Swati Mukilan Talks About Her Book “Yours Painfully”

About the Author:

Swati Mukilan is a personal growth enthusiast dedicated to exploring self-awareness, mindset, and transformation through intentional living. She started her career as a software engineer after graduation, but her true passion always lay in illustrations, books and storytelling. She never tires of exploring new and creative ways to narrate stories, whether through digital art, short narratives or engaging through Instagram story- movies-many of which captivated and inspired her audience. Yours paintully marks her debut as an author, where she beautifully blends deep emotions with a compelling narrative.

Exclusive interview with the author

Q: What Inspired You To Write This Book?

A: I grew up watching countless movies centred around unrequited love. People fall for each other deeply but end up not uniting for various barriers, including cultural differences, societal conditions, and sometimes even death. And I, too, have experienced the ache of unrequited love, which left me with a lingering question I kept pondering for a long time. “If this is not meant to be, then why should it have to be felt deeply and grieved heavily?” And my search for the answer to that question became the seed point that gave birth to this book. As I began to let go of my pain and suffering, I discovered a profound sense of liberation within me, it is so freeing that I felt compelled to share it with the world.

Q: Can You Tell Us About The Book?

A: Well, the book is simple in its structure, with just three main characters, and I haven’t spent many pages on elaborate descriptions like any other fiction novel. I dived straight into the story. It is fast-paced and direct, and that’s exactly what makes it compelling. My ultimate aim was to infuse it with a message powerful enough to transform lives, and hence I kept it uncluttered. Overall, it’s a clean, unembellished script, free of decorative language. And for anyone who has experienced unrequited love, I promise you won’t be the same person by the time you finish this book.

Q: What Does The Title Mean?

A: Thank you for this question. The title and the front cover were very carefully chosen, although it’s minimalistic. The title, “Yours painfully”, is chosen as a symbol of acknowledgement that the unrequited love has always left one with pain only. I do not want it to be polished like “forever yours” or “with love” or whatever because my healing started when I acknowledged that it pained me, without sweeping it under the carpet and moving on with another life. On the front cover, the yellow background signifies the wisdom the book is meant to uncover, while the blood dripping, black and red colour fonts symbolise the depth of pain and the fiery transformation that rises from it.

Q: Was The Character Inspired By A Real Person?

A: All the characters are fictional, except for one or two scenes that describe engineering life and semester exams. Everything else, including the characters and events, was crafted intentionally to serve the message I wanted to convey to the reader. And because I’m an ocean lover, I made sure to include a scene by the sea in the climax, along with metaphors inspired by the ocean’s depth and vastness.

Q: How Do Your Book Get Published?

A: It’s a self-published one. I approached OrangeBooks publisher, and then they took me through the process. They have an established structure and coherence that made my debut publishing so easy and tension-free. It was a smooth sail when it came to the publishing part.

This book is published by OrangeBooks Publication. All rights are reserved with the author & the publisher.