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Allow me to Introduce Nupur Chowdhury, the author of “A Flight Of Broken Wings“.
To know more about the book you can read our detailed review for the same at:
Nupur is a professional copywriter and in her leisure time, she loves to read books and binge watch YouTube! 🙂 And yes, she loves to blog as well. You can reach her at: http://nupurink.blogspot.com.
Nupur Chowdhury – the author of – A Flight Of Broken Wings
Reading the book made us curious to know more about her and thus we approached her. Fortunately, things worked out positively and I got a chance to have a small Q/A session with her. I would love to share it with you all.
Greetings from team ThinkerViews!
We are glad to have a conversation with you. Thank you for sparing some time to have a Q/A session with us. Your book “A Flight Of Broken Wings” is getting positive response in both commercial and critical aspects since a while. It is a nice book indeed. Please accept our congratulations for the same and tell us something about it (the response to the book).
Hi Jiten! Thank you so much for giving me this amazing opportunity to do an interview with you guys. It’s an honor, and I’m looking forward to having a heart-to-heart about books, writing, and all the stuff that we love!
And you’re right. The response to the book really has been phenomenal! It has over 120 reviews by now from around the world. When I was writing it, I’d barely dared hope that anyone would want to read it, much less spend their time reviewing the book, analyzing the story, and giving me feedback.
I could never thank all my reviewers enough! You guys are a treasure to the writing community.
The feedback so far has been amazing and extremely constructive in all ways. Like I said, I never dared hope that the book would be received so positively and enthusiastically by readers. It’s even inspired me to start the second book in the series before schedule. Wish me luck!!
It is, of course, true for the times when the feedback is positive. But you know what’s funny? It’s even true when we get a negative response!
I mean, bad reviews or comments don’t feel good in the moment. But even they are a sign that you’re inching towards your goals. Because knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what you should do. And when we get negative feedback, it helps us correct our course so that we can get back on the right path.
Sometimes, this happens in a direct way. Like if you made a mistake in your writing and a negative review points that out. But sometimes the connection is more elusive, and the negative feedback indicates that you’re targeting the wrong audience or marketing your work on the wrong forums.
Whatever the case might be, all kinds of feedback helps us move forward on our journey. And reviews and critiques are one of the most valuable assets any writer – or any creative professional for that matter – can have.
In school, I got scolded by the teachers at least once a week, for hiding an open storybook under my desk! As an adult, things haven’t changed all that much. I still sneak novels into my workplace and read obsessively during lunch breaks. Thankfully, now the books are digital and there are no teachers to do the scolding!
By now, you probably know what my one true passion is – reading! Followed closely by writing and binge watching YouTube videos. As for my profession, I’m a web copywriter and content editor. That’s to say I write and edit promotional articles and blog posts for various companies and government organizations. I also do some freelance writing when I get the time.
Honestly? I’ve no idea! I’ve always loved writing, ever since I was a kid. English was my favorite subject in school, and I always liked writing essays.
Come to think of it, I was always a talkative child. And writing was a way for me to express my unending opinions on random topics, without ever being interrupted or told to shut up. Perhaps that’s what made me fall in love with it at an early age!
Honestly? I was inspired to write this book simply because I was frustrated with “Supernatural”, a TV show I’ve been a fan of since I was a kid. That show has a storyline featuring angels, and while I loved the show to bits, I never found their angels to be realistic. And as the seasons came and went, that storyline got progressively less convincing.
This got me thinking…a huge number of fantasy books and movies have these God-like creatures that are immortal and supposedly all-powerful. Sometimes they’re called elves, sometimes faeries or angels or vampires. But the point remains the same. They’re apparently immortal and all-knowing, thousands of years old. And yet their concerns and behaviors are the same as humans. They have the same petty quarrels and are motivated by the same things – money, land, power, getting the girl/guy, etc.
A Flight of Broken Wings by Nupur Chowdhury | Book Cover
I just wondered how a being that never dies would realistically behave. How would they be different from us? Would you consider murder a crime if you never had to fear death? Would you have the urge to go to war if you never had to fight for scarce resources? Would you be violent if you never had to hunt for prey to feed yourself or defend yourself against predators?
How different would your culture be; what possessions would you value, if any? These questions just kept bouncing around in my head. Which is how the idea for the Aeriels first emerged, because I wanted to explore these concepts and put them to the test. And once I’d started typing all this out and giving shape to my imaginings, I just couldn’t stop!
That’s a really interesting question! Okay, so confession time! The first full-length book that I ever wrote was called “The Classroom Effect”, written during my last two years of school (grades 11 and 12).
The topic of the book? Exactly what it says on the tin! It was about a single day spent at school by eight mischievous high-schoolers, and their shenanigans and adventures during those eight hours of school. And I loved writing that book while I was at it. But I also realized something about myself – which is that I tend to write larger than life characters and settings.
I enjoy books (and shows) that have dramatic characters and heart-stopping moments on a regular basis. But those types of characters are a bit hard to integrate into everyday settings without compromising the suspension of disbelief.
Hence, I find that speculative fiction is the perfect genre for me. It allows me to experiment with interesting ideas and concepts and write about the types of characters I really love, without making the reader wonder why these random school kids are so over-the-top!
A combination of the two, though I try my hardest to be disciplined about writing, simply because there’s so little time and so much writing to be done! In general, I usually have a pretty detailed outline ready before I start working on a manuscript, though I do incorporate ideas as they come along, during the process of drafting.
