Look and Listen

Biography

Emlyn Chand is the president of Novel Publicity and a YA author. She loves to hear and tell stories and emerged from the womb with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). Her first novel Farsighted released in late 2011 and is of the YA genre. Learn more about Emlyn at www.emlynchand.com or by connecting with her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or GoodReads.

Inspiration

I’d like to infuse contemporary Young Adult fiction with a bit more diversity and teach readers about the beauty of other cultures and other ways of life. I also hope that Farsighted is a book that leads to introspection—what would I do if put in Alex’s place? Did Alex ever have a choice or was this path his destiny? What would it be like to see the world the way he sees the world? India is my eternal muse for this and everything I write. Farsighted in particular was heavily influenced by the prophecies of Nostradamus (as you’ll see in the epigraph for part III). I also drew a good deal from Zoroastrianism and its core concept of dualism—all light contains dark, and all dark contains light. Oh, and coffee. I was influenced by the desire to go to the coffee shop and order a gigantic latte with extra chocolate sauce, all in the name of writing.