In the two years I’ve been doing this series, there have been a handful of interviews that have blown me away. Varsha’s is definitely one of them. The thoughtful answers and honest responses are a great read. It’s also wonderful to see a fellow Indian author write incredibly smart, sexy and character driven stories that pack a punch.
Varsha and I connected on Threads and then I picked up her debut—The Art of Taking Second Chances—and, as I expected, I was completely blown away. Her writing, her characterisation and everything in between was nuanced and beautiful. Plus, that cover? Absolutely in love. Her second book The Rules of Playing with Fire comes out tomorrow and let me just say that you are going to be obsessed with Sona and Mihir. I got to read an early copy and these two are fiery and sexy and perfectly matched.
Make room on your list of favorite books, because these are going to land there soon. They’re both in Kindle Unlimited.
For now, grab your beverage of choice and soak up the brilliance that is Varsha Chitnis.
PS. Authors, are you also Story Weavers?
BEING AN AUTHOR
Who or what inspired you to write?
I’ve been writing poems and short stories since the 8th grade. My first inspirations were my grandmother, who was an avid reader and my grandfather, who wrote a book on the history of Baroda. But my turn from academic to fiction writing is definitely inspired by Anandibai Jaywant, a pioneer of women’s fiction in Marathi.
What’s the best and worst part about being an indie author?
The best part, of course, is creative freedom. It allows me to write the stories that speak to my own experience of being a woman and an immigrant in the U.S.
As a person with attention deficit, I think being an indie author allows me to work in accordance with my own timeline without sacrificing the quality or the content of my writing. The drawback is that we have to do it all, especially vis-a-vis getting the word out about our books. Finding the right connections, the right readers, sending out ARCs, seeking reviews. The marketing and publicity does tend to get a bit overwhelming at times for all indie authors. And we scarcely see the monetary rewards for all the hard work until maybe years later.
Why did you choose to self-publish instead of going the traditional route?
The main reason for me was the time involved. I surmised I am getting older each day and didn't want to wait for an opportunity to come to me. I was also getting disappointed and annoyed at the same stories about South Asians/Indians being recycled in popular fiction. The motivation that keeps me going is, I have so many stories inside me and my time is running out with every passing day. I don’t mean to sound morbid, it’s actually a positive thing for me.
When you’re not writing, what do you do to get the creative juices flowing?
Definitely baking and reading. Creating a new dish or recipe gets me hot like little else does. I’m also known to binge watch series and binge read when I am between projects.
If you were to recommend books to me (in any genre), what would they be?
I have several favorites in different genres, but at the moment, I would recommend George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. It’s a book about the craft of writing through the lens of short stories, which was my preferred form before I wrote my debut novel. I still love the short story with an existential vigor.
What are your top 5 tips or pieces of advice for aspiring authors?
I think I’m too new an author to offer advice, but here are a few things I have learned from my own experience.
Trust yourself and your voice. There is a lot of noise out there but only you can tell the stories you want to. Be true to that self. Only when you are true to your voice, will you be able to tell the story that’s uniquely yours.
Never stop learning. Writing and storytelling are crafts that need to be sharpened and honed. It’s like watering the seeds to create a thriving garden. There might be many beautiful ideas inside you but unless you water the garden, even the germinated ideas might not survive for long.
Find your community. You might not find support where you expect, but then suddenly you’ll be amid a generous community of authors and writers who will help you thrive. When you do, hold on to them. Find authors, editors, artists, and readers who will support you, and support them in turn.
Be generous. Help other indie authors thrive. Their success will not undermine yours and neither will your affect theirs. Be magnanimous toward fellow authors and artists. Praise the hell out of their work and their genius.
Take critical feedback with humility and grace. It’s what will help you grow as a writer.
And a bonus, be kind to yourself and in everything that you do 😊
ROMANCE AS A GENRE
Why did you choose romance as the genre to write in? What is your favorite thing about the genre?
[Deep sigh] I have been a student and scholar of WGSS for over twenty years. I was writing, reading, thinking, and teaching about inequality, injustice, and violence. When I decided to shift gears and turn to fiction, I knew I wanted to stay away from issues of violence and trauma. I belong to the generation whose foray into feminist understandings of sex and sexuality was through the writings of Catherine MacKinnon. And while I still maintain there is merit to her line of thought, it was only when I began studying queer theory and sexualities that I was introduced to the idea of sex as pleasure. Carol Vance’s Pleasure and Danger marked a turning point in feminist theory in that regard.
