Author Bio:
I was born in Poland in 1956. My early years were spent in Warsaw, until marriage to an Indian diplomat took me first to India and then to a number of other countries.
In years of extensive travels and living among many different cultures in India, England, Vietnam, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Russia, I have been fortunate to have a wide exposure to human nature in its diversity. I have been struck by the pervasive nature of obsessions in humans, manifested in a wide variety of foibles. I am passionate about psychology, though I have no formal training in it.
My first novel “Born to be Perfect” is a story that draws attention to some of the commonly prevalent psychological disorders and the struggle of their sufferers to overcome them.
The second one, “Her Choice”, deals with social and psychological problems surrounding the controversial and sensitive issue of abortion.
What inspires you to write?
Everything that happens around me is a potential inspiration. I express in my novels my observations, fears and hopes. I write about things that happened or might have happened. Ideas come and go but there isn’t enough time to capture all of them and put them in writing.
Tell us about your writing process.
I am very much a seat of the pants writer. I create my characters and let them develop as a novel progresses. I know roughly where I want my stories to reach, though in both my novels the stories developed a life of their own as we went along.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
My characters become my friends. I am happy and sad with them. I understand their emotions and shed a tear for them when the going gets tough.
What advice would you give other writers?
Enjoy your work. Don’t get upset by bad reviews. Not everybody has to like everything.
Avoid re-reading your text immediately after having written it. One tends to be very critical of one’s own writing, since one gets the feeling that the idea is not expressed properly. It’s best to re-read your text after you have forgotten what the original idea was, and then you can judge it purely on its merit.
Just keep writing!
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Writing is fun, but publishing and promoting books is hard work, particularly during a global recession. After my first novel was turned down by a few publishers, I opted for e-publishing and didn’t even bother to try any other publisher for my second novel.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
With the onset of electronic reading devices, e-publishing has a great future. It gives readers easy access to a much wider choice of books. It allows a much better interaction between authors and readers.
It also enables an author to closely follow the fate of her books, and get an immediate reaction to her writing.
Not to mention the fact that many trees are saved!
What genres do you write?
Contemporary fiction, Literary fiction, Family Life, fiction on behavioural disorders, women’s fiction
What formats are your books in?
eBook
Website(s)
Link To Barbara Raghavan Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7191291.Barbara_Raghavan
