note of the mechanics/craft side of things: What did you hate,
exactly? Prose? Pacing? Character development? All of those things will teach
you what not to do in your own story.
Also set a writing goal and aim to meet it. It doesn’t
have to be a certain number of words every day, although that does certainly
help. Your goal, especially at the beginning, can be to just write one short
story every two weeks or five poems every month. Then make sure you take it to
a critique group you can trust for feedback.
Thank-you Sandhya for being on my blog and for the epic debut When Dimple Met Rishi that has stolen many of our hearts. I highly recommend this book to all.
Thank you so much for having me on your blog! :) - Sandhya
Thank you so much for having me on your blog! :) - Sandhya
About the Author
My name is Sandhya Menon, and I write books for teens. I currently live in Colorado, where I'm on a misson to (gently) coerce my husband, son, and daughter to watch all 3,221 Bollywood movies I claim as my favourite. Also, I love my cat a little too much, as you can probably tell.
My YA novel 'When Dimple Met Rishi' is out now from Simon Pulse (Simon and Schuster) US, and Hodder & Stoughton - UK.
Find Sandhya over on:
When Dimple Met Rishi Summary
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| Summary from Goodreads |
The arranged-marriage YA rom-com you didn't know you wanted or needed...
Meet Dimple.
Her main aim in life is to escape her traditional parents, get to university and begin her plan for tech world domination.
Meet Rishi.
He's rich, good-looking and a hopeless romantic. His parents think Dimple is the perfect match for him, but she's got other plans...
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
I hope you all enjoyed this Q&A and my obsessive GIF work of my fav Bollywood OTP, who I totally see as Dimple and Rishi.
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| OTP GOALS. |
EEEEP, When Dimple Met Rishi sounds SO GOOD. I don't read a lot of contemporary (maybe like five books a year, if that, oops) but this is at the top of my TBR pile. And now that it's summer, it would be an excellent time to read it!
ReplyDelete(Also the cover always makes me crave Starbucks and our local shut down a few years ago. I am most displeased.)
Excellent post, Shazi! I love reading your blog <333 Have a lovely week!
Great post and such a lovely Q&A with this author. I love books that are filled with banter and sarcasm, so I think I'm really going to enjoy When Dimple Met Rishi. Can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteThis Q&A was fantastic!! I can't wait to read When Dimple Met Rishi!!
ReplyDelete