Q&A With Sheila Yasmin Marikar

Sheila Yasmin Marikar is the author of the novels Friends In Napa & The Goddess Effect. Sheila is a contributor to The New York Times & The New Yorker. Sheila also has a newsletter and podcast, Your Friend On The Ground. 

Q: Sheila, would you like to tell the readers of the blog about your novels Friends In Napa & The Goddess Effect? Where did the ideas for both novels come from?

A: The Goddess Effect is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of the wellness industry. I moved to Los Angeles in 2015 and felt very much like a fish out of water. The layout, the people, the traffic — nothing about the city made sense to me. I ended up going to a lot of boutique fitness classes in search of community and a routine to give my days shape; the idea for the studio at the center of The Goddess Effect came from that. The novel is, in large part, me trying to understand my new home and my place in it. Why did I move here? What am I seeking?

Friends in Napa is about a group of college friends who reunite, twenty years later, at a Napa Valley winery one of them has purchased. One of the friends ends up dead. It’s not a traditional mystery, it’s more of a character study. I’m interested in what happens to friendships as people age and circumstances change. We’re often tempted — at least, I am — to put our friends in a box, to think of a theme in a certain way based on first impressions. People tend to defy boxes, and I thought it could be fun to explore the tensions that arise when someone acts “out of character” or flies in the face of who everyone thought they were. 

Q: Are you currently writing your next novel? If so, can you reveal any details about it?

A: Define “writing.” ;) After a lot of hand wringing and idle hours staring at a blank screen, I *think* I’ve figured out what happens in my third novel. All I can say for now is that it’s set in the Maldives, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. 

Q: What’s it like being a contributor to The New York Times & The New Yorker? A contributor is someone who writes pieces for media outlets right?

A: I call myself a contributor to those places because I pitch and write for them often — I think I’ve written north of 100 articles for The New York Times, and dozens of articles for The New Yorker. You could also call me a freelance writer, or a writer for hire. Essentially, I come up with an idea for an article and then figure out the right home for it. I get told “no” a lot. I don’t take it personally. If one editor doesn’t want it, odds are, another will, and if no one wants it then maybe it’s not the right time for that story. Occasionally, editors will come to me with an assignment, and it’s up to me to execute their idea. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. 

Q: Would you like to tell the readers and I about your podcast and where the idea for the podcast came from?

A: Your Friend on the Ground started as a podcast about travel — where we go, how we get there, and what keeps us coming back. I wanted to be able to have conversations about travel that weren’t necessarily service oriented, that felt like the phone call you’d have with a friend after a memorable trip —” Oh, I have to tell you about the night we went out in Rome, it was beyond.” I self-funded the first season and would happily do another with a sponsor (or someone to foot the cost of production).

Around the time I started the podcast, I launched a Substack, Your Friend on the Ground, which offers guides to destinations around the world as well as recipes, how-to guides, and general intel on stuff I like. It’s a bit more personal and it’s a lot easier to produce than a podcast.

Q: Would you please like to post the link to your podcast here? 

A: You can find both the podcast and the Substack here. I’d be thrilled if you subscribed! https://yourfriendontheground.substack.com/about