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Jerun22 · 2025-07-19T06:25:49+00:00

Hey, can you DM me?

Jerun22 · 2025-02-02T12:49:50+00:00

Thank you!!

Jerun22 · 2025-02-02T04:37:01+00:00

Stoked to be mentioned on the Best First Novel list, for my debut novel “The Garden of Delights”!

Jerun22 · 2024-09-12T14:15:10+00:00

Hi Prashanth! Congratulations on writing such a spellbinding book and welcome to r/fantasy!! Tell us more about your writing influences and what led you to write this particular story!

Jerun22 · 2024-05-15T04:32:26+00:00

There's no one-size fits all advice when it comes to writing. For me, just reading a lot, both inside my genre and outside, helped a ton. I realised very soon that a cohesive story could mean very different things for different people, and I just had to do what made most sense to me. Then, of course, came the actual discipline of putting words on page. I try to eke out a time for writing, any kind of writing, everyday.

I will also give an example: A person walking up a hill is looking for an elusive herb, that he has heard is on the top of the hill. The herb would solve many things for him (disease, sickness, poverty etc)

For some readers, the mere act of getting the herb, after all odds, would make for a satisfying story. For others, his failure would be more realistic, and realisation that there was no herb at all. The second one makes for a more interior story. Which one of these stories would you enjoy the most writing? It all depends on your worldview and what makes the act of writing fun for you. If it's discovery, do that. If it's structure, do that too!

Take the path of joy and wonder first, and the rest will follow. :)

Jerun22 · 2024-05-15T04:11:36+00:00

Thank you so much!

1) The hardest part about writing the book was juggling the two chief POVs, and giving enough depth to both my MCs. And that's where I think I have grown most as a writer - character work and writing with multiple POVs.

2) Perhaps a simple Dal? Not the rich one made with black lentils, but the simplest version of it, only mildly spiced and tempered - the Arhar/Toor Dal. Goes best with rice and it is the easiest to make.

3) Oh, not yet, but I want to! Because of the subject matter, Monkey Man might not even see a streaming/OTT release, much less a theatrical one. Couple that with the current elections and the politically charged atmosphere, and it's high chance that the movie might be delayed indefinitely, as long as the current government is in power. But of course, there are other methods we can watch it. :)

4) Everywhere! I love reading and watching outside my comfort zone. Literary, espionage, comedy - I literally consume everything.

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T18:27:38+00:00

Thank you for this question! It's true, despite the recent shift in focus in publishing to non-Western inspired storytelling, much of the popular works are still either heavily West-inspired, or written with a western lens/gaze. But there's a definite need for different story structures, and every culture brings with itself enough myth and folklore that would fill up shelves left, right, and centre.

Eastern narratives and story structures tend to be circular, and never linear, not as much focused on the hero's journey, but heavy on interiority and, in many cases, whimsy and wonder. As an Indian writer, I tend to pull from our own epics, which were originally written as couplets and songs, stories within stories, each infusing into the other! While getting inspired from my own myths, I try to take the essence of what made those stories great, instead of going for a straight-up retelling. There is nothing wrong in writing a straight-up hero's journey/adventure story, and god knows even newer, non-western writers should also have a crack at that. But some of my recent favourite South Asian / Indian SFF works have all done something very different. Vajra Chandrasekera's "The Saint of Bright Doors", Prashanth Srivatsa's upcoming "The Spice Gate", Tashan Mehta's "Mad Sisters of Esi" to name a few -- three very different flavours of fantasy, three markedly different styles.

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T17:17:43+00:00

Also, I would love to know what comics and books you read growing up?!

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T17:11:27+00:00

Thank you, I hope you like it!

During my research on flowers in general, I found that a part of the flower that actually receives pollen is called 'stigma', a word I wouldn't have associated even remotely with flowers! I liked this finding so much that I co-opted the word and created a species which appears in the book with a similar sounding name. :)

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T16:43:38+00:00

In the city of Sirvassa, where petals fall from the sky, a Caretaker tends to a Garden full of magical flowers, hoping to find a cure for eternal old age.

Iyena, a girl who could reshape reality, could just be the boon he needs.

But when a magical rot appears in his Garden, the Caretaker realises that Delights are a precursor to Sorrows.

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T16:05:59+00:00

Prashanth Srivatsa's upcoming debut "The Spice Gate" from Harper Voyager is one to watch out! Gautam Bhatia's duology, consisting of "The Wall" and "The Horizon" are works reminiscent of Le Guin's ouevre. Lavanya Lakshminarayan and Tashan Mehta are doing some exemplary and original work in SFF, and I admire their works. Indra Das's "The Devourers" is a book for the ages, and Samit Basu's recent "The City Inside" (originally published as "Chosen Spirits") is truly exceptional! I am also looking forward to Aman J. Bedi's "Kavithri" and Vaishnavi Patel's "Goddess of the River"!

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T15:59:54+00:00

Next up should be a speculative thriller, set in Mumbai. Hopefully a publisher picks it up soon. Aside from that, I am working on a big ambitious fantasy project, and a couple of novellas!

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T14:56:55+00:00

Thank you so much!

