Hello API Romance Authors!

This month, we have picked "Tellers of Lies" by _abhipreeti_ for Book of the Month. If you'd like to read this story, we encourage you to check it out in our My Heart Beats For You reading list.

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Logline: 

Prince Calix and Isha Sen must pretend to be in a fake relationship to prevent a possible failure of Crown Prince Carlos' coronation ceremony, due to a royal scandal caused by Isha in her intoxicated state. However, things are not always what meets the eye, and a relationship which was built on the foundation of lies cannot surely bloom into something more–especially when there is a betrayer out there, and events waiting to be twisted.

Excerpt from the Book:

"What do you want to know?" Calix massages his forehead with a deep exhale.

"Is something the matter?" I ask with genuine concern. "One moment you were so bitter with Harvey and refused to talk to me and now we are back on speaking terms—"

A small gasp leaves my mouth when Calix steps forward. Too close. So much so that I can feel his hot breathe fanning on my lips. He is barely touching my arms in a delicate manner, yet I feel millions of warm tingles spiking up throughout my skin. Brushing contacts ignite flames, soon after.

An expression of confusion, tenderness and desperation, all mixed up in an amalgamation, clouds his blue eyes.

"I am not fond of you. Not one bit. It is truly bitter how much I would like to stay as far as I possibly can, from you. But in vain, I can't seem to let you go. Have I gone insane or do you practice black magic, by any chance?"

About the Author:

Originating from West Bengal, India, Abhipreeti is a girl born on 25th December, 2005. This 18-year-old is a die-hard foodie and manwha and webtoon fan, who also has a special passion for writing and reading stories. She is a 2023 Ambys Winner (Poetry category), and has received several features from both Wattpad-affiliated accounts and cool user-run community profiles for all her present books which can be found on her Wattpad profile.

Abhipreeti is fond of writing books in the genres Fantasy, Romance or Romantasy. She also enjoys reading horror books but hasn't yet tried writing one (even though her realization for this particular passion had started when she had somehow written a horror short-story of 101 pages on A4 sheets at the age of 13, and before that a two-page horror play at the age of 11 for a school assignment). 

Interview:

1. What influenced your story? What inspired you to write it?

To be completely honest, nothing. One day I simply decided that I want to create a novel with its main genre as romance. Thus, it would be fair to say that "Tellers of Lies" is my first attempt at romance. I have written romance as a minor sub-plot before but never as a main genre. Hence, even the thought was challenging to me.

Initially, I had spent quite a lot of time brooding over the fact whether I wanted to create a funny rom-com, a tragic romantic tale, or a teen romance book taking place in a high school or college setting. In the end, I settled with rom-com with the tropes of fake dating, forbidden love, royal romance and as such (which also includes interracial protagonists) in my hand with absolutely NO plot in mind. I should mention that this was also after I had scratched away two romance plots which I had begun writing but then decided I wasn't getting the feel to continue either of them. So, I trusted myself and just went with the flow, taking the risk.

I sat down in front of my laptop one day, and the words automatically flowed out for the prologue and then boom, there you go, "Tellers of Lies" was born.

2. What were some challenges you faced while writing your story?

Romance, no doubt. Imagining how two characters gradually fall in love, what influences them to fall ultimately, the actions, moments of realization, conflict, dilemmas, confusions, the emotions that develop step by step, scenes and putting all these into words is definitely a challenge in itself. As I have mentioned in the previous question's answer, "Tellers of Lies" is my first attempt at romance as a main genre. Naturally, the entire book was/is a challenge for me. The inner challenges were definitely the thoughts I had, regarding whether readers would actually feel what I want them to feel through the story, if the plot is immersive enough, characters realistic, and so on.

Other than these, I faced great challenges onward chapter 36 because that is the turning point of the novel and focuses more on the characters' psychological situations, conflicts, secrets unfolded, unexpected events, etc. 

3. What message do you hope to convey with your story?

Through "Tellers of Lies", I hope to convey the message that trusting and loving yourself, as you fight through your fears, insecurities, problems, etc. and attempt to free yourself from the demons of past or present, is very important. Besides, you may not realize it, but you are not alone even when you think you are. If you look closely, you will also find the people who genuinely love and care for you. Just how Isha and Calix fight for themselves, with a little trust and love, you can do it too.

4. Do you have any advice for other authors who are interested in writing Asian & Pacific Islander Fiction?

In order to highlight the characters, their stories, and distinct personalities in Asian & Pacific Islander Romance, I believe doing authentic research is quite important as every culture is different and unique. Especially if an author is writing about Asian & Pacific Islander characters and cultures they do not originate from and aren't familiar with. Of course it is not always possible to have every detail down to perfection but with at least a brief research, I think the story might become even more intriguing to the readers.

I didn't have to do any research for "Tellers of Lies" however, since the female protagonist Isha Sen is from West Bengal, India, just like me. Well, you can connect the dots. But that doesn't mean you won't be required to research even your own culture, for a book, as every culture is very vast and not all is known to everyone.

And then, I'd say, do what you want. Experiment with the characters and story, feel the plot, place yourself there and just have fun. When on days you don't feel like writing, don't push yourself too hard. Take your time and like I said, have fun. 

5. If you could write another story to be featured on the profile, which of our reading lists would you write it for?

I do have plans on creating more romance stories in the future. The reading lists Whispers of the Heart, Shattered Memories, Hidden in the Stars (something like superhero-romance) have especially caught my attention.

6. If you are an author of Asian and/or Pacific Islander descent, what's one cool fact about your culture you can share with us?

I am from West Bengal, India, hence I will be sharing facts about the Bengali culture, specifically about our food culture 😀. As a foodie, I shall talk about Bengali cuisine!

Our staple food is plain, white rice. We can be happy with a food as simple as rice with fish curry, or rice mixed with ghee, butter, etc. with fried fishes. We also mostly use freshwater and brackish fishes in meals with all sorts of spices added either to the curry or fried steak like fish, to make it even more delicious (or spicy). But don't worry, we are not only fish and rice eaters. We also eat meat and several other veggies. Dhokar Dalna, Badhakopir Torkari, Shukto, Murir Ghonto, Lau Ghonto, Motor Dal, Cholar Dal, etc. I know, the names are very confusing and probably from the pictures of the food you wouldn't be able to understand the ingredients either but trust me, they are all vegetables and common ones like cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, raw banana, beans, carrots, tomatoes, pointed gourd and many more. Even the ones who aren't fond of eating vegetables will fall in love with eating veggies because that is how delicious Bengalis cook those dishes using various spices. We also have several sweet dishes like Roshogolla (which is like a round, sponge, white sweet dipped in a sugary syrup), Bhapa Doi (like a steamed version of curd or yoghurt), Gulab Jamun (round, brown, very sweet and dipped in sugary syrup too), Jilipi (a type of spiral yellow coloured sweet), etc.

Well I should stop here, if I keep going on, this interview will never finish. LOL

Thank you for inviting me! It was an honour to be able to interview with my book "Tellers of Lies" for the APIRomance profile. 

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Thank you _abhipreeti_ for giving us the opportunity to interview you and chat more about your book!

We'll see you all in the next Book of the Month.