Q-1. How did you get the idea of a snake shifter?- asked by faizawani

I have watched some Bollywood movies and Indian soap opera where a magical serpent called "Icchadhari Naagin" can turn into any form he/she wants to. Basically, I reversed this idea and used humans who could shift into part snakes. I thought it would be new to people as compared to vampires and werewolves.

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Q-2. How did you come up with the plot of The Serpent Within?- asked by Kay_dicious and MariChat3

I wanted it to be a basic love story, but with a twist. I love princesses, so I thought of making the heroine, Kyrah, one. To bring in an obstacle, I had her kidnapped by a man Zuber, who turns out to be her own betrothal, prince Judewin. He works with the villain, her uncle Hiram, to know about his plans. Soon Hiram's evil plans get revealed and Kyrah feels betrayed.

Another character is Jeanette who has lived a lonely life, believing herself to be an orphan and is forced to assist Hiram who threathens to kill her if she doesn't. Kyrah discovers the serpent within herself and the legend associated with her. She had been kidnapped as Hiram wanted to use her to bring him the Naag Mani- a powerful gem which could grant anything. Also, it is discovered that Hiram had kidnapped Jeanette from her parents as his revenge. She is later revealed to be Zuber's long lost sister and a princess too. After a violent battle, good wins over evil and Kyrah discovers the identity of her kidnapper. The book ends with Kyrah and Zuber's happy marriage.

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Q-3. Any major plot changes that you have made?- asked by Kay_dicious

Yes, my original plot was way different from the current one and I had completely changed Jeanette's character.

1. Original plot line: I had thought of letting Kyrah get fed up of the confinements of her palace life. She sneaks out one day and crosses the border betwen the snake shifter and human world. She isn't aware that she can shift. She enters Earth and is a mystery to people. Her gait is smooth and gliding like that of a serpent. Her eyes are a bit different and she hisses at times. She doesn't appear like an ordinary human. A guy gets interested in her and falls for her slowly. Kyrah soon discovers that she can shift into a serpent and wants to keep some distance from the guy as she doesn't want to get rejected by him. The guy turns into a serpent when they kiss or something. Then, she plans to take him to her kingdom. I hadn't thought after this. I didn't understand what more I should with this plot line. So, I left it and changed it completely.

2. Jeanette's character- She is sent to destroy Kyrah and would fall in love with Zuber/Prince Judewin. She would become Kyrah's rival for their common love for the so-called kidnapper. Then, I changed that and let her be a good character who hasn't had a happy life. She is forced to work under Hiram who has taken away her serpent powers by feeding her a weakening potion. Her misery and her being taken away from her parents by Hiram added to his evil nature.

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Q-4. How did you come up with the characters?- asked by MariChat3 and Kay_dicious

1. Princess Kyrah is a lot like me. She is stubborn, modest, sulks easily and is soft hearted as she cries easily. She is straightforward as she says what she feels. She believes in true love and cares a lot about others. She doesn't think of harming anybody, but later, along with her prince, seemingly kills her uncle Hiram as he was about to hurt him. She is brave when the time calls for it. She can't see the ones she loves in pain. She trusts people soon and is childish which are flaws in her character.

2. Zuber/Prince Judewin is handsome, charming and caring. He doesn't hesitate to risk his life by donning the title of a kidnapper, just to save Kyrah from Hiram's evil plans. Though, Kyrah had rejected to see him repeatedly in the beginning, his affection for her didn't waver and he didn't hold a grudge against her. He believes in love and wants to show her what love is. His biggest flaw is that he sometimes can't convey what he feels at the moment. He runs away from situations and doesn't know how to pacify someone at times.

3. Jeanette at the beginning agrees to Hiram's plans in promise of getting back her shifting powers. But she soon feels that she would have to agree to him, with or without a choice. She befriends Kyrah and Zuber/Prince Judewin though she is sent to keep an eye on both of them. She keeps the information about Kyrah's nightmares and the kidnapper's acting to be hostile towards Kyrah, to herself. She doesn't reveal anything to Hiram. Finally, she discovers that she is the kidnapper's sister and has a family too. She finds happiness at the end and gets married to her brother's best friend, Prince Samuel, who loves her immensely.

4. Hiram is the villain of this story. He believes that he has suffered from injustice as his powers had been taken away by the Serpent Goddess. He had wished for greater powers and had objected the Goddess's decision of making his brother, Marsel, the king. He believed his arguement to be right and wanted to be a full serpent one way or the other. So, he kidnaps his own niece Kyrah to use her for bringing the Naag Mani to him. He doesn't care about anyone except himself.

He had fallen in love with Jeanette and Judewin's mother but never had the guts to tell her. She got married in love, to his best friend. Since then, he had nurtured great vengeance in his heart and had kidnapped Jeanette when she was just three. She grew up to be similar to her mother and Hiram developed love-hate emotions for her. Her face reminded him of his old love and her presence reminded him of her parent's love. He uses her for his evil plans and weakens her powers by forcefully feeding her a black potion. He pays for his sins when he gets wounded fatally. He is teleported to the Sholak Stone House and gets tortured for a week and is killed at the end by lightening.

5. King Marsel and Queen Lilah are supporting characters in this book. They are Kyrah's parents and love her immensely. They undertake the journey of going to the Sholak Stone House to pray for their daughter's safety when she gets kidnapped. They are trusting and leave the kingdom in Hiram's evil hands. This is a flaw in their characters.

Marsel is selfless and gives up his crown for Lilah's cure, when the latter gets bitten by a snake (Jeanette).
He gets back his crown when Kyrah asks the Naag Mani for it on her 22nd birthday. He also discovers that Kyrah is gifted with healing tears; when the latter approached him for help and had cried seeing his bloodied state.

Lilah is emotional, loving and caring. She is optimistic, brave and loves Marsel wholeheartedly. She teases Kyrah a lot for her childishness and at the end by not listening to her, when she wanted to talk about her love for her kidnapper. She already knew that her kidnapper, Zuber was Prince Judewin as she and Marsel were informed so by Judewin himself. Yet, she takes delight in her agony and winks at Kyrah mischievously.

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Q-5. What is the message of The Serpent Within?

This book implies that good always wins over evil. It is a love story mixed with a fantasy theme and conveys that true love conquers all. Also, it teaches that we should always be humble, kind and caring towards others.

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Q-6. What's the meaning behind the title The Serpent Within?

The title if looked superficially conveys the idea that the heroine Kyrah has a serpent within herself, that is, she can shift into one. If you look deeper, you will realise that her uncle Hiram is a serpent within their family; he betrays their trust and harms everyone. Also, Zuber is unaware about the serpents, he too discovers about it and shifts during the battle.

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Q-7. Will there be a sequel to The Serpent Within?

No, I won't be writing a sequel as I like it when a book ends happily. I don't want to drag the story more or make it a saga. Honestly, I'm not much fond of sequels.

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Q-8. When did you start writing this book?

I began writing on 8 November 2016 and this book is finished on 31 March 2017. Yay!

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Q-9. Have you written anything else before?

Yes, I had begun writing articles for a site called HubPages shortly before starting this novel. That was my first attempt at writing. I am a bookworm since childhood. Since last year, I badly wanted to write a book of my own. But, I felt that I couldn't write anything good. Later, I decided to write this book after a lot of pushing and support from my fiancé.

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Q-10. Will you be writing another book?

Yes, I have been thinking of trying a hand at Teen Fiction. I have thought about the plot roughly. I have to build it and also the characters. I'm very excited about it.

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