B.S. Murthy's Blog, page 2
March 19, 2023
BS Murthy's Exclusive Author Interview in Books Shelf
My author interview in Books Shelf is excerpted as under. https://www.booksshelf.com/interviews...
When did you start writing?
Reared in Telugu, the Italian of the East, I groomed myself in English, the language to converse, in which my youth made me pen ardent letters of crush. Subsequently the imbibed art of letter writing enabled me to craft a number of novel letters in the fictional arena as well.
What makes writing your passion?
It is my love for the language and its scope for expression that lends passion to my writing.
How long have you been writing?
When I was thirty-four, I began publishing articles on managerial issues and ten years later, my devotional reading of the continental fiction thus far seemingly impelled my muse to enter into the arena of novel writing.
What was the feeling when you published your first book?
The manuscript of my maiden novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love, which I believed would enrich the world of letters (I craved to live till I finished it), afforded me the top of the world feeling but the ordeals of finding a publisher that followed insensibly diminished my satisfaction in its self-publishing. Whatever, I’ve novelized the travails of publishing in the chapter ‘Domain of the Devil’ in Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life that followed it.
What’s the story behind your choice of characters?
It’s my conviction that for fiction to impact the writers and readers alike, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvases.
What annoys you the most in pursuing a writing career?
I happened to be a novelist and though the prospects of a writing career were foreclosed from the inception, my urge to write led me into the arenas of stage and radio plays, short story ‘n non-fiction writing and translation to fashion my body of work of twelve free e-books that I’ve placed in the public domain.
We all know the writer’s path is never easy, what makes you keep going? What advice would you give to new authors?
With regard to the first question, one may like to go through My ‘Novel’ Account of Human Possibility that can be accessed through Google search.
In respect of the second, I suggest that the new authors may mind the old saying that one cannot be a good writer without being a good reader, and that it's right for them to wait till writing beckons them to write.
If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say?
Do Encore.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with the bad ones?
I do read book reviews of my books and even revised some of them based on constructive criticisms but for the most part it is so be it.
What is the feeling when you get a good review?
Needless to say, a good review makes me feel nice.
Have you ever incorporated something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
As I believe that only fiction can lend scope for the full play of life, I’ve lent much of my life and times to my novels.
Which of your characters you can compare yourself with? Did you base that character on you?
I may confess that Sathya’s tale in Crossing the Mirage: Passing through youth is indeed semi-autobiographical.
What do you think, the book cover is as important as the story?
I think that what is face to the body the cover is for the book and my books would forever be indebted to my artist friends E. Rohini Kumar, Gopi, Niranjan and Mohan, who variously embellished them with their artistic faculties.
Do you connect with your readers? Do you mind having a chat with them or you prefer to express yourself through your writing?
I think that personal interaction with readers in any form makes it surreal for the writer.
How do you feel when people appreciate your work or recognize you in public?
Given that emotional fulfillment accrues from a well-done feeling, there is no dearth of it owing to my body of work, but as it is the public recognition of the work that entails ego gratification, being an unheralded author, I have not experienced the same.
Who is your favorite author? Why?
My favorite authors are Theodor Fontane, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Marcel Proust, Emily Zola, Gustav Flaubert, and Robert Musil to name some, for the way they explored the varied facets of human emotions.
What’s the dream? Whom would you like to be as big as?
I may say that even in my dreams I’m at ease being as small as I am.
Would you rewrite any of your books? Why?
I’ve revised every book of mine to make it better for me and for my potential readers.
If you could switch places with any author – who would that be?
Whatever may be my limitations as a writer, I would rather let me be for writing is unique to each author.
What would you say to the “trolls” on the internet? We all know them – people who like to write awful reviews to books they’ve never read or didn’t like that much, just to annoy the author.
As for me but for the internet, my body of work would have lain naked in the mortuary of letters and I haven’t become someone to merit the attention of the trolls to defame. Well, anonymity has its own boons to bestow upon the unheralded writers.
What would you say to your readers?
If any of my books, in varied genres, happen to relate to the subject matter of your interest then please give a try to see if they interest you.
Share a bit about yourself – where do you live, are you married, do you have kids?
I’m a graduate mechanical engineer from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India, and had been a Hyderabad-based Insurance Surveyor and Loss Assessor from 1986 - 2021. I’m married, to a housewife, with two sons, the elder one a PhD in Finance, and the younger a Master in Engineering.
