Anoushka Kolahalu Interview | Respect the Author
Where are you from?: United Arab Emirates (Indian Origins)
Tell us the story of how you got into writing: As a 15-year-old kid battling emotions and growing up into a strange world, writing gave me the strength to release the turmoil that I felt on a daily basis. I think every day it's getting harder and harder for teenagers to stay young and unaffected by the world around us, it definitely choked my emotional state. Writing gave me a productive outlet for whatever I felt for the past 7 years. It's a safe place that I can always return to.
What was your favorite book growing up?: Tuesdays with Morrie.
What is the name of your new book?: Notorious Five
What inspired you to write the book?: Hardships.
Tell us more about your new book: As I began writing this book at the age of 16, the main characters are in high school. However, as I have recently completed this book last year - at the age of 21, I tried my best to keep the reality of the treading world within the world. The fictional new adult thriller glamours the friendships and loyalty of five friends and their siblings. What starts out relatable becomes a mirage for what the main character wants to believe. The impact of the town, its history and the ghoulish genes of the residents take hold after years of silence through the release of pain.
The journey shows the struggles of being haunted by your limitations of family names, genes and location. It highlights the strengths of some friendships, and the hardships of others. The struggles of affection between siblings. The boundaries that divide people, and how they seem inane from a distance. The town speaks louder metaphorically. The five characters represent the austerity of young adults having to deal with responsibilities, adulthood and their madhouse of past mistakes.
Where do you go to get into writing mode?: It's usually cuddling up in bed, keeping a dim light on and subtle alternate music playing in the background. It helps focus my energy and vibe into the genre of books that I write.
Who needs to read this book?: Young Adults. I believe that I wanted people to know how struggling through life is okay. You need to fight for what you want.
Who inspires you?: Since I was a kid, I never found any inspirational famous people. It's because I thought people whom I had never met seemed awfully distant for me to make judgements on them. I appreciate and get inspired by people all day, but it's not just one person. If I see, for example, a person on the internet doing a good deed, it inspires me to do better. If I watch a man on the street say something inspiring, I will keep that with me forever. For me, every day, people and little things inspire me. It's honestly impossible for me to answer this question with the name of one or two people.
How important is reading and literacy for youth in this world?: It impacts the way you think. So it can be as important as you want it to be!
What is some advice you would give to someone with a dream to create something they dream of?: Do it. Just do it. What is the worst that could happen? You have one life. You have dreams. You owe it to yourself every day. You owe it to yourself to get up every single day and work towards your goal. What you do with your life now, will ripple into something good eventually. Just do it. Give it everything you have. Take any rejection you get to your face, but just keep pushing forward. We have to keep pushing.
Dream. Create. Think Small or Think Big. Do you. Just make sure that you do what you want to do. Hustle till you make it.
Where can people find your new book?: https://kola2.com/
Website: https://kola2.com/
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