Sukanya Venkatraghavan's Blog

An anthology like this has been long overdue in India, one in which women writers tell their stories the way these should be told, the way they want it. New stories that celebrate them — reclaiming, retelling, recontextualising and recasting long-familiar tales and tropes in unfamiliar ways, and narrating new ones in ways that feel just right, focussing on no-so-familiar facets and perspectives oft-ignored. Edited by Dark Things author, Sukanya Venkatraghavan, Magical Women contains 14 such original short stories, and it is as it promises to be: ‘magical’.



https://factordaily.com/sf-anthology-...

'...the result is a collection that has real personality and a sense of individual voices, but also has echoes and links between the stories, all built around the theme of feminine strength, so often suppressed, patronised or marginalised (in both life and literature).'

https://scroll.in/article/923889/the-...

Dark Things is still on @amazonIN's Editor's Picks for Summer and Spring 2016. Got it yet? :))
Dark Things

Australia based Urban fantasy writer Amy Kuivalainen wrote about Dark Things. This piece left me emotional.
'Finally, here is someone who really gets it, who believes in the power of storytelling and the old tales, who will understand what I’m trying really hard to do…we want to write the new myths. The kind of stories that tease the back of your imagination because they feel like they are a story you once knew and have forgotten. They aren’t the kind of stories where everyone gets out alive, where the lovers are always triumphant or the heroes don’t pay a massive price for being a hero..

https://firebirdfairytales.wordpress....
Amy Kuivalainen

I wanted to tell a story of a Yakshi, so that naturally made her female and I wondered how to bring about conflict and Hera appeared in my head. In a really twisted way Dark Things is inspired by Snow White. (wow I have never mentioned that before)

https://booksandstrips.wordpress.com/...

"The novel is filled to the brim with new characters, storylines you've NEVER seen before, places you wouldn't imagine (EVER. LIKE IT WILL BLOW YOUR IMAGINATION,) and I loved it.'



http://athousandwordsamillionbooks.bl...

Don't I love it when that happens? :))

In which I answer some lovely questions on writing, inspiration and editing. And where i read a romancey bit from the book at breakneck speed. Why didnt anyone tell me?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HoSN...

Rather thrilled with the press Dark Things has been getting. :) and grateful.

here's my interview in DNA After Hours.

'I am obsessed with fairytales. And every fairytale has prince charming and a damsel in distress. What if this was the opposite of a fairy tale? What if the maiden was the monster that Prince Charming had to attack? What if the tables were turned on a fairy tale?'

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/int...

'...most people who read Dark Things informed me that their takeaway from the book was love,” says the author sounding surprised.
“It wasn’t disappointing, it was actually eye-opening because I have never seen myself as a romantic. '

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifest...

Femina magazine interviewed me about Dark Things, inspiration and first drafts. You can read the whole story here

http://www.femina.in/lifestyle/we-tal...

Excerpt

Were you always interested in fantasy?
When I was younger, my grandfather would tell me stories of mythology and fantasy so that was embedded in my consciousness from a very young age. I grew up in an old creaky house that had lots of secrets and that was always a rich source of material.