Time Travelling to BookTok Fame: Shanti Hershenson

Time Travelling to BookTok Fame: Shanti Hershenson

In this episode of 'The Infinite Life with Katische Haberfield,' the host delves into the fascinating journey of Shanti Hershenson, a young and prolific author who published her first novellas in the sixth grade. 

• Shanti shares insights into her writing process, her inspirations, and her advocacy against bullying through her work. 
• She also discusses the challenges and benefits of self-publishing, finding an editor, and designing book covers. 
• Apart from writing, Shanti reveals her passion for falconry, her experiences with TikTok for marketing her books, and her future aspirations, including her college plans and dreams of breaking into film. 
• This episode is a treasure trove for aspiring writers and those interested in the creative processes of a rising literary star.

Chapter Time Stamps:
00:00 Introduction to the Infinite Life Podcast
00:39 Meet Shanti Hershenson
01:21 Shanti's Early Writing Journey
02:22 Performing Poetry and Middle School Experiences
07:24 Helipads in Heaven: Inspiration and Themes
13:49 Navigating the Publishing World as a Young Author
20:57 The Role of TikTok in Book Marketing
24:53 Marketing Your Chapter on TikTok
25:46 Discovering a Passion for Falconry
28:33 Writing About Falconry
31:43 Exploring Sci-Fi Inspirations
36:53 Future Plans and College Aspirations
41:05 Conclusion and Farewell

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the infinite life with Katische Haberfield. I'd like to take you on a transformative journey, exploring the mysteries of the soul. I hope you enjoy the regression case studies, mediumship interviews, and fascinating discussions that I've had with guests on the podcast. I hope that these answer some of the questions that you might have about life on this planet, on others, and in other dimensions. Thank you for joining me and please don't forget to like and subscribe and Most importantly, share with your friends. Namaste. Welcome to the infinite life with Katische Haberfield Podcast. I'm your host Katische Haberfield And this week we are in still in season 13 and we have another fabulous, interesting and exciting guest. And her name is Shanti Hershenson . And we, we also have a Oh, Max is my cat's name. Gin is Shanti's cat's name. So if you are on the YouTube version of this, you'll get to see the very cute little kitty cat, which is a black cat with a pink stripe down her nose. so anyway, back to Shanti. distracted by cats, love cats. okay. So Shanti Heshenson's first two novellas were published when she was in the sixth grade, her writing journey started long before then. Ever since she could hold a pencil, marker, or crayon, she was creating stories. They started from pictures, mere scribbles, and eventually turned into captivating tales. lives in California with her parents, sister, and furry friends. writing, she enjoys skateboarding, beyblading, freerunning, falconry, and of course reading. writes in a variety of genres including science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction, although she mostly sticks to sci fi. And hence her cat's name from Star Wars. She advocates for anti bullying, and you may find her at open mic nights performing her spoken word poem, Needle and Thorns, which is about the struggle of bullying in middle schools. Welcome to the podcast, Shanti. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. I always forget how old that bio is. Oh, okay. What would you like to add to it now? Oh, it's so funny because I wrote that one when I was in middle school So it's like I have new poems I perform now if I open mic nights, but yeah, no needles and thorns is my classic Okay. it's like it's too timeless to ever remove from my bio. okay. So do you remember it off by heart? No, not anymore. I wish it's like I remember the opening because I know the opening is something along the lines of these people don't listen No, they refuse to hear there's a lot of like interesting rhymes in the poem. Because then I know it ends with the same. But other than that, it's like I think if I'd perform it I would mess up just because it's like it's been so long. Right. think the last time I performed it publicly, I think it was Two years ago, maybe two and a half years ago. Okay. What about a, you have one that you can, you have off the top of your head or just cause I love poetry. So I Ooh, off the top of my head, no, but I can totally like, grasp one right now, cause I have, That's a cool way to start the podcast. So oh that would be awesome. Yeah, I recently got back into poetry, I hadn't done it for about a year, cause I, a lot of my poems were inspired by my middle school experience. So that after that, I didn't really know. Almost like what I was doing. I was like, you know, I just, I had no good inspiration for what to write. But this year I'm taking a creative writing class. So, I have to. But it's actually it's been so cool to, really get back into it. I'm trying to find one that I really have never performed before. However, I'm auditioning to perform it at my school event, so I really need to practice it. All