106: Shail Rajan- Author of The Summer Breeze

Shail  Rajan woke up on December 9th, after a difficult few months for her family, and decided to publish the novel she’d had in the drawer for years. And not just sometime in the future after she’d gotten an agent and found a publisher, but that very day. She followed the KDP instructions step-by-step, worked with her teenage daughter to fashion a cover, and before the sun went down, she hit publish. Our far-ranging conversation covers why she purposely wrote a “feel-good” book, how all the recipes in her book are vegetarian but no one but her father has ever mentioned it, and how she’s living out a true romance that started when she was 3 years old in India. Born in India, raised in beautiful Upstate New York, and now soaking up the sun in California with her family, Shail has been writing stories to entertain herself for almost two decades. Her manuscripts have been sitting patiently on her laptop waiting for the day when she'd finally be ready to send them out into the world. That day came on December 9, 2020 when she published her debut novel The Summer Breeze, a book which is a celebration of all the things that mean so much to her: family, friendships, food, and falling in love. Shail is currently working on a romantic suspense novel and the next book in The Summer Breeze series. To learn more about Shail, click here.  

Om Podcasten

If you’re an aspiring author and want insights into what’s involved in launching a book into the world, this is the podcast for you. Maggie Smith, author and blogger, interviews debut novelists from the Women’s Fiction Writers Association discussing not only the inspiration behind their book, but also their insights into the writing process, the best advice they ever got, and the joys and sometimes pitfalls they encountered on their path to publication.