156. Bollywood and Romance: An Interview with Sonali Dev

[music]

Sarah Wendell:  Hello!  Welcome to episode number 156 of the DBSA podcast.  I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and with me today is author Sonali Dev.  We are going to talk with Sonali, and at some points with her dog Simba, about romance reading, romance writing, increasing the diversity of romance in just about every possible aspect, applying Bollywood film structure to the romance genre – because, you know, they have a lot in common – plus we get some insider-y type information about books three and four in her series.

Now I want to note at the beginning of the podcast we’re talking about what she’s wearing, and I just want you to know I am not a perv, or at least I wouldn’t record it if I were.  This was recorded right after the end of RWA, both of us were exhausted, and the idea of wearing actual clothing was quite repellent, so I wanted to make sure that she was as comfortable as possible while we were recording.

This podcast is brought to you by InterMix, publisher is national bestselling author Anne Calhoun’s Evening Storm, the new e-novella in her simply addictive Irresistible series.  You can download it on August 18th.

And we have a podcast transcript sponsor as well.  If you would really like to embark upon tongue-twisting fun, say podcast transcript sponsor, like, six or seven times.  It’s great.  Freeditorial is the global, free meeting place for readers and writers from all over the planet.  It is a publisher and library, and they invite you to download and read some of your public domain books and articles, as well as books and articles published by their authors.  There is a lot to discover at Freeditorial.

Our music is provided by Sassy Outwater, and I will have information at the end of the podcast as to who this is, and of course I will have links to all of the books that we discuss in the podcast entry, or the show notes, depending on what terminology you want to use.

And now, on with the podcast.

[music]

Sarah:  Hello!

Sonali Dev:  Hi, Sarah!

Sarah:  How are you?

Sonali:  Great, how are you?

Sarah:  Good.  You didn’t take off your pajamas, did you?

Sonali:  Oh, no, I did not.

Sarah:  Good –

Sonali:  I’m sorry.

Sarah:  No, good call.

Sonali:  [Laughs] Yeah, I wasn’t sure, and I’m like, oh, gosh, I have worn makeup for, like, five days straight, and I just cannot do it anymore.

Sarah:  Oh, my, seriously if my skin could talk –

Sonali:  I know.

Sarah:  It’s, it’s, like –

Simba:  Bark!

Sonali:  Oh, great.  Hold on a second. 

Sarah:  Is that your dog?

Sonali:  Yes.  He is –

Sarah:  Awesome!  Tell me about your dog, ‘cause I love when there’s a dog on the podcast.

Sonali:  His name is Simba, and he’s been a bit traumatized because we left him alone for five days, and he usually feels traumatized if we, traumatized if we leave him alone for, like, five minutes.  So –

Sarah:  Aw, poor Simba.

Sonali:  I mean, he also has epilepsy, and we’ve found that, you know, sometimes we, we’ve been trying to see if there’s a, a connection of when he’s traumatized and he has seizures, so we’ve been watching him today, and I don’t want him to leave the room because of that, but of course, as soon as I’m on the phone, he has to leave, has to want to leave the room.

Sarah:  He, he of course is absolutely welcome to be a guest on the podcast.  We are very pet friendly, and in fact, if there’s, if there’s a podcast where someone’s dog or cat is not making noise, I kind of feel a little confused.

Sonali:  [Laughs] Oh, well, I’m glad, then, because he, you know, of course he’s the quietest dog on earth, and then of course right now is when he wants to be heard.

Sarah:  Of course, of course.  Okay, so, first important question:  are you recovered from RWA, or do you need another week to recover?

Sonali:  Oh, my gosh, I think I need a month.  It’s just crazy!  Are you recovered?  It’s the craziest thing, how emotionally exhausted I am.  And, and I was –

Sarah:  No, I, I need a week too.

Sonali:  Wow, because, you know, I mean, I, I usually kind of go into this Zen space where my, my pulse and my blood pressure, everything is kind of down.  I go into this, like, slightly meditative state where I’m, you know, really, like, being calm about everything and just trying to soak it all up, and still when I come back, it’s like I, just, it’s like something inside me exploded.  [Laughs] It’s really weird.

Sarah:  I, I can feel myself hitting my limit.

Sonali:  Yeah.

Sarah:  Like, you have reached maximum stimulation of being around people, and you need to go find a cave and live there for a week or two, maybe three, and then you will feel better.

Sonali:  Yes.  Yes, I think I’m, yeah, yeah.  I definitely hit that.  I just didn’t realize it because I thought I was being so, oh, you know what, I’m just being calm.  I’m not trying to do too much.  I’m not, you know – but oh, no, oh, no.  It just – [laughs] – I was just – I think the last day, it was just, I was in a, a –

Simba:  Bark!

Sarah:  Simba agrees.  Simba completely agrees with you.

Sonali:  Simba!  I, yeah.  We’ll, we’ll try to ignore him.  I’m sorry.

Sarah:  No, really, don’t apologize.  This makes me so happy, I can’t even tell you.

Sonali:  And, and I couldn’t tell you how quiet of a dog he is.  I mean, he will, you will never hear a peep out of him otherwise.

Sarah:  It’s the, it’s the podcast.  Everybody wants to be a guest.

Sonali:  [Laughs] Yes!

Sarah:  Totally fine with that.  Now, this year’s RWA must have been a little bit extra exhausting, because you –

Simba:  Bark, bark!

Sarah:  I agree, Simba!  She, she, I’m totally right.  You were a RITA nominee!

Sonali:  Yes!

Sarah:  That is, that is a lot of, you know, you have the signing and then the flag, and there’s receptions, and then you go to the ceremony, and you’re in the special reserved section, and the whole conference, I guess, you’re kind of looking forward to that one night.  Like, okay, almost there.  Did that make it extra tiring, or were you kind of like, nah, it’s just people.  I’m tired anyway.

Sonali:  You know, I had kind of, like I said, I, you know, I, I kind of make the effort to get really, like, Zen and meditative, so I had made the conscious decision to kind of stay in this moment.  I know it sounds completely weird –

Sarah:  Not at all.

Sonali:  – but I had –

Sarah:  Does not sound strange at all.

