Vanitha’s debut novel Watermark is unusual on many counts. The premise: historical fiction set in 14th century France. The protagonist: a mere commoner-a hearing- impaired, female, albino and poet and an expert in the art of paper-making. The Time: that of inquisition and intolerance. It’s about Renaissance society; it's about a woman, and an unfair world and how she survives.

She has a B.S. in Optical Engineering from the University of Arizona, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University on her CV. Her jobs have varied from soldering rockets payloads to women’s projects to abused animal care to non-profit health care to teaching French. And right now she freelances as an editor and a writer. Vanitha Sankaran, the Indian diaspora writer talks to Suneetha Balakrishnan.

The debut
My first book, Watermark: A Novel of the Middle Ages, out from Avon A (HarperCollins) on April 13, 2010, takes place in the 1300s in a small French town called Narbonne and is about the introduction of papermaking into Western society, a milestone that changed the face of the world. Auda, the mute daughter of a papermaker, secretly finds solace and escape in the wonder of the written word. I am very pleased with how Watermark has turned out.

The plot
I read a lot, I travel a lot, and I seek out new experiences wherever I go. Invariably, something strikes me as being an interesting topic (or even bit of trivia), and I jot it down. When the hint of a plot comes together, I start fleshing it out and writing a scene or two. That’s when the real research begins, and it’s usually a combination of living in the library, ordering as many books on the subject and era I can find, and of course travelling to the area, if I can.

The big task: getting a publisher
Getting a publisher was not the easiest task and I believe that is simply a reflection of our economic times. My agent was a Godsend, being patient and persistent in her belief that my book was a story worth reading. Getting published in the traditional manner is still a rough business in the U.S.—it happens, but you have to have faith and you have to keep getting better at your craft.

About her next book
The book I am working on now is set in Renaissance Venice in the late fifteenth century. It is about 50 years after Gutenberg has died and his printing press has become the focal point for a whole new publishing industry.