Hello Asian Fiction Authors!

This month, we have picked "Candy Cigarettes, Baby Love" by Radhika_Sethi for Book of the Month. If you'd like to read this story, we encourage you to check it out in our My Heart Beats For You reading list here.

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Logline:

Mahi, a prop master's ordinary and mundane life takes a cute turn when she encounters Arav, an actor obsessed with candy cigarettes, and a baby.

About the Author:

Born and brought up in India, Radhika Sethi is a romantic fiction author who started her journey on Wattpad, giving into her passion for writing. In 2020, she won the Wattpad Campus Superwriters Award for her novel, 'Serendipitous'. She is currently pursuing a Master's in English Literature, trying to keep a fine balance between the stories that she reads and those that she writes.

Interview:

1. What influenced your story? What inspired you to write it?

Hmm. Inspiration. One of the most important aspects for a writer. Well, for me, it comes out of nowhere. It could be a line that I heard from my favourite character of a tv show, the hushed giggling of friends sitting in the corner of a library, or maybe just something I like, or something I would like to inspire in return. This story, Candy Cigarettes, Baby Love, particularly had those latter points as the main influence. I love babies and hate cigarettes, so why not write a story with a baby as the central character and cigarettes being replaced by 'candy' cigarettes?

2. What were some challenges you faced while writing your story?

I think the biggest challenge for me while writing a story always come down to one point, finishing up the story that I have started. Sometimes it's the busy student life, or sometimes it's just the sheer lack of will to do anything. Fortunately, though, since I enjoyed writing this story so much, I did end up writing it within a few weeks. Going into the technicalities of a character's job is also a big challenge, no matter how much you research, until you've experienced the work firsthand, it will always have that superficial touch to it. I'll try to keep working on that.

3. What message do you hope to convey with your story?

As I mentioned above, one of the things I hate the most are cigarettes. You can't even tell me that I am 'old fashioned' for thinking like that, why? Because it is the unhealthiest thing to ever be created. So yeah, I basically wanted to show that people can have an addiction, or an 'oral fixation' but it doesn't necessarily have to get fulfilled through intoxicants. Sometimes a sweet candy might do the job. I also wanted to bring out the not so glamorous side of the entertainment industry where only the 'stars' are catered to, the workers behind the screen – not so much. Not to mention, since I am sucker for romance, I just wanted to tell a cute story of two people from the opposite ends of the social ladder meeting and falling in love with each other.

4. Do you have any advice for other authors who are interested in writing Asian Fiction?

To be very honest, I am beginner myself, so I'd like to answer this question as one of the readers. I'm glad that Asian representation is growing in the world, in the realm of writing and other forms of entertainment and art. Though sometimes it happens when an author represents their culture in the story, rather than taking up a small part of that story, it completely takes over the story with the side characters always bombarding the main character (who is obviously Asian) with questions about their culture. The author then ends up exoticizing their culture more than ever, which is not very pleasant to read.

5. If you could write another story to be featured on the profile, which of our reading lists would you write it for?

I think I'd like to go with 'Shattered Memories'. I love writing forbidden romance which more often than not, ends up in a heartbreak at some point in the story, which I think might be a good fit for this reading list.

6. If you are an author of Asian descent, what's one cool fact about your culture you can share with us?

I am an Indian and what attracts me the most about my culture is this element of spirituality. It's epics, legends, history; the way I was taught to respect elders and animals alike; the way we find presence of God in small grain of food and in our school textbooks; the way we treat foreigners as God (Atithi Devo Bhava). So yes, very unorthodoxly, spirituality is that 'cool' fact about my culture for me.

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Thank you Radhika_Sethi for giving us the opportunity to interview you and chat more about your book!

We'll see you all in the next Book of the Month.