It's not usual for a journalist, bred on a diet of 'serious' and 'realistic' works, to suddenly graduate to the genre of chik-lit or romantic writing, but Aastha Atray is a relieved person having done just that.
Having published her first book, the second Indian title of Mills & Boon, Atray says writing the romantic story turned out far easier for her than breaking the mental barrier of looking at herself strictly as a serious writer.
Her book title "His Monsoon Bride", hit the stands after a long drawn process whereby she entered a short story contest and was declared the winner writer of Mills & Boon India series.
But the 2,000 word short story that won her the contest came out in a matter of minutes.
"This is a genre of writing that you sometimes shut out, believing that you are a journalist and write only serious things. You become conditioned to it because everybody around is saying the same thing.
"And I realised that this thinking is nothing but rubbish. I discovered that I could write a romantic novel and I am very happy about it," says Atray, quite relieved at having been able to junk the attitude.
{{/usCountry}}"And I realised that this thinking is nothing but rubbish. I discovered that I could write a romantic novel and I am very happy about it," says Atray, quite relieved at having been able to junk the attitude.
{{/usCountry}}But the immediate thrust to her writing the story that became the second Indian MB was what she calls a bad day at work.
"I actually had one of those bad days at work that throw you into a different gear. I came across the advertisement for the Mills and Boon Passions writing competition and sat down and wrote the story for in a matter of 20 minutes," she says.