Meet Kavipriya Moorthy: A Published Author And A Crafty Magician With Words And Verses Alike

Our writer Bharath Nandibhatla caught up with the author of two novellas, Kavipriya Moorthy talking about everything under the sun(screen).

Published in

YourQuote Stories

7 min readNov 12, 2017

Kavipriya Moorthy is an author, writer, blogger and a business analyst based in Chennai. She completed her engineering and MBA and worked as a software engineer in a leading organization. Her affinity towards writing helped her to pursue her passion and she authored her first novel — I don’t wear sunscreen that was released in 2013. She soon quit her job and started working as a content writer for leading websites and e-commerce businesses.
In 2016, her second novel, Dirty martini was released. Her second novel is based on judgements and opinions and taboo topics like marital rape, divorce, and how independent women are treated in the society.
Her blog features posts that don’t fall under the generic love and relationship topics but more peculiar and not-discussed-in-public.
She’s a well-known for her tidbit stories especially HeMeStories and short e-series on love and social issues and the taboos around. Her Instagram and YourQuote account helps her to connect with her friends, readers and followers on an everyday basis.

2. Two novels already! Wow!
Oh wait, I can’t act surprised, can I? I’ve already read one of them. ;)
I’m intrigued to ask, what got you started with writing?

I’d say I slipped into writing. I didn’t know about publishing or anything when I started. Maybe, that’s why I had the stomach to finish the novel. It was in 2013 I decided that I should do something other than just work and writing was my only choice because that’s the only thing I know.

3. From being a business analyst to being a writer, how was the transition?

I love business analysis. I love to dig and understand things, learn the functionality and sorts. To be a writer is a lot different, but the basics are just observation and how you see things happening around. The transition was not smooth. I wanted to quit and run back, but passion kept me going.

4. What kind of an impact does writing about social taboos have on the society?

Malala Yousafzai is a great example to explain the impact of writing about social taboos. I follow Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and they inspire me to write about social taboos. I don’t like victim-blaming and I think many write a lot about how rape victims are not be blamed and I see some changes already.

Writing is always a passive participation towards the welfare of the society. At least, that’s how I see it.

5. I like how you summarised writing as a passive participation. Reassures how pen is mightier than the sword.
Tell us about your experience as an Indie author? What are the challenges and perks you got along the way?

To be an author is entirely different from being a writer. There are too many loopholes and pitfalls when it comes to publishing a book. I met all the wrong and right people here. The challenge is to surpass all the wrong ways to become famous and to be ethical. For some reasons, writing groups or marketing groups have not worked well for me. I say no to paid-reviews and paid-marketing and I always wanted to be an independent writer, away from all the chaos.

Perks indeed are good friends and finding good readers who stop by to say ‘Hey! You write well!’ and that keeps me going.

6. That’s very noble of you to choose the right way than the easy way through.
Erotica has surely been one of your forte. Would you shed some light on how it needs to be written, according to you?

Erotica is a challenge at least to Indian writers. Even the slightest mistake could make one screw their face. To write Erotica, one must be careful with the word choices and what they want to convey. Erotica is a genre that demands you to write less. To write erotica, one should decide on what words are to be used to show sensuality. So, I’d say one shouldn’t try erotica until they get the hang of word-play.

7. In a country with as many bans and taboos as there are stars, Erotica is surely a challenge.
So, what was the inspiration behind your first novel? And what led to the second?

First novel was out of the blue. I just had a small string of thoughts and weaved around; I didn’t plan on it but the second was totally planned and outlined. I jotted down the romantic scenes separately, the taboo topics that I wanted to touch and the lead character ‘Preethi’ and how she’s to react to anything was all set in my mind. I enjoyed writing my second novel and I think I work better when I have the outline. Inspirations behind my second novel are friends who were divorced/separated/lost their spouse and were struggling to fit in.

8. Most of your HeMe stories are very relatable. Do you draw inspirations from daily life?

A few, yes.

9. What’s one thing you wish to change about your writing?

I think I should change the tone of my writing and the style. I want to experiment new styles and types of poetry.

10. Travel. Wanderlust.
What do these words mean to you?

Travel comes first for me. Writing is second, frankly. To travel gives good confidence and makes one feel that life is huge and there are lot more things to learn from the world. I’d usually return with better life experience and fresh pair of eyes from a trip.

11. Reaffirms Shakespeare’s line from As you like it:
“To travel is to have rich eyes!”
Anyway, how did you get to know about YourQuote? What hooks you to it?

I was used to writing one post a day. I used to pick pictures and design it myself online. When YourQuote was launched, I was using an iPhone and I didn’t get to try the app. In a few months, a friend of mine pinged when the iOS app was launched.

What hooks me to YourQuote is that, I can write whenever I want. I don’t have to keep a memo. I remember posting almost 10 quotes when traveling to Gokarna. It acts as my repository of thoughts. It is very convenient for me.

12. Being the ‘Broke Bibliophiles’ that we all are, what’s your favourite book and author?

The Kite Runner is my favorite book and Khaled Hosseini is my God.

Otherwise, I like Kirthi Jayakumar’s The Dove’s Lament and Doodler of Dimashq. The way she writes reminds me of Khaled.

Roxane Gay, Adam Silvera, Jodi Picoult, HarlenCoben, and David Nichols are other favorites.

13. Bingo on The Kite Runner. It’s a wonderful narrative and I loved the movie adaptation just as much.
I have always been a fan of your views on feminism. Do you think the word has been misconstrued by a majority of the world?

Indeed. It took me years to understand Feminism. The history of the movement starts from the 70s and I’ve read powerful stories of how the black feminists struggled. When compared, what we all go through now is relatively because ‘Mindset’ and I believe, People should really read books on feminism before they comment about it. Feminism is deep and it would take ages to understand its crux.

I’ve been trying to put the same across in simpler terms for people to understand.

14. Who are your favourite writers on YourQuote?

Mariyam, Jhelum Anikhindi, Indhumathi, Bharath Nandibhatla, Maha Devan, Sherin, Sara and many other writers that I don’t recall right now.

15. Super glad to have made it to your list of favourites. :)
Any plans of a third novel? How do you plan to take your career as an author forward?

I want to write a sequel for Dirty Martini. I have 3 different plots, but I’ve too much on my plate right now to focus. I might write after a year or so. I don’t have any plans as yet, but just to read more and write more, write on diverse topics and sorts.

16. What role did your family have to play in your career as a writer?

It took them a long time to realize what I’m doing. It was with the newspaper interviews that they understood how serious I’m with writing. They don’t expect anything at all from me. I’ve the utmost freedom and I live my life my way. They don’t stand against any of my choices and they let me be.

My sisters and brothers read my book and share their thoughts, they give me constructive criticism.

17. One dearest possession of yours. With a picture, hopefully.

A small miniature of an alcoholic drink (unused) is the dearest possession. It was a parting gift from a friend unfortunately. I don’t have the picture; it’s in my secret box.

Here are some of Kavipriya’s finest works on YourQuote: