When Manasi Patil wrote her first book The Cousins' Crime in May 2020, it was pure instinct. The words flowed and she simply wrote. But when she wrote the second edition of the first book in December 2020, she prepped and planned meticulously. "That's because I read up a lot more about writing and researched too. So for the second edition, there were about three drafts and three edits as well. This was also due to the fact that I realised how much potential the story actually has," says the 15-year-old. All her work came to a pass in February this year as the book was ready, but she waited patiently for April 28. Why? "April 28 is Nancy Drew's (fictional American sleuth) birthday and I am a huge fan," exclaimed the Mumbaikar. We agree, there cannot be a better day to launch a teen detective mystery than on the birthday of the queen of detectives!
So, coming to the plot of the second edition, which is also titled The Cousins' Crime, 17-year-old Krisha Batra has come far from her days of winning the Summer Detective competition organised in her hometown and fictional city Green Apex. Now, she must defend her title. Plus, she has a sidekick now, her dear brother Aarav Batra. "Krisha is the kind of role model who is not only my inspiration, but can inspire many other girls to take up challenges fearlessly," explains the Class X student of St Paul's Convent High School, Dadar. What makes Krisha all the more endearing is that she knows she is not perfect, is aware of her shortcomings and knows how to overcome them. She knows she gets confused, so she writes down everything for more clarity, something which Manasi does as well. When the protagonist feels blue, she remembers her role models and draws motivation from them and most importantly, she never backs down from a challenge.
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In the second edition of the self-published book, teen detective Krisha and her brother are at the Glazer's Bakery. When it comes to her attention that the cash register was robbed and there were even threats against the owner, she immediately knows that mischief is afoot. Sounds exactly like the detective mystery that has the power to entice us all, isn’t it? It also might be the product of the healthy diet of Enid Blyton that the voracious reader Manasi has been brought on. "Writing detective mysteries is both challenging and fun. And in this book, the plot twists are more twisted and the stakes are higher," explains the author.
Manasi is also an avid blogger and you can find more of her work on her own blog, funcreativesparks.com. She currently writes for The Scientific Teen, RobinAge, Curious Times and more. She is a book reviewer too and in view of that, is reading a whole lot of David Wickenden's books like Heaven's Sake. Plus, she is invited to many online events to speak and share her thoughts as well. Recently, she was a panelist at the India Science Festival and before that, she has been invited to events by leadership organisation Xceedibles and has been part of the Teen Book Fest and Paperback podcast as well. Quite happening, right?
So Manasi has been writing since she was four and she doesn't intend to stop. Her third book is ready and the fourth is in the works. And she sincerely hopes that her characters like Krisha keep inspiring and her words keep enchanting.
