( ENSPIRE Features ) Love Hudson-Maggio Releases “Bombay Baby,” The Highly Anticipated Sequel To “Karma Under Fire”
Atlanta-based author Love Hudson-Maggio is proving that powerful storytelling can come from the boardroom as easily as the writer’s desk. Known for her bestselling debut “Karma Under Fire,” which will soon be adapted for film by acclaimed director Seith Mann (The Wire, The Walking Dead), Love returns with her highly anticipated sequel, “Bombay Baby,” continuing the story of an Atlanta jewelry designer and a billionaire from one of India’s wealthiest families, exploring how love, ambition, and tradition collide.
Hudson-Maggio is more than a novelist; she is also the CEO of a successful marketing technology firm. With an impressive career spanning global giants like Time Warner/CNN, Salesforce, and IHG Hotels & Resorts. Her transition from corporate leader to author brings a distinctive lens to her writing. She shares her career as a marketing technology CEO, her transition to becoming a renowned author, and the creative leaps she took to empower other women. She explains her writing process, combining tradition and modernity. In addition, Hudson-Maggio describes the takeaways for women balancing career and personal life through her literary characters. Furthermore, she delves into the latest accomplishment of Karma Under Fire” being optioned for film and how this milestone impacts her mission to amplify diverse voices. Lastly, Hudson-Maggio discusses how her writing and background in technology inspire and connect communities.
You’ve built a successful career as a marketing technology CEO before stepping into the literary world. What inspired you to make that creative leap, and how do you hope your journey empowers other women to pursue their passions across industries?
I’ve been blessed with a wonderful career, working in boardrooms, decoding numbers, managing global marketing teams, and guiding brands through digital transformation. It’s been fulfilling, but there was always something missing. A nagging feeling that I was capable of more. I wanted to define my journey and embrace both my business and creative sides, without letting anyone box me in. I wanted to answer that whisper with a yes. Yes, I could be a writer and have a career too. That I didn’t have to hide my creative side to exist in a corporate environment. Writing Karma Under Fire and Bombay Baby was a way to reclaim that part of myself that believed art and creativity could coexist.
I’m inspired to tell my fellow female writers that you can feed your creative soul and enjoy a successful business career. You don’t have to be a starving artist. You can run a company and write a novel. You can chair a board and still daydream. I hope my writing journey inspires other women to reinvent themselves and hold on tight their creativity.
“Bombay Baby” continues the story from your debut novel, “Karma Under Fire,” blending themes of love, culture, and ambition. How do you use your storytelling to inspire readers to embrace both tradition and modern identity?
Writing “Karma Under Fire” and “Bombay Baby” required a great deal of research and social listening. Letting the characters in my novel speak to me while ensuring that I didn’t misappropriate another culture or gender. I embraced writing from a different perspective with the hope that I uplifted that perspective and provided a pleasant surprise to the writer. In Bombay Baby, I wanted to capture the beauty of duality—the pull between heritage and modernity, duty and desire. So many of us, especially women of color, live in that space between worlds. Our lives are a constant “code shift.” Through the characters in my books, I explore what it means to honor your past while embracing who you are becoming in the present. I learned through my writing that identity and authenticity don’t have to be a tug-of-war.
What message do you hope readers—especially women balancing career and personal life—take away from your characters’ journeys?
Share your creative gifts with the world without shame. Be unapologetic about your creative expression. Nurture and protect the time you use to create. As women, we’re constantly walking that tightrope between professional excellence and personal fulfillment. My characters are no different. They’re imperfect—they can be powerful, ambitious, and vulnerable all in one chapter. The message is simple: let the world see you in all your splendor. Don’t shrink to fit someone’s limited view of you. Yes, there is a time and place for creative expression. Maybe the boardroom isn’t the best place to create your watercolor masterpiece. I know you can dream and earn – it’s a part of what makes you uniquely you.
With “Karma Under Fire” being optioned for film by director Seith Mann, your storytelling is reaching new heights. How does this milestone reflect your broader mission to amplify diverse voices and global perspectives through your work?
Having “Karma Under Fire” optioned by Seith Mann was both humbling and affirming. It showed me that stories rooted in culture featuring strong characters have the power to transcend race and geographic location. My goal in my writing is to show how similar we all are to each other while embracing our differences. If my readers walk away curious and willing to learn about a different culture. Then I’ve done my job.
In what ways do you see your writing—and your professional background—working together to inspire, educate, or connect communities across cultures?
Whether I’m helping an enterprise client understand their marketing persona or building a fictional universe set in Mumbai, the goal is the same: connection. My background in marketing taught me how to translate complexity into clarity. Writing taught me how to translate emotion into empathy. When those two worlds meet, magic happens. Yes, sometimes the beginning is explosive. I hope that through my work—both in business and in fiction—I create bridges between cultures, spark curiosity, and remind us all that we’re more alike than different. We want the same things: to be seen, to be heard, and to be loved.
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