New Delhi: Jaishree Misra's debut novel 'Ancient Promises' became a major bestseller in India. Her subsequent books include 'Accidents Like Love and Marriage', 'Afterwards' and 'The Little Book of Romance'. Here are excerpts from Devapriya Roy's conversation with the author.

Devapriya: What are the books currently at your bedside?

Jaishree: I got hold of a copy of Donna Tartt's 'The Little Friend' recently. I'd read her 'Secret History' ages ago, totally loved it and had always wanted to read her second book but allowed myself to get put off by the length and the sight of so much dense text. Now that I've started it, however, I can't put it down and am completely lost to it. An atmospheric, charged, almost menacing read that's giving me some salutary lessons in slowing down my own rather galloping narratives!

Devapriya: Your favourite authors/books ever?

Jaishree: I won't count some of the books I read/studied for my BA/MA in English Lit because my appreciation of those were indubitably enhanced by good teachers. As a regular reader, then (which is, I think, what this question is getting at) my most treasured books, sort of chronologically, were: To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell), A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth), God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy), Atonement (Ian MacEwan) and now - a recent addition - David Nicholls' One Day. I'd happily re-read any of those on a rainy afternoon if it weren't for all those fabulous new books emerging all the time.

Devapriya: Was doing the whole book-a-year thing difficult? Or would you say that the winterly process adjusts itself to its deadlines?

Jaishree: It was hard work but also quite energizing in a way that hard work can be. On the one hand, it was great to be writing safe in the knowledge that my output was definitely going to be published but this also brought pressure to bear in the form of deadlines and schedules and the ever-present editorial eye. Some amount of mental adjusting does go on when you know that time is limited - and the energy thus generated can be a wondrous thing - but, all said and done, I think it's best not to constrain creativity and time for research with deadlines, even when the latter meets those other important aspects of publishing, namely sales and marketing.

Devapriya: Are you more relieved that the trilogy has ended (in the sense that you can now take more time and do a book in a slightly leisurely fashion)? Or more sad?

Jaishree: The overall emotion is relief, I have to say, although I really did like the editorial staff back at Harper Collins' UK office with whom I was working on the trilogy. As what I write next is unlikely to fall within their remit of all-out commercial fiction, it looks like I will probably be moving on to a new editorial team in the future. That sort of a transition, the closing of one door and opening of another, is always exciting but tinged with inevitable sadness too.

Devapriya: Are you generally relaxed about your writing while you're in the middle of a book? Or are you very edgy and anxious? And who's the first reader usually?

Jaishree: I'm almost never edgy and anxious when I write, seeing that I love the business too much to be stressed out by it. Very occasionally, I might cuss a bit when editors impose the kind of deadlines that mess with my life when I have a lot of other things going on concurrently. But everyone complains about their job at some point, don't they? My first reader? Almost always my husband, which can put a real strain on our relationship sometimes. But I can rely on him for total honesty and sensible, practical suggestions when I'm stuck. He's learnt a whole lot about the novelist's craft in our seven-book-marriage.

Devapriya: Was it fun doing all the research on high-end brands and super luxury holidays?

Jaishree: I can't tell you what a chore it was! And, no, I'm not being ironic at all. You see, I'm not a follower of brands myself and - while I consider the occasional luxury holiday a well-deserved treat - I travel in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. So, having very quickly plumbed the shallows of my own experiences, I had to call upon friends and family to 'lend' me some of their fabulous encounters, taking notes and trying to look interested while also containing my envy. For instance, the story of the tea-time biscuits at the Burj-al-Arab that came iced with her children's names (used in 'Secrets & Lies') came from a friend who visits the most glamorous places and hobnobs with super models and film-stars while on holiday. She's been laughing all the way through my three 'Secrets' books, recognizing some of her nuggets scattered in the most unlikely places. Finding brand names was easier - all of an afternoon's 'work' wherein I merely sat down with a copy of Vanity Fair and drooled over pictures of gorgeous clothes, jewelry and watches before jotting down the details I needed.

Devapriya: What are you writing next?

Jaishree: I've finished a first draft of what will be a sort of binary narrative, part-historical and part- contemporary. It follows the real-life story of Margaret Wheeler who was an English girl kidnapped during the 1857 massacres but has contemporary characters in a parallel story.

Devapriya: How do you know an idea - among many that I'm sure you toy with - can become a book?

Jaishree: I don't always - and have a folder full of false starts. I tend to store them all away and, on more than one occasion, they've either gone on to become full-blown books at a later time, or a short story. No bit of writing is ever wasted, in my experience. If nothing else, it serves to open a window onto an idea that could grow into something else entirely many years down the line.