Kathmandu, Feb. 8 -- Sixty-year-old Shashikala Manandhar is colourful and vibrant, her expressions even more joyful. "Let me know if I say things the wrong way or when I need to stop," she says as she starts to share her journey as a writer.

In her writing den, she has carefully wrapped the books she has authored in plastic to protect them from booklouse. A rack behind her is full of files stacked with her research, for her books and of her interests. Her walls are decorated with her honours and academic certificates and her photographs, revealing her studious and energetic persona.

Manandhar is the country's first female Nepal Bhasa novelist, and she has published over nine books. She has also written stories for children and has over ...