It has been six years since Preeti Shenoy first sat down to outline the plot of her story. Now she is anticipating her sixth novel, It Happens For A Reason, will outdo its predecessors. Though the book has its patent flavours of romance and friendship, its plot is woven around teenage pregnancy and animal cruelty, topics that Preeti feels very strongly about. However, the launch on December 10, isn’t the only news; her previous books will soon be translated for her Turkish readers and there may be a movie deal happening too.
“One of the most controversial topics today is premarital sex. I do not condemn it. That said, I do feel if you’re adult enough to indulge in it, you have to be mature to deal with its consequences too,” she opines. Vipasha, the main protagonist, got pregnant when she was 18 and decided to have her son, Aryan. She faced the hardships that came along with it, but stood by her decision. Over the years, being a single mom and juggling two careers (pet boarding and working as a gym instructor), she has come a long way. “The story is inspired by real people and it reflects the relationship I share with them. Vee is inspired from a friend’s teenage daughter who got pregnant, while the mother-son relationship mirrors what my son, Atul, and I share,” says Preeti, who is also an animal lover.
It took her roughly 10 months to pen the book and she says she did so without a hitch. “With It Happens... my writing got more streamlined; after all, every book has been a step-up in the learning curve. Though the story flowed smoothly, Dr Sourabh, the vet gave me some trouble. He is a quirky guy whose character refused to listen and I had to rein him in a number of times to ensure the story went ahead as planned,” recalls the author who is also an organic gardener. Vee’s story takes the reader from Bengaluru to Mumbai and then all the way to Australia.
Speaking of what lies ahead of the launch, she reveals, “Life is What You Make It and The One You Cannot Have are set to be translated in Turkish soon and will be my first foreign language translation. There has also been interest expressed from a big film production house in Mumbai for one of my books.”
So will she follow her counterpart, Chetan Bhagat’s route? “No. Even if the cheque was really handsome, I think it would only tempt me. I would still continue to be an author. My creative freedom is precious to me and with writing screenplays, that does get curbed,” she asserts and further adds that she already has her next book’s idea in mind. “I actually have two ideas and I am leaning more towards the non-fiction one, but which one comes through first, only time will tell,” she smiles.
