She’s Goa newest novelist, with the recent release of a collection of ghost stories. Jessica Faleiro’s hair raising childhood experience has inspired her to put Goan ghost lore to paper
Jessica Faleiro was convinced she saw a ghost when she was10. It was in the house next to hers inRaia, abandoned, yet to her possessed by an unknown presence. Surprisingly awindow was ajar and an old rocking chair was moving back and forth. Almost adecade later, her father admitted that there was something to that house andthat rumours were abound. Fast-forward to 2012, Jessica’s first book,‘Afterlife: Ghost stories from Goa” has just been released.
Jessica doesn’t have an obsession with ghosts, though shewanted to be a writer from the time she was very young. “Unfortunately, Icouldn’t really see the way forward. I always thought, that to be a writer, youhave to be surrounded by writers and discuss your work,” she says. So, shestudied to be an environmental lobbyist in Miami and England. After years ofworking for corporates, she came down to Goa and discovered the deep personalsatisfaction that one achieves from working with NGOs and helping others.“That’s when my work with NGOs started and I continued that, until went back tostudy creative writing in 2010,” says the first time author.
It was there that Jessica began to understand the finernuances of creative writing, fine tuning your subject, looking at literaturefrom a critical perspective and learning how to get your point across. Sheexplains, “I never thought I’d finish a novel, but all the ‘workshopping’ atthe course helped me work to achieving that goal.” Her editors at Rupa were abig help too, says Jessica adding, “Sometimes you’re so immersed in yoursubject that you cannot see the wood for the trees. I would often get querieslike, “what are you trying to say here?’. My MA in creative writing came inhandy because we were taught that criticism is part of the learning process.So, I would take another look at the work in question and realise that theywere right.”
Moving on to ‘Afterlife…” Jessica elaborates further on thefact that it was actually her dissertation, which eventually wound up beingaccepted by Rupa Publications. “’Afterlife..’ is a collection of short stories, ghost stories,which are inspired by stories that youhear in Goa. The main protagonists are the Fonseca family, who gather aroundafter a power cut and start sharing stories, life experiences and snippets offamily history, all of which have a scary underlying thread.
