It’s finally June, and the perfect time to move back to the deck for our weekly chats. While we enjoy a nice morning breeze, join me in welcoming author Harini Nagendra with her historical mystery set in 1920s India.
I’m so pleased to meet you, Harini. What can I get you to drink?
HN: My favourite cup of choice is tea made Indian style, with milk and sugar, and often ginger as well. My husband makes it for me every morning – he makes the best tea! I’m usually grumpy in the mornings, but I cheer up once I drink my first cuppa.
Ally: We’ll see if my magic pot can compete with that husband of yours! 😊 In the meantime, please tell readers something about yourself.
Harini Nagendra is a professor of ecology at Azim Premji University, and is internationally recognized for her scholarship and speaking on issues of nature and sustainability. The Bangalore Detectives Club is her first crime fiction novel.
Her nonfiction books include Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future, and two books coauthored with Seema Mundoli: So Many Leaves, and Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities, which received the 2020 Publishing Next Awards for best English nonfiction book in India and was featured on the 2021 Green Literature Festival’s honor list.
Harini lives in Bangalore with her family, in a home filled with maps. She loves trees, mysteries, and traditional recipes.
Something unique/unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “I wanted to be an archeologist when I was younger! I guess I’ve now found a different way to indulge my fascination with the past, through fiction.”
Author Contacts:
Personal website: www.harininagendra.com
University website: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/people/harini-nagendra
Twitter: @HariniNagendra
Instagram: @harini.nagendra
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008345929330
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harini-nagendra-22a95686/
Ally: Who or what inspired your featured book?
HN: My main protagonist, Kaveri – a young bride in 1920s colonial Bangalore, navigating the societal strictures imposed on women of those times while striving to pursue her interests in mathematics, swimming and detection – quite literally parachuted into my head one day in 2007 and demanded I write a book about her. Kaveri’s quiet but assured feminist voice is uniquely hers and formed the core voice around which my book was architected.
Ally: What is the easiest—or the hardest—part of writing for you? Explain.
HN: The hardest part is the beginning. I get nervous when I think of how improbable a thing it is that I am attempting – to create an entire narrative out of thin air, so to speak. I’m very comfortable with non-fiction writing, especially since so much of it is based on my own research and covers ground that I know well. But once I hush my inner voice of doubt and start to write, and imagination takes over, when my fingers start to type almost as if of their own volition, and a story begins to emerge – that’s the part I love the best.
Ally: Do you use critique groups or beta readers? Do you find them valuable?
HN: My husband and daughter are my best beta readers. I rely a lot on their feedback – they know my characters and their personalities like no one else does. I also depend on my fabulous agent who is also a close friend from school days – Priya Doraswamy of Lotus Lane Literary. Between inputs from her and my family, I’m well set! I don’t think I could handle reading chapters to a critique group as many writers do – my first writing is very raw and rough. I need to get the whole book done and a few rounds of edits complete before I’m comfortable showing it to anyone else.
Ally: Why did you choose writing as a career? Is it your only career, or do you have a “day” job?
HN: I have a very full “day” job as a university professor, research administrator, teacher and academic. My day job also involves a great deal of writing, but on ecology and climate change, which are my core areas of research. I wouldn’t say I chose writing as a career – writing chose me, and I’m very grateful that I can spend time doing something I love so much.
Ally: Do you read reviews of your books? Do you respond to them? Are you affected by them?
HN: Feedback from readers is invaluable! I do read reviews, but I never respond to them. As a career academic, and someone who writes regularly for newspapers and other public outlets, I’m very used to review feedback from peers and readers. While I love positive feedback (who doesn’t!) the tone of negative feedback doesn’t really bother me too much. I do pay close attention to plot points or characters that especially resonated with readers – and I make note of what I could improve on for next time.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
HN: My next book is the second in the Kaveri and Ramu series: Murder Under the Red Moon, forthcoming in March 2023. Will Kaveri be able to repair her fractured relationship with her opinionated mother-in-law, or will it get worse as she dives deeper into crime detection? Read and find out J
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose to answer?
HN:
- an author (living or dead) you’d love to chat with: Robin Hobb, my all-time favourite author
- favorite accessory (jewelry, scarves, shoes, etc.): large sparkly earrings
- favorite comfort food: my husband’s egg biriyani
- If you were a color, what would it be and why? Sunset orange – it’s such a happy colour!
- have you written a book during NaNo? I wrote a draft of a cosy mystery set in contemporary Bangalore in 2020 during NaNo. I hope to edit and publish that – some day!
Ally: Thanks for being on the blog, Harini. Before we finish the interview, please show us your featured book.
Genre: historical mystery
PG-13
The first in a charming, joyful crime series set in 1920s Bangalore, featuring sari-wearing detective Kaveri and her husband Ramu. Perfect for fans of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry handsome young doctor Ramu, she’s resigned herself to a quiet life.
But that all changes the night of the party at the Century Club, where she escapes to the garden for some peace and quiet—and instead spots an uninvited guest in the shadows. Half an hour later, the party turns into a murder scene.
When a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime, Kaveri becomes determined to save her and launches a private investigation to find the killer, tracing his steps from an illustrious brothel to an Englishman’s mansion. She soon finds that sleuthing in a sari isn’t as hard as it seems when you have a talent for mathematics, a head for logic, and a doctor for a husband . . .
And she’s going to need them all as the case leads her deeper into a hotbed of danger, sedition, and intrigue in Bangalore’s darkest alleyways.
Buy links:
https://bookshop.org/books/the-bangalore-detectives-club/9781639361595
https://www.amazon.com/Bangalore-Detectives-Club-Novel/dp/1639361596/