right. Here's a good example. So what grade are you in now? I'm a junior. So, And you're 16 that's right, is that it? 17. I always say I just turned 17, but my birthday's in October, so I guess it doesn't really count as just turning 17. I don't know, I feel younger than I am. Cool. So you fire away and find you a poem. I have two kids too, and I have one who's 16 turning 17 and one who is, 18. So two boys Oh, no. We call, the reason why I asked you is the one who's 16 turning 17, he's what we call in senior school. So here in Australia, that's grade 11. So that's why I was like Oh, that's cool. are in age wise in comparison to my boys. Yeah, I think, yeah, I'm in the same grade. Yeah. Sounds like it. Alright, so I have this poem. Context do you know the painting called The Reluctant Bride? It's the painting of the, honestly, I didn't know of it until I had to write this poem. This is an ekphrastic poem, so it's supposed to be like, commentary on a painting, kind of. And I I didn't know, because I'm not really into art. I try, I just I'm not good at drawing and painting myself, so therefore I've just never been as interested in it. Mm but I had to pick a painting to write about, and this is the one I picked. And it's basically just this woman who's about to get married, and she's just Deadpan, you know, staring. I want to say at the camera, but obviously no, but like at the absorber. So that was basically what inspired it and it is called C'est la vie. Okay So there exists a woman squelched in a room of exquisite wallpaper and unrelenting demise She sits in grim knowing and begs for the arrangement to cease. C'est la vie, her mother snarls Once in the same position, a lifetime ago, never to be free again. Around the woman, her sisters prepare, hands interlocked, soothing words, prideful palavers. Palavers? Something like that. Anyways. Yet they snicker at her reluctance to be wed, that resent bleeding in the morning of. This doesn't mean they won't share the eldest daughter's fate. Soon their bodies will be stuffed into undyed fabrics, the death of a life never lived. Thorn blossoms plugged into pockets like tape over the mouth, to conceal breath, and make Certain the protests are not heard, by the poisoned minds who may try and save her. Nothing can be done, capture this moment in pain and paint what will someday be coined as a Poison Woman's Rage. A reminder of the sisters sold and lost, of the tumultuous bent over filthy dishes instead of Polished canvases. And after a lifetime of fraldom, the paint will begin to parch, but her name will never end. C'est la vie, the man says, as he drags her into his bedchamber. Soon the light will shrivel from the woman's eyes, her voice shall dwindle, and her name she will never know again. That poem is so hard to read on my phone because it's like it's spaced really like interestingly across the page. So on my phone, it looks really odd. You did well. That was great. That's really interesting too. I'll have Thank you. find that painting so I can listen back and look at that painting as well. But it picks a very vivid image to me of choices being made for other people. Is Yeah, that's what you were conveying? yeah. Yeah, okay. And so you sent me very kindly a book. Going straight into books, which I read, which was called helipads in heaven. Now this book, well, I read as an ebook and it strikes me now, as you said, you're bio was a little bit out of date as something that you've, you only launched it about a year ago, right? But it strikes me as more about middle school days. Did you write it as a reflection of your time in middle school or was it, more about. the sci fi element that you were reflecting on because it's it's got time travel in it. So which, what was the, the inspiration for helipads in Yeah, it's definitely more inspired by my childhood self and my younger self than it is an actual science fiction book. I say it's my furthest book from science fiction other than some other projects I've currently written because it really only, it really uses the time travel as this sort of device to propel the story rather than something that's actually the center point. Of the novel, so I'd say it's much more of a contemporary novel than it is science fiction. But yeah, it's really an exploration of my younger self, and sort of the idea of healing your inner child, and also appreciating your younger self, even if they're a little bit embarrassing. And it was really, in many ways, a healing project for me. I guess technically the book takes place in elementary school. Cause, cause yeah, for us, fourth grade's elementary school rather than middle school. So, it had, it sort of, it has similar vibes though to the book I wrote about middle school, and that is really about bullying. But more than that, it's about the older character, who is, they're, I mean, the characters are very much based on me. It takes place where I grew up, it has real locations to where I grew up, and it's really inspired by that. So in many ways, the helipads in heaven is if myself in the future, I'm 30, hopefully I'm, like, famous and cool, and I go back and I really get a chance to actually reflect and see