Welcome to Aasiyah Qamar's guest blog

Welcome Ms. Aasiyah Qamar to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.


Hi everyone! It’s a pleasure and an honour to be here! I’ve read a lot of wonderful interviews on this blog and to be here today to be able to share more about my work with you all is definitely something I consider a privilege.


Did you always want to become a writer?


Curiously, yes! I’ve always loved imaging stories in my head, and when I discovered words and the beauty of language, thanks to my language teacher in primary school, I knew it was a medium I wanted to be better acquainted with and as such, I have pursued this love of words and writing for as long as I can remember. I did have a bout of temporary insanity, as I call it, when I veered into the corporate world. A stint that definitely didn’t last as my heart wasn’t in it and I simply knew I wasn’t made for this cut-throat and back-stabbing world. The dream of being a writer resurfaced after that stint and I haven’t looked back ever since.


What is the most, and the least interesting fact about writing?


The most interesting, I would have to say, is finding out about worlds and people, doing research for the books, placing them in context. It’s something that is really gripping. It’s like, even something like the contemporary world, which we think we know, still has so many aspects we have yet to uncover, and that to me is a challenge I welcome with open arms.

The least interesting... I don’t know really! Lol, I love writing, and I cannot find anything not interesting about it. It’s my passion and my drive, and I love everything about it. Okay, yes, edits would have to be the least interesting part.


How do you plan to celebrate your first release?


I celebrated my first with a big whoop of joy and then floating on a cloud for a good many days! It’s been the same for every sale. I may add a slice of sinful chocolate cake to the mix though! My idea of celebrating is eating out, so a good dinner too could fit in nicely!


How did you celebrate your first release? What was it like to see your book in a bookstore? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?


I displayed my first copy of the book very prominently on the book shelf in my living room! Stopped and stared every time I went by it, actually. My husband and I went out for dinner, without the kids, and that was really nice.

It was pretty much the same feeling the first time I saw the book in the store. My heart hammered and all I could hear was the pounding of blood in my head! I think I actually panicked, lol, before joy the likes that make you want to jump up and down like a mad creature settled in! But it was a big bookstore and I was right in front of the window that opened on one of the most crowded and busy streets of the capital city, so I had to tamp down that urge!

A special ritual? Not really. I will probably celebrate at home, and that most of the time involves me in my favourite sofa with some delicious chocolate cake! I will also alert the world that the book is out, so you’ll see me shouting on all my loops and platforms. I also take the time to stop and breathe too, to bring my world into focus again coz the excitement of a release really turns me upside down.


How did your family react to fact that you write romance novels? Have your family read your book?


My kids are still too young to realise what romance is, so there’s some explaining to do there in the future. My husband is the one who pushed me to write, even when I told him that I’d be delving into relationship and *gasp* romance stuff. He just laughed and said, “As long as it’s got some depth and is not just fluff, go for it!” So on that front, I do get a lot of support from the people in my household. My parents and in-laws too found out I write romance but only after my first book came out. They’ve taken to it really well though, even if I’ve been a bit ‘shy’ about the fact that there’s intimacy and sex in my books. They’ve all read the book, yes, and I’ve received positive feedback, so I guess they liked it!


Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?


I am a die-hard reader! I cannot conceive of life without any reading in it. I’ve always been with a book around – I read everywhere when I was younger. In school, sometimes even in class with the teacher droning about an economics lecture, I’d have a book under the table; on the bus to school, at home, in bed when I should be sleeping. My mom even swears you’d find me reading a book at wedding receptions and other such social functions if she hadn’t snatched the ‘darn’ thing from my hands back then!

Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley series were my faves when I was growing up, and Austen is still an author whose works I read over and over. The Bronte sisters too are among that lot with Austen. More contemporary authors I appreciate are Philippa Gregory, Marian Keyes, Sidney Sheldon, Jill Mansell, Sophie Kinsella, Martina Cole. I just recently discovered the works of Barbara Erskine and Judith McNaught, both of whom have become strong favorites too for their skilful and deep storytelling.