What are your hobbies? What do you do in your free time?
I had been a passionate Bridge player before I devoted myself to writing and ever since, for the most part, I’ve been solely living in the world of letters, occasionally lending my ears to Indian classical and popular music.
Did you have a happy childhood?
I was blessed with such a happy childhood some of the detail of which that I recalled in my Glaring Shadow – A stream of consciousness novel could incite envy in many.
Is there a particular experience that made you start writing?
“When I was forty-four, having been fascinated by the manuscript of a -satirical novella penned by one Bhibhas Sen, an Adman, with whom I had been on the same intellectual page for the past four years then, it occurred to me, ‘when he could, I can for sure’. It was as if Sen had driven away the ghosts of those literary greats that came to shadow my muse but as life would have it, it was another matter that not wanting to foul his work, as he hadn’t obliged the willing publisher to pad it up to a ‘publishable size’, that manuscript remained in the literary limbo.”
This is an excerpt from My ‘Novel’ Account of Human Possibility that can be accessed through Google search.
Share a secret with us
I’ve lent many secrets of my life to my fiction and so I’m left with those that would be interred with the bones.
When did you start writing?
Reared in Telugu, the Italian of the East, I groomed myself in English, the language to converse, in which my youth made me pen ardent letters of crush. Subsequently the imbibed art of letter writing enabled me to craft a number of novel letters in the fictional arena as well.
What makes writing your passion?
It is my love for the language and its scope for expression that lends passion to my writing.
How long have you been writing?
When I was thirty-four, I began publishing articles on managerial issues and ten years later, my devotional reading of the continental fiction thus far seemingly impelled my muse to enter into the arena of novel writing.
What was the feeling when you published your first book?
The manuscript of my maiden novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love, which I believed would enrich the world of letters (I craved to live till I finished it), afforded me the top of the world feeling but the ordeals of finding a publisher that followed insensibly diminished my satisfaction in its self-publishing. Whatever, I’ve novelized the travails of publishing in the chapter ‘Domain of the Devil’ in Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life that followed it.
What’s the story behind your choice of characters?
It’s my conviction that for fiction to impact the writers and readers alike, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvases.
What annoys you the most in pursuing a writing career?
I happened to be a novelist and though the prospects of a writing career were foreclosed from the inception, my urge to write led me into the arenas of stage and radio plays, short story ‘n non-fiction writing and translation to fashion my body of work of twelve free e-books that I’ve placed in the public domain.
We all know the writer’s path is never easy, what makes you keep going? What advice would you give to new authors?
With regard to the first question, one may like to go through My ‘Novel’ Account of Human Possibility that can be accessed through Google search.
In respect of the second, I suggest that the new authors may mind the old saying that one cannot be a good writer without being a good reader, and that it's right for them to wait till writing beckons them to write.
If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say?
Do Encore.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with the bad ones?
I do read book reviews of my books and even revised some of them based on constructive criticisms but for the most part it is so be it.
What is the feeling when you get a good review?
Needless to say, a good review makes me feel nice.
Have you ever incorporated something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
As I believe that only fiction can lend scope for the full play of life, I’ve lent much of my life and times to my novels.
Which of your characters you can compare yourself with? Did you base that character on you?
I may confess that Sathya’s tale in Crossing the Mirage: Passing through youth is indeed semi-autobiographical.
What do you think, the book cover is as important as the story?
I think that what is face to the body the cover is for the book and my books would forever be indebted to my artist friends E. Rohini Kumar, Gopi, Niranjan and Mohan, who variously embellished them with their artistic faculties.
Do you connect with your readers? Do you mind having a chat with them or you prefer to express yourself through your writing?
I think that personal interaction with readers in any form makes it surreal for the writer.
How do you feel when people appreciate your work or recognize you in public?
Given that emotional fulfillment accrues from a well-done feeling, there is no dearth of it owing to my body of work, but as it is the public recognition of the work that entails ego gratification, being an unheralded author, I have not experienced the same.
Who is your favorite author? Why?
My favorite authors are Theodor Fontane, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Marcel Proust, Emily Zola, Gustav Flaubert, and Robert Musil to name some, for the way they explored the varied facets of human emotions.
What’s the dream? Whom would you like to be as big as?
I may say that even in my dreams I’m at ease being as small as I am.
Would you rewrite any of your books? Why?
