Welcome back!

Here is when I usually announce that the weekend will be an author free-for-all and you as the reader get some interesting additional tidbits about the author,  her views on writing and an excerpt from the work.

But, as with the rest of the world, things are changing here at Sable Lit Reviews too!

This will be the final post for our wonderful interview session with Shobhan Bantwal live on the blog, but be sure to read the entire post to find out how you can still get the additional info and excerpts you’re use to. 

SLR:  Shobhan, I can believe this is the last day. I could talk endlessly about the many themes within your novel Forbidden Daughter. And we will get into more of the finer details later! (wink, wink!!) But tell my blog audience, why did you want to tell this story, (FORBIDDEN)?

SB: Writing fiction was a great way to bring awareness to a social problem that plagues India’s women and girl children. I get a lot of feedback from readers thanking me for opening their eyes to issues in India and South Asia that they were not aware of. Weaving a social-political topic into a fictionalized book is a fun way to get on one’s soapbox without sermonizing as such.

And there it is, a great and interesting look not only into Shobhan Bantwal and her works, but also the women of Indian culture and society. I hope you have found the spotlight to be entertaining as well as informative. Don’t forget Shobhan’s newsletter and guess book or her Spice Corner.

OK, as I alluded to earlier, Sable Lit Reviews is starting a newsletter. Its first edition is due out around mid to late March and Shobhan has agreed to answer additional questions about the themes and characters of her book Forbidden Daughter exclusively to the subscribers of my newsletter. Now, don’t fret!! The newsletter is free to join. Its just one more outlet from which you, the readers, can get more of what you’d like to read about and more in a variety of media formats. Plus the newsletter allows me to better manage the content I provide on the blog. 

As you’ll see when you sign up using the box at the top write marked, “Join Our Mailing List” I will never share your email addresses. While the newsletter may contain references to books and multicultural writing materials that are available for purchase,  you will never receive direct marketing paraphanalia of any kind.

So join the blog or join the newsletter for more interesting insights in to this multicultural world in which we live. Heck, why not join both and be fully informed!

I am learning such great things about the culture and your work, Shobhan. Thank you so much.

But, I  know my readers want more and so do I. So, let’s just get right to it:

Shobhan, in my own writing, I am learning that no book, no matter how well we know it’s content, is “an easy write”.

SLR: What was your biggest challenge in writing FORBIDDEN, and why?

SB: My biggest challenge was the research involved in writing about a subject that has a vast amount of material on the Internet and in magazines, but none of the statistics are reliable. Since gender-based abortions are conducted in massive numbers according to most sources, but almost always covertly, and cases are hushed up and rarely documented, the data is unreliable and conjecture at best. I had to decide how to use the dry information to my advantage and present it to my readers in an interesting tale.

SLR: Well, you definitely succeeded. I am one reader who couldn’t stop thinking about your book long after I finished it. If there was anything easy about writing FORBIDDEN, what was it?

SB: The characters were the most interesting as well as the simplest for me to develop, since I had the storyline worked out well before I started writing the book. I had a certain picture in mind for the protagonist and the hero as well as the secondary characters. It was a matter of making them do and say the right things at the right time.

SLR: Thank you so much, Shobhan, for your thoughtful comments and sharing your time here with us at Sable lit reviews. You’ve helped us shed light not only on the enrichment of your stories but on some very important topics for women everywhere. But I can’t let you go without one more question…

Come back tomorrow to find out what else I wanted to know from Shobhan Bantwal and her writing here at Sable Lit Reviews.

Now we’re getting to the best part, Shobhan! Your work!

SLR: You make the weaving of Indian culture in FORBIDDEN appear effortless. Is it difficult deciding what to include and what to leave out regarding such a complex and rich culture?

SB: The old gem of wisdom, “write what you know” is what I have employed in my writing. After being raised in a conservative Hindu family in India, incorporating cultural elements into my stories comes naturally. I simply set up my characters in their natural milieu and weave my stories around their lives. By its very nature, a culture of arranged marriages, dowries, and unique women’s issues intrigues American readers. The difficult part sometimes is deciding how much explaining and translating I should do when I introduce Indian terms and customs.

SLR: And I loved reading the terms and learning more about Indian culture not just from behavior and activities of the characters but the food and the references you made as well.

Readers, if you’d like to get a “taste” of Shobhan’s culture before you buy her book (of course) jet over to Shobhan’s Spice Corner, for info and recipes to tantalize your senses and your taste buds!

Once you get your fill, head on back here tomorrow when Shobhan discusses the uphill climbs and the fun slope rides of writing Forbidden Daughter.

If you haven’t already done so, this might be an excellent time to join the Sable Lit Reviews blog feed, so you don’t miss a day of our interview with Shobhan Bantwal or any of the other multicultural authors we feature. It’s simple just enter your email address in the “Posts Via Email” box located near the top right side of this page. Hit subscribe and follow the directions to send this great content to your favorite blog post archive system or your email in-box! Do it now, you’ll be glad you did!

Welcome back, Shobhan!

