“Like many women writers, I don’t like the term women’s fiction because it’s been perceived as non-serious (think beach-reads.) I prefer the term book club fiction which is the genre I write in, and most novels I love are in that genre.” ~~Anoop Judge
EDITOR’S NOTE: Anoop Judge is a wise author of four books who I met though WOW: Women on Writing. I liked her article for the Writing Advice page that I asked her to come back and share her ideas in this interview.
Write With Authenticity
BLG: Tell us about your writing journey. What was your first published writing and when did you know you were a writer?
AAJ: I studied English Literature at the graduate level, and Law at the post-graduate level at Delhi University, India, where I wrote a Sunday column called “University Beat” for a weekly newspaper called Mid-Day. This was my first foray into published writing. Around the same time, I was approached by a publisher called Twenty-Twenty Media which was bringing out a series of dummies-style books on emerging careers open to young graduates—all the books were the same length, the same yellow and black cover, and had the same title—to write the book on law. My book was titled: Law: What’s It’s All About and How To Get In. (see it here: https://anoopjudge.com/law-what-its-all-about-how-to-get-in/)
After my husband and I moved to the United States I got my J.D. and became a practicing attorney. While I absolutely loved being a litigator and going to trials in court the law is, as they say, a jealous mistress. Burnout is part of the profession. I thrived in the work and the glamour that comes with it but I was also raising a young family. My daughter had an auto-immune deficiency and needed me. After seven years of practicing law, I decided to take a step back. It was around this time that the idea of writing a novel came to me. Not the non-fiction book I had written before, but a novel. The kinds of novels I like to read.
BLG: How does your latest book, No Ordinary Journey, differ from your earlier ones?
AAJ: I was inspired to write No Ordinary Thursday when I saw how shocked the women in my community were at the age difference between actors Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas when the couple decided to get married.
At parties, the gossip was nasty to the point of meanness about PC (whom all of the Indian community considers one of their own and, therefore, fair game) marrying a child groom.
I couldn’t understand where this vitriol was coming from until I probed further and found that many of my friends in their 50s, with marriageable kids of their own, feared that the same scenario would play out in their own well-appointed drawing rooms.
So, that got me thinking about how a mother would feel if her one and only very eligible son brought home a girl twelve years older than him, a girl who was her best friend’s daughter, and how it would impact the friendships she had with her best friend and other women.
I decided to merge this with a real-life story I had read about in the East Coast magazine India-West, regarding a young man in New York City who had left his colleague to die in a burning car because he was driving drunk. When I put the older girlfriend and the drunk driver in the same household, I had a dysfunctional family and a story to tell.
BLG: You sure did! What do you hope readers will take from this story?
AAJ: Readers have appreciated the richness and vibrancy of the Indian culture in this book. Being an immigrant myself, it was important for me to impress upon readers how much is lost and sacrificed as people settle into a foreign land. On the other hand, I do not view my community through rosy-eyed spectacles and wish to paint their flaws and foibles in an equally authentic light.
BLG: What’s the best writing tip you ever received?
AAJ: One of the best writing tips I have received is to “write with authenticity.” This means bringing your true self to your writing and being honest about your experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Authenticity resonates with readers and creates a genuine connection, making your work more impactful and memorable.
BLG: Great tip! I know you need an agent to be published by Lake Union Press. How and when did you find your agent and what told you that this was a match?
AAJ: Getting signed by an agent and then published is one of the hardest journeys a writer goes on. it is frustrating, tedious, and often lonely. Rejection is baked into the experience because ultimately you are appealing to an individual’s taste. During the days of The Awakening of Meena Rawat (my second novel), my agent Jessica Faust of BookEnds Literary Agency had asked to see the full manuscript, but she ultimately passed on it, and I ended up publishing it with a small independent press. When I was querying No Ordinary Thursday, Jessica Faust asked to review the full manuscript again, and this time she ended up offering representation on it.
BLG: What have you done to publicize the book, and how have your publisher and agent helped with the process?
AAJ: I’ve been on several blog tours. Also, my publisher, Lake Union Publishing hired a publicist for me. who managed a lot of the marketing and promotion for the novel.
BLG: You’ve had several careers. What motivates you to explore careers rather than sticking with one job? Has that influenced your writing?
AAJ: I don’t think anyone will be surprised by this but almost all the women I know that were my colleagues, have left litigation and moved on to second careers. It’s not true of my male colleagues in the same way, so I think there is something to be said about how women experience burnout in the law. I was working on a major case in Sacramento, an hour away from where I live. I was commuting over two hours a day with a young child and a baby at home. There were often major cases that required inter-city or inter-state travel, long hours, and late nights. When it became too much, I worked part-time for a while in a smaller office and with smaller cases but when my child’s health came to a head, I had to leave. I had been feeling burnt out for a long time but that was the final push.
On the other hand, I had always dreamt of writing commercially viable fiction that explored important issues. Women’s fiction is a misnomer because it is fiction that either centers around women protagonists or addresses issues important to women (but that should be important to society as a whole.) Like many women writers, I don’t like the term women’s fiction because it’s been perceived as non-serious (think beach-reads.) I prefer the term book club fiction which is the genre I write in, and most novels I love are in that genre.
BLG: What else would you like readers to know and where can they learn more about you?
AAJ: I have just written a blog post for https://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com titled “8 Things You Didn’t Know About Anoop Judge.” It comes out on July 9th. It was fun to write and made me think—I think your readers would enjoy it too.
Otherwise, you can find me on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook:
https://www.instagram.com/judgeanoop/
https://www.facebook.com/thebrownneighbor/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoop-ahuja-judge-94396743/
BLG: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I’ll be watching for your next book, and I’ll check out this article when it comes out.