I’ve revised every book of mine to make it better for me and for my potential readers.
If you could switch places with any author – who would that be?
Whatever may be my limitations as a writer, I would rather let me be for writing is unique to each author.
What would you say to the “trolls” on the internet? We all know them – people who like to write awful reviews to books they’ve never read or didn’t like that much, just to annoy the author.
As for me but for the internet, my body of work would have lain naked in the mortuary of letters and I haven’t become someone to merit the attention of the trolls to defame. Well, anonymity has its own boons to bestow upon the unheralded writers.
What would you say to your readers?
If any of my books, in varied genres, happen to relate to the subject matter of your interest then please give a try to see if they interest you.
Share a bit about yourself – where do you live, are you married, do you have kids?
I’m a graduate mechanical engineer from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India, and had been a Hyderabad-based Insurance Surveyor and Loss Assessor from 1986 - 2021. I’m married, to a housewife, with two sons, the elder one a PhD in Finance, and the younger a Master in Engineering.
What are your hobbies? What do you do in your free time?
I had been a passionate Bridge player before I devoted myself to writing and ever since, for the most part, I’ve been solely living in the world of letters, occasionally lending my ears to Indian classical and popular music.
Did you have a happy childhood?
I was blessed with such a happy childhood some of the detail of which that I recalled in my Glaring Shadow – A stream of consciousness novel could incite envy in many.
Is there a particular experience that made you start writing?
“When I was forty-four, having been fascinated by the manuscript of a -satirical novella penned by one Bhibhas Sen, an Adman, with whom I had been on the same intellectual page for the past four years then, it occurred to me, ‘when he could, I can for sure’. It was as if Sen had driven away the ghosts of those literary greats that came to shadow my muse but as life would have it, it was another matter that not wanting to foul his work, as he hadn’t obliged the willing publisher to pad it up to a ‘publishable size’, that manuscript remained in the literary limbo.”
This is an excerpt from My ‘Novel’ Account of Human Possibility that can be accessed through Google search.
Share a secret with us
I’ve lent many secrets of my life to my fiction and so I’m left with those that would be interred with the bones.
March 18, 2023
BS Murthy's AuthoriView
My AuthoriView is excepted below https://authoriview.com/InterviewsPre...
Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
I’m an Indian novelist, playwright, short story, non-fiction 'n articles writer, translator, a 'little' thinker and a budding philosopher in ‘Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the World by Eastern Speculative Philosophy’ that was originally published in The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal, Vol. 05 Issue 18, Summer 2004.
Born on 27 Aug 1948, and having been schooled in letter-writing, in my mid thirties, I happened to articulate my managerial ideas in thirty-odd published articles, and later penned Benign Flame: Saga of Love, Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life, Crossing the Mirage: Passing through youth (plot and character driven novels), Glaring Shadow: A stream of consciousness novel, Prey on the Prowl: A Crime Novel, Of No Avail: Web of Wedlock, a novella, Stories Varied: A Book of Short Stories and Onto the Stage: Slighted Souls and other stage and radio plays.
Besides Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife (A Critical Appraisal of Islamic Faith, Indian Polity ‘n More), a ‘novel’ narrative, possibly in a new genre, and the critique Inane Interpolations in Bhagvad-Gita (An Invocation for their Revocation) in the arena of non-fiction, my literary endeavours in the translation zone had been the versification of the Sanskrit epics, Vyasa’s Bhagvad-Gita as Treatise of self-help and Valmiki’s Sundara Kãnda as Hanuman’s Odyssey in contemporary English idiom,
Later, as a prodigal son, I took to my mother tongue, Telugu, to craft the short story తప్పటడుగులు (Missteps).
While my fiction had emanated from my conviction that for it to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas, all my body of work was borne out of my passion for writing, matched only by my love for language.
MY body of work as above is in the public domain as free ebooks https://g.co/kgs/Dri6rm
More over, some of my articles on management issues, general insurance topics, literary matters, and political affairs published in The Hindu, The Economic Times, The Financial Express. The Purchase, The Insurance Times, Triveni , Boloji.com are reproduced in Academia.edu
https://independent.academia.edu/Bulu...
I, a graduate mechanical engineer from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India, had been a Hyderabad-based Insurance Surveyor and Loss Assessor from 1986 - 2021.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Content being a curious reader, wanting to be a writer was a far cry till I happened to become one as essayed in My 'Novel' Account of Human Possibility that can be read in this site or accessed trough the internet.
