Meet Heena Rathore P.

Heena Rathore Pardeshi is a novelist, novel critic, as well as a book reviewer. She is also the Editor In Chief at a publishing house and an acclaimed YouTube Podcaster. An award-winning writer, she has won several NaNoWriMos and JuNoWriMos since 2014.

A fan of crime-thrillers, apocalyptic fiction and slasher movies and series, she draws inspiration from the works of legendary writers such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Sidney Sheldon. She’s also a fan of Steven Spielberg and M. Night Shyamalan.

An introvert and freethinker, Heena prefers neatness to chaos – in her fictional themes as well as in her real life. She has a special place for German Shepherds and books in her heart.

Heena also manages her own book club, RMFAO on Goodreads.com.

Heena is twenty-six years old and lives in Pune, India with her beloved husband, Vishal – a successful entrepreneur, in a house full of books, music, and love. Heena passionately creates vivid fictional worlds; some to read and cherish, and some to live in.

Links:
Website: https://heenarathorep.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rathoreheena
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorheenarathore/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heenarathorep/

Now onto the interview!

From your About page, I can tell you are involved in a little bit of everything. How do you manage to juggle all your responsibilities and still enjoy reading, reviewing, and creating podcasts? Any advice to those who love doing what they do but are burned out?
As they say, if you want to do something you have to make time for it. I love doing all the things that I do and so doing them hardly takes any conscious effort. Writing is not a destination, nor is reading or reviewing or any of the other things I do; they all are a part of a wonderful journey and I try my best to live this journey rather than completing it. I do take advantage of whatever little free time I get out of writing, working and reading to do things that will also benefit others (such as Podcasts.) I guess, the important thing is to take breaks from time to time. It makes everything fun and easy. You should know when something’s overwhelming you and deal with it, otherwise things start to get hectic and stressful. For me that’s the key.

Why do you think it is important to be involved actively in both the writing community, publishing community, and your fans?
It is important to be actively involved in the writing and publishing community because that is how I can give back to the industry I work in. I love helping out those who need help, especially because writing, reading and publishing industry on the whole is a bit of an unconventional thing in our country and I believe that whatever little I could do to help others is important in its own right. As for fans, I love interacting and being actively involved with my fans on through my social media because they and I share something that is very close to my heart – my writing.

What made you decide one day that you were going to write a novel? To piggy back on that, why do you predominately write in the thriller genre?
Well, I’d been reviewing books for over 9 months when I decided to write my own book, mostly because I had this strong sense that I have a story that I need to share with the world. Initially, I started writing a romance book, but right around Chapter 2, I killed the protagonist. Well, that was when I first realised that murder and thrillers come naturally to me. Then after a few months of writing, the final understanding dawned on me –  I was made for dark thrillers. So I’d say the genre chose me and not the other way round.

What is your favorite aspect of fiction and why?
It is a way of telling the truth without actually having to acknowledge the very fact. It gives writers the freedom to explore things without having to worry about the society or the people around them getting upset. Fiction always has its base in the truth, but everyone simply loves to pretend otherwise and that is the very thing that makes me admire fiction the way I do.

Want more?

Here is the blurb for Rathore’s book Deceived

How well do you know your loved ones?

A girl struggling to cope with the murders of her mother and five-year-old brother.
A journalist chasing the ghost of a potential serial killer.
A thirteen-year-old girl who slaughtered her parents.
And a revenge-driven psychopath who is about to destroy everyone’s life.

After 9 years, a young writer is still coping with the brutal murders of her mother and five-year-old brother, as she moves into a house of horrors, unwittingly to start a new life with her lover. Will friends and family be able to redeem Ally out of the impending doom in time? Will her infallible love become the key to the destruction of her already fragile world? Will madness prevail over love; true love over revenge?

Deceived is a gripping psychological thriller that mazes through the deepest, darkest emotions of human mind through the story of a vulnerable girl who treads in the mist of deception bred from a long unforgiven betrayal.