Tell Me You Hate Me
The Journey
What's "In The Pursuit of Modern Love" and why is it on that cover?
That's one of the original names of my book. Truthfully I didn't come up with name "Tell Me You Hate Me" until the end of my second round of querying potential agents. Similarly, while I ended up with a truly beautiful cover by working with Books and Moods, my first idea was developed on Canva. It's just a mock-up, but it really helps with visualizing a fully formed book.
What was the inspiration for this book?
Picture this, it's the height of the pandemic and Booktok is thriving. Every video was comprised of some influencer spouting their love for the Bad Boy. This of course isn't anything new. At the height of Wattpad and as long as romance books have been made, there was something undeniable about yearning for the villain. Who among us hasn't had a conversation where they meant one thing, but their words ended up jumbled and the meaning was diluted and convoluted and you ended up not getting your point across. It's like those old videos where someone whispered one thing into someone's ear and as the information gets passed down to other people in the line, the words, meanings and original message changed until it was no longer recognizable. Combine this miscommunication, a reader yearning for her own villain to save her and a healthy dose of reality and boom--Tell Me You Hate Me was formed.
You mentioned that some parts of the story were true, which parts?
Ha ha. Well several parts have bits of truth in them. I was a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding which helped to add some details to Rishi's life. Who hasn't held the elevator door for someone and managed to have a nice conversation from that? The scene where Wolfgang and Rishi are at the Renaissance fair is an almost word for word replica of something that happened to me once, except instead of a fair, I was working as a cashier and when my two customers realized I didn't speak Spanish, they decided to pull that little prank on me.
Are any of your characters based on real people?
Yes and no. Divya's childish behaviour is a culmination of all of my younger cousins. Asher's mom, Carol, is based off of a friend of mine. The names of some of my friends and family members were also featured in this book, though that's where the likeness ends.
Why is it written in British English?
That one's more of a tribute. While set in a fictional American town, the book is written using British English as Rishi’s family has a Guyanese heritage. While Guyana achieved independence on May 26th, 1966, much of the formal dialect still uses British English. As such, Rishi’s use of the British language is an ode to her family background and a larger acknowledgement of Guyanese history. Being brought up by Guyanese relatives, she would have been exposed to their use of language and she would have learned the British spellings for words, even though Rishi might write in the American English version for her school, assignments and other places where necessary. Rishi belongs to two worlds and that is reflected in her use of language.
HALT.
HALT.
HALT.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION. THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONTAIN POTENTIAL SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK AND DON'T WANT TO RECEIVE SPOILERS, PLEASE STOP RIGHT HERE AND NAVIGATE TO ANOTHER PAGE ON THIS SITE. IF YOU'RE OKAY WITH RECEIVING SPOILERS, FEEL FREE TO KEEP SCROLLING.
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Can you talk about Rishi's religious background?
Like Rishi's family, my family consists of people from varying backgrounds and with similar religious affiliations. Growing up in Guyana provided me with the experience of a lifetime. to see how people from such diverse backgrounds can come together and coexist. My grandmother was born into a Muslim family, when she got married she converted to a Seventh - Day Adventist and raised her eight children that way. Two of my uncles married into Hindu families, my dad's side of the family are Muslim, I have friends who are atheists, spiritualists and some who are just undecided. Yet despite these religious differences, we all celebrated Christmas, we powdered each other at Phagwah and celebrated Eid. Similarly, RIshi's family adapted the same way, coexisting, rather than competing. Gianna and Nik have two different wedding ceremonies and both are treated with care, kindness and respect. While I do acknowledge there were and are some areas of tension still prevalent in Guyana and worldwide, I chose not to directly focus on that in this book, instead highlighting the more positive aspects of having a diverse family. SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER: Later, when Rishi gets in trouble, she faces backlash from both sides of her family--her Christian relatives in the Caribbean (we see her dodging calls from her aunts), the locals around her (Sita, in particular) and even people she thought would always be on her side.
Who won Sorority Queen? What happened to the scholarship? What happened with Anya & Dylan? What was that look between Arjun and Eliza? I need more Kai...
I appreciate your enthusiasm. All will be revealed eventually.
What do you want your readers to know?
I appreciate each and everyone one of you. It's important to me that readers realize two things:
A.) This story is not meant to be an all encompassing representation of the Caribbean, its people or any particular religion/country/island/culture. It's one fictional person's story, in a fictional town, navigating a particular set of circumstances at a particularly tumultuous time in their life.
B.) Tell Me You Hate Me, is told from the perspective of RIshi (and one other person in the Epilogue). When we meet Rishi, she is going through several changes in her life and ultimately trying to navigate the situation she's in, as best as she can, especially given her history. Knowing this, I'd like readers to remember that Rishi has a limited POV, she does and says things that they may not always agree with. But there's a lot more going on around her than she's aware of.
Keep that in mind...