Which book have you read the most in your lifetime?
I'm more of a book savour than an voracious reader and it's the continental fiction of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Emily Zola, Gustav Flaubert, Marcel Proust and Robert Musil et al that I've savoured the most.
Do you have any unique or quirky writing habits?
When I'm into writing, as I go about it the whole hog, all my literary babies got delivered in nine months or less.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Raja Rao, of my maiden novel Benign Flame: Saga of Love, who goads his lover Roopa to love Sathyam her husband.
Give us an interesting fun fact about your book.
In Benign Flame, to begin with, it was as though a ‘novel’ chemistry had developed between my muse and the mood of its characters that shaped its fictional course, and soon I came to believe that I had something exceptional to offer to the world of letters, nay the world itself. So, not wanting to die till I gave it to it, I tended to go to lengths to preserve my life that was till I delivered it in nine months with a ‘top of the world’ feeling at that. Then, when one Spencer Critchley, an American critic, thought that – “It’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs” – I felt vindicated about my unique contribution.
How long does it take you to write a book?
Being a self-published author, I was not constrained to stretch my works to the publishable length or rework them to cater to the whims of the editors or the fancies of the market, and thus my writing was able to follow the dictates of the respective story / plot, the uninterrupted process of which enabled me to complete each of them numbering twelve, incidentally in nine months or less.
What do you think about the role of readers?
By the very nature of letters, as readers are not a homogenous lot, there's truism in the saying that there's a reader for every book and there's a book for every reader.
Have you experienced writer’s block? How did you get through it?
Given that life and letters have combined to impart novelty to my writing, I haven't experienced writer's block as such but just the same as creativity is not inexhaustible, I'm seemingly done with my muse.
What do you plan to write next?
Save an event-driven article on occasion, probably I'm done with my writing in which seemingly my life has crystallized itself before death could dissipate it.
What is your most treasured possession?
My most treasured possessions have been the loving glances of all those women that have made my life’s journey a joyous sojourn, and to whom I have dedicated my Prey on the Prowl - A Crime Novel.
Who or what has been the greatest love of your life?
It's the love itself that has been the greatest love of my life.
Which living person do you most dislike?
Being human, I too am prone for likes and dislikes but I tend not to nurse dislikes if only to minimize the negativity in my consciousness.
What is your greatest fear?
As I've nothing much to lose, I have nothing much to fear.
What is your greatest regret?
My greatest regret is that I shouldn't have troubled my parents - Peraiah Sastry and Kamakshi - more so my father so much but thankfully one of the boons of my writing has been to be able to picture them in my Glaring Shadow - A Stream of Consciousness Novel.
If you could choose to be a character in a book, who would it be?
If I choose to be a character in a book, it would be Raja Rao of Benign Flame: Saga of Love whom I rather fashioned after me.
What is your favorite journey?
The journey of love.
What do you do as a hobby?
I tend to examine the perplexing life in all its complexity
Give us an interesting fun fact about your book.
This repeat question, of Q6, so to say, has afforded an opportunity to my Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life to depict the the novel link between life and literature.
In this poignant tale, Gautam was destined to sacrifice his wife Sneha's chastity to salvage his business but my predicament lay in musing about a credible plot to make him induce her into the act. That was even as the time for it was fast nearing in the narrative, which incidentally was shortly after the American invasion of Afghanistan in Oct 2001. However, one evening around then, when I was hugely upset after learning about the betrayal of an unscrupulous character that portended to undermine my career, I recalled at length that owing to the double-cross by Pakistan's ISI, Abdul Haq, the then Pashtun leader, who was trying to create a popular uprising in Afghanistan against the Taliban, had lost his life at the latter’s hands. So, even as my career jeopardy seemed trivial in comparison to Haq’s pathetic end by perfidy, my muse conceived to plot Sneha’s fall on the path of Manian’s betrayal of her man.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I strive to make my writing original and credible.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Get on with life.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
They may mind the saying that one cannot be a good writer without being a good reader and it's also right for them to wait till writing beckons them to write.
Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
I’m an Indian novelist, playwright, short story, non-fiction 'n articles writer, translator, a 'little' thinker and a budding philosopher in ‘Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the World by Eastern Speculative Philosophy’ that was originally published in The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal, Vol. 05 Issue 18, Summer 2004.
