Interview with Christine D’Sylva
Christine D’Sylva is an author based in India. Burn: Love, Passion, Hate is her seventh book. She has authored 7 books and the titles are: A Leap to Christian Faith, Footprints in the Sand, Bollywood Princess, To Snare a killer, The Stalker, and Vanished. She is also working on her 8th book, a crime thriller like Burn, which will hit the markets soon. Christine is a highly educated woman with a Bachelor degree in Psychology and Bachelor and Masters in Sociology. She loves reading as well as writing and the main motive of her writings is to let people enjoy the read!
Alok Mishra: This is your seventh book, Christine. How do you see Burn: Love, Passion, Hate in the sequence with another 6 books? Is it a normal sequence or a deliberate shift in the terms of a complex theme and story?
Christine D’Sylva: My first two books were Christian books aimed at all religions to realise the power of God in our daily lives.
However, the rest of my books fall in the crime genre category, laced with romance.
To list the books I have written, they are, A Leap to Christian Faith, Footprints in the Sand, Bollywood Princess, To Snare a killer, The Stalker, Vanished and of course Burn.
Alok Mishra: What inspired you to write this novel and attach the theme to pyromania? It’d be interesting to know the story behind this novel.
Christine D’Sylva: I think fire has always fascinated man, children are always told not to play with fire. This, sometimes makes them more fascinated, for the forbidden is always interesting. Also, most crime occurs with devices like guns and knives. I thought that fire would be as deadly. This, gave me the idea for writing a novel based on fire.
Alok Mishra: And how do you see this novel in the contemporary Indian fiction? What would you like to tell the readers who are going to read it?
Christine D’Sylva: I think contemporary Indian fiction is very diverse. All readers love a good story, and the best advice of course to my readers would be – Just enjoy!
Alok Mishra: As I could gather from your books and your academic details, how far do you think your depth in psychology and sociology helped you in writing the novel Burn? And how would you react to the real life Jays and Ashwinas in Indian society?
Christine D’Sylva: Studying Psychology and Sociology, I have to admit has made a difference to me. It has made me more aware of people’s emotions and reactions. My interest in crime grew especially after studying Abnormal Psychology that deals with deviant personalities and their behaviour.
I think that the real life Jay’s and Ashwina’s are very mixed up individuals who have troubled childhoods and feel isolated and depressed. I cannot profess to sympathize with their cold- blooded behaviour but at the same time in my books I always try to give the criminals view- point, after all they are flesh and blood people too.
Alok Mishra: Christine, how do you take writing? What inspired you to become an author? From where and how did the journey begin?
Christine D’Sylva: It is hard to say when the fascination began, but in my childhood, I loved scribbling poems and in my teens wrote for publications like The East Indian Journal, The Examiner and a Delhi based magazine called Treasure. I think I wrote my first novel at nineteen but never got it published.
Alok Mishra: How do you decide what you are going to write? Is it based on the contemporary trend or the reader’s taste or purely the author’s choice?
Christine D’Sylva: I like to combine romance and crime and this is natural, not a deliberate effort on my part. I admit that forensics and police investigation fascinates me and this is reflected in my books.
Alok Mishra: Many critics would argue that your novel Burn: Love, Passion, Hate is nothing but a dark novel which portrays a couple in darkness. How would you react to those charges? Your novel depicts detailed crimes of cold-blooded murders!
Christine D’Sylva: Yes, of course I would agree it is a dark novel, with equally dark characters. Yet, I hope I have tried to make the characters a bit human too, depicting that despite their criminal tendencies, they are people with feelings and insecurities.
Many such criminal couples are tied together with an almost passionate romantic bond, that can be quite obsessive.
Alok Mishra: As a reader, what genres you like reading the most and how often you read? Who are your favourite authors? And who would be the author with whom you would like to co-author a book?
Christine D’Sylva: I am an avid reader, and always enjoy books of Agatha Christie, James Hadley Chase, James Patterson and of course Sidney Sheldon.
But I still enjoy many other authors and it would fill up the entire page! So perhaps, it could be inferred that the genre I love would be thrillers and crime novels.
The author I would like to co- author a book would be Chetan Bhagat or even James Patterson.
Alok Mishra: Before we wind-up, the last question to you, Christine, what would be the next book that you are planning? Can you hint us a little on the theme?
Christine D’Sylva: Actually, my next book, Lonely Hearts, is out and available on Books Camel. Soon it will be available on Amazon, flipkart, infibeam too. The theme is again crime. It is based on a charming, good- looking couple who cons young gullible women for money. It is a novel with plenty of love, deceit and murder.
Alok Mishra: It was a pleasure hosting you on AI platform, Christine! Thanks for your answers to the questions! Best wishes for your novel Burn and also for the upcoming ones!