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Interviewing someone is not an easy task. But I dared to do that on my blog and this is my first interview post on my blog.

I’m interviewing Romila Chitturi on my blog. I’m glad that she agreed for being interviewed and get featured on my blog. She is an experienced blogger, avid reader, eBook author and a charming personality. She is always ready to help and you cannot ignore her witty tweets and sense of humor. I’m glad to be connected with her through social media.

Without doing much of delay let’s hear it from Romila!!

1. Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Thank you Shamik for having me on your blog. I am honored and happy.

I am Romila, I blog at Novemberschild.com and can be connected on Twitter @romspeaks. I am a voracious reader, e-books author, devoted coffee-drinker, avid thinker and a fashion lover. I am passionate about music, literature and food. I love travelling. I have been often called as an extremely friendly, helpful and a happy person. My new and third book is a collection of short stories which is out for sale. I have not attempted really big stories. It has been released on Amazon on 25th September 2017. It is titled – Between the pages and other short stories.

2. What is your source of ideas or inspiration for your books and is there any particular process that you follow for your writing?

I believe in planning but all my three books have been just out a plan. I have not followed any process but as I have intentions of writing a full length novel, I am actually now going to follow a complete process right from a central idea, to a mind map, organizing it and planning the chapters in a proper way.  For ideas for my books – the world around me served as inspiration.  My first eBook had me sharing my thoughts on random topics such as antagonists in literature, to blogging, about opportunity doors, greenery to Ghazals. The next eBook had 26 micro poems based on themes very near to me and my new book has stories, where you can learn the strength of emotions between the pages of mixed feelings.

3. If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?

As a kid reading was my hobby along with coloring and solving puzzles. As I grew up, I picked up writing alongside reading and it was the most different thing I ever did as a teenager which helped me to become the kind of writer/blogger I am today. My reading and writing side was perfectly in order. As an adult with many easy resources to improve my work has been really helpful.

4. What period of your life do you find you write about most often? (Child, teenager, young adult)?

I have written about my childhood memories, teenage experiences and more on my adulthood. I am in my mid 30’s but I don’t think I will ever write about crisis of this age or that of being in 40’s. I find that concept totally irrelevant.

5. If you could spend time as a character from your book who would it be and why?

I like all the stories from my book but if I had to pick one it has to be ‘The stranger’. The story and the character in it is just me. I have a special liking towards Urdu language and given a chance I would enroll myself to learn this language in the university. The character of this story is truly personal to me.

6. What is the biggest surprise that you have ever experienced after becoming a writer or while creating this book?

I will not call it as a surprise but yes I was happy when I received more than 30 positive reviews on my poetry book from readers, bloggers and non-bloggers who took out time to read my work. I have been accepted as a writer (offline) and a blogger (online) and I was expecting to be accepted as an author and it happened. I thank all my readers, fans and admirers. I am nothing without all of you.

7. What has been the toughest criticism and best compliment given to you as an author?

My toughest literary criticism has been that I received hate messages from few bloggers and people who called themselves as my friends.  It was sheer jealousy and irrelevant to my work. These messages made me realize that there are people around me who don’t like me and I am on the right direction.  As I mentioned earlier I received more than 30 positive and best compliments/feedback as an author from my readers, one of them has been you, who has been too good in giving review of my eBook. I wish I could mention all those good words.

8. Tell us little bit about your latest book “Between The Pages & Other Short Stories” and why is it a must read?

My new book is a collection of short stories. They are not really very big ones. The stories are fictional but somewhere down they are related to real people which I tweaked to a story format. If you love reading and if you like me as an author you should read my book and I bet it will not bore you.

9. What is the next that your readers can expect from you – a poetry book, a short story book or a novel?

I have many ideas buzzing in my mind and few scribbled on paper. I do want to experiment with the 200 pages novel idea. I am concentrating on the current short stories book’s promotion and once this gets going, I will surely work on the next.

10. Would you like to share some words of wisdom or tips for the aspiring bloggers and writers?

There is nothing more confusing than being all over the place with your writing. Find one theme you’re passionate about and stick to it.  Niche is important whether you are a blogger or a writer. Poor writing skills are a major disadvantage. Make sure to produce quality writing and avoid grammar/spelling errors.  You need to work on building a strong and sustainable personal brand in order to increase your visibility online. Let’s face it; you won’t become an A-list blogger/writer overnight. It took me more than 10 years to be on this spot where I am right now and not one but many of my posts were not liked/accepted by readers. Please don’t be discouraged when your blog posts do not receive the attention you think they deserve. Be persevering and consistent and acknowledge slow progress in order to keep the flame alive.

Thank you Romila for the interview and giving us your time. It was great to know more about you and am sure our readers have also enjoyed this connect.

You can connect with Romila through her blog Novemberschild.com and Tweeter @romspeaks.

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