Story Day is always a happy day! Very pleased to announce a new short story publication This Way to Paradise at Lightspeed Magazine. You can read or listen to it for free – the audio narration is by Justine Eyre. I also answer some interesting questions for their Author Spotlight feature.

This is the last major short story I wrote before drowning in novel edits for Mahimata, and it means a lot to me. It is also one of the longest short stories I’ve written, at over 7700 words. My short work tends to be…short. But this story demanded the word count. And it took its time. I started it, wrote a few pages, put it aside, picked it up a few months later, wrote some more. It must have been a year before it took its final shape. And all along, I had this image of this trio of refugees in my mind, trying to seek a place of safety in the midst of war.

To those who are aware of the Kashmir conflict, you will know where my inspiration for this story comes from. I won’t say more, because I’d rather you read it than hear about it from me.