Now I have the chance to not only write about female pleasure on my own terms but also queer the heteronormative expectations that are often seen in heterosexual romance. If you read my work, you’ll see how I sneak in challenges to these, but I won’t spell it out. Readers are smart, they get it.
I also talk about other social issues and how my characters navigate through them. One of the most poignant comments I’ve got on my work is from an anti-racist teacher friend, who’s also a chief diversity officer at a university. She said that my book “thought through feminisms and race, caste, and so much more, brilliantly, without ever centering whiteness.” And this, I think, sums up my approach to writing romance. Writing romance is my act of political activism.
If not romance/subgenres of romance, what genre would you like to write in?
I’m not a fan of the term, but I see myself writing what is called women’s fiction. I love writing about relationships and emotions. Romance explores one kind of relationship, but I would love to write in depth about other kinds.
I do touch upon some of these in my romance books: between parents and children, between siblings, between an employer and a trusted employee, between friends. These are absolute goldmines.
What are your most and least favorite tropes?
I know I might get some pushback but I don’t have a favorite trope. I love all kinds of romance barring two and I’ll get grief for this too. Lol.
I am not a fan of the pregnancy trope when pregnancy is the only reason the couple is together, especially when the woman is forced, explicitly or implicitly to carry the pregnancy.
Another one that makes me claustrophobic is the arranged marriage trope because most books don’t make a distinction between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage. They might end up being the best partners for each other eventually, but the very idea that agency and consent is removed from the equation going in, it’s a big no from me.
There’s also a uniquely Indian reason for my resistance to the arranged marriage trope in South Asian stories. In India, the institution of arranged marriage is a shorthand for endogamy and espouses it as such. I am an anti-caste feminist, and all major anti-caste traditions (notably, Ambedkar, Phule, and Periyar) identified endogamy as being at the center of the caste system. Unless a story challenges caste and casteist divisions in a substantive manner, you can understand why this trope would rub me the wrong way.
What are some tropes you want to write in the future?
Ooh, this is a great question. Let’s see, my first one was a second chance romance. The upcoming book is an insta-lust, opposites attract, the third is slow burn forbidden romance in its most loose sense. My current WIP is strangers to friends to lovers. I also have ideas for workplace antagonists to lovers, one-sided love that is later requited, grumpy x sunshine, a why choose, and a dark romance that I want to eventually write.
What are some topics (sensitive and otherwise) that you think should exist more in romance?
As a student of anti-caste and anti-racist feminism, I want to see more issues of social inequalities and justice woven into romance. We do have many authors doing it already, but I want to see more, and not just the sugar coated versions. Of course, romance, and I am speaking of contemporary romance here, has a certain tone and aesthetic, but there is so much we can do within these boundaries and I would love to see how we do it more widely.
In the context of Indian romance, I want to see more agency given to women. If we are creating fictional characters, we should strive to create better ones. I want to see healthier relationships between parents and children in South Asian romance. I want to see immigrant parents portrayed in their multidimensionality. I want to see their struggles and crisis of identity being captured as well. I have tried to flip the script in my second book and early reviews suggest it has been well received.
If you write open door romance, why did you choose that and what inspires your sex scenes?
I am a pro-sex feminist and one of my life’s goals is to extricate sex from shame and taboo and usher it into the realm of beauty and pleasure. I have never shied away from talking about sex and not writing open door was never an option I considered when I started writing.
It might sound cliche but my characters and their chemistry inspire the sex scenes in my books. I had trouble writing the very first sex scene in The Art of Taking Second Chances because Tara and Sameer had baggage. A lot of it. There was no way they would just go at it without rekindling the fire that they once had. The intellectual duel that takes place when they initiate intimacy for the first time after reconnecting is reminiscent of their explosive chemistry in the past. That was the thing that broke the barrier for me in their story.
There are two things that I really need in my sex scenes. Fire and fun, sometimes laughter. I can’t do low spice, although my fourth book will test my skill in that regard too. Oh, I love how my characters push me to learn and grow.
YOUR BOOKS
What inspired your published stories? How and when did you come up with these stories and plots?
The inspiration for most of my stories come from the world around me. I have a terribly vivid imagination and the moment I see people interacting around me, my brain draws up plots and storylines. (If I were doing a live interview, here’s where I would insert a light laugh). I distinctly remember in 2019, I was visiting India and had accompanied my mother to a bhajan (devotional singing) event. A young, newly married couple were given the honor of doing the aarti and the way they communicated with each other gave me an idea for a story about an arranged marriage. It had a slightly darker tone and had themes of sexual awakening and experimentation.