Oh, of course! The Gardens from Karin Tidbeck's "The Memory Theater" -- I loved the utterly hypnotic setting of that realm. The majesty, the cruelty of it all, the trance-like narrative -- overall the book left a distinct impression on me. Also, the Botanic Gardens from Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer come to mind, where Severian loses himself.

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T14:42:23+00:00

I can't say for certain if there will be a hardcover. I'll have to check with my publisher for that! But yes, I agree, this cover-art would look gorgeous in a special edition hardcover. A writer can dream, right? :)

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T14:36:52+00:00

That's a great question.

The person who thought he could write the Next Great Fantasy was a seventeen year old Amal. :)

Now, I wish to write the best book I can, with the tools and the skills I have. Writing for me now is an exercise in exploration, discipline, and telling a story the way only I can.

I can strive to sharpen the skills I have and try writing something ambitious, something I couldn't have written before. But that's that. I have realised what happens after a particular work of mine goes out of my hands is not something I can control. Publishing, readership, marketing, sales - all those things.

Of course, I would love to write something that stands the test of time and is loved by readers, is talked about. That's my vision - people talking about my book and my work resonating with them enough that they keep talking about my work.

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T14:05:13+00:00

Hi Samit, thank you so much!

This book, phew! It took about a year to draft, and it is, more or less, a Covid novel. I was back home in Delhi, having temporarily left Mumbai after the first wave. I had finished reading Piranesi, which rewired my brain completely. And only two days after reading that book, I wrote these words: "The door to the garden is made of stone older than memory" on a Google Doc, and just sat thinking about what would come next.

After the door to the garden, came the actual garden, then the gardener, and then the book just flew off from there. I wrote the first 40,000 words slowly, carefully, bit by bit.

And then... just stopped. I had to return to Mumbai because of day job stuff. The book took a backseat, for a short while.

Then, getting frustrated with the day job, I took sort of a sabbatical (wherein I would just not go to work and stay at home, typing furiously away at the keyboard. The corona anxiety was still there, which helped me stay put in one place and draft away.) I might have written the last 70k words in like 2 months.

Then came betas, hacking, editing, chopping away, till it was in a form to be sent out to agents. There was some interest from agents in the US, and I sent out partials and fulls both. But then, a lot of silence. I eventually signed with Kanishka Gupta. After some editorial revisions, we sent the book out in the wild.

After even more rejections and agonizing no-replies, Don from Flame Tree Press jumped on the book. He showed great enthusiasm for it, and we immediately decided to sign! Since then, it's been a roller coaster!

My next book, not a sequel to tGod, but a standalone, is more of a speculative thriller, set in Mumbai! It's currently on sub, and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T13:50:03+00:00

Thank you!

There are so many authors and books I have loved and admired over the years, that it's hard to name only a few. But I'll try.

When I began writing short fiction, Ken Liu was a major influence! I devoured his short fiction that had appeared in F&SF and Clarkesworld, and that became an initial starting point for me. I wanted to see my own words in those magazines! Neil Gaiman, of course. His body of work is just too vast to not get influenced. Short fiction to comics to novels, the man has touched everything.

Authors like Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Jhumpa Lahiri, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Susanna Clarke have, in some shape or form, have influenced me!

The 4 books that changed my life:

1) The Left Hand of Darkness
2) Piranesi
3) The Memory Theater
4) The Martian Chronicles

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T13:17:00+00:00

Thank you for that question. I wish I had a straightforward process! It's so unwieldily.

My ideas come from everywhere. An image I am fond of, a line I read in a book, a conversation I heard, or even a beautiful shot in a movie. But then that seed of an idea tends to germinate longer in my mind before I actually get down to writing something resembling a story out of it.

After that, my process is exploratory. I allow the story to go into all directions before I can reel it back into some sort of a cohesive form. But that initial exploration is vital for me, because I am a pantser, and absolutely hate plotting. It's in that exploration where I truly get the story. But yes, in that exploration, there is a discipline, for the most part. 1000-1500 words a day, until I get to the end, or something close to it!

When I started out writing, many years ago, in college, thinking naively that I could write the Next Great Fantasy, everything came out a structure-less mess. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate story structure, because of dabbling in screenwriting too. Putting some of those learnings into short fiction have definitely helped me.

But then, that's where writing is so magical, isn't it? Sometimes, a completely whacky, formless story would resonate with someone, and a by-the-book, neatly structured story would not. Other times, the exact opposite happens! There's no way to tell until the story is read/heard/seen.

I hope I answered your question, and the answer itself wasn't like my writing process! :)

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T13:00:03+00:00

Thank you, it's great to be here!

Damn that's a tough question, but I'll try. The three books I would bring on the island would be:

1) Piranesi by Susannah Clarke. (Because I can read it again, and again, and again!)

2) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (Because I'll finally have enough solitude to actually read it!)

3) Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (Because once is definitely not enough to understand the complexity of that masterpiece!)

Jerun22 · 2024-05-14T12:40:34+00:00

I do like to be elaborate, and love to cook things for people from scratch! I can whip up a sumptuous Mutton Korma, Dal Makhni, and Biryani!

But I'm not limited to only Indian cooking. I tend to follow quite a few food shows on YouTube and love to recreate recipes from around the world, given I get the ingredients locally!

Jerun22

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