these sort of traumatic and upsetting moments, but then see how they also led to me as I am today. Did you have similar experiences where you were critiqued for your writing and told that it was no good in, in school? I felt, yeah, when I was younger, I felt that there weren't a lot of people who really paid attention and actually, cared So much, I mean, outside of my family, you know, I felt like it was, like, a struggle to get my voice out and be taken seriously. Because you know how it's you share I want to be a writer, and people are kind of like, oh, you know, take a real job. So, in that way, I, I think I kind of felt that, I think I felt really not too, You know, like appreciated or I didn't feel like I was able to share my writing freely and it's like it's hard to remember Exactly because a lot of that book I kind of filled the gaps where I don't exactly remember kind of in the same way the main Character doesn't remember where I was like, okay I don't know if this actually happened, but it's very likely that it happened like one thing I found was I was reading my old like progress reports and there were comments about you know, Shanti should improve her writing skills and And I kind of took that and I was like, well, I am, I'm like, I'm trying, you know, I'm writing during class instead of doing math I'm trying, I don't know what you want from me, kind of. And I did feel like there were students when I, that I, you know, grew up with who, they were, you know, they liked writing, and they were much more praised for their writing than me, even if I didn't necessarily, and I don't know, you know, at the end of the day, we're all ten years old. So yeah, it kind of comes from these, yeah. But it can kind of be like, you know, we've all been through school and, you know, you learn to do and write what the teacher wants. So it could be that they were more formulaic writers Yeah, yeah? I think in that way. Oh, sorry. We're gonna say no, you go. oh, I think helipads has a lot of like commentary about like education Sort of and like the education system and like how nurturing the individual and you know Creativity in school is like really important. Mm, mm. Yeah, I mean, I grew up, I'm not a published author like you. I've written in some co authored books where you, you know, you write a chapter and Oh, yeah, that's cool. yeah. But I, I have a friend, I don't think I have it here with me, but in like grade four and five, like similar ages to you. I used to write a lot and I kept the copies of the books that I wrote. They were just tiny, tiny little books until about, I don't know, five years ago. And I'm turning 50. So I kept them for 40, you know, Oh, wow Yeah Yeah lines and the people in the class would leave comments. And I remember. Yeah, I remember at the time, feeling a little bit sad about the comments, you know, because they were just like blur comments, you know yeah, good, fine. Okay. You know, like nothing you know, nothing inspiring or reflective of what I wrote. even though the content wasn't, you know, that amazing. But I remember thinking when I last saw them, you know what, it's probably hard in grade four or five to be a classmate of somebody who's writing a book and to write something really sort of amazing because, you know, like boys and girls at that stage. And, you know, even through high school, it's kind of If I write something really cool, will she think I like her? When I actually don't, I just want to write something nice about the book, but everyone else will go, Ooh, you know, so, so, you know, I did notice with hindsight and reflection that, you know, people probably didn't write exactly what they felt because it's it's a tiny ruled space and, you know. What am I supposed to write? You know, she's just a kid in my class writing and you know, it's an okay story But you know, I wouldn't buy it or whatever you do wonder how much that does impact on your desire to write How is it? Because most 16 year olds, 17 year olds, 18 year olds, 20 year olds, 50 year olds haven't got Published works, you know, there are a lot of people in this world who say I want to be a writer it takes them most of their life to get their first book out. But you've had two novellas published when you were in the sixth grade. Tell me, how did you get Those novellas published, was it your parents who you are advocates? Was it just pure brute force of you going, I'm going to do this? Who was helping inspire you and how did you figure out to publish a novella? So for those first two novellas, it was this is gonna sound crazy, it was an accident. And I mean that is so, I wrote these little novellas with my friend. And you know, we were 11 and we really wanted to get that printed copy. And I just went online and I was like, how do you get a printed copy of the book? And then that led to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. And then that led to actually getting those printed copies. And having the book appear on Amazon and basically every other website you buy books online. So in that way I knew what it meant to publish a book when I did it, but it was also very quick. Just you know, sort of impulsive. But