I am a part of the old school where I feel that purity of the language should be retained. But English is a constantly evolving language where new words are being added to the dictionary, so I don't see any harm in experimenting with the language. Only poor editing standards need to be improved.Ashwin Sanghi
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I was a businessman for 16 years of my life, so when I started writing, I wanted to keep my literary identity separate.Ashwin Sanghi
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Writing a mystery is like drawing a picture and then cutting it into little pieces that you offer to your readers one piece at a time, thus allowing them the chance to put the jigsaw puzzle together by the end of the book.Ashwin Sanghi
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Initial work is on period research where the historical markers are absolutely non-negotiable. Once that is established, a writer can take creative liberties in terms of chronology to suit the story.Ashwin Sanghi
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The publishing scene in India is evolving rapidly, and the key challenge is to keep reinventing oneself so that one does not become formulaic. Sometimes it is safer to deal with the consequences of failure than the fruits of success. Remaining on one's toes is critical, and often one finds that success makes one complacent.Ashwin Sanghi
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I work in a business environment forty hours a week, and writing is what I do to unwind. It allows me to transport myself to a happy place where I can indulge my hopes, beliefs, aspirations and fantasies. It also allows me to live and breathe a topic for eighteen months while I'm researching and writing.Ashwin Sanghi
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A western audience might not appreciate 'Chanakya's Chant' because of its dependence on history and ancient statecraft. My book is a modern-day thriller that draws on a bedrock of history. My primary object is to entertain, not educate.Ashwin Sanghi
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Did God create man, or did man create God? Either way, the decision needs to be reviewed.Ashwin Sanghi
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I would imagine that anyone picking up a book written by me would expect a fast-paced story that requires minimal effort to turn the pages. The reader would also be looking for some out-of-the-ordinary revelations along the way. At the end of the day, I'm a writer who simply loves revealing stuff that is out-of-the-ordinary.Ashwin Sanghi
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The decision to use a pen name was nothing more than a desire to compartmentalise my life. However, I had not thought about an appropriate pseudonym, and since there's an abundance of anagrams in the novel, the idea struck me: why not use an anagram of my name? Hence, Shawn Haigins.Ashwin Sanghi
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I have always been a bit of an introvert. In fact, my dad used to force me to meet people so that my interpersonal skills improve. As an individual, I was happiest when left alone.Ashwin Sanghi
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That freedom of writing you don't get in other formats, I'd rather leave it to someone else to deal with the headache of drafting my book into a screenplay.Ashwin Sanghi
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Oral storytelling goes back so long ago, and those stories that were told orally were always layered and changed with time.Ashwin Sanghi
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While growing up, I always had to depend on foreign authors for page-turners. I think of myself as a commercial writer, and my job is simple to entertain you.Ashwin Sanghi
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What is divine? It is simply that which man has not been able to understand. Once you do, it loses its divinity.Ashwin Sanghi
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My self-publishing adventure led to my work being picked up by a traditional publisher and eventually hitting the bestseller lists. That led to two more bestselling novels.Ashwin Sanghi
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After writing each novel, I would spend days poring over suggestions from my editor.Ashwin Sanghi
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Till the time I found a creative outlet, I was trying to be extra creative at business, which would always put me in a situation of conflict with other stakeholders. The moment I started writing, my creative impulses were finally channelised.Ashwin Sanghi
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At thirty-five, having spent over twenty years running varied businesses for my family, I decided to sit down and write my first novel. I had never written anything longer than a couple of pages till then and was foolishly attempting to write a hundred-thousand words.Ashwin Sanghi
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The Egyptians saw the sun and called him Ra, the Sun God. He rode across the sky in his chariot until it was time to sleep. Copernicus and Galileo proved otherwise, and poor Ra lost his divinity.Ashwin Sanghi
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It may sound very strange, but I love the freedom that writing a novel gives me. It is an unhindered experience. If I come after a bad day, I can decide that my protagonist will die on page 100 of my novel in a 350-page story.Ashwin Sanghi
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I was always taught that book keeping was more relevant than book reading. The only thing worth reading was meant to be a balance sheet.Ashwin Sanghi
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An author entices the readers with their words, and it is painful for them to even lose a sentence. But films and books are two different mediums and should be dealt differently. What works in a book might not work for a film. When I saw 'Anna Karenina' on screen, I didn't like it at all, whereas 'The Godfather' was legendary.Ashwin Sanghi
