Believe In You By Anju Gattani
Stories don’t just fall from the sky like shooting stars, right?
Wrong.
When Duty and Desire fell in my lap 19 years ago, it wasn’t an idea, a concept or a seed. Not even a fruit that fell from a tree. But a scene that harpooned my soul.
We had moved from Singapore to New Jersey, U.S.A. and one afternoon I remember squeezing in a quick nap exhausted from taking care of my 2 boys—then 1.5 and 5.5 years old. I had 45 minutes before the five-year-old’s school bus would return from Lincoln Elementary School so I curled up on the couch and snoozed.
I woke up gasping for air. My heart raced. Sweat caked my palms and my throat was parched from what I’d just seen. A dream? No. A nightmare? Possibly. It was something I’d never experienced. I tried to remember the sequence of the visual that had me wrapped. I wound and rewound a cascade of questions: Who were these people? Why were they running away? Who were they running away from? Where would they end up?
An international freelance journalist with about 10 years of experience published in feature, interview and perspective pieces, cover stories, short fiction and more…I knew this was clearly nothing short of short fiction. The graphic visual was a scene from a movie—that didn’t exist.
I tried to forget the scene, but the wheels of my imagination spun on over-drive. I tried to shake off the characters, but they wouldn’t let go. I tried to busy myself in a million other tasks but the scene continued to haunt. I visited the local library, borrowed books on writing the fiction novel, biographies of published authors and tried to make sense of their journeys and what they had to say. The quest embarked me on a journey of my own that grounded a turning point in my life.
In 2002, I picked up the pen and started to write—yes, the old-fashioned way!
I wrote from the gut.
Instinct guided me.
Logic and reasoning went out the door.
It was just me and the story—nothing more.
Between mothering two boys, the move from New Jersey to Atlanta with the change in my husband’s job, keeping house, cooking meals, running laundry, chauffeuring kids, the list goes on… I pounded out the original manuscript over the span of 18 months. When I reached ‘The End’, I found myself at the beginning of book 2 and possibly at the helm of a series.
I spent the next 17 years fleshing out my characters and a cast of over 25. I wove story threads between loops, tied knots, opened them again, wrapped up loopholes, planted and foreshadowed as I ploughed through the books. I worked under the guidance and critique of New York Times and USA Today Bestselling authors, Haywood Smith and Jade Lee and devoured countless novels, books on the craft of fiction writing and anything and everyone I could learn from. This doesn’t even include colossal research and countless rewrites that drummed the series.
I received more rejections than my home-office walls could handle—good thing about technology and storing stuff in the cloud!
I signed with agents who couldn’t sell the books and didn’t know where to go.
So I let them go and ploughed on.
If you’re wondering why I didn’t give up, the truth is I did.
Many times.
But then my lead characters haunted me in my dreams and questioned…if I didn’t tell their story, who would?
So here we are nineteen years later with a story to roll.
Not an idea.
Not a concept.
Not a seed.
But the fruits of grit-hard labor that I hope will touch your soul.
A gentle reminder that dreams do come true
If you believe in you.
—
A fiction author, freelance journalist, fiction writing instructor, blogger and former newspaper reporter, Anju was born in India but grew up in Hong Kong. She has also lived and been published in Singapore, India, Australia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and finally dug her roots in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, with her husband, 2 dashing boys and a rebel lion-head rabbit.
Anju has been published in cover stories, fiction, feature, news, interviews, travel, perspective pieces and more.
‘Duty and Desire’ the debut in her Winds of Fire series, is slated for release on June 2, 2020. Anju hopes her books will Bridge Cultures and Break Barriers.
Website: www.anjugattani.com
Facebook: Anju Gattani Author
Twitter: @Anju_Gattani
Instagram: Anju_Gattani27
DUTY AND DESIRE
To uphold family honor and tradition, Sheetal Prasad is forced to forsake the man she loves and marry playboy millionaire Rakesh Dhanraj while the citizens of Raigun, India, watch in envy. On her wedding night, however, Sheetal quickly learns that the stranger she married is as cold as the marble floors of the Dhanraj mansion.
Forced to smile at family members and cameras and pretend there’s nothing wrong with her marriage, Sheetal begins to discover that the family she married into harbors secrets, lies and deceptions powerful enough to tear apart her world. With no one to rely on and no escape, Sheetal must ally with her husband in an attempt to protect her infant son from the tyranny of his family.
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Reviews for DUTY AND DESIRE:
“Duty and Desire kept me captivated from the first sentence to the very end. An enticing Downton Abbey-style saga, but set in India! I simply adored it and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series. ” Barbara Bos, Managing Editor, www.booksbywomen.org
“Duty and Desire is a resplendent deviation from the stereotypical portrayals of Indian lifestyle. Duty and Desire, makes for desirable read, indeed.” -NRI Pulse News
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips
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