A world where people are divided by the colour of their eyes and the powers that come with it, these are the Iris Divisions. Some may heal while others seek destruction,” Simmy Kors, author of recently-launched The Zenas Cure gives us a teaser.
“When cancer patients across America wake up cured seemingly overnight, it’s almost too good to be true. The only evidence tying the events together is that one name that always seems to be left behind: Reva. Darcio Sire, an FBI agent is put on the case by his alcoholic boss Dr Lee, but comes up with no new leads,” the 17-year-old elaborates.
She chose to write this novel as the central concept had been with her for a while, she says. “I always believed that this idea would be such a cool concept for a movie or TV show, I thought about it often. Eventually, I decided to write a book about it myself to really explore the story and I’ve grown very attached to the characters and their relationships, more than I expected,” she smiles.
Being a teenage author herself, we ask her about how the Indian youth is taking to writing more and more, and she says that it’s true with poetry.
“Many young writers I’ve met are very interested in this division of literature. I believe it’s something to do with the pacing and quick connections they feel with others by sharing their writing or reading another’s. Young writers often idolise poets like Rupi Kaur, and I’m no poet but I do enjoy her work. It’s quick paced and doesn’t take as much time as it would to read a novel. Same goes for writing, for the most part, poetry takes less time to write than it would for a novel,” she says.
An advocate for self-publishing, Kors says that most of the book writing depends on the publisher. With so many publishing companies, finding the right one is a task in itself, as “many like to monopolise on the idea of legitimacy in order to exploit the work of writers, especially young ones like myself.”
While talking to her counsellor about applying to colleges, Kors was told that colleges would be “more in favour of my work being published by a legitimate ‘publisher.’ So all I can say is, if I do decide to work with a publisher, it’ll be one I’d recommend to any author.”
“I don’t need a self-serving publishing company to put a pretty little stamp on my work to validate whether the seven months of hard work and sleepless nights were legitimate or not. The Zenas Cure is for myself and the readers. That’s the priority,” she insists.
Kors says that being a woman, she doesn’t feel any different writing a novel. “There are no damsels in distress, everybody in The Zenas Cure has what it takes to save themselves,” she says. Asked about her views on contemporary English literature, vis-a-vis regional languages, she says that literature is literature and art is art. “How we write, how we speak, how we create; it doesn’t matter. What’s important is to have the courage to express yourself. A task much harder than it looks,” she concludes.