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Mythology is a set of primitive lies that people rarely believe. This is rather different from history, which is a set of lies that people actually believe.Ashwin Sanghi
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My wife is troubled by the things I forget. I am troubled by the things she recollects.Ashwin Sanghi
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There has to be a protagonist who has to overcome challenges, and there will be a race to finish.Ashwin Sanghi
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It is not history, theology or mythology that interest me. It is the fact that history, theology or mythology could have alternative interpretations or explanations. I try to connect the dots between the past and the present.Ashwin Sanghi
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I want my writing to reach people. I don't write for a market. I write from my heart, something that appeals to me. The marketing, segmenting etc., can be done by your publisher, not you.Ashwin Sanghi
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Writing was my route to creative expression, and I needed to write about the things that interested me.Ashwin Sanghi
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Mythology does not interest me. Nor does history. But the possible overlap between history and mythology excites me immensely.Ashwin Sanghi
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I don't start with the characters. I start with the series of events that will provide the conflict and how it can be resolved. Characters are incidental.Ashwin Sanghi
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The average human attention span was 12 seconds in 2000 and 8 seconds in 2013. A drop of 33%. The scary part is that the attention span of a goldfish was 9 seconds, almost 13% more than us humans. That's why it's getting tougher by the day to get people to turn the page. Maybe we writers ought to try writing for goldfish!Ashwin Sanghi
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There is one person who can help solve 'writer's block'. His name is Mr. Johnnie Walker.Ashwin Sanghi
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I believe that patterns tend to repeat themselves and there are connections between the past and the present. There is the old proverb that reads, 'You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been'. For me, history is like that. When you take history and combine it with myth, then you get mystery.Ashwin Sanghi
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Writing is incidental to my primary objective, which is spinning a good yarn. I view myself as a storyteller more than a writer. The story - and hence the extensive research that goes into each one of my books - is much more important than the words that I use to narrate it.Ashwin Sanghi
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There are three things I look for in a story - it has to be a thriller; I cannot see myself writing literary fiction or a saga! There has to be a historical connection; otherwise, the adrenalin will not flow. And I will try to bridge the gap between 'Rozabal' and 'Chanakya'.Ashwin Sanghi
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What is divine? Simply that which man has not yet been able to understand. Once understood, it ceases to be divine.Ashwin Sanghi
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Physicists explain creation by telling us that the universe began with the Big Bang, an intense energy singularity that continued expanding. But who created the singularity?Ashwin Sanghi
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Once upon a time, I was a workaholic clocking more than 80 hours per week. That changed after I began to write. I now work only around 35 hours per week. I do not work on weekends because these are the days that I use for research as well as for my writing.Ashwin Sanghi
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A myth is a lie that conceals or reveals a truth. But if it reveals even a strand of history or truth, that's what gets my adrenaline going.Ashwin Sanghi
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Unlike a typical professional, I can't quit my job to become a full-time author; I don't have that luxury. For me, writing is therapy; if I choose to write full-time, it might start feeling like work.Ashwin Sanghi
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I am a businessman at the end of the day. I have grown up with Excel sheets. I start out writing my novel with spreadsheets and the milestones in each chapter highlighted.Ashwin Sanghi
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I've always been fascinated by books. When I was young, my grandfather used to hand out a book - which would be anything from a biography to a classic - to me every week and ask me to write a piece on what I thought about it. On the other hand, my mother used to love reading thrillers and bestsellers.Ashwin Sanghi
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The reality of the writer's world is that you set yourself up for disappointment with every success that you deliver because with every success you raise your readers' expectations.Ashwin Sanghi
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I don't want to be remembered as a writer. I would rather be remembered as a storyteller.Ashwin Sanghi
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I was told that Ganesha sat between Lakshmi and Saraswati. My quest to attain the blessings of both goddesses explains my physique.Ashwin Sanghi
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A book and a movie are different animals. You need a cinematic perspective to be involved in the motion pictures. And this is something I lack.Ashwin Sanghi
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