Sonali:  – I had, so, you know, I wasn’t thinking about it until the day it came, and everybody of course stops and asks you, so aren’t you excited about the ceremony?  And that’s the only time I would go, oh, yeah!  You know, the ceremony –

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  – but I had packed up my sari, and it was at the bottom of my suitcase.  I was kind of not thinking about it at all.  There was just so much to be excited about, you know, being, this was the first, my first RWA with a book out.  I think that was the big one.  Like, everybody talking to me about the book, and, you know, people actually having read the book, which was insane for me.  I mean, it was just, like, people coming and talking to me about the characters and about parts that they liked, and, you know, these random conversations where people are talking about these characters like they’re people, and it was, it was just insane.  Like, that was what I think was just, you know, it was like dream in a pill.  You know –

[Laughter]

Sonali:  – literally crazy.  And I didn’t even get a chance, I think, until, until I ran into you, just, you know, I was, until I was dressed up, and I ran into you, and even at that point I was like, oh, there’s going to be a ceremony.  Oh, wait, I’m a RITA finalist, and, you know, until I was in there and then the whole thing becomes, like, really overwhelming, but until then I was, there was just so much to be overwhelmed about that it wasn’t, you know, it was easy enough to kind of put, put, you know, put that on hold until the ceremony came along.  So –

Sarah:  And then you could be nervous.

Sonali:  Yeah, yeah.  And I think that even the nervousness, it was really weird, because it’s the last one, and when I first learned that it was going to be the last award announced, I was like, oh, great, now I have to sit there for an hour, you know –

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  – wondering what’s going to happen, but you forget, because there’s all this, you know, all these speeches and all this going on, and then as soon as Lisa said Nora Roberts, because I knew she’s the one who always does the first book, I was –

Sarah:  It’s her favorite category –

Sonali:  Yes.

Sarah:  – Best First Book.

Sonali:  Yes, which is so, so amazing, but as soon as she said the words Nora Roberts, I knew, oh, my gosh!  It’s here!  And, you know, that’s when I really got, like, you know, it all, you know, all of the five days of nervousness in, in three minutes.  It was, it was crazy.

Sarah:  So you were also a Golden Heart nominee.

Sonali:  I was.  So, so, I was.  So I had, and it was, it’s, so the whole parties and, you know, all of that, I had done two years ago for the same book when we first met in Atlanta.

Sarah:  Yes!

Sonali:  Yeah, so I had, that had happened, so it wasn’t, it was, you know, so I kind of knew what was coming, you know, and things like that, so it was still very exciting, but, but it, it wasn’t completely new, so I kind of knew what to expect.

Sarah:  So when you were in Atlanta, I remember seeing you, and I’m pretty sure that your sari was red or pink?

Sonali:  It was kind of a, a com-, a turquoise, beige, and rust.

Sarah:  I think I’m remembering the rust.  That’s what I’m remembering.

Sonali:  Yes.

Sarah:  And then, this, this year, you were wearing gold and green.

Sonali:  I was wearing gold and –

Sarah:  It’s not like saris are, like, more than one color; they have to be, like, six colors, right?

Sonali:  Yes, this one was.  You can have a single-colored sari, but, you know, what’s the fun in that?  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Yeah, exactly!  So was it hard for you to choose what to wear for the awards ceremony?

Sonali:  You know, this was, this year I had absolutely sworn that I am not going to buy a new sari, because they’re incredibly expensive –

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  – and I had said, well, I have a few, and then I ended up buying three –

Sarah:  [Laughs more]

Sonali:  – because I bought one, and then I was like, okay, now here, I have this one, so I’m not going to buy anymore.  And then I went to India a week bef-, like, I came back a week before the, the conference, so of course I was in India, and my mum and I were at my favorite designer’s store, and she’s like, no, you come with me.  I’m the one who want – so she wanted to buy something for herself, and I was absolutely sure I’m not going to buy anything –

Sarah:  Of course you’re not!

Sonali:  – and of course I see this.  Yeah, and then I see this sari, and my mouth starts to water, and I’m like, oh, my gosh!  And then the saleslady wraps it, she drapes it around me, and I just knew.  As soon as I, you know, I was like, okay.  How can I not?  And then of course my mum was, it’s yours!  You know, so my mum bought it for me, because she’s like, oh, you’re nominated!  And then, of course, it was, like, okay, now my mum’s buying it for me, so I have no excuse.

Sarah:  Aww!

Sonali:  [Laughs] So, so yeah, yeah.  So I bought, I really bought three saris, and then the third one I bought, which I was not going to buy, is the one I wore.

Sarah:  [Laughs] Yes, but I’m sure that having someone buy it for you makes it perfectly acceptable that you already brought, bought three.

Sonali:  Absolutely!  And my mum and I have this relationship where she is always, like, every big thing in my life, she, you know, she’s, she will be running around trying to buy me clothes, because – [laughs] – because dressing me, it’s, like, one of the things she’s never grown out of.

Sarah:  Aww!

Sonali:  So she’s, she’s always, yeah, so, it’s like, oh, your first book!  Guess what!  I went and bought, you know, bought you a sari for your first conference, and yeah, so she’s always buying me saris and stuff for, you know, whether it’s my baby shower, whether it’s – every single, every single big milestone in my life, she’ll go out and buy me a sari, so now it’s become a thing.  So, you know, of course she had to buy one for this.

Sarah:  That’s so, that is so sweet, though.

Sonali:  It is, incredibly sweet, yes.

Sarah:  And then that way each one has, like, a special meaning and a special occasion associated with it.

Sonali:  Yes, yes, and she’s only the best mother ever, so – [laughs]

Sarah:  Aww.  So you came back from India right before RWA.  How long were you there?

Sonali:  I was there for about twenty days, and it, it’s been the craziest month.  So I came back a week before, and then in that one week, we went to Kentucky for a friend’s daughter’s sari ceremony again.  And then –

Sarah:  What is a, what is a sari ceremony?  Please tell me all the things.

Sonali:  Oh, my gosh.  I have to be a little careful about what I say about this because it’s, it’s not something the part, you know, our, the part of India I’m from, we don’t really do them anymore?  I think it’s kind of a coming of age celebration, like, you know, here’s our daughter, and she’s now a woman and therefore, you know, they’re going to put her in a sari for the first time and, you know, here she is kind of thing.  We, it’s not been done in my family for – I don’t think my grandmother had one, so I don’t think we’ve ever done them, but these friends of ours, the part of India they’re from, they still do them, and, you know, it’s kind of an excuse to get together and party.

Sarah:  And eat lots of really good food, so –

Sonali:  Yes.

Sarah:  – why the heck not?

Sonali:  Yes, lots of good food and get to dress up, and, you know, the whole thing.  We didn’t really dance this time, which I see as a sign of us getting old, that we don’t dance at every given opportunity anymore.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Oh, no!

Sonali:  That was, it was like, oh, ceremony!  Dance!  Let’s dance!  You know, and it’s, yeah, we didn’t do that, but other than that – and, you know, any, any excuse to buy a new, buy some new clothes and eat a whole lot of food, yes.  That, that’s what it was.  And my son’s been in India for four weeks.

Sarah:  You were telling me that!