SLR. How did you finally get your first book DOWRY BRIDE published, how long did it take? What were some of the challenges and triumphs? What part did Dowry Bride have in writing Forbidden Daughter?

SB: Breaking into the fiction market is tough enough, but for me it was doubly challenging because my books do not fit into any specific genre or even sub-genre, and they are set in a different culture. I just wrote what I liked and hoped some agent and editor out there would appreciate it. It took me over a year to write THE DOWRY BRIDE and another year or more to sign on with a reputable agent. But they were both passionate about my voice and my style, which was both pleasantly surprising and heartening. DOWRY BRIDE and FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER, despite being stand alone single titles, are interwoven, because they both deal with serious women’s issues in the Indian culture. I have another two-book contract with Kensington, my publisher, so I am thrilled that my first two books have been received well.

SLR: If you haven’t heard already, Shobhan is amassing a great following with her newsletter where she keeps her fans up to dates and occasionally holds contests for her readers. Recently, she gave away some great gift representative of the rich Indian culture. I’m sure you don’t want to miss out so run over to Shobhan’s contact page and sign-up for her newsletter and then on to tomorrow when we talk to Shobhan about the Indian influences in her work.

Sable Lit Reviews welcomes Shobhan Bantwal!

First I must say, how I came across your work. I often write on the blog that I get my ideas for posts and other writings from magazine and other media outlets to which I have access.

Well, I came across your name in an article about how ChickLit was storming among young women in the Middle East. You were listed as one of the few writers whose multicultural work from that region was easily available in the U.S.  I checked out your website and saw those gorgeous covers and I saw those blurbs about The Dowry Bride and I knew I had to put you on my “To Read” list.

Now that I have read Forbidden Daughter, I know your name being mentioned in that article had more to do with your focus on women of Indian culture and less to do with the ChickLit genre.

Let us tarry no longer…On with the interview:

Sable Lit Reviews(SLR): For those who may not be acquainted with you and your writing, tell us how about your background and how long you’ve been writing? (background= prev career before writing full-time, where you grew up, what part of the country you live now, siblings, kids etc whatever you feel comfortable sharing in this area)

Shobhan Bantwal (SB): I was born and raised in a small town in India, one of five sisters. I came to the United States 35 years ago as a young bride in an arranged marriage. I had never dreamt of being a fiction writer until I turned 50. With a demanding full-time day job and an active family and social life, writing was never on my list of to-do items. But after our only child left home to follow her own career and married life, writing started as a hobby for me. I call it my “menopausal epiphany.” After a few of my short stories won honors and awards, gradually my ambitions expanded, and I became a published author of full-length fiction. However, writing still remains a hobby because I continue to work full-time at my regular job. In fact, now I juggle two full-time careers after becoming published.

SLR: I love how you say, “two full-time careers” in that it speaks of your complexity. Sometimes as writers, others only view that aspect of our lives. Often there are other careers and interests that are just as important and fuel our writing. Tell us what about your other career?

SB: I supervise a statewide employer services program for the New Jersey Dept of Labor.

SLR: Two careers indeed!

Readers and lurkers alike, please feel free to post any questions you may have so far about Shobhan, her life and work, then hurry back tomorrow for part two where we get into trenches with her works, The Dowry Bride and Forbidden Daughter.

In the meantime check out Shobhan’s world at her website:

Shobhan Bantwal.com

Tomorrow kicks off my interview with Shobhan Bantwal, Kensington author of Forbidden Daughter and The Dowry Bride.

Each day for five days you’ll get a snippet of our interview to learn more about Shobhan Bantwal and the her multicultural writing.  If  you are a member of the Newsletter, you will get additional access to more in-depth analysis of the Shobhan’s motivations behind Forbidden Daughter and the culture in which this story was influenced and an excerpt selected by the author herself.

Stay tuned as  you are in for an exciting ride. Click on the author image for  more information on Shobhan Bantwal and her work!

Shobhan Bantwal takes the complex, rich Indian culture with customs about which the western public at large may not have deep knowledge of and weaves a story that often reads likes a riveting morality play. The author shows how greed can spiral into a mountain of increasingly more devastating actions and how the injustice of dangerously rigid interpretations of cultural customs are used to degrade one gender in honor of another can harm the social and personal psyche of an entire community.

Isha Tilak, a well-kept pregnant young wife and member of a revered family within the Brahmin caste of India’s social elite must carve out a new life on her own for the safety of her young daughter and the one on the way in a society that favors the births of sons over daughters when her husband is brutally murdered while working late in his family’s tire shop. A new life filled with promise beckons if only Isha, her girls and a young adoring pediatrician Harish Salvi can survive the dangers of the crusade her late husband started against an established doctor’s female feticide practices.  

Never preachy or laden with lengthy explanations but filled with enjoyable glimpses into the language, the food and rich interrelations of Indian culture, Bantwal skillfully balances an intriguing story about love and second chances. I really enjoyed the depths this story that never felt heavy despite its serious subject matter and rich cultural references. Forbidden Daughter earns five out of five Sable Seals.

Publisher: Kensington

Format: Print , Ebook