Author Venita Coelho demystifies her latest young adult book ALL OF ME(Harper Collins)

Award winning author,director and artist Venita Coelho is out with a new book for young adults.  Scroll down to find out more.              

                                                  

1. A child with multiple personalities is a rare and challenging subject. What inspired the main character?

    I had an image in my mind that haunted me for a long time. An image of a child alone and locked in the dark. Scared. Lonely. And in my imagination I began to give him companions because I couldn’t bear for him to be alone. Sitting at a notebook one day I suddenly thought ‘Of course. They are his multiple personalities!’  Then of course the idea excited me so much I decided to send them on an adventure together. I let Castor out of the basement he had been locked into and sent him and the Family off to discover what had led him to being locked in the dark in the first place. And out of the darkness, their quest led them to the most dazzling mountain of light – nothing less than the Koh-i-noor diamond. I just followed.

2.How long did you take to write the book?

A LONG time. I couldn’t make it work in the first draft. It came out just too dark and that never works for kids. I had to take a break of a year or two before I could go back and begin to understand how I could take the pitch. This one has taken about 4 years to write. But then I am always writing multiple books at one time so it’s one of the many books I worked on across those years. But yes- phew! This one took it’s time.

3.Who is your favourite character from the book? Why?

Castor has several multiple personalities he calls The Family. There is Mr Pickwick, the very preachy father figure who quotes copiously from the Bible. There is Miss Trent the Governess who has a phobia about germs and insists The Family keep washing. There is Skinner the street urchin with a love for stealing things. And lastly there is my favorite - the Infant Prodigy who has an answer for everything. What I would give to be an Infant Prodigy! I love that with all those brains, he is still an innocent child and one much given to sulking.  Together they work as a detective team.

4. How much of creative liberty did you take while writing about Maharaja Duleep Singh’s life in London?

Huge amounts! I wove him around two things. The research that I did, and the great sympathy that grew in my heart for a boy, separated forcibly from his mother, carted off to a strange land, paraded and gawked at. And finally – forced to hand over the one symbol of his own and his people’s identity. The research showed that he did actually hand over the diamond, and in later years called Queen Victoria ‘Mrs. Fagin’ for stealing it. The sympathy added a boy, lost and yearning for the land that he was born in and taken from.

5.Goa has limited public libraries. Was it easy to research the book’s timeline living in Goa? How much did you rely on online resources?

Ah the joys of the internet! What would we do without it? I have not stepped into a library for a long time – even though Goa boasts one of the most beautiful public libraries in India. All my research was done online. When I found a book promising, I ordered it on Amazon. If only William Shakespeare was alive today. Can you imagine his output given all the resources that writers now have on their fingertips? On the other hand, he might just have spent all his time binge watching on Netflix. Ah the pitfalls of the internet!

6. What made you choose Maharaja Dileep Singh visit to London as a subject for your book? What triggered the idea for this book?

That is a historical fact. I was first attracted to his nickname – ‘The Black Prince’. It made me go in search of his life. And what a life! Every book of mine has an India connection. And I was determined that The Black Prince would be the connection in this book.

7. Having won a couple of big awards for your books in the recent past, are you stressed while creating new content for kids?

Not at all. While writing for kids I sit at the computer chuckling to myself as I put in silly jokes. It’s a bit like giving yourself your childhood back as you write the stuff you know would have delighted an eleven-year-old you. And awards are all hit and miss. Win some, lose some. So it would be foolish to sit down to write with that devil on your shoulder.

8.   You have been churning books for Young adults consistently. What goads you to write regularly?

Television. I spent my early years writing daily soaps for television. You have to churn out an episode a day. It’s like running in front of a train. But it does teach you that there’s no such thing as writers block. If you have to write – you do! And so I do. Every day. Consistently. You’ll be amazed how much you can do if only you put in a couple of hours every single day. I just follow Ernest Hemmingway’s advice to writers – ‘Get your butt on the chair’.

9. How was your experience of working with  Tina Narang( editor, Harper Collins India)?

I owed Tina a book. She had commissioned Boy No.32 at Scholastic before she left. That book went on to win The Hindu Young World/ Good Books award for Best Children’s Fiction this year. Without Tina, it wouldn’t have happened, so I was quite determined that the next book would be for her. She is a careful, gentle nurturer of books and authors. Accepting feedback from her is always easy because she sees to the heart of what you are trying to do even if  what is on the page doesn’t match it as yet. But I must say I have been very lucky with my editors. I have had an absolute string of great people who have made my books more than they set out to be.

10.  How does your new school (The Path Shaala) in Goa fit into the larger scheme of your life and writing? Do you plan to introduce writing as a subject? What made you start the school?

Fed up of the formal schooling system, I pulled my daughter out of school and began homeschooling her. I just couldn’t find any learning centre that combined the best of the homeschooling ethos and yet gave the children some amount of academic rigour. So finally I did what all my fellow homeschooling mums were urging me to do and started my own. The Path Shaala brings fun and engagement to learning, but the children do prepare for IGCSE exams. And yes – the English teacher is a certain Indian writer of children’s fiction! Starting a school was never in my larger scheme of life and writing. But one tries to do the best by ones children. And this was the best that I could do.

Venita's All Of Me released yesterday. To buy a copy of the book, click here.

(PS:  I am an  affiliate of Amazon. When you buy the book through the above hyperlink, I will receive a small percentage of sales which helps me run Kahani Takbak, a platform to promote Indian books, author and illustrators.)