Neelam Saxena Chandra's Interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - NEELAM SAXENA 

1. Please tell me something about yourself.

I work as Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Pune. I am an Engineering graduate from VNIT and have done my Post Graduation Diploma in IM&HRD and also in Finance. I have completed a summer course in Finance from London School of Economics. I have authored 4 novels, 1 novella and 7 short story collections, 31 poetry collections and 13 children’s books. I am a bilingual writer; writing in English and Hindi. I hold a record with the Limca Book of Records -2015 for being the Author having the highest number of publications in a year in English and Hindi. I have won II prize in a poetry contest organized by American Embassy and in a National poetry contest organized by Poetry Council of India, 2016. I have received Sohanlal Dwivedi Puraskar for children’s literature by Maharashtra state Hindi Sahitya Akademi for the year 2018, Humanity International Women Achiever Awards 2018, Bharat Nirman Literary award in 2017, Premchand award by Ministry of Railways, Rabindranath Tagore International Poetry award, Soninder Samman, Freedom award by Radio city for Lyrics along with other awards and honors. I was listed in Forbes as one among 78  most popular authors in the country in 2014.

wikipedia

2. When did you publish your first book, please share your experience of the first time published author?

Well, I didn’t jump straight away to a book. I began my writing journey with children’s stories and they were published in reputed magazines such as Champak, Chandamama, Nandan, Balbharti etc. Afterwards, I wrote quite a few stories for Woman’s Era, and other international as well as National anthologies/magazines/journals. After a lot of my stories/poems were already published, I thought of having my own book. My first book was a short story collection for children titled “Five Stories” or पांच कहानियां published in English as well as Hindi. The publisher was good and I was fairly happy, as the book did well. My second illustrated book for children was published by “Room to Read” and its title is चन्दा. The first edition itself had 7500 copies published. My first novel is “Soul Seekers” which did pretty well again. Overall, it has been a very pleasant experience and I am quite satisfied.

3. What motivates you to write?

Writing is my passion. I feel that I have a lot to say and I think that weaving a story around it is the best way to present it. You can say that there is a stream of emotions inside me, waiting to burst out after every few days which drives me to write.

4. You have written around 60 books, among those which one is very special to you?

I have written 57 books till now. Each one of the books is very dear to me, for they are after all my creations. However, at present, my favorite is my short story collection “Lines of Fate – First Love & Other Stories” which is doing very well in the market.

5. What difficulties you had faced for publishing your books?

I didn’t face much difficulties as I hear others facing. Maybe, I had prepared myself well enough to publish my own book after having established myself with so many of my stories/poems already been published in reputed magazines/journals/newspapers and having received quite a few awards before launching my own books. I already had a name.

6.  Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Oh yes. That’s my specialty. (To be original) I never try to follow anyone. I read all writers, but I write only when I feel that I have something different to say. I am not so much driven by what readers want…and despite writing in a manner which pleases me and on topics that I love, I have good number of followers. My Facebook page has more than 20,000 followers and I am so proud to be associated with them. 

All those who wish to join me in my journey can like/follow my page

7. Whom would you like to give credits of what you are today?

Divine energy and my experiences with life made me what I am today.

8. Please tell me something about your latest book 'Lines of Fate'.

“Lines of Fate” is an interesting collection of sixteen stories, each based in different surroundings and in different tone. It has remained at No 1 in “Hot New Releases” on Amazon since a week ever since it was released and that is what thrills me.
Often a simple encounter on the path of life can change one's entire future. “Lines of Fate” is a collection of such selected, distinctive and unique tales from different walks of life. I have come up with this unique collection of short stories to entertain the readers. When a dice is rolled, one does not know what the outcome will be. Similarly, in an encounter between people, the aftermath is simply indefinite and unidentifiable. Maybe, the lines of fate decide the final outcome. Twists and turns are a part and parcel of each of these stories, written in simple, easy-to-read and lucid language.

9. What are the duties of an Author towards society?

An author is one of the most responsible persons who has tremendous duties towards society. Some of them depict the reality, letting the readers know the bare truth. Some of them write stories which can be termed as tragedies, basically to make the society understand the difficulties. Writers like me are very optimistic and believe that there’s going to be positivism around despite all difficulties.
Whatever way the writer writes in, he is playing his role as a builder of the base of society. Yes, some authors do write cheap things to gain popularity, but I haven’t seen them surviving for long.

10. What message would you like to give to budding writers?

The budding writers have to understand that they have to read a lot to be able to write well. Also, they have to have either a good experience, excellent knowledge on the subject of their choice or a wonderful imagination. They have to write convincingly; their language should be lucid and they have to feel what they write. Lack of any of the three becomes evident in their writings and the reader is sharp enough to find those faults.

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