Sonali:  Yes, yes.  He was, he’s sixteen, and he was in India for four weeks, and in fact, he’s on a plane right now coming home, so it’s going to be very interesting, and he was, before he left, he was completely in that, you know, I don’t know if I can eat Indian food every day thing.  And he’s been, I’ve been told he was a model – he stayed with family, so I’ve been told he was really good, and he ate what he was given, and he helped, you know, he cooked and all of that, so we’ll see when he comes home if that was actually fun, like everybody said, or if mum’s going to get, you know, the brunt of the pent-up – [laughs] – the pent-up anger, so we’ll see.  It was –

Sarah:  Was he with your family?

Sonali:  Yes.  Yes, he, he stayed with my husband’s sister and her family, who, whose company he worked at, so.  It was all very, you know, it was all very family family, you know what I mean?

Sarah:  Totally, totally.

Sonali:  [Laughs] To, to use a very7 Indian turn of phrase, it was very family family.

Sarah:  Family family?  Like, that’s, like, extra double more family?

Sonali:  [Laughs] Yes, yes, and it, it’s, we repeat things, and often – in fact, we were talking about this at, at RWA – we’ll, we’ll not only repeat things, we’ll, you know, for extra emphasis, change the first syllable, so it’ll be like family schamily.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  And so Suleikha Snyder and, we were talking about how you say stuff like truck fuck –

[Laughter]

Sonali:  – and then, of course, that whole conversation went off in a whole different direction.

Sarah:  [Laughs] So you did a whole panel about your writing.  Can you tell people about that panel and how it went?

Sonali:  Well, it, I, I think it went really well, and I’m being modest.  [Laughs] Not.  But I, it, the panel was about applying lessons learned from Bollywood films to romance novels.  It was –

Sarah:  Oh, you don’t know anything about that.  You know nothing about that.

Sonali:  [Laughs] Right.  Right, right.  So, it, it actually, you know, where it came from is, you know, this whole belief that they’re essentially the same thing.  This is how I came to romance novels.  I, you know, the first time I read one, I was, I was like, oh, my gosh, this is exactly like watching a Bollywood movie, so – [laughs] – so there’s, you know, all of that, when we were talk – one of the things we were talking about in the, in the workshop was fan intent.  You know, why fans watch Bollywood films and why fans or, or readers read romance novels.  The intent and what you’re expecting is exactly the same, which is those emotional highs and that being immersed inside of, you know, inside of this emotional story, and it’s, it’s basically that, that whole, you know, high of having those emotional hits, and we were trying to, we tried to kind of encapsulate how it’s done in, you know, these huge blockbusters –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Sonali:  – and how, you know, applying those same ways in which it is done to your romance novel can make it more sweeping, make those emotional hits larger, and I think – you know, so we talked about chemistry and conflict and drama, which, you know, are the three, the three things that the two forms share, so that was basically what it was.  And of course we showed, showed clips from Bollywood films.  So we had pretty much, you know, with those, we pretty much had our audience, because, you know, Ranveer Singh, and, and you should totally Google him, oiled up and shirtless –

[Laughter]

Sonali:  – so –

Sarah:  Ye-, uh, yes.

Sonali:  So, yeah.

Sarah:  Yes, and yes.

Sonali:  Yeah.  Once he was up there on screen, nobody was leaving that workshop.

Sarah:  You’re, all you need is – much like the podcast is improved with additional pets, I think every panel is improved with Ranveer Singh.

Sonali:  Yes, yes.  Shirtless and oiled up.  And with some incense kind of floating around him.  That was – [laughs]

Sarah:  Of course!  You can’t not have that.  So –

Sonali:  Absolutely!

Sarah:  – is there a Bollywood film that you love that every time you turn it on it works for you and it just gives you exactly what you’re looking for?  Is there one that you love more than all of them?  Or have you watched so many at this point that you just, you have a whole list that you love?

Sonali:  I think I do have a whole list that I love, but there, you know, if I have to name one, and amazingly enough, it’s not a love story?  It’s called Dil Chahta Hai, which is kind of a coming of age, coming of age story of three friends.  Unfortunately, they’re three male friends.  I, I wish somebody would make Dil Chahta Hai with three female friends.  But it’s basically this coming of age story of these three guys who are, so it’s like a New Adult no-, novel almost, who are just out of college and starting out their lives, and, you know, but, but the whole connection and, you know, them finding themselves, it’s absolutely beautiful, and it’s great storytelling.  Like, for me, always, the story is important, but the storytelling is really important.  So it has the wittiest dialogue, this wonderful banter, these amazingly well-created characters, so I think if I had to name, like, one, one Bollywood, Bollywood-style movie – I don’t mean, like, an Indian film, you know, which, I don’t want to use the word arthouse, but, but, you know, the actual, like, Bollywood-style Bollywood movie?

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Sonali:  I think it’s one of the best made, best old stories for me.  I also, I think, have a new favorite, and it was in the theaters until last month, last week, and it’s called Dil Dhadakne Do, which means Let the Heart Beat, and it’s by, not, well, not, it’s by the same production house as Dil Chahta Hai, and oh, my gosh, that whole family saga, like, you know, hundred characters on screen, and each one, like, fully developed, and all these stories kind of intermingling and told really well, and just, just beautiful visuals, and all of it.  It was just fantastic.  So it’s, that one is still out there, so if people wanted to go out and see, I think, a really well made, well told Bollywood film, Dil Dhadakne Do would be it.

Sarah:  I will have to link to both of these.  I have a question:  do you remember the first romance novel that you read?

Sonali:  Yes, amazingly enough, I do, because there’s a story.

Sarah:  I have this, I have this theory that most readers do, so I’m always surprised when someone’s like, I don’t remember.  I think usually, most of us are like, yes, it changed my life; I remember everything about it.  So which one was it for you, and what’s the story?

Sonali:  Yes, so the story is that I didn’t really grow up reading the romance genre per se because I was always reading, you know, commercial and literary fiction and all of that, but I was always searching for the love stories in them?  I just didn’t know that there was this whole genre of just love stories, so I was always kind of zeroing, zeroing in on the, the love stories within other genres, and then, I think in my thirties, I had young kids, and I was sick, and my husband took the children to the library, and I had said, well, I’m out of things to read.  Could you pick me up something?  And of course, my husband being my husband, he was probably checking their books out and said, darn it, I forgot.  And then there was a book sitting right there by checkout, and he picks it up and he brings it home.  And it’s Catherine Coulter’s Rosehaven, which is her –

Sarah:  Oh, my goodness.

