Sophie is a self-proclaimed relationship coach who doles out advice on her blog. “Relationship Junkies — They are easy enough to recognise. They are the ones who say things like, you love me. You just don’t know it yet,” says Sophie. She is the protagonist of blogger-turned-author Judy Balan’s second novel Sophie Says , which was launched recently.
Inspired by what Judy calls ‘commitment-phobic’ guys and incidents drawn from her life as well as those of people around her, the book deals with relationships today. “It’s a commentary on the many issues people seem to have these days — intimacy, commitment, boundary issues…” says Judy.
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“I’m a sitcom addict and I wrote this book in an episodic format. It is character-driven and Sophie is an opinionated and self-assured woman-child; she thinks she has it all figured out and takes it upon herself to share theories on break-ups and relationships through her blog Sophie Says.”
Sophie had a strong and compelling voice, and Judy admits she had to flesh out the character on paper. “I spent a decade getting in and out of relationships. So I had all this fodder for a book on breakup theories as well as a very strong character in my head,” Judy explains. “Sophie is a lot like the girl I used to be in my early- and mid-20s.” The author, who previously authored Two Fates , is thrilled about the response it garnered. “I wrote it as an experiment and didn’t expect anything out of it, but it is now about to go into fourth reprint!” she says. Movie offers too have come up. How different is blogging and writing a book? “Blogging is instant gratification. Writing a book on the other hand, takes commitment. For a blog post, all you need is just a fun idea but for a book, you have to run on something much stronger than the initial euphoria. You have to decide to stick with it long after the excitement wears off,” she says.
And Judy’s not done yet. “Three different plots in three different genres are brewing in my head. But I hope to take a break from romantic comedy for the time being,” she says.
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