it was also awesome. And then that experience helped me a few months later when I started writing my first book. And then about a year later when I actually You know, was done with editing and cover design, and I knew how to publish. So yeah, it's like that initial, yeah. I'd there's a lot of people like my age are like, oh yeah, so it's supposed to be really easy to publish on Amazon, but we hold ourselves back because we're like, it's going to be really complicated. It'll take a long time, blah, blah, blah. So it's really not that. You can teach say the actual process of publication, the you know, filling out the form online and publishing it is easy. It's, it gets easier, you know, you get a hang of it quickly. The hard part is all of the essential stuff that leads up to it, like editing and cover design and marketing. And that's where the work is Really tough because you know if you're traditionally publishing you have the publisher to do a lot of that for you But instead you have to source your own cover designers find your own editor, you know, make your own marketing plan But honestly, it's so worth it It's been such a great learning experience to get to learn how every single part of a book launch works and then it's like in the future I can take that and You know, do what I want with it, you know, keep on publishing obviously, but then also You know use this knowledge to maybe get traditionally published or to work in publishing and just you know This guy's this you know, the sky's kind of limit. Yeah. And so how did you go about finding an editor and a cover? A lot of people stop right there. So my editor i've had the same editor literally since the beginning and this actually happened because When I was first writing my book, I reached a point where I was a little lost. I was just like, okay I'm writing, it's good, but I want to get better. You know, I want to improve my writing. I want to actually, you know I like this book, but it could be better. I don't, you know, I don't, I've never, I'd never taken a writing class before. And it was, this was in the middle of distance learning. So it wasn't like school was that accessible for me. And even then school wasn't going to teach me the writing I wanted to learn. So I was like, okay, I have two options. Either I go online and take a creative writing class, which I thought of, or I get a tutor. And in the end, I asked my parents if I could have a writing tutor. And I ended up meeting my writing coach, who is, she's a another published author, and she's done really well, and so, my parents, you know, reached out, right, and basically, you know, it's like writing coaching, where but then that turned into her being my editor, so, you know, she reads through my books, we do, you know, the proofreading, and the like, sort of, you know how I feel like you always need another pair of eyes to look at your book, you know, both to make sure that there are no errors, but also for plot points and stuff. So yeah, that's basically how I found my editor. It's worked great. I think, you know, it's I, you know, I obviously have to do several rounds of editing, but then to have that, you know, another person look through it for all the different errors that could be there it's been really helpful. But yeah, it started just because when I was in seventh grade, I was like, I need to learn writing, you know, Cool. Cool. And what about the book covers? Like how does somebody yeah, a book cover creator? I've had a, so for me, it's there are so many different, you know, I'm also, okay, to be fair, you know, I've grown up online, so it's I don't know, for me, just like doing a quick Google search feels really easy, but I think the best way to start is to like, go to different websites where you can hire people and there are like, you know, safety, there's safety to it, rather than just finding a random person online and asking them to do it. So I started out The website that I write my books on is called Readsy, and they have this great, you know, writing, editing platform. They also have a marketplace where you can hire, you know, editors and marketers and cover designers. So the first cover designer I ever hired was from Readsy. And then from the more I've published, the more I've met other authors. That's when I've started really making those connections and finding designers. So again another thing you can do is you can just look on Amazon, and specifically look for books that are self published, you know, independently published and are doing well. And from there you could go literally look in the copyright of the book and see who the cover designer is, and more often or not, there's someone you can hire. So I believe that's how I found my primary designer now. They're called Miblart they're this company based in Ukraine, and they're amazing. They do these covers really quickly, eight days, you get the cover and then you pay, so that's really helpful. So you don't even need to pay a deposit. So if you don't like the cover, then you don't have to pay, but I've never not liked the covers. They're always amazing, and they have really great support and really great unlimited