About the Author

Q: What would you say is your main source of inspiration for writing?

A: I must admit, boredom is what pushes me to write. In times when I have literally nothing to do my mind takes me to an imaginative land where I am able to keep myself occupied by random fantasies. These fantasies come to life with the help of a pen and paper, of course. Cold summer showers also drive me to ponder on my stories, eventually leading me to my laptop for typing my stories out. So technically, my sources of inspiration are not grand yet are effective enough to help me write my novels.

Q: Do you plan your stories? If so, how?

A: Since most of my novels deal with mysteries and thrillers, I do have to plan them out way ahead of time in order to prevent any holes in the plot. The methods I use differ in different pieces of work, however a common thing that I generally do to keep my storyline in place is to organize the beginning and the end of the story. That way I am able to monitor whether or not my plot is heading towards where I intended it to head. I would also like to emphasize that there are times when I let my characters loose and work the flow of writing with their personalities. This is basically one of the many times that I don't exactly work with plans. So in par with the question, I do plan important aspects of the main storyline of my novels, but there definitely are times when I let the story characters work on their own as long as the end goal is not altered.

Q: Is there a message in your story that you hope your readers pick up on?

A: Oh lord, honestly there's many. The interactions between my book characters, the plot and the setting, they all contribute towards conveying various messages which I truly hope my readers can pick up on. One such message is portrayed by the main character, Taylor Sharma, who is strong headed and very stubborn. She's quite rare as a main character in the sense that she is inconsiderate of people who do not mean much to her, but is mindful of her loved ones. Her choices throughout the story are questionable and her attitude truly peaks readers' irritation level. In fact, a lot of my readers get annoyed by her. Well, the reason I made her so imperfect and rather despicable is so that readers are able to see through her "mean girl" façade and discover just how much she is struggling to keep up with her life in spite of appearing mentally strong. Taylor, as the main character, is simply a teenager who has experienced many events in her life that can make any regular person depressed, yet her response to her traumatic experiences is a toxic way of pretending to be strong when in fact she is hurting from within. I was a little disheartened to find very few readers understanding why she kept herself from making new friends or why she was being rude to unfamiliar students who approached her. I made her a realistic, confused teenager who is trying really hard to navigate her way in life, especially after the death of her best friend. The message here is that one does not need to be perfect or make perfect choices to become the main character of their stories. Taylor was made to tell readers that it's alright to be imperfect and that though one needs to be strong during tough times, it's important to open up to others, to rely on others, to overcome past trauma through healthy healing which Taylor will definitely achieve at the end of the story.

Q: What do you hope your readers will like best about your story?

A: I most definitely expect my readers to enjoy the mystery and suspense features of "The Mind of a Tipsy Teenager". Though large and rather significant aspects of my story consist of humour and romance, the suspense revolving the main character is what I believe keeps my readers at the edge of their seats. I really like how the mystery part of my plot in this book is coming out as it contains unexpected turns which sometimes surprise me too. I ensure that most of my chapters end in cliff-hangers or give clues about the growing mystery so that readers could be left in awe. It's basically like a spider web, which I definitely assure my readers, will end in the most unexpected way possible. So yes, the mystery aspect of my novel is certainly the most memorable part of the book.

Q: Do you have a favorite author on Wattpad? If so, who? What story is your favorite?

A: Since I have read so many books in Wattpad, choosing a single favourite author and a single favourite book seems like quite a challenge. I must mention Sakz15, a marvelous teen fiction author who wrote the very first book which I read on Wattpad, "His Blonde Little Secret". Her Teen Fiction book was gripping, heart-warming and easy to read as it was filled with a variety of emotions which undoubtedly gave me butterflies. I've also read her other pieces of work such as "Sugar" and "FBI Agent", both of which are absolutely entrancing! There's also  with the "With Me" series which had me unconditionally smitten. I was basically drooling over her characters, especially and typically the male main lead: Aiden. I'm also a huge fan of the amazing author of "Finding Humanity", a dystopian book which focuses on survival during a zombie eclipse. I'm absolutely sure I'd never forget any of these books on Wattpad. I recommend all three of these authors' novels to the readers in Wattpad because these books deserve a lot more recognition as they are a part of the very best pieces of work in Wattpad. I'd also like to shout out to authors outside of Wattpad; Colleen Hoover, JK Rowling, Celia Friedman, James Patterson, George R.R. Martin and Dan Brown for their extravagant pieces of writings that left me doing all-nighters with their thrilling content.

The Future

I'd love to share a teaser for my upcoming mystery novel which I'm planning to publish after completing my current work, "The Mind of a Tipsy Teenager." This draft was also written a few years back and is currently in the process of major editing and proofreading. Do look forward to it! Here's a part of the prologue draft #1:

"It was cloudy at noon, along with slight drizzles in a few areas of Kansas. Expectations were of a sunny afternoon with a clear blue sky as reported by the previous weather news; a perfect time for a Sunday vacation or a hangout at the beach nearby. Instead, dark grey clouds moved closer, conjuring a massive downpour on the small town of Attrenal, located on the east of Kansas.

