In conversation with Shilpa Suraj

About the Book:

An ace vintage car restorer and a pharmaceutical tycoon, Maxine and Krish have dramatically different lives and nothing in common. A chance encounter puts their lives on a collision course and a stubborn and steady attraction begins to bloom. Wanting each other is easy, it's happy ever after that's the problem...

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About the Author:

Shilpa was a year and a half when she was first introduced to the world of books. Her mother would park her with a picture book on the floor of the kitchen while she finished her cooking for the day. While it’s no longer the kitchen floor, you can still find her tucked away in a cosy nook somewhere with her nose buried in a book. While books in all genres interest her, it was romance that captured her heart. 

While racing through every romantic fiction book she could beg, borrow or buy, her over active imagination started to work overtime and weave its own stories. Years in the corporate world followed by a stint of entrepreneurship crystallised her belief that all she really wanted to do was give life to the stories bubbling inside of her. She briefly managed to tear herself away from the world of fiction to find her own personal happily ever after and now spends her time happily focusing on the two loves of her life – family and writing romances.

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Author Interview

• What inspired you to write the book?

I love telling stories. I barely finish one and the next is already swirling in my head. Max, the heroine of Driven by Desire, was someone I wanted to write for the longest time. A vintage car restorer, unabashed lover of life and filled with an unbridled optimism, Max is someone I would love to be. Unfortunately, I’m more like Krish, the hero…Over worked, stressed out and harried with the multiple demands on his time and life.

• When did you realise that you want to write a book?

I always wanted to tell the stories floating around in my head. That they would manifest as books was not a concrete plan until I took a sabbatical from work to spend some time with my then new husband. He was on a work related program in Chennai and I tagged along thinking we’d spend quality time together. Unfortunately, he was super busy, I was super bored and out of that super strange situation The Girl He Left Behind, my debut book, was born.

• Who helped you in writing the book and please say about their contributions?

My family for loving me enough to think I was capable of anything including writing a book. My author friends for their invaluable critique on both past and present work and of course, my baby girl, who fills my life with so much love, joy and promise that I can’t help but share it with the world.

• How is your book going to inspire the readers?

More than inspire, I really hope my book entertains readers. Having said that, I would love it if Driven by Desire leaves readers with the message that stereotypes, whether gender or age or anything else, don’t matter. It’s important to look past the surface and see what truly makes a person who they are.

• If you are given the chance to change one thing in your book what would it be?

I truly wouldn’t change anything. Krish and Max’s story is complete and out there for everyone to read and enjoy. Once it’s released, I wouldn’t want to change anything.

• How do you find time to write and which part of the day is best for writing for you?

I usually write in the middle of the night but that’s more out of necessity than choice. With an active toddler and a full time job, that’s the only time when peace and quiet reign in my house.

• Which books have inspired you the most, in the journey of writing this book?

No specific book has inspired me in the journey of writing this book but I’m a voracious reader and there are some truly amazing books that have inspired me to write better stories of my own. One of my all time favourite books is The Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh. Someday, I hope I write a hero as amazing as Kaleb Krychek and a story worthy of him.

• What is the best advice, you would give for writers who are trying to write a book?

Tell the story you want to tell. Don’t try to fit it to market or what you think is selling in the current scenario. What works for one author will not necessarily work for another.

• What are your hobbies?

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a voracious reader. Not a day goes by without me sitting down with a book. Even if it’s just a chapter, a page or even just a paragraph, I have to read before I consider my day complete.

• What can we expect from you in the future?

I have a book in the genre of contemporary women’s fiction releasing with Rupa Publications next year. It’s a story of three people caught in a tangled web of love, family, marriage and each other and their dark, desperate journey of redemption. Adultery, bankruptcy and perfidy bring the three of them to a crossroads in life where there is no right choice. Only the wrong one. But mostly, it’s a story of their quest to gain acceptance through love. The only choice left to us all.