Born on 27 Aug 1948, and having been schooled in letter-writing, in my mid thirties, I happened to articulate my managerial ideas in thirty-odd published articles, and later penned Benign Flame: Saga of Love, Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life, Crossing the Mirage: Passing through youth (plot and character driven novels), Glaring Shadow: A stream of consciousness novel, Prey on the Prowl: A Crime Novel, Of No Avail: Web of Wedlock, a novella, Stories Varied: A Book of Short Stories and Onto the Stage: Slighted Souls and other stage and radio plays.
Besides Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife (A Critical Appraisal of Islamic Faith, Indian Polity ‘n More), a ‘novel’ narrative, possibly in a new genre, and the critique Inane Interpolations in Bhagvad-Gita (An Invocation for their Revocation) in the arena of non-fiction, my literary endeavours in the translation zone had been the versification of the Sanskrit epics, Vyasa’s Bhagvad-Gita as Treatise of self-help and Valmiki’s Sundara Kãnda as Hanuman’s Odyssey in contemporary English idiom,
Later, as a prodigal son, I took to my mother tongue, Telugu, to craft the short story తప్పటడుగులు (Missteps).
While my fiction had emanated from my conviction that for it to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas, all my body of work was borne out of my passion for writing, matched only by my love for language.
MY body of work as above is in the public domain as free ebooks https://g.co/kgs/Dri6rm
More over, some of my articles on management issues, general insurance topics, literary matters, and political affairs published in The Hindu, The Economic Times, The Financial Express. The Purchase, The Insurance Times, Triveni , Boloji.com are reproduced in Academia.edu
https://independent.academia.edu/Bulu...
I, a graduate mechanical engineer from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India, had been a Hyderabad-based Insurance Surveyor and Loss Assessor from 1986 - 2021.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Content being a curious reader, wanting to be a writer was a far cry till I happened to become one as essayed in My 'Novel' Account of Human Possibility that can be read in this site or accessed trough the internet.
Which book have you read the most in your lifetime?
I'm more of a book savour than an voracious reader and it's the continental fiction of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Emily Zola, Gustav Flaubert, Marcel Proust and Robert Musil et al that I've savoured the most.
Do you have any unique or quirky writing habits?
When I'm into writing, as I go about it the whole hog, all my literary babies got delivered in nine months or less.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Raja Rao, of my maiden novel Benign Flame: Saga of Love, who goads his lover Roopa to love Sathyam her husband.
Give us an interesting fun fact about your book.
In Benign Flame, to begin with, it was as though a ‘novel’ chemistry had developed between my muse and the mood of its characters that shaped its fictional course, and soon I came to believe that I had something exceptional to offer to the world of letters, nay the world itself. So, not wanting to die till I gave it to it, I tended to go to lengths to preserve my life that was till I delivered it in nine months with a ‘top of the world’ feeling at that. Then, when one Spencer Critchley, an American critic, thought that – “It’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs” – I felt vindicated about my unique contribution.
How long does it take you to write a book?
Being a self-published author, I was not constrained to stretch my works to the publishable length or rework them to cater to the whims of the editors or the fancies of the market, and thus my writing was able to follow the dictates of the respective story / plot, the uninterrupted process of which enabled me to complete each of them numbering twelve, incidentally in nine months or less.
What do you think about the role of readers?
By the very nature of letters, as readers are not a homogenous lot, there's truism in the saying that there's a reader for every book and there's a book for every reader.
Have you experienced writer’s block? How did you get through it?
Given that life and letters have combined to impart novelty to my writing, I haven't experienced writer's block as such but just the same as creativity is not inexhaustible, I'm seemingly done with my muse.
What do you plan to write next?
Save an event-driven article on occasion, probably I'm done with my writing in which seemingly my life has crystallized itself before death could dissipate it.
What is your most treasured possession?
My most treasured possessions have been the loving glances of all those women that have made my life’s journey a joyous sojourn, and to whom I have dedicated my Prey on the Prowl - A Crime Novel.
Who or what has been the greatest love of your life?
It's the love itself that has been the greatest love of my life.
Which living person do you most dislike?
Being human, I too am prone for likes and dislikes but I tend not to nurse dislikes if only to minimize the negativity in my consciousness.
What is your greatest fear?
As I've nothing much to lose, I have nothing much to fear.
What is your greatest regret?