Sonali:  Yes.  [Laughs] And he brings it home, and I look at it, and I look at the back, and I say to him, ten years you’ve been married to him, I mean married to me, and this is what you think I read?  Because I’m reading it and going, you know, Lord and, you know, forced into marriage and all of that, and I’m thinking, really?  And I opened it, and I started reading it, and with a 102 fever, didn’t stop.  Stayed up all night, finished it, went back to the library, picked up all her books, inhaled them, read all her historicals.  Called my best friend, who is a movie producer in Bollywood, and we were both, we, we’d been trying to write a Bollywood script, and I called her, and I say, you’re not going to believe this, but there’s an actual entire genre that reads exactly like Bollywood movies.  And, you know, that was it.  [Laughs] I just found her, read everything she’d ever written, and then just, it was, you know, then found Lisa Kleypas, found Julia Quinn, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and there was just, you know, it just kept getting better and better, and I was like, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh!

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  I love this!  And then I was, and, you know, that was it.  So, so Rosehaven, Catherine Coulter, that was it.

Sarah:  You know what’s really funny is my first romance that I read was also a Catherine Coulter.

Sonali:  Oh, my gosh.

Sarah:  Yes, it was Midsummer Magic, and I was like, what is this amazing thing that I am reading?  This is incredible.

Sonali:  Yes!  Yes.

Sarah:  So, have you, have you written a Bollywood script with your friend?

Sonali:  Yes!  I have actually written a few.  They’re all under my bed, but that was, that was my introduction to writing fiction, was writing Bollywood scripts.  And, and before that, I al-, you know, I’ve always written since I was very young, and I used to, amazingly enough, you know, I used to write reviews of all the books I read and all the movies I watched and, you know, because it was, I always thought, oh, I’ll go to journalism school, and it’s all about the opinion, you know, because the entire world needs to know how I feel about everything –

Sarah:  Yes, yes, they do.

Sonali:  – but it was – [laughs] – shut! – and I never thought that, you know, creating characters or telling stories was really what it was about, although when I was very young I wrote plays, and then our neighborhood, we would act them out, but, you know, of course, that didn’t say to me, oh, you like writing stories.  That was just plays we were doing, and then, you know, I, until I start – and, and also the way that I started to write those Bollywood scripts was, was exactly this, that my best friend was, she had just won a national award for this movie she had made called Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, which is also an absolutely beautiful Indian film – It’s not exactly Bollywood, but it’s this beautiful love story set against the backdrop of, of communal riots, so it’s just absolutely beautiful – and because of that she was, you know, her career had really taken off, and she was getting to read a ton of scripts, and we would talk about it, and she’s like, I just, why?  Why, when I’m reading so many, am I not getting a good commercial script?  And we were, you know, and, and we’d grown up Bollywood buffs, and she said, you know what?  You should just write me one.  And I said, you know what?  I will.

Sarah:  Sure, no pressure.  [Laughs]

Sonali:  And, and – no, seriously, it was just that, you know, it’s, we’re on the phone, she’s sitting in Mumbai, I’m sitting here, I have, you know, I’m a young mother, two babies, you know, full-time job, huge extended family, because I needed one more thing to do, and – [laughs] – and I said, you know what?  I think I will.  And two weeks later, I, we had, you know, we had a script.

Sarah:  Wow!

Sonali:  [Laughs] So, but of course, you know, there’s a reason that it’s not, it never got made – [laughs] – but, but once I had, once I had created characters and once I had lived with them, that was it.  That was it; there was no going back.

Sarah:  Of course!

Sonali:  So, yeah.  And then the whole, you know, went to the library, picked out craft books, started taking classes, and, you know.  So, so I learned how to write fiction on, you know, while writing those scripts.

Sarah:  Now, is she going to produce a movie of your book?

Sonali:  Well – [laughs]

Sarah:  And if you can’t answer that, and I totally understand if you can’t answer if things are in progress – it’s, it’s really awkward to sometimes ask an author about, you know, options and movies and stuff, but I was sitting here thinking, man, your book would kind of make a really great Bollywood movie.  Just a little.

Sonali:  I will, I will say this:  yes, absolutely, because even as I write them, it, it, you know, I, I like that whole, you know, they’re playing, like, the sweeping Bollywood saga in my mind –

Sarah:  Of course.

Sonali:  – so stylistically I’ve, you know, it’s, it’s, I definitely write them to be, to have the same feeling and hit those same emotional notes as Bollywood films.  But, but I’ll say this, because, you know, of course I have no, I don’t know, and it’s all, like you said, it’s the, you know, it’s stuff, I don’t want to talk about stuff, because I don’t know, but I will say this:  I will, you know, if, if you could tell me, you know, if you could ask me what would you, what you really want, then of course I would love for her to, you know, for, for us to finally, because it would be, you know, our journey started together, I started writing, you know, because of our joint love for Bollywood films, so it would be such an amazing – can you imagine how fantastic that would be, if we actually get to work on this movie, you know, and turn it into a movie?  It would be a complete dream come true.

Sarah:  I’m just going to –

Simba:  Bark!

Sarah:  See, Simba agrees.  Simba knows what’s up.  I, I am presuming that Ranveer Singh is available.

Sonali:  [Laughs] Oh, my gosh.  Yeah, now you’re just playing with me.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  There, there are many, many shirtless scenes that would work really well.

Sonali:  Absolutely, yes!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So tell me, tell me that while you were writing this book, you also wrote the music, right?

Sonali:  Yes, absolutely!

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Now, I really do want to ask you about your next book.  It’s coming out this fall, and it’s got a gorgeous cover, and I would really like you to tell me all of the things about it.  Like, if you just wanted to read it, that would be fine with me.  ‘Cause I’m really excited.

Sonali:  Oh, just, just read the back?

Sarah:  No, just read the whole book.

Sonali:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  No, please –

Sonali:  I’d love to do that.  I’ve never –

Sarah:  – just tell me all the things.

Sonali:  I’m such a ham about reading my book.  Never say that to me, because I will actually take, like, three days of your podcast time and read the entire darn thing.

[Laughter]

Sonali:  I’ve, you have a captive audience.  I just read for the first time, so I think of it as, like, the – I read at Lady Jane’s in New York City just before the conference, and everybody –

Sarah:  Oh, was it fun?

Sonali:  – and it was my first letting the book out into the world kind of experience, and everybody kept asking me how was it, and, you know, my answer is, hello, you give me a captive audience and you let me read from my book.  It was awesome!