revisions. So, and they're also just really supportive of my career. They did, they interviewed me for their website at one point, they've posted my books. And this is a company, too, so they have several different designers and all these styles. But yeah, really, I believe how I found them was seeing a book cover on Amazon that I liked, and then looking in the book's copyright to see who designed it, and then looking up that designer. Yeah. There are also, yeah, a lot of authors also have recommendations on their websites and stuff. So if you look for cover designer recommendations, you can find great ones there, too. And so not having ever used read Z, how is that different to write a book than just say opening a word or a Google doc? Is so much more organized okay. you can split it up by chapter you can add a prologue You can take notes and also tracks your writing like how much you've written That day and like the goals you can set to be fair I also use NaNoWriMo to check my writing just because I I don't know I just like it and I like the stats if it'll tell me all the words i've written across all my books Right. Yep. Okay. Cool. Excellent. And, when I asked you to come on, on this podcast, I. I noticed in your profile that you use TikTok and I'm like, you know, remember I'm almost 50. So TikTok is one of 7 million social media apps that I'm like, Oh, do I have to be on it? But then I read everybody saying TikTok, BookTok, it's huge. It helps writers. So talk me through TikTok and how it helps you with your book sales. Of course, so I started my tiktok account In about 2021 And this was when booktalk was at its peak And so I really it was cool because I really got to watch how the publishing industry and these trends changed and basically I think with tiktok is that tiktok made reading I want to I feel like tiktok made reading cool in a sense like It made, it turned reading into something that's not just quote unquote like sophisticated or like for nerds. I mean, I am a nerd, but you know, it kind of turned it into something that's can be enjoyed by everyone. It's accessible and it really shared the like importance of genre and the importance of the niches within reading. So I think that TikTok is great, especially if you want to connect with young readers. Because BookTok was obviously predominantly Gen Z readers, who really you know, just found their niche. So Mm if you're a young adult author, it's, it's essential. Because obviously the majority of young people So it's this direct way to connect with your readers and respond to their comments and just reach them. And at the same time, too, even if you're writing for older you know, just adults as well, There are plenty of adults on TikTok. And I just think the video format is so much more just reachable and engaging than Instagram. And I mean, obviously now Instagram has reels and stuff, so it's very similar. But it's just a good way to just connect. And to make, almost and in some ways it like, humanizes you too, if you're on TikTok. Yeah. it really makes you this reachable voice that then people will be interested in rating. So for example, when you were ready to launch, Helipads into Heaven, how did you use TikTok, for example? Was it like just you talking about the book? Was it how did you use TikTok? Yeah, so I made a variety of different videos in different formats, but for the most part, a lot of it was talking about what the book meant to me, Okay. than, you know oh, you should read this book because it's gonna, you know it's cool, and it has this in it, but it's more first off, I started with what this book means to me, and then I figured out what can, what will this book offer the reader? What does this book mean to this person? hmm. And kind of establishing that connection while also humanizing myself at the same time, I think was really how I was able to connect and reach with readers. Some of who ended up being my ARC readers through the book and left early reviews. Because the majority of my like advanced readers actually just come from TikTok and Instagram. But yeah, Okay. I kind of found that especially with helipads, I reached a lot of people with helipads, and I just did it by humanizing myself. Because I'm also aware that I think if people are scrolling on their For You page, and they see a, you know, Oh, I'm a 17 year old author, I publish 20 books. It can be really hard to kind of almost humanize with me. So I have to, I kind of try to make an effort to be like, Hey, so I wrote this book, but I wrote it because it's important to me and it helped me. Yep. And then from there, I'm like, hey, that might help you. And also, I just made fun videos. I do a lot of aesthetic videos that are like, show different images that could represent the book. Music was really important in the book, but also in my marketing of it, and using music that people might really resonate with. Cause it's if I like a book, and I see a book advertised with a song, I'm really gonna wanna read that book. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. Okay, cool. Because the reason that I sort of also wanted to talk to you on this podcast was because there's a lot of people who listen to my podcast and who have been guests who have been just involved in multi author collaborations and they're like, I've written a chapter and now how do I market my chapter so that I can get this book sold? So what I'm going to recommend is that they go follow you on TikTok so they can watch your videos and then they can learn. By relating to you and understanding and then they can read your books and then they can tie the two in together to say, okay, this is how Shanti did it. this is how She used music. This is how she personalized it and they can read the book and they can see how it ties in. So you're like this living, breathing example for them. So you even convince me to go on Tik Tok, you know, stranger things have happened. might enjoy it! I might enjoy it. You'd never know. And so the other thing that really stuck out to me in your profile is you enjoy falconry. I do. I have a past life memory of of owning a falcon and That's so cool. I, So that, that's, that's what I wanted to know. Tell me more about your falconry. oh my gosh, can I, can I like show a picture like on my phone for whoever's on the video? I have, I just, I have always loved birds. I, you know, the one thing that I remember potentially starting that love you know, founding that love for me was I was about six or seven and I got home from school and I remember it was just me and my mom and there was a hawk sitting in our front yard. And I was like, just completely captivated, like I had this like connection to this bird, and I walked up to it, and the bird let me get really close. And just look at it, and then I started asking my mom if I could go to a hawk camp. I was like, I want to go to a hawk camp. I don't even know what that was. Probably falconry camp, but I didn't know the term falconry at the time. So my parents found these falconry classes. And so this is me at about seven, six or seven, Yeah. a hawk. Okay, the craziest thing. So, you know, obviously my name is Shaunti, and it's kind of an uncommon name. And this hawk, her name is Shaunti. No, really? That's Chauncey, yeah! And so I go I try to go at least once a year. Of course it's hard so I used to live in Los Angeles, in the falconry place that I go to. It's called Sky Falconry, it's the best. It's in Alpine. But now I live in San Diego, so I live just a little bit closer. So, this This is me. Where is it? I know it's here. Sorry. Here we go. No, it's the owl. Here we go. This is me and Shanti. Wow. Ten years later, maybe? How long do falcons and hawks live? They can live, I think, a while. I think, so, Harris Hawk can live Fifteen and twenty years old, I think. Wow. Okay, cool. And then massive birds too, aren't they? They're heavy? Yeah. Yeah, the hawk was the heaviest of all the ones I've held, I believe. I also, This is me with an owl. Oh, I love owls. Yep. He was adorable. And then Where are the falcons? Where are my falcons? And then, is it the falcon? Oh, wow. Wow. In your, in your Twitter, in your books, have you ever written about the birds? Yes. Yes. have this book that, it's genuinely one of my favorite books. Right now I've been trying to query it, but if I don't end up if I'm not successful querying it, because it's kind of a niche book, you know, it's about falconry, and it's about this little girl doing falconry, and it's supposed to be, like, a young adult book. So it's a bit of a niche book, so I'm hoping that maybe I can get an agent through this book. If not, it'll be self published soon. And, It was so cool to write because I really got to explore like that connection Between like a girl, you know, like humans and animals and yeah, it was it was so fun Yeah. it's very much Falconry. Excellent. I don't know if you are a spiritual or, or not, but so I have a spirit guide, an animal spirit guide, and his name is Snowy and he's an owl. So he sits on my right hand shoulder. and. see him a bit like Hedwig in, in Harry Potter, like that's what he looks like Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I love those owls. Honestly, the owl was like one of the coolest. So they're like, they, he was so sweet.'cause it's so that day, I guess, 'cause I forget this, this is an American thing. But we had this emergency broadcast test on our phones, and basically everyone's emergency alarm was gonna go off. And falcons are really sensitive to sound. Not falcons. Owls. Especially the great horned owl. So we all, you know, we turned our phones off, right? But then the broadcast sound played anyways, and the owl like, kinda freaked out. All But he was so cute. And he, they were, he was like so gentle despite the fact that he's like an apex predator. Yeah, that was one of my favorites. they're not going to hunt you, are they? No, they're, honestly, the birds are so sweet and they're like oddly gentle. Oh yeah, I love them. I I've always wanted to have a, Raptor. I think, I want to get a, I want I would, I would love to have a kestrel falcon. They're, like, adorable, and they're, like, relatively small. And I have to, obviously take the falconry test to do that. And, are they the ones like that the royal family had in the United Kingdom where they have