My greatest regret is that I shouldn't have troubled my parents - Peraiah Sastry and Kamakshi - more so my father so much but thankfully one of the boons of my writing has been to be able to picture them in my Glaring Shadow - A Stream of Consciousness Novel.
If you could choose to be a character in a book, who would it be?
If I choose to be a character in a book, it would be Raja Rao of Benign Flame: Saga of Love whom I rather fashioned after me.
What is your favorite journey?
The journey of love.
What do you do as a hobby?
I tend to examine the perplexing life in all its complexity
Give us an interesting fun fact about your book.
This repeat question, of Q6, so to say, has afforded an opportunity to my Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life to depict the the novel link between life and literature.
In this poignant tale, Gautam was destined to sacrifice his wife Sneha's chastity to salvage his business but my predicament lay in musing about a credible plot to make him induce her into the act. That was even as the time for it was fast nearing in the narrative, which incidentally was shortly after the American invasion of Afghanistan in Oct 2001. However, one evening around then, when I was hugely upset after learning about the betrayal of an unscrupulous character that portended to undermine my career, I recalled at length that owing to the double-cross by Pakistan's ISI, Abdul Haq, the then Pashtun leader, who was trying to create a popular uprising in Afghanistan against the Taliban, had lost his life at the latter’s hands. So, even as my career jeopardy seemed trivial in comparison to Haq’s pathetic end by perfidy, my muse conceived to plot Sneha’s fall on the path of Manian’s betrayal of her man.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I strive to make my writing original and credible.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Get on with life.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
They may mind the saying that one cannot be a good writer without being a good reader and it's also right for them to wait till writing beckons them to write.
January 9, 2022
A Sense of Contribution - The Source of Fulfillment
In the days of yore, land was the only resource available for man to have a say in the material aspects of life, and as for the land-less, neither ambition nor resentment was of any avail to get even in the universality of inequality. What is worse, as envy and caprice only make it worse, the wise among the have-nots learned to cultivate contentment in their minds to mend their resource-less lives, and even the less resourceful ones, relatively speaking that is. Thus emerged the old adage - contentment is the finest thing in the world - to lend peace of mind to the lacking millions by way of a stoical philosophy. Nonetheless, one’s reconciliation with the deprivations that contentment entails serves so much and no more for it fails to enable him or her to feel fulfilled, which is the essence of equitable living.
However, the advancement of the world that enlarged the frontiers of livelihood began to afford material opportunities to the land-less lot, and that came to alter the grammar of living, written with the alphabets of ambition. In time, as success became the key word of life and contentment the anathema to ambition, man truly set himself on the rat race on the material course to his mental detriment. Be that as it may, man need not feel damned, so it seems, for he could redeem himself through the concept of contribution he himself had evolved that is by shifting the gear from the sense of success.
It may be appreciated that each one in every station of life is integral to its inherent mechanism with assorted functions, all vital to its material functioning. Just like the price of the machinery components vary, the mechanism of life entails variable rewards to the individual contributors akin to the landed and the land-less inequity. Well, but it’s not back to the square one, if only one’s sense of contribution becomes the source of his or her fulfillment. Say, a server in a hotel, if only he senses his service at the tables as a contribution to the society at large, notwithstanding his modest earnings, still the quality of his fulfillment could be immeasurable. Thus, expanding on Peter Drucker’s ‘a first-rate truck driver is better than a tenth-rate executive’ we can say that the former could feel fulfilled on account of his sense of contribution, which would be beyond the grasp of the latter despite his material overreach.
So, that is how the sense of contribution is the source of fulfillment in life that mere contentment cannot bring about.
However, the advancement of the world that enlarged the frontiers of livelihood began to afford material opportunities to the land-less lot, and that came to alter the grammar of living, written with the alphabets of ambition. In time, as success became the key word of life and contentment the anathema to ambition, man truly set himself on the rat race on the material course to his mental detriment. Be that as it may, man need not feel damned, so it seems, for he could redeem himself through the concept of contribution he himself had evolved that is by shifting the gear from the sense of success.
It may be appreciated that each one in every station of life is integral to its inherent mechanism with assorted functions, all vital to its material functioning. Just like the price of the machinery components vary, the mechanism of life entails variable rewards to the individual contributors akin to the landed and the land-less inequity. Well, but it’s not back to the square one, if only one’s sense of contribution becomes the source of his or her fulfillment. Say, a server in a hotel, if only he senses his service at the tables as a contribution to the society at large, notwithstanding his modest earnings, still the quality of his fulfillment could be immeasurable. Thus, expanding on Peter Drucker’s ‘a first-rate truck driver is better than a tenth-rate executive’ we can say that the former could feel fulfilled on account of his sense of contribution, which would be beyond the grasp of the latter despite his material overreach.
So, that is how the sense of contribution is the source of fulfillment in life that mere contentment cannot bring about.
April 3, 2018
My ‘Novel’ Account of Human Possibility
Whenever I look at my body of work of ten books, the underlying human possibility intrigues me no end, and why not. I was born into a land-owning family in a remote village of Andhra Pradesh in India that is after the British had folded their colonial tents from there, but much before the rural education mechanism was geared up. It was thus the circumstances of my birth enabled me to escape from the tiresome chores of the primary schooling till I had a nine-year fill of an unbridled childhood, embellished by village plays and grandma’s tales, made all the more interesting by her uncanny ability for storytelling. As my maternal grandfather’s grandfather happened to be a poet laureate at the court of a princeling of yore, maybe their genes together strived to infuse the muses in me their progeny.
However, as the English plants that Lord Macaulay planted in the Indian soil hadn’t taken roots in its hinterland till then, it’s the native tongues that ruled the roost in the best part of the vast land, and in Andhra it was Telugu, the Italian of the East that held the sway. No wonder then, leave alone constructing a sentence on my own in English, whenever I had to read one, I used to be afflicted by stammer. Maybe, it was at the behest of the unseen hand of human possibility or owing to his own foresight that my father in time had shifted our family base to the cosmopolitan town of Kakinada to put me into the missionary McLaren High School in Class X. With that began my tryst with English, which, courtesy one of my maternal uncles, eventually led me to the continental fiction in translation that engaged me more, far more than the technical subjects I had to pursue for a career as a mechanical engineer.
While the Penguin classics inculcated in me a love for English language that is besides broadening my outlook of life, my nature enabled me to explore the possibilities of youth, and given that letter-writing was still in vogue then, I was wont to embellish my letters to friends and loved-ones with insights the former induced and emotions the latter infused. Clearly, all those letters that my novels carry owe more to my impulse to write them than to my muse’s need to express itself through them. Even as the fiction enabled me to handle the facts of life with fortitude, as life, for its part, chose to subject me to more of its vicissitudes, I continued tending my family and attending my job.
Fortuitously, when I was thirty-three, my mind and matter combined to explore the effect of the led on the leader, and when the resultant “Organizational ethos and good Leadership” was published in The Hindu, I experienced the thrill of, what is called, seeing one’s name in print. Encouraged, I continued to apply my mind on varied topics such as general management, materials management, general insurance, politics, and, not to speak of, life and literature resulting in some thirty published articles. But fiction was nowhere in the sight, nor I had any idea to turn into a novelist for Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Emily Zola, Gustav Flaubert et al are literary deities (I hadn’t read Marcel Proust and Robert Musil by then), were, and are, my literary deities, and how dare I, their devotee, to envision myself in the sanctum sanctorum of the novel.
But when I was forty-four, having been fascinated by the manuscript of satirical novel penned by one Bhibhas Sen, an Adman, with whom I had been on the same intellectual page for the past four years then, it occurred to me, ‘when he could, I can for sure’. It was as if Bhibhas had driven away the ghosts of the masters that came to shadow my muse but as life would have it, it was another matter that as he didn’t want to foul his novel by dragging it to ‘publishable length’, it remained in the limbo.
With my muse thus unshackled, I set to work on the skeletal idea of Benign Flame with the conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil, not the hotchpotch of local and foreign caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas, the then norm of the Indian writing in English. Yet it took me a fortnight to get the inspiring opening sentence - “That winter night in the mid-seventies, the Janata Express was racing rhythmically on its tracks towards the coast of Andhra Pradesh. As its headlight pierced the darkness of the fertile plains, the driver honked the horn as though to awake the sleepy environs to the spectacle of the speeding train.”
From there on, it was as though a ‘novel’ chemistry had developed between my muse and my characters’ psyche that shaped its fictional course, and soon, I came to believe that I had something unique to offer to the world; so, not wanting to die till I gave it to it, I used to go to lengths to safeguard my life till I finished it with a ‘top of the world’ feeling. What one Spencer Critchley, an American critic, thought about my contribution – “It’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs” - made me feel vindicated, though there were no takers to it among the Indian publishers and the Western agents.