My debut was a mix of everything though. It wasn’t inspired by an event or a character, but of course, above every character, every event is a composite. The next few books spurred from the secondary characters I created in the series.
Can you briefly tell me about your books?
Since most of my books feature/will feature characters who are in their 30s and 40s, they invariably include real, intense emotions and real life problems.
In my first book, I have explored ideas of self-worth, self-sacrifice, and social justice among other things.
My second book talks about emotional abuse and colorism in India, along with issues of body shaming. I also touch upon difficult pregnancies.
The third one is a slow burn romance with billionaire characters, who are sensible, sensitive, and trying to come to terms with their pasts.
Do you already have a favorite character from the stories you’ve written?
I do, and I think most people who follow me on social media know who that is by now. Mihir Seth stole my heart in a way I had never expected. But truthfully, I love all my characters, even the secondary ones. I’m especially in awe of the mothers I create in my books. Whether it is Sameer’s Ma or Tara’s Aai, or Mihir’s Mom, they are stellar, strong women capable of holding the story in their own right.
If you were to cast your book for a movie/television show, who would you cast in the lead roles?
This is a very interesting question because I got phone calls from friends who were reading my book wondering who would make the best cast if my book became a movie. Frankly, the characters are so vivid in my mind, I’d dare not name an actor who could play them. Sendhil Ramamurthy does sound perfect for the role of Sujit, though, if he were above 6’ (lol).
How much of yourself do you put into these characters?
A tiny bit sometimes. Tara's quirk of drinking room temperature hot-beverages is actually mine. And so is Sona’s attention deficit personality. Her “tea, cardamom, no ginger” is definitely me. But they are distinct enough from me to not be me and I like it that way. Apart from these two, I don’t think I’ve put much of myself in any of them, unless you count living their lives on their own terms. That is totally me.
What is a story/stories that you really want to tell?
The story I really want to tell is the one I hope becomes my magnum opus even if I remain a nameless author. It’s the story of Anandibai Jaywant, a writer from Baroda, one of the pioneers to champion women’s issues in Indian fiction. She wrote in Marathi and Gujarati, but could read Hindi, Bengali, and English. Hers is a story I need to immortalize. I am slowly gearing up to it and will embark on that journey when I think I can do it justice. Oh, and she was my grandmother’s aunt 🙂
Is there one common element that readers can find in all your stories?
You won’t find a book from me that doesn’t have strong, life-sustaining friendships, and intergenerational strong bonds between women. The inspiration for intergenerational female friendships is actually inspired by my doctoral research where I conducted life history interviews with women in my hometown of Baroda. Another common theme is kindness. That is the cornerstone of all my work.
What’s next on the bookshelf for you? Anything you can tell us about a future project?
My current WIP, the fourth in the series I’m calling The Dallas Connection, is a slow burn and my first interracial romance. I am very excited about that one. Both the lead characters are real sweethearts.
When you write these stories, what are you hoping your readers will feel?
Happy and satisfied. That’s what I want my readers to feel-in more ways than one-when they finish reading my books. While they may feel unease or discomfort from the social issues touched upon in the books, eventually, I want them to feel joy. The kind of joy that one feels when one identifies deeply with the characters or the story. That is my ultimate hope.
AUTHOR’S CHOICE
Paperbacks, hardbacks, ebooks or audiobooks—Paperbacks, ebooks, audiobooks for accessibility
Contemporary, fantasy, historical or romantic suspense
Single or Dual POV
Standalones, series or standalones in a series
Open door, ajar door or closed door romances
Music or silence when writing—Brown noise
Plotter, pantser or plantser—I’m more of a story weaver. We have several patterns that we write down then weave it all together. “Story Weavers begin with subjects or concepts they are passionate about and let the structure suggest itself from the material. They see their players as people before they consider them as characters. Events are happenings before they are plot. Values precede theme and the story develops a world before it develops a genre.”
Water, tea, coffee or….wine?—Coffee, sometimes water.
Cold or warm weather—warm-ish
Write better in the morning, afternoon or night?—I am a night person but lately my body gives up earlier and earlier every night. Afternoon is the best time for me
Illustrated or photo cover?—I love both. I have illustrated covers for the first two books, but I’m not averse to a photo cover for future books.
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