Chhimi Moir Tenduf-La is a half English, half Tibetan writer. His debut novel, ‘The Amazing Racist’ was released in 2015 followed by Panther in the same year. Chhimi currently works at the Elizabeth Moir International School in Colombo and has released his latest book, ‘The Loyal Stalkers’.
1. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
I am half Tibetan, half English but have been in Sri Lanka, on and off, for 35 years. My wife is Sri Lankan Australian, my kids are just about all nationalities and my two dogs only have 7 legs between them. I studied at Eton, CIS and Durham, then worked in Finance in London for a while before returning here when my father was dying of cancer 17 years ago. I used to swim nationally here, which I hated even though I was breaststroke and freestyle champion for my age group as well as being springboard national diving champion. I was at school with Jeffrey Archer's son, Bear Grylls (who was in my cricket team, and was my gym buddy) and Prince Dipendra of Nepal who went on to murder his entire family – something he had not included when listing his future plans on his university application.
2. What inspired you to write your debut novel ‘The Amazing Racist’ in 2015?
If I am very honest, I just wanted to write something and I pretty much just kicked off the story by thinking of a wet-behind-the-years foreigner marrying into a Sri Lankan family. The father-in-law, Thilak, is basically an amalgamation of any loudmouthed, bigoted, yet charming alpha-male uncle you have met here. As I wrote it after my daughter was born, and because my life revolves around her, I was inspired to create a relationship between the granddaughter and Thilak that softened his image.
3. Since then you’ve published two more novels (Panther, Loyal Stalkers). Was it a lot easier to write than the first?
I am certainly more confident in that I feel what I am writing will be published. Having said that, I wrote the bulk of Panther before I submitted The Amazing Racist to publishers so I did not have to deal with the worry of only ever getting one book published. The vast majority of people who submit to publishers get rejected, so often you write uncertain if anyone will read a word of it. At least I know now that there are publishers who want to read my next manuscript.
4. Tell us a bit about your latest book Loyal Stalkers. What inspired it?
I had a number of short stories lying around, and I began to write new ones purely for fun. I then had the idea that absolutely everything in Sri Lanka is connected and everyone knows everyone and everything about everyone, so it made sense that short story characters should overlap. This meant I could turn a collection of fifteen short stories into something with an overall narrative. The main inspiration really though was that short stories, to me, are much more fun to write than novels.
5. Your latest book, Loyal Stalkers is reviewed by many to be edgier than your previous writings. How, in your opinion, does this book differ from your previous work?
I think I played it safe in my first book. I tried hard to appeal to every demographic including the elderly. Loyal Stalkers is more targeted at a reader of my kind of age and younger. It is meant to be slightly more hip – but likely ends up like me; an old man trying to be cool.
This is more the book I would like to read myself; I love dark stories with twists and creepiness – but there are other stories that are supposed to be moving and humorous, appealing to all my likes. Whether I have succeeded or not who knows.
6. 3 books in a span of 2 years is a pretty great record! What’s your writing process like?
I find writing to be very enjoyable and easy. I don't set myself particularly high standards because I still think of it just as a hobby. I write maybe 2000 words a day in a couple of hours, edit that night and move on. I take editing at the end much more seriously now and with Loyal Stalkers, I had a brilliant publishing team at Pan Macmillan who really pushed me which I liked.
Sometimes I write with no end goal in sight because then I chance upon something moderately funny or sad. I see writing as being similar to going to the gym; one exercises my mind and one my body. Unfortunately, people find my body more funny and sad than my writing.
7. Have you ever experienced writer's block?
I haven’t at all because I don’t mind if I write rubbish and think I can always edit and delete it later. I think if you don’t mind binning some of your work, there is no massive reason to have writer’s block and if you do, you just need to take a drive and look around for inspiration because Sri Lanka is so beautiful and interesting. You can also just look at someone and ask yourself questions about people and settings. Why is that girl turning away from that guy at the bus stop? How did that trishaw get a sticker with cockney rhyming slang on it? From that, for example, you can picture a foreign tourist befriending the trishaw driver. Maybe they had a touching friendship or an affair.
Often, at least with short stories, I know the ending before I start writing, but for novels, I can see how finding the right ending can be very hard. It is perhaps what holds me back from attempting to write a whodunit.
I don’t teach anymore. I am more on the management and finance side of things, but my favourite part of working at Elizabeth Moir School is helping students with their university applications. I try to push them to be very creative with their essays and then we edit them together which is fairly similar to the writing process. I find that often the instinct in Sri Lanka is to play it safe with these essays but I beg my students to come up with something personal, unique and meaningful to them. Also, I can push them to follow certain writer’s rules such as ‘show, don’t tell.’ Anyone can say they are passionate about a subject, but you have to show it. I hope the admissions people reading their essays, don’t just gather the information they want about the student, but that they also find the essays compelling and moving.
I have actually contemplated writing a novel where each chapter is an answer to a university application prompt.
9. Tell us something you wished your readers knew about your books?
My books are short, perhaps provocative reads. They might make you laugh, they might make you cry or they might make you want to rub Tabasco in my eyes. I think Loyal Stalkers is technically my best by far and is the most popular overseas – but since it is darker it has not got the same widespread appeal of the Amazing Racist. I think Racist appeals to most people because of its familiarity. My agent thinks Panther, marketed as Young Adult, is my best book and it got some of the most positive reviews overseas, along with Stalkers. Panther is also pretty dark actually. The thing is, and I must be honest here, I am not at all consistent with my target audience so there have been many cases where some people have said they loved one of my books and hated another. Sometimes people are too honest for their own good.
10. Finally, how do you unwind after a long day of writing?
I try to read, but I am finding it oddly hard to find much fiction I enjoy these days. I am not sure why that is; maybe since I am writing myself, I am more conscious of when another writer could have been better – this is why I never read my own books back after they have been published.
With two small kids and another on the way, I don’t have a great deal of time to do much after work except play with them in the garden (we live far away because I think all kids need a big garden), go for swims, walks, bike rides and so on. I never get bored because of them, and they keep me pretty grounded because I am reminded when I am with them that nothing else in my life should be taken too seriously, and that includes my writing.
The Fairway Galle Literary Festival (FGLF) returns for its ninth year at the Galle Fort from 24 – 28 January 2018. FGLF Box Office opens on 3 January 2018. For more information about the 2018 Festival visit galleliteraryfestival.com/
Look out for FGLF programme announcement on 15 December, right here!
Read the interviews with the other authors here:
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