[Laughter]

Sonali:  But, but yeah, it’s, it’s, I, I think, you know – and if your listeners have watched the first one, so I might preface it first by saying I think it’s a little bit different in tone from the, from A Bollywood Affair.  It’s a little bit darker and more intense.  It’s not quite as much of a rom-com as I perceived the first one as being.  It’s the story of, the heroine is basically battling mental illness, comes from a long history of mental illness in her family.  She’s, you know, she’s basically struggled with a lot of things, with mutism and things like that, so she’s a very different heroine from, from Mili, but she basically has grown up between India and Chicago, so she spends her, you know, spends her year, school year at a boarding school in India, and she spends her summers here at her Aunt’s house in Chicago, in the Chicago suburbs, and growing up, her, you know, her aunt’s, or rather her uncle’s nephew, these kids have grown up together, and she, you know, he’s her best friend, and it transforms, you know, seamlessly into the love, and so, so they’ve basically had this intense thing that’s always been there, and then they’ve been, you know, teenage lovers and teenage sweethearts, and then she dumps him really badly and goes off and becomes an actress in Bollywood.  And where we find them –

Sarah:  As you do.

Sonali:  Yes.  [Laughs] And of course, you know, so, so she’s dumped him really, really badly, and now, ten years later, they’re both back at their cousin’s wedding, and there’s, you know, he’s just getting back on his feet after having his heart broken, and she now has a successful career, and there’s all that anger and all that angst, and of course, as soon as they meet, you know, it’s obvious that all of the feelings have not gone too far.  They’re just blanketed under all this anger and – but there’s, all the reasons why they couldn’t be together are still there, and now, you know, they have one, you know, she has to work through all of her issues.  He has to work through all of his issues, and – so it’s a very, very angsty and, I think, deliciously angsty book.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So while A Bollywood Affair was more sweet and a little lighter on the angst, although there was considerable angst in the later half, this one is more angsty.

Sonali:  This one is more angsty because we’re talking about, you know, we’re talking about the themes.  You know, we’re talking about mental illness.  We’re talking about, you know, suicidal pressures and stigmas that go with it.  We’re talking about a heroine who is actually struggling with depression and always has, you know, and, and the whole search for family and identity, so we’re, it’s kind of, you know, the, the themes are darker.  So it’s still very much a family saga, and there’s sweetness in that, but, but I think that the issues that they’re dealing with are a little bit darker.

Sarah:  So how is this book, how is, how is The Bollywood Bride related to A Bollywood Affair?  Are there characters that overlap?  ‘Cause I, I remember Vikram.  Wasn’t he in the book, or am I remembering badly?

Sonali:  No, he, he was not, but Ria was mentioned.  Ria who’s the heroine, she was mentioned because at the beginning of A Bollywood Affair when Samir is working on an ad film, she’s the person who has been in that ad film, so their agents, so DJ who was Samir’s agent is also Ria’s agent, so he’s actually the only character that kind of ties the two books together.  As far as story goes or as far as continuity, there’s absolutely no connection.  The only connection in these two books and also the third one that’ll come out is that one of the protagonists works in Bollywood –

Sarah:  Ahhh.

Sonali:  – and that’s about – so the, so the world is kind of the world, the Bollywood world, which, in which these books are not technically set.  They’re kind of, you know, only partially set in them, because this is more the real lives of the Bollywood stars, so I have, while I have a little bit of Bollywood, the setting is not entirely Bollywood, but that would be the only common thing, in fact.

Sarah:  So you’re, you’re basically writing similar stories in the same world.

Sonali:  No, I’m, I think I’m writing very different stories, but –

Sarah:  I’m sorry; you’re different books in a similar world.  I didn’t say that right.  Sorry about that!  So, so you’re writing, you’re writing different books, but they’re all set in a, in a similar connected industry.

Sonali:  Yes, so I think the industry is the only common thing.  Because, I mean, I say world, and the Bollywood part of it, it is true that the worlds are the same, but even as far as the rest, the larger world, the Indian world of the stories is different, because the first one is more, more Indians in India –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Sonali:  – and The Bollywood Bride is more the Indian-American culture, so it’s more diaspora and, you know, more, more a bubble of culture created outside of the country, which is a little bit different, I think, in shade from, you know, from Indians who actually live in India.  So even, even those two worlds, I think the experience of being inside of an In-, you know, of the Indian culture is a little bit different in the two books.

Sarah:  So are you excited about this book coming out?

Sonali:  Absolutely excited, and I’m excite-, really excited now.  I, I know I was terrified – I don’t know if I should admit this, but I was trying to explain it to someone the other day, and I said, well, your first book is like going out into your backyard naked at night –

[Laughter]

Sonali:  – and you know, someone might see you, might not see you, you can run out, you can run in, and the second one is, I think, like going out into your front yard naked in broad daylight, you know.  [Laughs] This is like, come, there, there’s that, there’s that no veil of darkness kind of thing going on, so it is, it’s, it’s, I think, very terrifying, which is, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful –

Sarah:  No, it makes total sense.  More people are paying attention now.

Sonali:  Yes, yes, and, you know, which is great.  I want people to pay attention, but it’s a, it’s a bit nerve-wracking and, but I’m really excited about it now.  It’s, it’s, I think I’ve gotten past that, and now I’m like, here, read it!  Here, read it!  You know, I’m ready to run around handing it out to people.  There was a time when I was like, oh, my gosh, people are going to read this.  Oh, my gosh!  So, I’ve gotten past that, and I’m really excited about it now.  Especially, I think, because now enough people have read it that, you know, that sense that, oh, gosh, everybody’s going to think this sucks! thing is – [laughs] – has been put to rest a little bit.

Sarah:  [Laughs] So can you, can you tell us a little about the third book, or are you still working on it?

Sonali:  I am still working on it, and, my gosh, this is probably the first time in, you know, not probably:  this is the first time I’m writing under contract, so it’s a whole different experience.  But yeah, I’ll, I’ll definitely tell you, you know, a little about it.  It’s, again, I, you know, I, I have no idea what’s wrong with me, but they’re getting progressively darker.  This one is, is, makes the second one look like it’s a giggle fest.  So it’s –

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Oh, no!

Sonali:  Yeah, I know.  It’s basically the story of this couple who, they work, work for Doctors Without Borders, so they’re, you know, this extremely noble, activist kind of couple, and while, while the wife is working in Dharavi, which is India’s biggest, biggest slum, when she is working there in this clinic, she kind of stumbles upon an organ black market ring and starts to investigate it, and she’s warned off by the local, you know, underworld, but she doesn’t listen, and she’s murdered in front of him.

Sarah:  [Gasps]

Sonali:  So, yeah, and we, so, so the story starts two years after that when we find this guy basically hiding out, you know, on a, he’s a cruise ship doctor, which is exactly the opposite of being, you know, a Doctors Without Borders doctor.  So here we have him basically hiding out, you know, wanting nothing to do with his old life and basically trying to drink himself to death.  And this woman shows up on the ship one day, tells him, I am the recipient of your wife’s heart in a transplant, and she’s been talking to me from the other side, and she wants you to get back in there and help me find the evidence that she hid against her killers.  So –

Sarah:  Good gracious!

