Author of Where We Have Come
Today, I am thrilled to be chatting to contemporary fiction author, Saz Vora.
Helen: Welcome Saz, and thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today. Tell us a little about your book, Where We Have Come.
Saz: Where Have We Come, is a retelling of our experience at the birth of our profoundly disabled son and how grief and child loss is a stigma in the South Asian community. It looks at the cultural clashes faced by a young Gujarati couple as they embrace their Britishness and their heritage. The book is the second book in the university series Reena & Nikesh.
Helen: A difficult topic, though I am sure it must have been cathartic to write. What were your thoughts behind your cover?
Saz: The inspiration for the covers is a rose, and I love the scent of old-fashioned roses. In this cover, the rose is nearly at the end of its life cycle, representing the transient nature of life. The flower holds significance as we had white and yellow roses at our son’s funeral. The white background represents innocence, the red of the typeface shows sorrow. I asked my designer to look at the book cover designs for women’s fiction at the time of publishing.
Helen: There is always so much more meaning behind cover designs. Understanding the authors intent, makes it much richer. Why did you choose this title?
Saz: The title Where Have We Come, is a loosely translated lyrics for a Hindi film song. The title has several connotations. It was the song that came on the radio as my husband twiddle the dial when we brought our son from the hospital. They released the film that the song features in the year we started dating. And the title explains that no matter how many curveballs life throws at you, you can choose a different path.
Helen: Such a special song for you, ideal to use for your book title. Your book is obviously very special to you, but why did you choose to write it.
Saz: Where Have We Come is my first ever full book. I wrote it in 2006, on a writing course, and put it away, as I was told by some early readers that it was too niche a subject and wouldn’t appeal to publishing houses. After suffering from a full-blown panic attack and the anxiety that followed. I realised that sharing my story would help my mental health and might even help many other mothers who had lost their baby or had a sick child. I want to tell women they are not alone. If one woman feels that my story helps her cope with baby loss then I have done what I set out to do. To raise awareness.
Helen: That is such a great sentiment. Well done for sharing your story. If I asked your main character why we should read your book what would they say?
Saz: I recommend Where Have We Come: It helps you heal, feel seen and learn of life in multicultural Britain. It has helped me learn to live and love again after losing our son and coping with the grief of losing my mother at an early age.
Helen: When did you first realise that you wanted to write?
Saz: I’ve always had a passion for storytelling, usually versions of fairy tales to my much younger cousins and later to my children. I used to adapt stories from Hindu scriptures.
In 2017, after a panic attack and therapy, I went back to my book to process my feelings. Writing was my place of succour, a place to escape into the world of my characters and through them a way to raise my voice. Had I known earlier when I’d abandoned writing, that those stories would bring me respite from the grief. I wouldn’t have listened to the advice.
In hindsight, I feel that there is a time for everything, and now is the time for me to grow and find my happy space and my passion to write stories about people like me.
Helen: There is so much advice available, it can be difficult to know when to listen and when to ignore. I think keeping your reason for writing front and centre helps you decide whether it is applicable or not. Which genre do you write, and is there any genre you would like to try and write in next?
Saz: I write women’s fiction with romance at its heart. I also believe my books are suitable as book club reads as I tackle many subjects that are taboo. If I didn’t write Women’s fiction/romance I’d like to write a cosy mystery with a trio of South Asian women in their 60s set in England. An idea that has been brewing for some time.
Helen: How do you get the ideas for a new book?
Saz: I often get a song in my head and then a character forms. I usually read the lyrics and make a note of these and then write a monologue from the character and see where that leads me.
Helen: What are you currently working on?
Saz: I’m currently writing the story of Sonali and Deepak for the second duet of my university series.
As with the other books in this series, the first of the duet is a university romance set in ‘80s England. Neither Sonali nor Deepak can resist the magnetic pull to be with each other. Only Deepak mistrusts people with money and Sonali is secretly engaged to Anil.
In the sequel, we meet Sonali and Deepak, who are successful in their professional life but are struggling with their marriage. After many failed attempts at IVF, a miscarriage and growing pressure from family and the community to conceive, Sonali becomes secretive and Deepak feels isolated. Can they stay together, or will the stigma of a childless marriage pull them apart?
Helen: Plenty of emotions to play with! When it comes to the craft of writing, which element of the writing process do you find most challenging and why?
Saz: I find editing the hardest part of my writing process. I write above the normal word count that recent book lengths have become and find it difficult to delete my chapters. I’m learning to save these chapters for another story. I would love to send my rambling chapters to someone to read who’d slash and delete for me. But I know I need to learn this myself as it will make me a better writer.
Helen: Do you listen to music when you write, if so, what do you listen to and why?
Saz: I often have a song come into my head and listen to music when I’m mulling over ideas. When I write I prefer silence as the lyrics in songs make lead me astray and I usually end up writing them in my work. I feature songs in my books too and have a playlist or two for each book I’ve written.
Helen: Do you find you have to do much research for your books?
Saz: I fact check a lot once I write my first draft and create a Pinterest board for fashion, food and places for my story ideas. As I set my books in places, I know I don’t need to research the area. The most important thing I research are the songs and film dates to keep it authentic to the time period.
Helen: Are you a pantser or a planner? Do you write free form, or do you have a framework you stick to?
Saz: I’m a planster, (planner and a pantster) and if any of my characters are persistent, I write scenes in my notebook. I mind map afterwards and then I plan where the scenes might fit. I use Save the Cat by Blake Synder as my planning process only because I used to teach film studies. I recommend using Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody’s book is superb for all genres. She shares many examples and provides useful beat sheets.
Helen: What are some of the books you read recently that you would recommend to others?
Saz: My reading list is mostly women’s fiction and romance. Me Before You, Jojo Moyes; PS I Love You, Cecelia Ahern; It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover; Grown Ups, Marian Keyes. I read all genres, except horror. Recently I’ve been reading South Asian writers like me, not recent migrant stories, but those who struggle with belonging and identity.
Helen: When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to overcome it?
Saz: I don’t beat myself up with unattainable word counts. There will be days when words flow out of me and others when there’s a dam that blocks them. I try doing something else even if its reading books, watching films or TV programmes.
Helen: Thank you so much, Saz, for sharing your work with us. Just to close us out, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Saz: Find a cheerleader, or many cheerleaders through writing prompts on social media and the writing community. Read everything, especially books in your genre but wider too to understand what people like and dislike.
About the Author
Saz Vora
Saz Vora is a wife, mother and writer. She was born in East Africa and migrated with her family in the ‘60s to Coventry, Midlands, where she grew up straddling British and Gujarati Indian culture. Her debut novels, My Heart Sings Your Song and Where Have We Come, is a story in two parts of love, life, family, conflict, and two young people striving to remain together throughout.
Where Have We Come, Finalist – The Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2020, is based on true events that have shaped her outlook on life’s trials and tribulations. Her short story, Broad Street Library, was long listed in Spread the Word, Life Writing Prize 2020.
Before she started writing South Asian melodrama, she had a successful career in Television Production and Teaching… But her need to write stories has led to what she is doing now—writing stories about people like her in multi-cultural Britain.
She gets inspiration from listening to music, cooking and watching Bollywood, Hollywood and Independent films, hence the references to songs, food and films in all her books.
Please visit her website, where you can read her blog and sign up to newsletter where she will share, missing scenes, recipes, playlists and all things book related. Please also follow her on social media, where she will post her comments.
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Link to book on Amazon UK: eBook | Paperback
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