the green things over their eyes and they, ooh, I do not know off the top of my head. I feel like I should know that. I know a lot of random things about raptors, but yeah, these are kestrels. No, that's not what I was thinking of. Right. Okay. They're pretty. is that the peregrine falcon, maybe? Yes. Yeah. the right word. Yeah. Yeah. For I feel like I can't get a raptor there with cats, because either it'll hunt the cats or the cats will hunt them, but yeah. It's a dream of mine at some point, if I can move to a house that's big enough where I can keep the birds in a safe place and keep the cats in a safe place, because I don't think I can live without cats. I've I've never not had a cat. Right. Yep. Yep. Excellent. And, tell me, why do you mostly stick to sci fi? What, how, how is that your favorite genre? Oh so sci fi is what I started with. Mm hmm. It's really just the genre that I grew up on. So a lot of the like, stories that got me into writing and really made me realize that I love storytelling were sci fi. So obviously I'm a big Star Wars fan, and I also Early, early on, when I was very young my parent, my mom read me this book series called Space Cat. It's from the 1950s, I think. It's I mention this a lot, and I'm not sure that a lot of people have read this series. But the premise is, there's a cat, and he throws away, and goes to space. I really want to reread, because it's really interesting, because it also, it took place before we landed on the moon. Okay. Yep. It's like the perceptions of what the moon is versus what it actually is. It's so interesting But I just I fell in love with that series I mean also a lot of my stories early on were animals. I could not write about humans when I was a kid I just didn't know how I didn't know how to capture that like idea of being human without making me a character But then I was also like uncomfortable with making me a character. So I'd have animals and literally everything I wrote And also a lot of things I read too Were animals Yep. then sci fi was like the kind of intersection of that Yep. So when you get your sci fi ideas, are you like, just like how, how do all these inspirational ideas come to you? What's your process where you generate your ideas? Yeah, a lot of my books, particularly the science fiction, but also others as well, are really me zooming in on something that I'm interested in, or a question I have, or something I've observed. I, I say my books are, like, I think my books are really fun to read. There's a lot of action, and just funny stuff and you know, exciting moments, but it's also a lot of social commentary. And I think what I've really taken with my science fiction books, I've taken things I've observed particularly in my country, but also the world. And I've sort of put each of them into a little book. So there's you know, different, or for, or sometimes it's different concepts that I like zoom into in a book. So like the book I'm writing right now is about cloning and that's, you know, really famous sci fi. Concept, but then I'm like, you know, really zooming in on what would it mean to be a clone? And what if I'm a clone of someone that's not really that great. So it has a lot of like different, like moral dilemmas, but also just, it's, it's still at the end of the day, it's fun. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Wow. And in the book that I read, you were in your thirties or the characters in her Yeah, writer. If you could fast forward to when you're in your thirties, what do you see yourself as being famous for? The fantasy, historical fiction, sci fi? What do you reckon that you would be famous for in the future? I famous for everything. I feel just you know, the whole kind of combination, because it's I don't the idea of sticking to one genre. I think it's I love the idea of getting to explore all these different things. So yeah, definitely I'd want to be a multi genre author. But within that, I'd also maybe want to dabble in like film as well. But I'd have to write the film, because otherwise I think I might go crazy. Right. Wow. Yeah. And, in my perception though, most adults tend to pigeonhole them into one genre. Would that be your observation? Yeah, I think Yeah, I see a lot of adults really be like, okay, I'm gonna write this I think in some ways like if that works for you, that's great. But for like for me It's not that I worry I would lose the love of writing, because I don't think I would, but I'd worry that I'd get bored. I'd write, I'd write so much that I'd worry I'd write all the stories I can in that genre, or maybe I'd just get tired of it. But I also always see myself coming back to specific genres that I like. I don't think I'm ever going to be done writing a single genre, unless it's one I really don't like, but there aren't really genres that I don't like. I also like the idea of multi genres. And really sort of combining that and sort of, you know testing the ideas of what is a genre. And, you know yeah. Wow. And are any of your other siblings or your parents writers as well? Not really, at least yeah, I mean, I think my mom should write a book. I think she's got a lot of good stories. But