The biggest influence, I would have to say, would be Jane Austen. I love how she wove stories around her world and particular era, her ‘culture’ in a way. Hers was a universe that was totally out-of-this-world in the sense that her depictions and descriptions transcended the context of her age. Even today, we pick up her books and can see, feel, grasp that world almost as if we were there and not in the 21st century. I wanted that sort of feel to my books, to take the reader into ‘my’ world and show them what it’s like in ‘my’ world.


Do you feel each of your characters live with you as you write? Do their lives sometimes take over a part of your life? Can you name an example? Do you have living role models for your characters?


My characters are definitely alive and constantly by my side when I’m writing or conceptualising a story. They are like shadows and spirits that hover around me. I always imagine them as those images from Greek and Roman mythology – where you see ‘people’ in the form of wisps of smoke or air that flit and fly around a real person. That’s how I imagine my characters around me all the time.

Sometimes, yes, they do take over. Sometimes they forcefully push their lives across, as if to say, I’m bombarding you so you’ll have no other way to escape than by writing it all down, then I’ll leave you alone, for the time being. This happened to me in the last story I wrote, which was a suspense story. The heroine has amnesia in there, and this created a strange bond between us, as if she would say, “I just uncovered a memory, put it down for me so I can go forward and uncover more of my past.” It was a challenge to write this story because the characters screamed and yelled so much I had no other option but to write and write and write. It was hard to find the balance with my ‘real’ life when all I felt compelled to do was to write this story.

Living role models? Not exactly. I have used some people I know to pen some characters. I took an aspect about those real, live people and integrated this in the depiction of a character. The overbearing mother in my stories is a mixture of my overbearing old aunts and a part of my own mother woven into one.


Where do you get the inspirations for your books?


I write about modern women who have some sort of connection/lineage to India’s culture. This gives me a very wide platform to find issues and ideas. Pairing this traditionalist aspect of culture with our modern, no-limits world adds another dimension to the ideas’ pool.

I identify a lot with my heroines, because we come from the same world, grew up in the same kind of set-up with double standards (what’s okay for ‘others’ is not okay in your culture. Culture has a whole set of rules and regulations and unspoken directives pertaining to just about anything really!). I too was exposed to globalization and a sky-is-the-limit mindset while on the other hand tradition still bound our feet and tied our hands at certain definite times in our lives. Women of Indian origin/descent/culture evolve on the wall in a way, with one foot hovering to one side at one point and to the other at another time. We never really find our footing, and if we do, it is certainly not easy. I think most women who come from traditionalist cultures, not just the Indians, face this plight in a world where barriers and frontiers are melting terribly fast and where culture stamps its foot down to try and retain some grip to its roots.


Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes?


Not really. Love scenes to me are the expression of the feelings and emotions that exists between the hero and heroine of the story at a particular point in their lives and their couple. If I have a good grasp on the characters, then it is not difficult. It just prolongs the emotional journey of their love story for me. If I don’t have this connection to them however, I may find it difficult because a love scene is and will be different for every couple and even at different points in their lives. I don’t want my love scenes to be generic encounters. I want them to be unique, because the couple is unique and their lovemaking too has to have this dimension.


Do you have a problem with deadlines and have you ever suffered a writers block?


I actually thrive on deadlines! I need to have my workload and schedule clearly delineated and deadlines allow me to do this. My biggest issue then with a deadline will be how to balance it all with life as a mom, wife, homemaker, student. Fitting it all and juggling the different hats is my biggest challenge. But on the whole, deadlines energize me, because otherwise I’d be a really big procrastinator!

Writers’ block? Not exactly. I plan my work a lot, so writing for me is not waiting for the muse to come. I just sit down and write based on my preliminary outline and set-up. I have however felt writer burnout, which is basically not being able to string a sentence together because your writer’s brain is over-taxed and has written too much too fast. I then take a break and work on other writing-related stuff, such as a book trailer maybe, something creative but which doesn’t use my imagination the same was as writing does because then I know I’d hit a brick wall.