Definitely! In fact, I just completed the manuscript for a science fiction novel in July.
It’s about a scientist who accidentally invents a drug that can make people docile and compliant, robbing them of their free will. Various government and rebel factions are trying to get their hands on this drug, and our protagonist must do everything in his power to keep his brainchild from falling into the wrong hands!
Currently, I’m in the process of editing the manuscript and it should be ready for publication by the end of the year. But before that, I plan to complete the sequel to ‘A Flight of Broken Wings’ later this year. I’m hoping to publish part two in the first half of 2020.
For the last book (AFoBW), I wasn’t really involved. I asked a friend who was into graphic design to make a cover for me and pretty much went with her suggestions.
However, I do plan to re-design the covers once the trilogy is complete and do a complete rebranding of the series. So I’ll probably be much more involved in the process the second time around.
I think it made me a more open-minded and accepting person, really. While writing the book, I had to understand and write from the perspectives of some very different characters with very different personalities and motivations. All of them were right in their own ways, and yet they all had their own flaws and prejudices.
It kind of made me realize, viscerally, how true that is of human beings in general. How people can have different perspectives that are at odds with each other, without any of them being completely right or wrong. It’s hard to remember that sometimes, when you’re in the middle of a conflict. But writing this book has made me want to at least try.
Oh, I have lots of favorites! Ashwin Sanghi and Liane Moriarty for thrillers. Michael J. Sullivan for fantasy. Georgette Heyer for romance.
Usually, though, I don’t buy books because they were written by a certain author. I almost always buy them based on the blurb and the first few pages.
And if I end up buying and liking two or more books by the same person, I’ll try out the other novels in their catalog.
Currently, I’m reading Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – a debut novel about romance and geopolitics!
Binge watching TV shows and hanging out with my friends, chatting about the aforementioned TV shows!
Personally, I’ve never bought a book based on a video trailer. I might look up the trailer of a book I’m already planning to buy, or one I just finished reading, out of curiosity.
But I can’t imagine buying a book because it has a nice trailer. Unlike a movie, a video trailer doesn’t really give me any idea about how well the book was written. I’d rather read the blurb for that.
But hey, maybe I’m just old fashioned! For all we know, video trailers might be all the rage in a couple of years. The times, they’re a-changing!
Personally, I just find e-books to be convenient. You don’t need to carry a paperback with you everywhere you go, and if you finish reading one book during a train journey, you can always start on another right away. And it’s much easier to read from your phone when you’re on a bus on the way to the office.
That said, there are still some books I would only read in paperback – mainly classics and books I loved as a kid, such as Harry Potter and Narnia. Call it nostalgia, but some things just aren’t the same on a computer screen.
Like I said, it depends on what I’m reading and where I am. If I’m binge reading the Harry Potter series in my bedroom over the weekend, paperbacks are a must! If I’m in the middle of the latest Dan Brown thriller, trying to finish a chapter on my way to work, e-books all the way!
Like everything on earth, the usefulness of social media depends on how you use it. Some people use Facebook to build successful businesses and start revolutions for political change. Others use it to while away the hours of their life.
It can be a hugely powerful tool or a massive time-sink. What it is for you depends completely on your choices. A double edged sword – but I think that’s true for technology in general. And instead of telling kids not to use social media, I think we should start teaching the next generations how to use it productively.
Oh yes, I grew up on stories from the Indian epics, the Bible, and Greek mythology. My grandfather was a compulsive reader and a huge fan of history and mythology. He was also a fantastic storyteller.
The first storybook I ever read was Pinocchio, and I only read it because of my grandfather. He’d read stories to me every afternoon, but he’d only read for half an hour and then go to sleep.
I became so obsessed with the story of Pinocchio about halfway through that I cried and begged him to finish it that very day. He just said if I wanted to know what happened next so badly, I needed to read it myself. And that’s how my love affair with the written word began!
Well, it depends on who your grandparents are and what circumstances you’re in. Naturally, since fewer and fewer children grow up in joint families, the amount of time they get to spend with their grandparents is relatively less than it used to be. And not all grandparents will be interested in mythology or storytelling, for that matter.
I do think, though, that family members should make an attempt to engage kids through stories. After all, we humans have a tendency to think in narratives. And children need a strong narrative foundation on which to ground their identity and worldview as they grow into adults.
Culture and society are dynamic things, and they change with every generation. The pace of change is even more rapid now, with the exponential growth of technology. So on the one hand, many children may not get to hear stories from their grandparents on a daily basis, but on the other, many grandparents can now share their favorite stories with their grandkids over Skype and WhatsApp from thousands of miles away, something that’d have been unimaginable a generation ago.
Everything that happens has an effect on culture, but a culture that doesn’t change is dead. So while change can sometimes be painful, it’s usually a good thing in the long run.
Gladly! You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Goodreads, and Instagram. Plus, if you want a little extra background or context for my stories, feel free to check out my Blog. Here are the quick links:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/NupurC94
- FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/NupurRhymes/
- Medium: https://medium.com/@nupcy.48
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7787143.Nupur_Chowdhury
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nupur_in_stories/
- Blog: http://nupurink.blogspot.com
Thank you so much for the interview, Jiten. It was a pleasure talking to you, and I had a world of fun discussing books, writing, society, and pop culture with you! Hope we can do this again soon.
Happy reading to you and your readers!! 😀
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