no, my mom is a retired magician. Yeah, cool is that? Oh, it's so cool. I, yeah, no, I would love to learn magic. I have no idea how she does it. She won't tell me. Right. Okay. She won't tell me any of the magic tricks. Because it's so cool. So I grew up in my mom would do like shows at like my birthday parties and stuff. Oh, And then, my dad's like a software engineer. So that's also completely different. But really cool. Yep. And, for the future to get into filmmaking, how, how are you sort of steering yourself in that way? So for the most part, I'm trying to learn the craft first. Because I think it's if you're good at something, then the opportunities will come. So, I'm starting to, I took a screenwriting class, I guess it was like, not last summer, but the summer before that. And, It like blew my mind there was so much I didn't know about screenwriting And then also, this summer i'm gonna take a playwriting class to try to break into two similar like fields and really just Learn how to do them. But yeah, like I think it ultimately the most important one for me is like traditional like prose and novel writing because then I feel like from there I can sort of learn the basics of story or not so much you know learn the basics but really refine those and really solidify my knowledge on telling a story. Yeah, wow. Wow. Okay, great. You've got so much energy and so much so much going on. It's, it's really, really fabulous. It's, it's fascinating and really I love, I love to see it. It's, it's wonderful. Coming up for the rest of the year, how, how long does it take for you to get this next book out? So just say, let's pretend that you don't go the, the self publishing route. Let's say that you do get this mainstream publisher. What does that look like for you for this year? Hmm. Yeah, for me I'm hoping that I can sign with an agent by the end of the year. It's like technically like I've done well enough self publishing that I don't like need an agent. But I think it's an important experience and to be able to work with someone to open up those opportunities. And I would really like to, you know, go down that route because I think it's like there's so much that it could just provide me and that I could, you know, learn. But yeah I'm hoping that I can sign with an agent by the end of the year and hopefully for this book about falconry. And then, after that, it really it's hard to know when that book would come out. Yeah. I haven't done the editing and marketing process for a traditional publisher before, so it may be a lot more, it may be a lot quicker than, but, or it may be a lot rigorous, so it's hard to know. Yeah. But yeah, I'd like to hopefully have an agent by the time I go to college, just because then I'm not gonna have to worry so much about sending out a million query letters while I'm in college. Yeah. Yeah. And you want to do creative writing in college? I want to major in creative writing. Yeah. Great. Fabulous. And will you have to go away from home to do that or? Yeah. it's like getting the experience somewhere else which could be really good for my writing. And it's also, you know, I'm kind of torn because in some ways like I love Los Angeles, and there are some colleges I like in Los Angeles, but I grew up there. So it's not really the most my top college in LA, I grew up 10 minutes from. So I'm like, is that really, you know, getting away and getting that college experience, if I'm not going somewhere else and you know, immersing myself with new people and you know, new teachers and just new ways of living? Yeah. I want to go to the East Coast for college. Also, because again. I want to go to the East Coast for college. Okay. And I think it's also. Oh, we're in a Sam's, sorry. is there a specific college that you've got your goal set on? Ooh, okay, I really love Bryn Mawr College. Okay. I like the idea of going to a women's college and getting an education that's I also I love the history of women's colleges and the idea of you know, giving women really strong educations that also really focus on women's issues. And it's also I love some of the courses they have and the opportunities. But I also, I love New York. Okay. So I would, I might go to college in New York, but I do really love Bryn Mawr. I'm good. I'm going to tour it for the first time in April, I think. Wow. Great. Wow. all sounds very exciting. And I look forward to following your journey. And as soon as you get that, offer from that agent for the falconry book, you better let us know so we can tell everybody. I will. in the meantime, I will link everything everybody in the show notes and they can go and read your books and we'll be over to TikTok to watch you so we can learn how to do it for ourselves. So you so much for spending some time with us today, Shanti, and I'm really inspired by your creativity and all the different multi genres. Your cat looks like he's about to open the door. She wants to leave the room She wants to leave. She, she's like Yeah. this interview is done, mum. so thank you so much and I look forward to reading more of your work. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Bye. Take care. Bye. Thank you.