WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: Young Adult Author, Tista Ray

At almost 18 years old, Tista Ray wants to make a difference in the world. To that end she has written and published a coming-of-age novella MELANCHOLIC DELIGHT to help teens understand romanticism.

Tista is an Indian by birth who writes newspaper articles when she’s not working on her novels.

Q: How would you describe your new story, MELANCHOLIC DELIGHT? Do you consider it a romance or a coming of age story? Or a life story? Why?

Tista Ray: It’s mostly a coming of age novella in the light of teenage romanticism. The protagonist grows, both physically and emotionally during the course of my novella. A mere love story embedded with some nostalgic moments gains a divine touch as Sri and Jishu travel through time to be united in love. The story’s about a thirsty soul in quest of love, a passion that brings peace of mind. Jishu appears in Sri’s life as a teacher, giving her a lesson on love.

Q: What inspired you to write MELANCHOLIC DELIGHT?

Tista Ray: Being a teen myself I have been a witness to many a desperate act of love. I have observed reckless deeds of lovers. I have seen people falling in love and to fall out with their beloved, without even gauging the real value of it. My novella’s for those adolescents who still lack in the insight of true love. It’s to teach them the divinity of love, worthy of attention.

Q: Do you consider your characters to be heroes?

Tista Ray: In a way they are. Not because they commit acts of greatness that’s enough to raise them to sublime but because their trivial actions teach the readers about the essence of true love. Here’s a pair of lovers in my story who make enough sacrifice to be honored with the designation of being heroes.

Q: How do you convince your readers to care whether your heroine and hero get together?

Tista Ray: I know ladies are mostly fans of ‘happily ever after’ but I guess I read somewhere that true love never has a happy ending because they don’t have an ending. And for my novella I can say it has an open ending, open to probabilities. So it can be read as a piece of memory of the narrator that neither begins nor ends.

Q: How important is setting to your story? Could your lovers exist anywhere else? Would they behave the same in a different setting?

Tista Ray: To me setting seems too vital to ignore. It’s kind of a pivot around which the characters of a story revolve. Certainly if my story would have had a different setting with Jishu as a millionaire businessman or Sri as a writer or a philosopher I would have had to make it a more matured love. Under changed circumstances they might have acted differently, altering the concept of the story altogether.

Q:  Do you write largely for entertainment, or do you also try to deliver a message?

Tista Ray: I always say I want to make a difference to this world through my works. So you can say I concentrate more on building up the mood of a story that’s best suited to deliver a message. And I believe that to an avid reader it’s the message that matters more than entertainment. What makes a book memorable is the message it etched in the readers’ minds.

Q: Who are your intended readers? What are they looking for?

Tista Ray: My book’s for all age groups. Though it may apparently seem a book meant for teenagers but to be true it will appeal more to the coming of age people who’ve been in love and deduced the meaning of love. Nevertheless every single man can find himself in my protagonists as I strongly believe a man in love acts the way Sri or Jishu acted in my novella.

Q: Why are you a writer?

Tista Ray: I love writing. Putting my thoughts into words gives me an innate satisfaction. To top it, a reader’s praise is like honey added to a sweet.

Q: Tell us something about yourself. When you’re not writing, what do you do? Hobbies? Sailing? Knitting? Standup comedy? Favorite music?  Favorite authors? Do you have a muse?

Tista Ray: My hobbies are watching TV and reading books. I do enjoy music as well. I am interested in film making and am a great fan of Ruskin Bond. Paulo Coelho’s spirituality coupled with Stephenie Meyer’s romance always makes my story an irresistible combination (or at least that’s what I believe).

And about musing, yes it often starts accusing for making my life so confusing!

About Tista Ray

Tista Ray, a near 18 year-old authoress penned her debut novella ‘Melancholic Delight’ published in January 2013. She’s an Indian by birth. She’s actively involved in writing newspaper articles and is keen in making a difference to this world.

About MELANCHOLIC DELIGHT

 ‘There’s no love like the first love. There’s no feeling like the desperation to attain true love. Love or lust matters not when two eyes meet, uniting the souls at once’

It’s this love which frees Sri from the reign of darkness and makes her heart rise to lofty heights of anticipated passion with no one to pull her back to reality. It’s Jishu, who appears as the first ray of hope in her overshadowed life and showers her with the ultimate sense of freedom, which she has been craving for. He fills her life with the long awaited perfection. To a flawed person he appears as the flawless. He becomes one among her most perfect acquaintances, but is he really as unblemished as he appears to be. If so, can a flawed person risk a life with the flawless? Do opposites really attract each other or it deviate them from their normal avenues of life?

It’s a deeply compelling love affair, which takes the readers back to their childhood memories and brings back to them the essence of true love.

The changing relations of a man’s life add force to the much ordinary teenage passion. The book is not just about love. It’s about a journey called life which either ends in melancholy or in delight.

Links

International readers can contact author through Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6861618.Tista_Ray

Indian readers can purchase MELANCHOLIC DELIGHT here:

http://www.infibeam.com/Books/melancholic-delight-tista-ray/9789382303015.html

http://boimela.in/melancholic-delight.html

International readers can purchase MELANCHOLIC DELIGHT here:
http://www.swiftboox.com/melancholic-delight.html#