Chennai: Not many can narrate social issues through love stories. Having won three awards this year, Daisy Maran, resident of Palavakkam, has been successful at it, with her several novels and short stories.
Her recent work, Kannagi Nagar– a crime fiction, is currently getting her both praise and brickbats.
Speaking to News Today she says, ”While many appreciated my work, others questioned as to why I dared to write about custodial torture and lock-up death. But I wanted to shed light on the issue. It was an honest narration which won me the label of a crime writer”.
This book is one of her first attempts in writing on crime, as she until now, stuck to love and romance.
Her upcoming novel is a three-in-one publication, focusing on issues such as sexual assault.
All her novels are available on Pustaka, a website that reaches seven countries, it is learnt.
”I have written 12 novels and uploaded them on Pustaka. On the website, readers can access the novels in other languages- Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. This has won me readers from other States too,” she states.
”I used to earlier have my work published in magazines, but of late, there is a higher audience for the internet, than for books. The website offers me more readers than the non-digital version,” she adds.
So far, she has penned 45 novels, 50 stories and 25 short novels. From asking editors and publishers as to when her work would be published, to people now asking her to churn out thrilling love stories, she has certainly come a long way.
So how does this mother of two, who leads a simple life, find such tales? ”It is mostly what I hear from friends and family. A line or thought could interest me and I spin a story around it. I make sure it is interesting and relatable,” she notes.
It was her novel, Kanavu ellam nee which was a game changer for her. ”I set the story in a real tribal village. I kept calling my friend who lived there and enquired about the life of people, religious beliefs and their day-to-day things. I brought out several social stigmas they faced and narrated it through the love story of a doctor and a tribal woman,” she recalls.
Later, another hit was about the suppression faced by a young window. So why does all her novels focus on love?
”That is how people like it. The issues are accepted better when it is packaged through the struggles of a couple. Otherwise, nobody pays attention,” she concludes.