Sonali:  – basically, that’s what it is.  So she pretty much drags him out of there, and it’s, it’s that, their story of, you know, basically, healing coming out, but it’s also very, an extremely dark heroine and, you know, but, but that’s basically the theme of this guy finding his way back to his, back to his nobility and his cause and healing from this awful tragedy.  And finding the, finding the murderers and – so it, it kind of veers off a little bit into dark suspense territory.

Sarah:  That is a lot of suspense, and, and it’s a lot of, I mean, you have to explore sort of the, the, the cultural differences in the approaching of death as well.

Sonali:  Yes.  Yes, and it’s a lot of other, because also the heroine is actually from Nepal.  She was trafficked out of Nepal as part of a human trafficking thing –

Sarah:  Oh, my goodness!

Sonali:  – into Calcutta, yeah, and then she’s been working as an extra as a chorus dancer in Bollywood films, so it’s, you know, it’s, it’s, as far as Bollywood goes, it’s a more underbelly, because I’ve dealt with stars in the first two books –

Sarah:  Right.

Sonali:  – but this is the, it’s the darker underbelly of Bollywood also from, from that point of view.  And, and, yeah.

Sarah:  Wow!  You go, girl!  Damn!

Sonali:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  It must be hard to, to research that, though.

Sonali:  Oh –

Sarah:  I know when I read about human trafficking and things it’s, it’s, it’s really difficult to, to read about.

Sonali:  To read about, to watch, and I think that, you know, and I keep saying how hard this book has been to write, how much time it’s taken me, and, and I think it has so much to do with that, that, you know, just watching those things and, you know, basically, even though the whole conditions that Doctors Without Borders work under, human trafficking, organ stealing, you know, it’s all very real.  It actually happens way, way, way more than it should.  There’re documentaries on it, and it’s really hard to watch that first, and then to internalize it as part of a story is, yeah, it, it’s, I don’t know.  It’s not, it’s been, it’s been a, a ride, yes.

Sarah:  Good gracious, yes.  Wow.

Sonali:  Yeah.

Sarah:  So after that book, are you going to write another script?  Are you going to take a giant leap into the big vat of happiness and – ?

[Laughter]

Sonali:  Yes.  Please, I was, in fact, I was at RWA telling my editor about the fourth book, because I do have a third and fourth book coming out, or rather contracted out with Kensington, so I was, and he had never, I had never talked to him about the fourth one.  We, you know, he, he only knew about the third one.  So, I am so wanting to write a light, fun heroine, you know, so – [laughs] – it’s, the fourth one, I think we kind of go back a little bit into the whole rom-com thing because, yeah.  So she’s, she’s somebody who actually has been raised as a bubble girl, and I’ll just leave it at that, where she’s been, you know, a sickly child who’s kind of all, you know, grown up in that bubble because her parents have actually tried to keep her alive –

Sarah:  Of course.

Sonali:  – until she gets, you know – and, and the two stories are very closely tied until she gets her heart, and once she’s out there in the world, she’s like, let me at this world!  Like, I’m going to live the heck out of it!

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  And so she’s, so, she’s one of those get out of my way!  I’m going to live!  So I’m really excited about writing her and, you know, finally somebody who’s, who refuses to be sad or refuses to be down, and, so, it’s, yeah, I’m excited about her, because these two have, are, yeah.  It’s been a pretty dark ride, so –

Sarah:  Yeah, I should say.

Sonali:  Yeah.  Yeah.

Sarah:  So, you’re, so that’s going to be two books that deal with transplants.

Sonali:  So those two books are very closely tied together –

Sarah:  Yes.

Sonali:  – and if, you know, if, and they’re almost part of one larger story.  They’re, they’re two sides of the same story, and that’s all I’ll say, because otherwise I’ll be giving away too much –

Sarah:  Of course.

Sonali:  – and, you know, at this point, but they are, they happen in tandem almost; they happen in parallel.  They’re, they’re basically two sides of the same story.

Sarah:  That’s very cool!  I won’t ask you for more, because I know you don’t want to, I know you don’t want to, you know, add more.  To what you’re saying.

Sonali:  Yeah, and if I tell you any more then you may not need to read the book because it’ll be everything.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  So what are you reading?  Or what have you read lately that you recommend?

Sonali:  Oh, my gosh!  I have prepared better for this question, but of course –

[Laughter]

Sonali:  I, I actually read Deeper by Robin York, who’s Ruthie Knox, right?  She –

Sarah:  Yes.

Sonali:  So she gave this amazing acceptance speech at RT, and I don’t know how I had never read her before, but that speech was so amazing that I ran out of the, you know, I ran out and bought her book, and oh, my gosh.  Have you read Deeper?

Sarah:  I have not.

Sonali:  Oh, my gosh.  It is –

Sarah:  Tell me more!

Sonali:  So it’s, and I don’t usually read a whole lot of NA, of, you know, New Adult, but I think, I mean, it’s everything New Adult should be.  It is just a gorgeously written, it’s very, very – so it’s, it’s this, the heroine is somebody who has had, you know, who’s this very conscientious, good girl who’s always done well, and then she makes the mistake of letting her boyfriend take naked pictures of her and take pictures of her performing stuff, performing acts on him, and he, when they break up, he basically shares that with the world –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Sonali:  – so her entire, you know, wonderful existence comes crashing down, so it’s, I think it’s a very real issue, and the way she handles it is absolutely brilliant.  Like, it’s, it’s, it’s absolutely not the way, you know, you would expect someone to handle it.  She’s very real about it.  She actually, you know, through the journey of the heroine, she, she – what is the work I’m looking for? – she works her way through the issue and, like, really gets into it and works her way through it.  It’s just brilliantly done, and the hero, West, he must be, I think, the, well, one of the most brilliant heroes I’ve read in romance in a very, very long time.  This guy – and she goes everywhere.  Like, she, he’s a, he’s a drug dealer.  He is completely unapologetic, and he’s a jerk, but he’s so not a jerk.  I mean, she’s taken this hero who is absolutely unredeemable and redeems him, like, spectacularly.  Violins and –

Sarah:  Wow.

Sonali:  – and, you know, violins and, what is the word I’m looking for, fireworks in the sky redeems him.  I mean, he’s just one of the most –

Sarah:  Whoa.

Sonali:  – amazing heroes that I’ve read.  So her book just made me want to get up and dance.  It was just beautiful, gorgeous writing.  I don’t know how I haven’t read her yet, oh, boy, am I just going to inhale it all.  It’s just, I just started the second one, which is Harder, which is just as spectacularly written, so she’s a, so I, I recently discovered her, and I think it’s a tragedy that she’s, she’s stayed hidden from me for so long.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  So it’s, that’s a, that’s a great book, I think, just fantastic.  I read recently also Glitterland by Alexis Hall.  You’ve read that one, right?

