Letting Characters Excel at the Hobbies We Bungled: Guest Blogger Gigi Pandian

Please join me in welcoming guest blogger Gigi Pandian to Killer Hobbies!

When I was in graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle, I loved taking classes through the student-run Experimental College. Avoiding writing my dissertation, I took everything from belly dancing to a tabla drum class.

Though I had a blast with all the courses, I didn’t continue with any of these hobbies I’d dabbled in. The creative passion that stayed with me after graduate school was writing.

When I created Jaya Jones, the Indian-American history professor main character of my mystery series, an interesting thing happened. She was a brilliant tabla player! That tidbit wasn’t in my outline, but springing up from the page was a relaxing hobby that Jaya refused to go without.

To get away from the stresses of academia (and treasure hunts that lead her to Scotland and India), Jaya plays her Indian drums two nights a week at a San Francisco Indian restaurant, with her best friend Sanjay (a magician who goes by the moniker “The Hindi Houdini”) accompanying her on the sitar.
 

An unexpected theme of music from different cultures firmly entrenched itself in my Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series – so much so that Henery Press included a tabla and sitar on my book covers! If I hadn’t let my characters take the lead, I never would have found that gem. Thank you, Jaya and Sanjay.

Gigi Pandian is the USA Today bestselling author of the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series. She is the child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India. Her latest novel, PIRATE VISHNU, was released earlier this month. Her short story “The Hindi Houdini” (featuring Sanjay from Gigi’s mystery series) is currently nominated for an Agatha Award.

Connect with Gigi on her website http://gigipandian.com/, Twitter https://twitter.com/GigiPandian, and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GigiPandian.

Two murders, one hundred years apart. And a love triangle... Historian Jaya Jones has her work cut out for her.
More about the book, including to buy the book in print or as an eBook: http://gigipandian.com/pirate-vishnu/