For this month’s guest post, we welcome Sandhya Menon, author of the newly released When Dimple Met Rishi. We are so excited for Sandhya, as her novel debuted a couple of weeks ago on the New York Times Best Seller list. (ALL THE SQUEALS!) A YA romantic comedy, the story is about two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage. The hero, Rishi, is a hopeless romantic who is actually kind of into it. Dimple? Um. Not so much.
Welcome, Sandhya! First things first. Why do you write YA?
Because today’s teens are totally going to save our world.
When you’re writing, what is your personal kryptonite?
That first round of editing (before it even goes to my editor). I dread it every single time!
When it comes to rejections and/or negative reviews, how do you cope?
This is weird, but reading negative reviews of books I LOVED or about rejections the authors I love faced really helps me see I’m not alone and often it’s not about me at all.
Kissing scenes: Do you find them easy or more challenging to write?
Definitely easier! All the kissing!
If you could co-author a book with anyone, who would it be?
Jenny Han, Becky Albertalli, or Stephanie Perkins!
Awesome! Now on to the speed round:
- Alpha males vs. sensitive types: Sensitive types all the way, baby!
- Sweet vs. savory: SWEET.
- Tropical island vs. mountain getaway: Mountains!
- French fries vs. cookies: Cookies! Especially chocolate or coconut cookies…mmmm…
- Friday night vs. Sunday morning: Friday night! Love that feeling of freedom and possibilities spooling out before me!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Fans can find Sandhya here:
Sandhya Menon is the author of WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI (Simon Pulse/May 30, 2017) and a second YA contemporary coming in the summer of 2018. She currently lives in Colorado, where she’s on a mission to (gently) coerce her family to watch all 3,221 Bollywood movies she claims as her favorite.