Indu
Sundaresan is author of several historical works of fiction,
including the Taj Trilogy surrounding the Taj Mahal and Mehrunnissa. She is a
self taught writer who has also published a book of short stories. Indu is a
fine storyteller and her books have been translated into about 20 different
languages. Indu Sundaresan lives in Seattle, WA.
Indu Sundaresan’s sixth work of fiction, The Mountain of Light, which was released in October 2013, traces the bloody and tumultuous history of the Kohinoor diamond—in its last Indian owners, rulers of the Punjab Empire, and how it was secreted from India to England to adorn the arm of Queen Victoria.
Indu took time out of her busy schedule and talked to Suprose about her writing and books in general.
What motivates you to write
and tell stories?
I haven’t analyzed this before—it’s the first
time, I believe, that I’ve been asked this question! It may possibly be
that most writers take a particular situation and imagine all possibilities
around it—you make up stories, you think of motivations, the why, the what, the
when, the how. And then, the only way to give coherence to your
thoughts is to put them down on paper.
Indu Sundaresan |
Are you self-taught or did
you get an MFA, attend any other writing courses?
I’m self-taught, in that I think all the
regular, formal education we get, right from birth, ought to be enough to be
able to write a book. We’re taught to communicate right from the
beginning, and all writing’s a form of communication.
It’s much more stylized than that—but the basic tools exist
in all of us. When I began writing, my education was in other
fields, but I’d always been a big reader, read widely, read a lot. So,
in some way, that was also a form of education for this particular field.
I think MFA programs are great—no doubt about that. But,
I was on a panel with the director of one of the well-regarded MFA programs in
the US, and the director said what I’ve thought to be true all along. She
said (I’m paraphrasing here) that all the students of their program are
accepted in because they come with novels, collections of short stories,
essays, already finished. What the MFA teaches you then is to edit,
to revise, to revisit your work with a new set of tools—what works, what
doesn’t, what needs to be rewritten, what kept, what thrown away.
Any training specifically
for historical fiction? (in terms of classes you attended and such)
No, none. I did take writing
classes for about five years, from local community colleges in the Seattle
area. But, when I took my first class, I’d already written four
novels—my first two attempts, which I discarded, and The Twentieth Wife and The
Feast of Roses, my first two published novels, and the first two novels of my
Taj trilogy.
The writing classes I took were general ones: plot,
structure, character development.
I don’t think you need a specific historical fiction writing
class, but I do think that once you’ve written your novel, it can be a splendid
way to learn just how much of history to put in, how much fiction, how to meld
the two. I didn’t have access to something like this, so I made do
with what I had.
You have written
contemporary as well as many books of historical fiction? What are the
challenges of each of these genres?
My collection of short stories, In the
Convent of Little Flowers, is set in contemporary India. All of my
novels are historical fiction. So, for me at least, the challenge
was not so much about the time period but about the two fictional forms—the
novel vs. the short story.
Short stories have their own style; they are limited, most
obviously, by a word count, whereas in a novel you could potentially go on for
a good number of pages. In the short story, I pick an event and
build a story around it—the past comes in, the future will figure in also, but
it’s really about the present. In my novel-length fiction, every
time period has the opportunity to be rounded out.
Why do you do historical
fiction more often than contemporary fiction? What about it appeals to you the
most?
This question I have pondered upon quite a
bit, and I think the most discernible reason to me, is that when I write about
India’s history, I take a story and retell it. When I do so, even
though it’s a world we all know of, or understand in the whole if not in
detail, I’m still building an entire new world.
This may go back to my love of reading, because one of the
things I most enjoy about embarking on a new historical novel is the reading I
do for my research. I’ll stray from what I think to be the main
storyline in all directions, and will find little nuggets of information that
are unusual, that could well be put into my novel. And, that’s how
my books take shape, for a long while in my head, on paper in my notes, within
my reading…all of this before I actually start writing the book.
What do you find most
demanding about writing historical fiction?
Even after having written five historical
fiction novels, I still struggle with what to put in from all I’ve read, and
what to leave out.
It’s a healthy process though, because then I think deeply
about the subject matter, the events, the characters and how they move around
in the storyline, what affects them, how they react to it, or not.
How did “Mountain Of Light”
come to be? Why this story and what fascinates you most about this story of the
Kohinoor diamond?
I’ve been trying to remember the genesis of
this novel and it still isn’t very clear to me. When I write a
novel, it has usually been gestating in my head for a very long while—if I were
to put a timeline on it, I’d say it takes about four or five years to finish a
book. All the while, I will be reading for and writing another book.
So, for The Mountain of Light, I’m not exactly
sure. The first thought began, of course, with the Kohinoor diamond
itself. The fact that it was taken out of India in 1850 as a ‘gift’
to Queen Victoria and that India has always, in some form or the other, asked
for the diamond back.
In reading for this book, I realized that the Kohinoor has
this deep reach into Indian history—mythology puts it in the hands of Lord
Krishna, and it resurfaces about once a century in the hands of various rulers
of India from about the 13th Century or so.
The timeline was too scattered to make sense in a novel’s
setting, so I started reading about the Kohinoor’s last 50 years in India—who
had it last, what it meant to them, how they lost it. And I
discovered a veritable jewel of information that in turn informed the events,
characters and emotions in The Mountain of Light.
Who are some of your
favorite authors of historical fiction? Some must reads for those who aspire to
become historical fiction writers?
There are so many. Historical
fiction has, today, if you will, turned from a genre into the mainstream—the
last three Booker Prize winners wrote historical fiction books.
To me, this isn’t a revelation—I think you can write about
anything, set it anywhere, in any time period, and if the book’s good, then
just that, the book’s good.
How do you pick a book that you want to read? The cover,
synopsis, something you might have heard about it?
It’s a little bit of everything. It
could be a great review, but most often for me, it is what the book’s about,
and if it’s a writer I already know, have read before, then I’m eager for the
new book.
Name 3-5 books you read recently and which ones you liked
or did not like and why?
Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British
India; Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies; The House on the River.
I don’t speak (in public) of what I don’t like in books—I’m
in the business and being on the other side, I know what it takes for an author
to write/revise/publish a book.
What are some tools/exercises that you use to break
out of writers blocks?
I read a lot of books on the craft of
writing. When I’m stuck, if it is while I’m writing a novel (which
is very rarely) I will usually put the manuscript away, either read other
fiction, or books on writing. I’ll do the exercises in the
books. Sometimes, I’ll write a short story to fill up the time.
It’s rare though, for me to have to put a novel away while
I’m in the midst of it—I’ll usually worry out the plot/character, whatever it
is that’s blocking me, in my mind until I can begin again.
The role of an author is becoming larger, we have to do
more than just write, go on book tours and read from you book. What are some of
your thoughts on Author as a marketer?
It is a necessary part of the book business
now, as you say. So, the thing to do is to embrace the marketing aspect. For
me, personally, I find that it does take away from being engrossed in my next
book. So, I’ll jump into the publicity aspect of the novel, once
it’s on the shelves (and a fair bit before, because a lot of preparation is
usually required before the book’s published). But once I’m writing
a new novel, I shut off all distractions until it’s done.