Sarah:  Yes, I have.

Sonali:  Oh, and another spectacular romance, I thought.  I just loved it.  It, it was beautifully written, it’s brilliantly smart, it just, the prose is wonderful, the characters are real.  I mean, talk about handling mental illness well.  It just, I, I think it’s a brilliantly written book, and I absolutely loved it.  So those are my, you know, two recent discoveries that I loved.  I also loved, last year, Joanna Shupe’s historicals that –

Sarah:  Really!

Sonali:  Yes.  So she did this trilogy, and I found it because she’s a very good friend and an extremely brilliant person and smart and funny, and her books are that.  I mean, they’re just, just so whipper smart, and the voice is so sharp and smart that, and, and the, and the characters are all about, like, they’re, you know, socially conscious, socially active characters, which is the kind of, you know – because really, you know, authenticity in, in historicals, I don’t think we read historicals, at least not historical romance, for authenticity but, but being able to imagine that characters like that could have existed who felt so strongly about feminism and about, you know, about class sys-, about the class system and just how they handle it, and her voice is wonderful, so I love them.  And they’re hot, so they’re –

[Laughter]

Sonali:  – so she’s, yeah.  It’s, yeah, so I loved her trilogy, and I think the names were, oh, The Courtesan Duchess, The Harlot Countess, and I’m going to blank out on the third one, but all three of those books –

Sarah:  The Lady Hellion.

Sonali:  The Lady Hellion.  I, I did love all three of those too.  Did you read those?

Sarah:  No, I have not, but RedHeadedGirl, who reviews for me, reviewed The Lady Hellion back in May and loved it.

Sonali:  Yeah.  Yeah, so –

Sarah:  Adored it.  Just had so many great things to say, not only about the characters, but also the writing –

Sonali:  Right.

Sarah:  – and the way the characters sort of fit into the world –

Sonali:  Yes.

Sarah:  – that they’re in.  They’re all sort of the edge, on the fringe.

Sonali:  Yes.  Absolutely, and her voice and her writing are just flawless, and, and exactly that, that whole social consciousness.  They’re not just your, you know, oh, we’re attending balls and, you know, kind of historical characters, but they’re actually trying to change the world in which they live, and it’s amazing.  Like, Lady Sophia, you know, dresses as a man and, you know, tries to rescue women from the, you know, from the, you know, from brothels, and he is a, a, you know, a scientific genius, just, it’s, who’s extremely socially awkward, and that’s wonderful.  Her, her, so Quint is actually this wonderfully, you know, nerdy character in that time when, you know, when other historicals don’t have, like, a nerdy hero to that extent.  Socially awkward, nerdy hero is, she just pulls it off brilliantly well.  Just wonderful.

Sarah:  And you, you like a good nerdy hero.

Sonali:  Oh, my gosh!  I’m such a beta girl.  So my theory is all the alphas are really betas in disguise.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Sonali:  Because none of us want to read a real alpha, you know.  Be-, because they, you know, yeah, they, they have the whole alpha swagger, but we only read these heroes because they’re heart is beta.  So I’m, like, such a beta girl, and a, a good nerd?  Oh, my gosh.  A good family man?  That’s, I live for them.  I’m sorry.

[Laughter]

Sonali:  That’s my, that’s the Indian coming –

Sarah:  I am with you, though.  I, I love a good beta hero.

Sonali:  Yes, and, and –

Sarah:  Is that, you were going to say that’s an Indian thing?

Sonali:  Well, I was going to say the whole, my, the, the, you know, I love a family man, and that’s my Indian coming out is what I said.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Family schamily?

Sonali:  Family shmamily, but you know, a man who puts family ahead of everything else, you know, what more do you want in life?  That’s what we want.

Sarah:  It’s true.  It’s very true.

Sonali:  Does it unapologetically, that’s what you want, you know?  This is what’s important to me.  Deal.  I love it.

Sarah:  I, no, I know exactly what you mean.  I really like reading about heroes in pretty much any setting that are emotionally fluent, or at the very least comfortable with having feelings.  Like, I lose a lot of patience with a hero who’s like, you’ve made me feel things!  Now I am angry and must take it out on you!  I have feelings that aren’t in my pants, and now I am mad.  Like, I lose patience with that guy so fast.

Sonali:  [Laughs] Yes, and it’s okay for him to do that when it’s, when he is aware and everybody is aware that it’s just an act because the feelings are so large that he just cannot, you know – so then it’s delicious, but if he’s really like that, then ah, I don’t –

Sarah:  I know what you mean.  Is there anything else you wanted to make sure that you mentioned before, before we disconnect, ‘cause I have so much good discussion for the podcast – this has been so much fun – but I always want to ask at the end if there’s anything you wanted to make sure that you talked about that you didn’t mention.

Sonali:  You know, I always, these days, I have, not just these days, but it’s, it’s, it’s, I’m going to say the big D word.  I’m going to talk about diversity and –

Sarah:  Please!  You can diversity all you want!  Have I ever given the impression that that’s not okay?  [Laughs]

Sonali:  Not at all, not at all, but, you know, I, the whole, the RITA thing and, you know, having four, I believe five – the fifth one I didn’t know about – five RITA finalists who, you know, whose stories were diverse, that’s, you know, I, I’m told that’s progress, and I, you know, I guess that is progress, but I think that, that our genre is, any genre that’s so focused on love and so focused on people who, who actually enjoy emotional growth and, you know, cultural growth and all of that, I mean, we wanted to put, we’re the kind of people who want to put these modern characters in historical settings and really, like, almost take off on that, but you’re living in a world where your neighbors aren’t all white, where you kids aren’t going to school with, you know, with just one kind of person.  To have a genre that is so overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly neutral and white neutral is, I think, absolutely, I think, you know, a black mark on the genre, given, given the kind of readers we are.  You know what I mean?  And I think that –

Sarah:  Uh, yes, yes, I do.

Sonali:  – it, it – yeah – and I think that just getting out of your comfort zone and reading a book that is different from the books you have read all along could, could change everything.  And you know, it, I think, not only because I write them, because there are so many, you know, every kind of writer out there writing such gorgeous books that it’s really time for everybody to make that conscious effort and say I’m go to read outside of my comfort zone.  And to, to read outside their comfort zone, but I think that, you know, each one of us owes it to ourselves and to the genre that we love to pick up at least that one first book and see how you feel, and I al-, I almost guarantee that you’re going to be surprised by what you find, so.