Do you prefer stand-alone books or series (As a reader or a writer)?


I much prefer stand-alones. For me, a book has to end at its ending. I do not mind that there may be books about the same family or same group of people (my own series is like this), but the story of the main protagonists has to end in the same book for me. The next may follow their story but the first one has to have a conclusion for me. I really cannot read books that start at Book 1 and the story ends somewhere at Book 5 or 7. It’s not easy getting hold of books here (in Mauritius) so that may be why I prefer to steer clear of series as reading them would imply having all the books available and then too, that you need to read them in sequence.


If you could change places with one character from your book, who would it be and why?


I may trade places with Diya, the heroine of Light My World. She lives in a trendy area near the beach, drives a terrific-looking SUV, and fears nothing and no one. She lives her life on her own terms, never hesitates to speak her mind, and has a great job as an interior designer who specializes in restoration of old Colonial houses on the island.

I’d like to experience this life, feel this carefree and have such a devil-may-care outlook. It would definitely feel liberating! And Diya lands a definite hunk, a man who not only looks great but also hides a truly wonderful being with a pure heart and soul underneath. Diya is the hope that love comes to all, and that you never need to compromise on your ideals and values to find the truest love possible. This would be good to experience (even if I have found a good many of these aspects, the SUV and luxury flat by the beach would tip the scale, lol!)


What is your favorite book from the books that you have written so far? Who are your favorite hero and heroine, and why?


I have 2 books out now, 1 in print (The Other Side) and the other in e-print so far (Light My World). I’m waiting for this one to sell its 50 e-copies (as per Eirelander Publishing’s Green mission) to go into print.

Of the two, though I cherish them both dearly, The Other Side holds a special place in my heart. It is the first ms I ever penned, the first full story I fleshed, the first characters I got to know and whose story I wrote. In a way, Lara and Eric, the couple featured in the book, became, to me, the embodiment of love and what a strong couple should stand for and mean. All the other couples I bring together add to this dimension, but Lara and Eric showed me the foundations of love and what makes a strong relationship. Theirs was complex web of trust and believing in yourself, of finding your true place in life. They seemed to me like two people who just had to be together, without a hint of a doubt.


Would you like to give another genre a try?


Under a different pen name, I have tried another genre – suspense and mystery, away from the rather light and comedic contemporaries I have written so far. I enjoyed the experience, and so I think I will probably spread my wings and touch upon other genres too in the future. One that really intrigues me is YA, but I’m also scared of it because the world of young adults is one that brims with dynamism and that is constantly evolving. Getting the pulse of this world and keeping it sound like a tremendous challenge, one I’d like to try to tackle one day.


Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?


The hardest, I would have to say, is the one I am currently penning, which is the story of the middle sister in the Hemant family (The Other Side was about the eldest, Lara, and Light My World is about Diya, the youngest). This one is about Neha, and it features her complex, intense to the point of boiling, relationship with a man who is everything she’s always steered clear of in her life. This intensity between them is terribly challenging and draining too, because both are strong, wilful characters and none will ever step down. So they’re always clashing, while passion is building just as steadily between them but is being denied with every ounce of emotion they have.

The easiest, lol, would have to be Light My World. Diya reminds me a lot of me when I was single too, and her journey in meeting this wrong Mr. Right who also comes with kids from a previous marriage is very close to my own relationship with the man I have married. It was a light, funny story with a quirky twist at every turn, and that was such a joy to write the book just seemed to fly by when I was penning it down.


If you could choose of your books for a movie, which one would it be and who would you as the cast?


Without a doubt, it would be Light My World. I love the funny aspect of this story, this quest to find Mr. Right in today’s world and then finding out that Fate deals a strange mix of cards, one you probably never asked for but now, saddled with this hand, you have to make the most of it.

