Reading While Black

With three books under her belt, Sonia Singh shares her experiences in the publishing industry thus far.

1. How long have you been published?

My first book, GODDESS FOR HIRE, was released in 2004.

2. How do you feel your heritage has shaped your writing and outlook on the genre in which you write(themes, characters, settings, etc)?

Well growing up I was the Indian kid in school [even though I was born in Orange County] and when I went back to India with my mother I was the American relative. I never felt like I fully fit in anywhere. I think that feeling subtly resonates through all my books…okay, maybe not so subtly. My characters never seem to fit in anywhere. In my first book, my heroine is a spoiled rich girl who didn’t get straight A’s and didn’t go to medical school and–just to subtly pound in how different she is–she discovers one day that she’s the incarnation of a goddess. In my second book, my heroine is a disciplined American actress who finds herself thrust into the erratic chaotic world of Bollywood (Indian) filmmaking. In my third book, my heroine is a psychic who is torn between a family who shuns her abilities and a ghost hunter who wants her to go into haunted houses and talk to scary dead people.

3. What is your reaction when a non-Indian author writes a successful novel featuring Indian characters?

As long as the Indian characters don’t sound like Apu on “The Simpsons” and use words like “chutney, curry and Shiva” alot, then I’m all for it. JK Rowling has twin Indian sisters in the Harry Potter series and they got to Hogwarts and practice wizardry like everyone else. I love that! For instance, “Harold and Kumar” is one of my favorite movies and the writer-director isn’t Indian.

4. Have you, at any point in your publishing career, felt marginalized by your heritage?

Not at all. I have felt marginalized as a writer though…just kidding! Personally, I find publishing to be an equal opportunity employer. It all comes down to one color, green. The color of money. And so what? No editor is going to turn down your manuscript because of your heritage.

5. Do you feel that you are required, whether due to external or internal opinions, to write characters sharing your ethnicity?

That is such an excellent question! My first book GODDESS FOR HIRE just happened to feature an Indian-American character like me. I didn’t set out to write a book that addressed my experiences growing up as an Indian-American in Orange County. I still see my first book as mainstream fiction with supernatural themes and a chick-lit tone and a heroine who happens to be Indian-American. But my editor wanted more stories featuring Indian characters and I had to come up with them. In my third book GHOST, INTERRUPTED I wanted the heroine’s ethnic heritage to be a non-issue. I wanted to focus on ghost-hunting and ESP and not on the fact that my heroine has an Indian last name. My editor wanted “Indian family” scenes though and I struggled with trying to marry the two worlds in the book. I was naive to think that after my first book I could write a second book featuring, say, an Irish-American heroine, but that’s what I wanted to do. I had nothing more to say about Indian families. I admire authors who write book after book exploring their cultural heritage but I can’t do that. Thankfully, I have a wonderful agent and I’m happy to report that my next three books will have nothing to do with Indian people. Now, that doesn’t mean I’ll never write about Indian people again. I’d like to do a sequel to GODDESS FOR HIRE. I’d like to explore Hindu mythology. James Cameron is so lucky. He gets to make a movie like TERMINATOR about an unstoppable cyborg and then he gets to do a love story like TITANIC. He gets to switch it around. He also gets to make millions of dollars doing it…sigh.