In this small town, nothing could be hidden. Here, a tiny irrelevant secret would spill and spread like fire, so how could it entertain the presence of a murderer? How could anyone hide in here after stabbing a knife down a person's abdomen or shooting one's forehead when the sound of the gunshot would definitely echo loud and clear, reaching every corner of the town? And how would the person escape from the wrath of the residents of Attrenal, who stood up for justice and of course; for their own safety and welfare of their families? So why would anyone take a risk?

The town was as safe as it appeared. The policemen had hardly ever caught people robbing, so murder was simply out of the topic. In terms of crime, this town was the one which excelled in the protection of its citizens. People walked around freely without the fear of any stranger jumping out to strangle them and take hold of their possessions.

How pleased the mayor was during conferences, when others discussed issues in their towns which concerned the increasing number of criminal activities, was well worth seeing.

The mayor bragged about his disciplined and criminal-free town. He boasted to everyone he met about how long he had been able to manage the town without any serious issues or trouble. This went on for years, conference after conference.

Until that rainy day, when someone sneaked into his house, slit his throat and walked away with it.

No one found any clue of his murderer- neither a fingerprint, nor camera footage. The only thing left behind was the old man on his blood soaked couch, a knife clutched lightly by his left hand, slowly dripping blood."

About the Story

Taylor Sharma is best friends with a popular girl, so she knows about all of the drama at her school. But on the night of her eighteenth birthday, she only remembers vodka and an attractive young man - but she's positive that her best friend's death is anything but suicide. Follow Taylor's story as she finds out the truth of that night in The Mind of a Tipsy Teenager on our Featured reading list!

Q: What do you like most about Taylor?

A: I love her personality, particularly her attitude. She's not typical in the sense of being a very righteous or a perfect character as said before. Her morally grey personality is what makes me like her the most as it partially conveys practicality and realism in my novel. I also love the diversity of her blood. She's a half Spanish and half Indo- American girl residing in San Francisco, which is all good because I love having multicultural characters in novels.

Q: Are any of the characters based off of people you know?

A: I suppose some aspects of the personalities of characters in my novel are based of personalities of people around me. For instance, Taylor adopts the irritable side of my sibling and well, me; Zain's sweet side has been inspired by the sweet personalities of my crushes (the members of a kpop band: BTS, hehe) and Jace's humorous and a little irresponsible side has been taken from a few idiotic friends in my class. So yes, my characters have partially been inspired by the people I met in real life.

Q: What is your favorite scene? Why?

A: Actually, my favourite scene is currently in my drafts, waiting to be published but if I have to choose from the current published chapters then I believe it is the scene in which Taylor, Zain and Daisy engage in a car chase with Michael's kidnaper. Technically, in this scene, a character named Michael gets kidnapped by a mysterious man in black and Taylor, being determined to catch up with him, chases after, together with her dog, Daisy, and her acquaintance, Zain, as passengers. The car chase is chaotic as Taylor clearly lacks a driver's licence yet not the determination to catch up with the abductor; however, the chase ends in a mild accident as the kidnapper pulls out a gun and shoots directly at them, consequently breaking their car window and hurting Taylor. I guess this scene is very exhilarating and rather fun to read which is entirely why I'd placed it as one of my favourites. There's another scene I'd like to mention as well; the part where Jace, an obvious comical character, breaks the door knob of the records room of the police station in which they had snuck into to steal a few important files for Violet's (Taylor's best friend) mysterious case. I really like this scene as it adds considerable humour to the story and gives us a clear view of Jace's tactics and personality.

Q: You mentioned you started this story when you were thirteen. What are one or two major changes you've noticed between writing it then and editing it now?

A: Well, I've made quite a large number of significant changes to the original draft that I wrote years ago. Major plot changes were made to eliminate noticeable plot holes in the novel after which grammatical and structuring errors were checked and removed. The current draft may not be entirely error proof but in contrast to the first draft, I think I did a great job in making the current draft a better version. If I were to compare the writing skills of my past and my present self then I must confess, the past me had very limited vocabulary and lacked in many areas of writing such as sentence structuring, tenses, grammar and so many other areas. My present self seems to have improved in many of these areas, however there is always room for more improvement and I'm looking forward to further honing my writing skills to present better pieces of work to my readers. I'd like to thank all of my readers for putting up with my mistakes and sticking with me till the very end. I hope you enjoy Taylor and her friends' journey in solving the uncanny and gruesome mystery of Violet's death in " The Mind of a Tipsy Teenager."