India, Sept. 28 -- You begin with a "golden rule" in this novel. What are the golden rules you've set for yourself as a writer?

Perhaps the most important "golden rule" is that a novel, like a house, must be designed or written from the inside-out, never outside-in. You can't just sit down and say you will write the definitive work on the Sri Lankan Civil War, for instance. Rather, you might start with the smallest inciting incident or fact, which might trigger in you something larger. The process has to be organic, or the insincerity and artifice will shine through.

Both you and your protagonist in Hot Butter Cuttlefish are personal trainers, but you're a writer, too. What was it like being in the mind of Malik, making him the storytel...