by Samantha White
Northwest Asia Weekly
Amanda Jayatissa (Credit: Sandun Seneviratne)
At her ninth birthday party, Amanda Jayatissa locked herself in the bathroom. She was reading a book and wanted to finish another chapter.
“I’ve been a huge reader since I was a kid,” Jayatiza said.
It all started when some older cousins visited her family and brought her boxes of books. She was too young to read them at the time, but Jayatissa remembers touching the books, looking at the pictures, and eager to read them.
Once she’s old enough to do it, that’s all she’ll do – make everyone panic – she admits with a smile.
After reading so many stories, the next logical step for her was to write her own, so around 8 or 9, Jayatissa picked up her pink gel pen and started writing.
The first thing she wrote was a mystery story – admittedly a copy of Enid Brighton’s famous Five and Secret Seven series, some of her favorites, which follow a group of kids Adventure, which often involves solving mysteries.
“It was terrible,” she said of the first attempt.
But Jayatiza was undeterred. Whether it’s more mysteries or the anxious poetry of her teenage years (during which she once described her life to her brother as a “black abyss”), she never stopped writing.
It all comes back to square one, as Jayatissa, a former corporate trainer, now owns several mystery novels. Her second book, You’re Invited, will be released on August 9, and tells the story of a wedding that goes awry when a bride disappears on the morning of her big day.
“What if we throw in a dead body?”
She came up with the idea of setting up the mystery at the wedding after Jayatiza attended the wedding, where she caught a glimpse of the bride’s mother smiling at the camera again after a weary second. It got Jayatissa thinking about weddings and how there are cracks behind the sparkle and glamour – the perfect starter for anyone who’s been wondering “what if we throw in a corpse?”
While she does enjoy a lighthearted read that takes her to a “happier place,” Jayatissa was drawn to the idea that something should be addressed in a story.
She loves surprises, a good “aha” moment and the type of big reveal and plot twists — like when the villain’s mask comes off on “The Scooby-Doo Show” — that suits mystery better than others.
“You’re Invited” takes place in Sri Lanka, where Jayatissa was born and raised, and is still alive today. The story was an opportunity to highlight different aspects of her culture, such as the multi-day pomp and circumstance involved in a Sri Lankan wedding. Sri Lanka is not a country that many people have heard of in the mainstream media, and as readers learn about the culture, Jayatissa hopes it will pique their interest in learning more, or in books that explore different environments outside the United States.
One aspect Jayatissa particularly likes to write about in “You’re Invited” is a group of gossipy aunts.
“It was really interesting to me,” she said, adding that it reflected her social circle living in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. It’s not so much six degrees of separation as it’s two degrees – everyone knows everyone, and some only know everyone’s business.
The benefits of being a writer
For Jayatissa, the idea for a new book usually occurs when she is halfway through writing a book. That’s what happened to “You’re Invited” and her third novel. But she won’t allow herself to start a new project until she submits the current project for editing. This way the voices of the new characters don’t leak into the previous stories.
When she’s finally free to start a new story, Jayatissa does some preliminary work, including creating an outline for the story and writing a journal in the character’s voice. Then she would start writing. Once that happens, she said, no one will see her for a long time. Any of her daily activities—exercise, meditation—will be put on hold until her “zero draft” is complete. After that, she became more disciplined as she revised the draft into good enough shape to send to her agent and editor. This will take about a year.
While Jayatissa may have had the “you’re invited” idea even before she finished her first book, My Sweetheart (2021), it wasn’t without its challenges. Jayatissa deals with what she and some of her writer friends describe as “second book syndrome.” While there were no real deadlines or expectations when writing her first book, other than those she created for herself, the second book brought specific deadlines, expectations from everyone else — from her team to readers — As well as comparisons with her previous work.
“You’re attentive,” Jayatiza said of the extra pressure. But despite that, she said, “I love writing.”
Aside from the writing itself, another benefit is that she can read as much as she wants and no one will be mad at her.
Just the other day, she admitted to holding a book in her room, which she has been eagerly awaiting its release. Her dogs were barking loudly, and Jayatissa was able to get her husband to deal with them because her reading—another spooky mystery—was in the name of “research.”
“That 9-year-old who locked himself in the bathroom would be very, very proud,” she said.
Samantha is available at info@nwasianweekly.com.
