1.
- Rajeev Nanda is an IT professional who nurtured his passion for creative writing over many years to eventually publish a part fiction, part philosophy book Conversations in 2009. We bring you some bits from our recent interview with Rajeev-
What’s the title of your
book and its genre? Tell us briefly about it.
The title of the book is
Conversations. The genre
is short-story/fiction and the sub-category can be classified as social philosophy. The book is a collection of stories and poems
that reflect on the challenges we face in our lives. The theme of the book is relationships and
reflections on life. I try to capture
the dilemmas and various challenges that life throws at us and how I see people
cope with them. The stories have been
based on my observation of people around me or strangers I met and talked to
during my travels. The situations are
fictional but the dilemmas captured are real.
You can read samples from the chapters and other tidbits on each story
and poem on my web-site http://rnanda.com
Any similar titles from
other authors published recently? Which authors would you think you directly
compare to? Old or new.
When I started writing the stories and later decided to publish the
collection I did not have any comparison in mind nor did I write with any
specific theme. The theme just evolved
as I started developing stories and the poems.
As a genre, I would say that any short story writer, like Jeffery
Archer, can be a comparison but that’s all there’s to it. Some of the stories can be compared to the
themes that Paulo
Coelho writes about.
People who have read the book tell me that my writing reminds them of some
of the famous authors! These comments
have been positive reinforcements and were ego-boosters for me. However, I do not believe in comparisons as
they start confining you to a narrow band of writing, which then usually limits
your imagination. I would rather develop
a consistent style of writing and be known for that consistency. Writing is my hobby and the only way I can be
truthful to it is by not falling into a trap of comparisons. I will let the topic and the situation be my
guide for each of my writing.
Tell us in about 100
words about your literary influences?
There are and have been
multiple authors that have influenced me, both philosophically and as role
models for me to achieve a certain level of quality in writing. The earliest ones have been Amrita Pritam and Victor Hugo. Then came Ayn Rand, Richard Bach, and Robert A. Heinlein. Philosophy, philosophical fiction and science
fiction being my most favourite genres, authors like Frank Herbert, Nietzsche, Arthur C. Clarke and
many others are some of my favourites.
For those who like these genres will agree that each of these authors’
writings is extremely powerful. The
characters draw you in, the writing stirs your emotions and the focus on the
central theme and message never misses a page.
I cannot come close to these authors but aspire to write like them one
day.
Is there any one book
that changed your life around?
In fact there are two
books – The
Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and Mahabharata.
I have read both of them countless times and can read them again and
again and again… Although, I have to say
that I’m still not completed satisfied with the various translations of
Mahabharata I’ve read so far
Why do you write in the
genre you currently write?
I started writing stories just to pen my thoughts and observations. The genre just evolved because of the stories
I collated after few years of writing on and off. I did not start with any specific genre in
mind
What have you learnt so far in your journey
from finishing manuscript to becoming a published author? Any lessons for
unpublished authors.
Humility! That’s the first thing that comes to my mind
as the key thing I’ve learnt in fiction writing. When I used to write articles on technology
and management and also wrote my book on e-commerce, those were ego trips. I was the subject matter expert and what I
wrote was never challenged by the editor or the publisher, other than
grammatical mistakes.
When I submitted the
original manuscript to the publisher in the US – the book was first published
in the US in 2009, Leadstart brought it to India with an Indian edition – the
feedback from my editor shattered all my illusions about my writing. There was a time when I was close to giving
up but I’m glad that better sense prevailed and I let the editors (from my
earlier publisher and Leadstart) guide me into improving the quality of the
book.
For writers who plan to
write as a hobby, I have only two pieces of advice–
Persevere. Don’t give up. Keep going back to the idea that you started
with. Try multiple approaches. Don’t get disheartened because if you do not
believe in your idea/story/novel and do not stick to it, then who will?
Don’t take criticism
personally. If possible, try to get
early feedback from your friends and family or even a mentor before you
approach any publisher and definitely before you finalize the manuscript. This will only help you improve the chances
of your book being accepted by a publisher and in the market
For folks who want to be
professional writers, there’s only one piece of advice –
Develop a strong
marketing plan and be prepared to shell out money to hire the best
(independent) editors, sponsor events and go all out on advertising. About 100 books get published (English) in
India alone per day! To be noticed out
of these 100 you have to make a lot of noise
Tell us about your next project?
There are multiple things I’m working on at present. I am experimenting with Hindi poetry which I
publish on my web-site http://rnanda.com. Whenever an idea strikes I work on it and put
it on the web-site. One day, I hope I
will have enough of them to publish the collection as a book.
I am co-authoring a book on Cloud computing with a colleague that we hope
to complete by early 2012. It is going
to be a technical and business strategy book that’ll cover the technology and
business strategy around Cloud.
I
am also working on an idea in science fiction genre. I’ve been mulling over it for some time now
and have started to develop the story.
I’m really excited about this idea.
The story is being set in not so distant future where the humans would
have evolved as a species. I want to
combine ideas from futurologists like Ray Kurzweil, Indian and western
mythology and history with a very Indian theme.
This time I want to attempt a novel of a medium size, like about 300 pages. I don’t have a timeline set for this project
and will work on it as time permits, unless some publisher gets a whiff of it
and makes me an offer I can’t refuse J
No comments:
Post a Comment