About Aashima Arora
Aashima Arora grew up on a steady diet of Bollywood, All India Radio(AIR), and performing theatre peppered with a heavy dose of romance novels. A former AIR announcer, she now enjoys teaching English in Mumbai. She swears by Korean dramas and Victorian romances.
LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it and its content.
Aashima: The book is a love story. A rich Bollywood script writer meets a poor orphaned girl and circumstances force them to marry. They fall in love, but destiny separates them. The cookie box, which has love letters written by the girl, becomes the boy’s mainstay. A few twists and turns later, they get back together: Forever.
I started writing because I was unable to read what I wanted to read. The first story I wrote was just an experiment. As I was writing my first novel, this story started taking shape in my subconscious. Then came a point when I haphazardly finished my first story and started writing ‘#True Love and A Cookie Box’.
LiFT: Why you chose this title?
Aashima: The love story is tied together with the cookie box that contains love letters for the protagonist written by his wife. Each letter contains a slice of life of the lead couple. These letters play a crucial role in the narrative.
LiFT: When did you realize that you want to be a writer and what’s your inspiration behind it?
Aashima: I read a few stories on social media and I thought about how I would have written and treated the plot. One thing led to another, and I found myself putting together a story on a social media platform.
LiFT: Where do you see yourself ten years down the line in the world of literature?
Aashima: Hopefully, in it! Still writing!
LiFT: How much do you think marketing or quality of a book is necessary to promote a particular book and increase its readers?
Aashima: It is very important to properly market a well-written book. A good book should be read by as many people as possible.
LiFT: What is the message you want to spread among folks with your writings?
Aashima: No such message, but I have realised that I write to have a good time and want my readers to experience the same.
LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?
Aashima: I teach English to MBA aspirants.
LiFT: What are the activities you resort to when you face a writer’s block?
Aashima: I go back to reading books and watching Korean dramas and try not to think about it.
LiFT: Are you working on your next book? If yes, please tell us something about it.
Aashima: ‘#True Love and A Cookie Box’ took me one year to write the book and I completely fell in love with my characters. As I sat down to write the epilogue, I kept on thinking about what would happen to the characters after this book ended. The epilogue of Book-I gave me two more love stories, making it a trilogy.
LiFT: What are your suggestions to the budding writers/poets so that they could improve their writing skills?
Aashima: You can’t write if you don’t read. Read loads of good writers and pay attention to grammar and punctuation.
Click here to order Aashima’s Book – #True Love and A Cookie Box
