Ask the Author: Nirmala Moorthy
Answered Questions (7)
Nirmala Moorthy
Thinking back over my life I just can’t find anything mysterious that has happened to me. There have been tragic deaths and accidents that can, I suppose, happen in any family. But I have always used every real-life fact I can remember in my books. And some facts are difficult to forget. What mystery I have encountered I have been impelled to put into the books I have already published. In fiction it is always possible to arrive at a satisfying conclusion by means of intuited facts that cannot damage innocent parties because fiction is not really fact. Some of these mysterious happenings have been conveyed to me by friends or even newspaper reports in the various countries in which I have lived. Sometimes the questions of what, why, where, when and, most importantly, “who” have kept me awake at night. During my 30 odd years as first a reporter, and later as a feature writer and social commentator, I have often written them up. But they have always ended with a question mark. Some of these newspaper articles were published in 2015 in my fourth book “The Twain Shall Meet”. My favorite episode is a very short story titled “Hope For The Dead” that relates the “facts” of a really unbelievable episode.
Nirmala Moorthy
I've had a fourth novel on a back burner for some time and it deals with the problems faced by elderly immigrants in America who have no one to look after them in their home countries. They are forced to live in the USA with children who have no time for them, with grandchildren who have to keep running to stay in place on the ladder of achievement, who sometimes don't even speak their mother-tongue. This is the story of two women, one young and the other old, who meet on the plane to Los Angeles and find the support they need in each other..
Nirmala Moorthy
Usually I witness an interesting happening, or even read about it in the newspapers, and I feel it should make a compelling climax to a book. I work backwards like, I'm told, detective novelists who have to keep the reader in suspense, or at least interested, till the last page. I then have to work hard to create characters that have childhoods and family circumstances that make them plausible. In delving into their (imaginary) histories plot twists seem to crop up on their own.
Nirmala Moorthy
some short stories.
Nirmala Moorthy
If your book is autobiographical, don't be motivated by a need for revenge against the peoplewho have hurt you. This is important only for you. It's boring for readers.
Nirmala Moorthy
The world is full of Talkers and few Listeners to hear them. I have never been much of a talker. I'm only good with a mike in my hand. I worry about people interrupting and shouting me down. When I write nobody can interrupt...
Nirmala Moorthy
Actually i don't. I just keep busy with other activities that have nothing to do with writing. My writer's blocks occur usually when I reach an impossible situation in my plot. And the answer of how to solve it invariably comes full-blown into my head--I'm a bit of an insomniac--in the middle of the night. In the morning I can't wait to put it into the computer before it fades away.
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