Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One!
by Ronit J

Kunal is forced to adventure…
Because his dog is the Chosen One!

Kunal is just your average guy living on rent in Mumbai, working from home, and suffering from anxiety. His world is turned upside down when his girlfriend asks him to foster a rescued street dog. Despite his qualms, he agrees because ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’

That’s when the extra-dimensional dark lord attacks.

The dog is the only one who can stop the dark lord, but he can’t do it without Kunal’s help. Can Kunal overcome his many anxieties or will our world suffer for eternity?

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Lily:  Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview Ronit, I’m looking forward to reading your new release, Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One!. What are some comparison titles of books or movies similar to this book?

Ronit: Thank you for having me here, Lily! The pleasure is all mine. 

Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One! is for anyone who loves fast-paced plots, the zaniness of One Piece/Discworld balanced with occasional reality-checks and climaxes that have a Sander-lanche (is it a Sander-lanche if Sanderson hasn’t written it?).

My book is heavily inspired by several SFF books and media. You’ll spot many pop culture references in there. In fact, every chapter title is a pun of a popular SFF book/movie/game/manga.

Lily:  That’s awesome, and sounds like it’ll be a really fun read. What makes your book stand out from the crowd?

Ronit: My protagonist, Kunal, suffers from crippling anxiety. His unique worldview is what drives the story forward for the majority of the narrative. Mental health, anxiety and trauma are major themes in my book, and I’ve explored them through the lens of urban fantasy. The depiction of mental health and anxiety is directly inspired by my own struggles with anxiety, and I’ve been told by my beta readers and ARC readers that they found this aspect particularly unique and interesting.

Couple that with the fact that the ‘Chosen One’ from my story isn’t Kunal, but his dog, and that makes for a wild adventure. I’ve tried to balance the hard-hitting reality checks with lighthearted humor and thrills to give readers a fuller experience.

Lily:  It’s nice to see a character that struggles with anxiety, especially when it’s well represented. What inspired you to write Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One! ?

Ronit: The inspiration was my own dog, Joy! She’s my in-law’s golden retriever, but I love her like my own. I was walking her one night, when she spotted a stray cat in our building. She loves chasing cats, so naturally she darted forward. But, the stray cat raised its hackles, and its eyes flashed red. Joy suddenly started whimpering and ran in the opposite direction.

This seemingly random encounter sparked an idea in my head — ‘What if the cat was actually a dark lord in disguise?’ That thought eventually developed into ‘Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One!’, which I wrote for Camp NaNoWriMo April 2023.

Lily:  That’s an awesome source of inspiration. Would you like to meet any of the characters in real life? Which one?

Ronit: I would love to meet the Chosen One, Burfi! He’s a cute Indian Pariah.

Lily:  I think I’d love to meet him too. How did you select the names of your characters?

Ronit: I always try to name my characters based on their traits or role in the story. Since India has thousands of different languages and dialects, I try to assign a language to every culture I build, and use that language’s vocabulary to build on character names. Of course, I have to simplify those names to make them easy to read. For example, ‘Kunal’ means several different things, one of which is ‘one who sees beauty in everything’. This is ironic because my protagonist, Kunal, only sees the worst-case-scenarios. 

Alternatively, I choose names based on how they sound. For example, it’s common to name your dog after a food item, and ‘Burfi’ is a fudge-like sweet from India. The moment I settled on ‘Burfi’, it just felt perfect. 

Lily:  That’s a great way to choose names. Now we’d like to talk about you as a writer. On a typical day, how much time do you spend writing?

Ronit: When I don’t have any freelance projects to work on, I can spend 2-4 hours a day writing. That can result in somewhere between 500-2500 words. My best was writing 600 words in 10 minutes, and the most I’ve ever written was 7,000 words in a single day. 

Lily:  That’s a lot of words for one day of writing! Do you prefer to design your own covers or do you pay a designer?

Ronit: I have basic design skills, but I would always prefer hiring a professional. It helps that I’ve worked as a Creative Professional for the past decade, and one of my closest friends, Satyam, is an amazing graphic designer who runs his own agency, The Hyphn. In fact, I hired The Hyphn to design my cover, and you can see what a wonderful job they’ve done. I couldn’t have designed a cover half that good by myself. 

Lily:  It’s a wonderful cover. How many plot ideas are just waiting to be written? Can you tell us about one?

Ronit: Too many to count, if I’m being honest. The one I started writing for NaNoWriMo (but have to put on hold for several reasons) is a Yojimbo-meets-Elden Ring fantasy novel, featuring a character from my main project. I intend to finish it in December, and I hope to finish writing book 1 of my main project sometime in 2024. 

Lily:  Sounds like you’ve got quite a lot on your plate, I can’t wait to see what you write next. Let’s finish up with some fun questions and get inside your mind. What food or food combination do you love that a lot of people might find a little odd?

Ronit:  Pineapple on Pizza is an obvious answer here. I love it. I’ve also tried other weird combos (some on dare, some out of curiosity) like ice cream with ketchup and chicken wings with Shrikhand. 

Lily:  I love pineapple on pizza, but can’t say I’ve had ketchup on ice cream. Would you rather thirty butterflies instantly appear from nowhere every time you sneeze or one very angry squirrel appear from nowhere every time you cough?

Ronit: Butterflies. I hate them, but I think I can take on thirty butterflies. An angry squirrel, however, could cause a ton of damage to my room, books, and person.  

Lily:  I think I’d have to run outside if I was going to suddenly summon that many butterflies. Maybe plant a flower garden for them. As a child, what did you think would be awesome about being an adult, but isn’t as awesome as you thought it would be?

Ronit: The independence. I wasn’t prepared for how expensive that can be, and how stressful maintaining that independence is. 

Lily:  I wasn’t totally prepared for that either, honestly. If your sheets had to be made of deli meats, what meat would want them made of?

Ronit: I’d love to make this a patchwork quilt out of an assortment of meats. But if that’s not an option, then smoked ham. 

Lily:  I think a patchwork would work just fine. What food have you never eaten but would really like to try?

Ronit: Frog legs and escargot. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind trying anything at least once, but I draw the line at cockroaches. Other insects, I don’t know. Depends on my mood at the time. 

Lily:  Escargot is really good prepared right, but I know it can get chewy when overcooked. Which protagonist from a book or movie would make the worst roommate? What book/movie are they from?

Ronit:  Karsa Orlong from Malazan Book of the Fallen. Love the character, but he would be a nightmare to hang out with, let alone share an apartment with. 

Lily:  I don’t know if I’d want them as roommate either. Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t included?

Ronit: I’m also an indie filmmaker, and world cinema has influenced me just as much as fantasy literature. My cinematic explorations have been very grounded, compared to the larger-than-life fantasy stories I want to write and tell, and are a creative/visual contrast to my fantasy writing. 

Lily:  I love that you work in varied creative fields. How can readers discover more about you and your work?

Ronit:  You can find me at the links below