LUCKY PACKETS

Well, tonight after my twenty-two-year-old daughter came into my room and declared: “Goosebumps mommy… Goosebumps!” and I mistakenly thought she was talking about the butter chicken curry dish she had made for dinner, I felt inspired to write this blog post. For context, I was lazily drifting between reality and sleep on my bed, after a long day of sorting out problems at work. I thought she was referring to the dish she had made and how delicious it had turned out.

Since I was the one requesting a curry dish, I could not wait to taste it and in my still sleepy state I jumped up excitedly to taste her masterpiece. I informed her that I was just going to the bathroom before I would come to taste it. I had been looking forward to the dish the whole day. She seemed very confused when I passed her and, in her confusion, she asked: “What are you talking about?” I asked her what she was talking about, now also confused. Her reply: “Your book mommy, your book. It actually gave me goose bumps!”

To give perspective, this is a girl who was studying chemical engineering and decided to rather follow her passion of studying the fine art of being a chef and is in her third year of studies. She is an avid reader, has a brilliant analytical, busy mind and is the top student in her course. She is an overachiever and hardly ever takes time to breathe. She is on study break at the moment and for the first time since my first book Defeated by Justice was published, had a chance to read the book.
From what feedback I received it seemed like I have accomplished what I set out to do; to give people a vessel to escape reality and stresses of everyday life and in her words: “Mom it’s like losing yourself in the book. Everything else comes to a standstill and it is as if you live in a movie. You never know what is going to happen next.”

Well, that is exactly what I do with my fictional stories. I write lucky packets; you never know what’s looming on the next page, but you will definitely find something you did not expect. My mission is to write realistic fiction. Where the story is as unpredictable as life itself and the characters make you forget about your surroundings for a few hours. Hopefully you end up getting goosebumps when you finish the last page.

My next book Jamaica, which has just been released, is waiting on her bedside table, as she first had to make butter curry chicken for her mother. This reaction is the reason I write and why I will keep leaving lucky packets for those in need of an escape. The butter curry was delicious by the way, and I have newfound inspiration to keep writing lucky packets where, when you open the book, you find a surprise.


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