In Hollywood, since Diya is of Indian origin, I had a hard time trying to come up with someone who would fit her description as she’s this tiny, delicate-looking thing who packs the fire and punch of a dragon inside her though. Then I caught a movie where Selma Blair was cast, and I was like, yes, this could be Diya!

For the part of Trent, the hero, I definitely can see a hunk the likes of Hugh Jackman in the part! The man is gorgeous physically and he can portray an ironic man really nicely (think of him in Kate & Leopold). Not to mention that he also does a divine British accent! He’d be perfect as this really forlorn and ironic single father of two hellions who is looking for some peace and definitely doesn’t have love in the form of a spitfire in his plans.


If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?


I have always felt a fascination for the era of the forties and fifties. Loved the fashion, the glamour, and the fact that it was a time when society was changing (post WWII) and the position of women was evolving too, though there was still tons to do in that regard. And lol, the men were definitely hunky in their three-piece suits and hats! The period combines a sort of Old World charm with modernity to me, and I’d have loved to experience this age where everything was changing by the minute, where a whole world was being rebuilt.


Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?


I don’t listen to music when writing. I reckon that even if something were playing, I’d gloss over it because I simply get enclosed in a bubble where all my senses seem to shut off when I’m putting a story down. I literally go into the world I’ve created and life as I know it melts into oblivion.

I do use music as the soundtrack for my books, to get a better feel of the character and the emotional drive and arc. For example, for Light My World, I used the song “If you’re not the one” by Daniel Bedingfield. The lyrics were all about this struggle of finding your other half but questioning it every step of the way, which is the case for both Diya and Trent in the book. My first book, The Other Side, was about star-crossed lovers and their song was “If there’s any justice in the world” by Lemar.


Big congrats to your latest release, can you please tell us something about the book?


Thanks! Of course I can tell you more! Light My World is a contemporary, multicultural romance that has slants of romantic comedy in it. It features the story of Diya, a trendy, up-and-coming interior designer of Indian origin who is out to conquer the world on her own terms. She’s got the career side all handled and now embarks on the other, big aspect of her quest – finding Mr. Right. But Diya is well-prepared and armed with a list of attributes this Mr. Right needs to have, and anyone who doesn’t meet this criteria gets the write-off right away. What happens then when Fate throws a man who is totally Mr. Wrong by Diya’s definition onto her path? Trent Garrison is a retired British pilot who has come to Mauritius to seek a quiet life in which to bring up his two young sons. For him too, Fate has other plans, because he doesn’t want love and marriage and commitment. His goal is to bring up his kids, full stop. On this backdrop of Diya and Trent being absolutely wrong for each other, according to them, life shows them that sometimes, you cannot, and shouldn’t, dodge the curve that it sends you.


Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?


Of course! I am penning Book 3 of my Hemant sister series, the story of Neha. Her story is more complicated for me to write because I haven’t grasped the complexity that is Neha yet and as such, I find myself sometimes in dead ends because I don’t know yet how she’d act or react. I am giving myself a few more weeks to better know her and then I’ll put fingers to keyboard and write her story. Basically, what I know of it is that she’s achieved all a proper Indian woman should achieve – married at a young age, had children right away, is a perfect domestic goddess, the perfect wife and mother, that kind of thing. But then things change when she loses her husband. Her world spins on its axes, and when destiny throws her onto the path of a hardened and street-smart-to-the-point-of-brutal man, she has no idea what to do because aspects of her she had repressed and buried come to the surface and mar this persona she has tried so hard to build. This man too, Logan, is one who plays by his own street-legal rules. He is a conqueror by nature, a winner who takes all without qualms or pity, and when he decides he wants Neha, nothing will stand in his way, and certainly not this woman who doesn’t know that a fiery, passionate spirit smolders deep inside her.


I want to say thanks again for having me here today! I have definitely enjoyed answering these questions, and I hope the readers here got a chance to find out a bit about my writings.