Deepti Menon

Deepti Menon Bio – January 2024

Deepti Menon has always loved the written word. She began to write at the age of ten and was lucky enough to have travelled around the country, being an Army kid, and later an Army wife. Her experiences during those years helped hone her interest and her flair for writing. Meeting new people helped her to notice details and put them into her interesting characters. (In fact, her friends and family shy away from saying anything to her, for fear of seeing it in print the next time they open a magazine.)

Her first book, 'Arms and the Woman', published by Rupa Publishers in 2002, took a light-hearted look at the life of an Army wife. This book was written mainly to reveal the warmth and camaraderie within the great institution.

For Deepti, both teaching and writing were wonderful learning experiences in their own ways. Teaching brought out the extrovert in her that revelled in being with children, creating that much-needed rapport and opening their minds to not only academics, but also the little things like curiosity, fun and good humour. She loved the fact that she learnt much from her students as well. Today, she is the Executive Director of Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi School, a school in the town of Thrissur in Kerala.

2013 and 2014 were lucky for her, as many of her short stories were chosen for anthologies. She had a number of stories in the various ‘Chicken Soups’ as well. Short stories with deft twists and tongue-in-cheek articles that tickle the funny bone are her forte. One of her purple patches came when she won an I-Pad in a worldwide short story contest.

A book of her poems, dealing with life, love and loss, titled 'Deeparadhana of Poems', was lovingly compiled by her mother, herself a talented writer. ‘Shadow in the Mirror’, a psychological thriller published by Readomania in 2016, was well received by her readers. After that, she brought out two more anthologies of thriller short stories titled ‘Where Shadows Follow’ (2020) and ‘Shadows Never Lie’ (2021). Together the three books are now known as the Shadow Trilogy.

Deepti has also worked as a freelance journalist for over seven years and brought out humorous pieces, lifestyle articles and hard-hitting non-fiction in many publications.

In 2022, she was invited to be the Guest Editor for ‘The Abandoned House Horror’ brought out by Monalisa Joshi (Chrysanthemum Chronicles). 2023 was a year when two of her books were published – ‘Classic Tales from Shakespeare’ (Readomania) and ‘The Dance and the Trance’ (H&C Publishing).

January 1st, 2024 started the new year off with a bang as Deepti’s fourth book in the #shadowseries titled ‘The Web of Shadows’ was published, again by Readomania.

As she loves to say, “Writing runs in my blood, as teaching does, and I have been fortunate enough to be able to do both. I can never forget the thrill of seeing my name in print for the first time, a thrill that has only intensified over the years. Writing is an endless journey that I revel in, with all its winding twists and turns! Never a dull moment, never time to regret... life is truly worth living!”