Sayumi dreams of becoming a bestselling author

02 Jan 2022

Sayumi dreams of becoming a bestselling author

02 Jan 2022

By Kusumanjalee Thilakarathna Sayumi Bimansa Wijesooriya from Gampaha is excited about her upcoming book launch on 14 January at the Colombo City Centre. She started writing stories when she was in grade two, and has written many stories since then. Her book “Treasured Memories” is her first novel. Can you introduce yourself to us? My name is Sayumi Bimansa Wijesooriya and I am from Gampaha. I go to Lyceum International School, Gampaha, and I am currently in grade six. I am an only child. At school, I do elocution, music, and dancing as extracurriculars. My hobbies are reading books and writing. I enjoy writing so much. Are you following any exams in elocution? Yes. I do the LAMDA and Trinity exams. I participate in their festivals too. I take part in prose reading, invented storytelling, TV and radio news reading, drama, public speaking, and miming. I do LAMDA privately and Trinity examinations through my school. Tell us more about your dancing and music practices. I study both these privately too. I learn dancing just for fun. But I learn music in depth. I study both western and oriental music. For western music, I do both theory and practical. But in oriental music, I only practice vocals. Do you play any instruments? I play the piano and the recorder. I am quite fluent in playing the piano, but I still only know the basics of playing the recorder. I have been playing the piano for three years now. I also learn singing in a private class. What method of dancing is your favourite? I learn traditional dancing. I used to go to Channa and Upuli Panibharatha’s institute in Colombo before the pandemic. Although they have restarted physical classes, I didn’t start going for physical classes yet. But I practiced and participated in online classes during the pandemic. Since when have you been writing? I started reading back in the lower nursery and I think I started writing small stories from grade one itself. But I started writing proper stories when I was in grade four. What is the theme of your book ‘Treasured Memories’? It’s about a girl who goes through a lot of negative events in her childhood. She loses her mother and brother when she is very young, and she has to live with her sister and her father. She gets dumped at her grandparents’ place later in life and has to live there on her grandparents’ farm. The farm faces an unfortunate event as foot and mouth disease spreads through the farm. The girl also gets sick. Her sister gets cancer and her grandfather goes mad. But the girl’s life moves forward amidst all these things. Although it sounds like a very sad story, there is a lot of humour and humanity in it so that the reader doesn’t feel so bad about the main character. All the sad parts are twisted with humour. What is the message you wanted to give through this story? Nothing that happens to us in life is 100% sad. There is humour in everything that happens. You will find the light in any critical situation. And never take anybody for granted. Instead of moping about something bad that has happened to you, think about the future and set the bad things aside. What inspired you to write this story? I had to do a school project last year about foot and mouth disease. I had to study this deeply. Plus, all the negative things that took place during the pandemic. I got the idea about this story thinking about both these things and about the things we went through during the pandemic. Do you have plans to publish more books? Yes. I am planning to write a new book. But I think it will take about one and a half years to complete the new book. I’d love to write a series one day. My current main target is to make “Treasured Memories” a success. What is the last book you read? I read two books. As we couldn’t buy new books due to the pandemic I read most books online. I recently read something called “Season of Secrets”. I also read E.B. White’s “Stuart Little”. This is not the first time I read “Stuart Little”. Out of all the books you have read, which book has had the most impact on you? The most heartfelt story I read is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. It shows that you really don’t need a lot of money to be able to spend time with your family. Your family’s warmth is capable of giving you the happiness you are looking for. Another book that has a similar impact on me is “Oliver Twist” by the same author. It also gave me a good feeling about humanity and helping others. What is your ambition, Sayumi? To become a number one best-selling author, a screenwriter, and an actress. You said you also take part in dramas. What are the recent characters you have played? Two years ago I played Jane Eyre. I recently played Miss Minchin from A Little Princess. But this was for an online exam I faced. Whom would you like to thank for supporting you? My parents and my entire family including my relatives. My principal and my school teachers. My friends encourage me all the time. Ramith Dheerasekara who guides me when I participate in his creative writers’ club and Amuthu Iskole productions. He is also my English teacher at school. I also want to thank Rangana Karunarathne for the beautiful illustrations he did for my book “Treasured Memories” and Samudrika from Samudra Publications for publishing my book.

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Sayumi dreams of becoming a bestselling author

Sayumi dreams of becoming a bestselling author

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