Sarah:  I, I think one of the problems is often that the default, the, the path of least resistance, in marketing, in selling, in, in, in pitching, in all of the, the, the sort of well-worn paths through which a book is published, the default is white, heterosexual, Christian, American, with a very set of prescribed characteristics –

Sonali:  Yes.

Sarah:  – and so you don’t see enough romances about other faiths, about other cultures, and about other people’s experiences.  I think one of the biggest problems is that, especially in the United States, white people are very thoroughly taught that if there’s a person of color on the cover or on the front, that’s not for you.  And it’s not like, oh, no, that’s really bad, don’t go near there, it’s just that’s not for you.  And the, and the way that people interpret that message varies, but white consumers have not really been taught, for lack of a better word –

Sonali:  Mm-hmm.

Sarah:  – to look for things, or even consider things, that have people of color present-, presented as the indicating element of that product.  So if we’re talking about books, it’s people on the cover or the, the names of the characters or the setting of the characters.  But I agree with you.  I think in romance, we have a really good opportunity to change that, because we’re all after a really good story, and –

Sonali:  Yes!

Sarah:  – so many readers I’ve seen are reaching outside of the Regency, they’re reaching outside of the very familiar settings.  I know a lot of people who are like, okay, I’m, I’m kind of done with small towns.  What’s next?

Sonali:  It’s, it’s, I think the whole thing is, you hit the nail on the head, because it is comfort zone, right?  It’s, you know, we read to be comforted and all of that, but we also read to travel outside and, you know, to, to get that emotional hit, but I think between the comfort zone and the emotional hit, we want our emotional hits within that comfort zone, and we’ve been taught that the comfort zone is, you know, two white characters because it’s neutral and everybody can put themselves in that.  And, and I think that un-, until and unless everybody makes the concerted effort to kind of get out of that mindset, you know, that will never change, and then, I mean, I love to say that editors are buying for the shelves, and until we start to buy books, to read books, and to talk about books that are outside of those shelves, that they’re not going to have a market to feed.  They’re in a business, right, and of course they should have courage, and of course they should, you know, change the shelves from inside out and all of that, but really in the end, supply and demand, if we demand more books and if we consume the ones that are out there, then there’s going to be more, more demand, and we’re going to have access to better stories, because right now, you know, diverse stories are not getting a chance to develop.  You’re writing under the constraints of an expectation, so, you know, it’s – and I feel personally for me, the fact that my editor will always say to me, well, go more Indian, go more into, like, go into their backgrounds and give me their childhood and give me, you know, be more authentic.  Be more and more and more Indian, because you’re writing within that culture.  It just opens up the kind of stories I can tell, and I’ve seen, because of that, over the four stories that, you know, I’m telling that I have, had so much space to play, and it helps you develop as a writer, and I think the readers deserve that, you know, from all diverse writers, is to give them that space, and the way to give them that space to tell these, you know, beautiful stories that can be told is to actually, is to actually make that decision and to follow it up by not just buying the books – absolutely buy the books! – but read them, because I feel like if you read them, you will change your mind about all your preconceived notions about only one thing being neutral and relatable.  And I think if you read, read these stories, I think you’re going to want to read more of them.

Sarah:  I agree.  Especially because they contain a lot of food.

Sonali:  [Laughs] 

Sarah:  I said, I was part of a panel on trends, and one of the things I said was, you know, first of all, diversity isn’t a trend.  It’s not something that’s going to come and then go.  It, it is a necessary change to the genre, but it is a good thing to learn about other cultures, because most of them, you write about community and food, and I happen to love reading about food.  It makes me very happy, so, you know, how all of these strongly vibrant cultures that are represented in, in romance means we’re going to read about more food.

Sonali:  Yes!

[Laughter]

Sonali:  And more families and more different ways in which families handle the same problems, and I think, yeah, yeah, communities, and I think that’s the other reason why this is important to romance is because we’re all about the community.  That is why these small-town, you know, romances do so well, because we want, we want these little bubbles of people who all know each other and who all are, like, interacting, you know?

Sarah:  Yes.

Sonali:  And we love that humanity and human connection, and it happens so organically in so many cultures that I think it, it, it draws you in, and it makes for great stories, so definitely.  And the food, yes.  Oh, my gosh.  [Laughs] I remember talking to you about the food in my books, and, and I’ve told you this before:  when I was writing them, I had, like, it did not even strike me, it did not strike me that there’s so much food in the books, because it’s such a part of my day-to-day life, and it would be such a part of any, you know, Indian character, I think, which is not to say every Indian character.  That would be a generalization, but me and my family and, you know, it just came so naturally to me that now when people say, oh, your books are all about food, I’m like, yeah, really, they are.

[Laughter]

Sonali:  And what does that say about me?  This is why I’m hungry all the time.

Sarah:  Well, I mean, come on, the food was one of the most erotic parts of the book.

Sonali:  [Laughs] Which is –

Sarah:  It was so incredibly erotic, I mean, I have never – were they, were they making roti or were they making samosas?  Either way, it was the hottest goddamn thing I’d ever seen.

Sonali:  Yeah!  [Laughs] Yeah, the, yeah, they were basically facing off.  They were having a samosas faceoff.

Sarah:  It, it was, it was delicious.  Do not read that while hungry was my number one recommendation.

Sonali:  Yeah, yeah.  A man who feeds you, you now, I think, yeah.  Yeah.  There’s something about that.

Sarah:  It’s true!

[music]

Sarah:  And that is all for this week’s episode.  I hope you enjoyed that.  I want to thank Sonali Dev for hanging out on Skype with me.  We had a very long, very fun conversation, so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

This podcast is brought to you by InterMix, publisher of national bestselling author Anne Calhoun’s Evening Storm, the new e-novella in her sinfully addictive Irresistible series.  You can download it on August 18th.

Our podcast transcript this week is sponsored by Freeditorial, a free and global meeting place for readers and writers from all over the planet.  Freeditorial is a publisher and a library.  They invite you to download and read some of your favorite public domain books, as well as books and articles from their authors, and you can check out their Long-Short Story Contest too.  There is lots to discover at Freeditorial.

Our music is provided by Sassy Outwater.  You can find her on Twitter @SassyOutwater.  This is the Peatbog Faeries from their album Blackhouse.  This track is called “Angus and Joyce Mackay.”  You can find their new album online at Amazon or iTunes or wherever you like to buy music.  

If you have questions or suggestions or questions about suggestions, or maybe you have suggestions of questions that I should ask, you can email us at [email protected].  We do love hearing from you, because you are awesome!

And on behalf of Jane and Sonali Dev and myself, we wish you the very best reading.  Have a great weekend.

[expanding music]