Author of the Month - Laxmi Hariharan Sunday Feature: If I am Ruby + Giveaway
"Author of the Month" is a new feature that I have recently created to honour my favourite authors who have written some of the best books I have ever read.
This feature will:
- Run for the entire month.
- On every Sunday of the month (excluding the first week where I will have a blog post introducing and interviewing the author), there will be a blog post dedicated to the author. The content of the blog post is entirely up to the author's choice.
For the entire month of February, I am proud to feature Laxmi Hariharan, author of the best-selling The Destiny of Shaitan (Bombay Chronicles #1) as Dreamland Teenage Fantasy's author of the month! Laxmi has been a wonderful and humble person to talk with and I am honoured to have the chance to interview her personally besides reading and reviewing her book - Many Lives of Ruby Iyer (review attached below).
Without further ado,
A near life experience told Laxmi Hariharan to write. She never stopped. Laxmi is the creator of Ruby Iyer, and the Amazon bestselling, eLit Gold winner The Destiny of Shaitan (Bombay Chronicles, 1). She has been a journalist with the Independent, and a global marketer with NBCU and MTV. Laxmi also blogs for Huffington Post, among others. London is where she writes. Bombay is what fires her imagination.
Reach her @laxmi | Facebook | blog
Reach her @laxmi | Facebook | blog
The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer is published by Amazon White Glove, through Jacaranda Literary Agency, and paperback is distributed in India through Read Out Loud.
For this week's Sunday feature post, Laxmi has came up with a rather interesting question for me to answer (not to mention a challenging one), but it was fun regardless because I get to temporarily live a double life and put myself in Ruby's shoes for one day.
Honestly, Ruby is a kickass character that is unique in her own way, I don't think I have the capabilities of ever being her, because for one thing, I can never ever jump off a bridge!
What are the 5 things that I would do if I could be Ruby for one day?
1. Play dress up with Panky - Spending time with my besties is a form of release from a day full of hard work and stress, I love Panky despite all of his fetishes towards fashion and would kill to just spend time with him despite painfully enduring through his endless tirade of fashion advises on what to and what not to wear. It could be fun wouldn't it? :p
2. Be a superhero for a day - with my new-found courage and powers after the incident, I wanted to experience an entire episode of superheroes moments by dressing in my most comfortable PJ's and my favourite worn out converse shoes, going around Bombay saving lives and respond to distress calls. Who knows I may have finally found my true calling :p
3. Have an actual date with Vikram - with all the havoc going on in Ruby's and Vikram's lives, sometimes a bit of normalcy is necessary. What I wouldn't want more than a romantic dinner date with a handsome man who loves me unconditionally? I'd love to spend a night just cuddling in each other's arms watching a good old action flick.
4. Build an army against Dr B. (I like to call her that) - if Dr B. can build an army full of young minds to take over Bombay, I would personally lead an army full of adults to stop her reign. Ruby is just the type of character that I believe possesses such courage and leadership to lead a huge crowd, an older crowd to be more exact! She is the epitome of a strong warrior and I would side with her on any day!
5. Go in search for my father - as much as Ruby's dad is nonexistent in her life, I would want to learn more about him to put a closure to my past.
BAM-BAM-BAM, my heart slams against my rib cage. The blood
drains from my head, leaving me paralysed with panic. A scream
of fear is torn from my lips. Pushing myself forward, feet anchored
around the small platform, I reach out, leaning forward as much I
can. I manage to wrap my fingers around his ankle.
Tuning out the collective gasp from the audience below, I hold
onto Amit, my feet coiled around the steel ropes. Clasping them with
the muscles of my toes, I pay no heed to the searing pain that cuts
through my side, instead willing myself to stretch to my full height,
my muscles shattering in protest.
“Hang on!” I yell, as much for my own benefit as his, trying to
hold onto him even as drops of sweat pooling at the base of my back
slide forward like an upside down waterfall, before being absorbed
by my scalp. Amit’s spectacles slip off and fall towards the crowd
below. They part, allowing the glasses to smash on the concrete,
before proceeding to gaze at them in fascination. The crowd below
takes a deep inward breath—it’s as if they are not disparate souls
anymore, but one joined-up, scared entity. They look up at me,
some of them raising their hands as if trying to reach out to us. Their
shock vibrates up to me. I sway, almost losing my footing, to another
collective gasp from the audience below.
Someone screams. Is it the girl I met earlier, or myself, or perhaps
it is Amit? I cannot tell, focused as I am on just keeping my hold on him. For a few seconds, I swing there, his one leg grasped between
both my hands.
“There is little difference between promises … memories.”
Snatches of words from his muttering reach me over the air-currents.
“WHAT …?” I yell to make myself heard above the rising wind.
“What are you SAYING?” I scream in blind panic, feeling the material
of his jeans burn through my fingers as he slides down a few
inches further.
He raises his voice now, to match my octave.
“Promises ... We
break THEM!” The hysteria in his voice rises to fever pitch as he
screeches,
“MEMORIES … THEY BREAK US!”
He plummets down. I follow him in horrific fascination as his body bounces once, unerringly hitting the parapet of the safety wall
on the side of the bridge before arcing off, somersaulting once, twice,
then, as if in graceful dance, diving headfirst into the Arabian Sea,
cutting the surface of the waves with very little fuss.
No way! So now, I have to dive in? Down far below into those
waves, after him?
My lightning tree, of course, is all excited, all lit up now. Many
tiny lights quiver up the stem of the tree, setting the branches on
fire. For the first time since the incident, the entire tree is aflame.
The pressure building inside me shoots through. I have no option.
I jump.
To show her support for the feature, Laxmi has agreed to giveaway 3 ebook copies of The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer to 3 lucky winners! Thank you for the generosity and humbleness!
Dare to take on the challenge?
a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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