So, I had no heart to bring my pen to any more paper (those were the pre-keyboard days) though my head was swirling with novel ideas, triggered by an examined life lived in an eventful manner. Sometime later, that was after I read a book of short stories presented to me; I had resumed writing due to a holistic reason. While it was the quality of Bhibhas’ satire that set me on a fictional track from which I was derailed by the publishers’ indifference, strangely, it was the lack of it in that book that once again spurred me onto the novel track to pursue the joy of writing for its own sake, and that led me to the literary stations of Crossing the Mirage and Jewel-less Crown. But in the wake of the hotly debated but poorly analyzed Godhra-Gujarat communal rioting in 2002, as I was impelled to examine the role religions play in social disharmony, my fictional course had taken a non-fiction turn with Puppets of Faith.
Then it was as if my muse, wanting me to lend my hand to other literary genres led me into the arena of translation, pushed me onto the ‘unknown’ stage, put me on a stream of consciousness, took me to crime scenes, and dragged me into the by-lanes of short stories. However, it was Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, who lent his e-hand to my books in search of readers. Who would have thought that life held such literary possibilities in English language for a rustic Telugu lad in rural Andhra even in post-colonial India? The possibilities of life are indeed novel, and seemingly my life has crystallized itself in my body of work before death could dissipate it.
My body of work of free ebooks, in varied genres, is in the public domain.
However, as the English plants that Lord Macaulay planted in the Indian soil hadn’t taken roots in its hinterland till then, it’s the native tongues that ruled the roost in the best part of the vast land, and in Andhra it was Telugu, the Italian of the East that held the sway. No wonder then, leave alone constructing a sentence on my own in English, whenever I had to read one, I used to be afflicted by stammer. Maybe, it was at the behest of the unseen hand of human possibility or owing to his own foresight that my father in time had shifted our family base to the cosmopolitan town of Kakinada to put me into the missionary McLaren High School in Class X. With that began my tryst with English, which, courtesy one of my maternal uncles, eventually led me to the continental fiction in translation that engaged me more, far more than the technical subjects I had to pursue for a career as a mechanical engineer.
While the Penguin classics inculcated in me a love for English language that is besides broadening my outlook of life, my nature enabled me to explore the possibilities of youth, and given that letter-writing was still in vogue then, I was wont to embellish my letters to friends and loved-ones with insights the former induced and emotions the latter infused. Clearly, all those letters that my novels carry owe more to my impulse to write them than to my muse’s need to express itself through them. Even as the fiction enabled me to handle the facts of life with fortitude, as life, for its part, chose to subject me to more of its vicissitudes, I continued tending my family and attending my job.
Fortuitously, when I was thirty-three, my mind and matter combined to explore the effect of the led on the leader, and when the resultant “Organizational ethos and good Leadership” was published in The Hindu, I experienced the thrill of, what is called, seeing one’s name in print. Encouraged, I continued to apply my mind on varied topics such as general management, materials management, general insurance, politics, and, not to speak of, life and literature resulting in some thirty published articles. But fiction was nowhere in the sight, nor I had any idea to turn into a novelist for Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Emily Zola, Gustav Flaubert et al are literary deities (I hadn’t read Marcel Proust and Robert Musil by then), were, and are, my literary deities, and how dare I, their devotee, to envision myself in the sanctum sanctorum of the novel.
But when I was forty-four, having been fascinated by the manuscript of satirical novel penned by one Bhibhas Sen, an Adman, with whom I had been on the same intellectual page for the past four years then, it occurred to me, ‘when he could, I can for sure’. It was as if Bhibhas had driven away the ghosts of the masters that came to shadow my muse but as life would have it, it was another matter that as he didn’t want to foul his novel by dragging it to ‘publishable length’, it remained in the limbo.
With my muse thus unshackled, I set to work on the skeletal idea of Benign Flame with the conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil, not the hotchpotch of local and foreign caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas, the then norm of the Indian writing in English. Yet it took me a fortnight to get the inspiring opening sentence - “That winter night in the mid-seventies, the Janata Express was racing rhythmically on its tracks towards the coast of Andhra Pradesh. As its headlight pierced the darkness of the fertile plains, the driver honked the horn as though to awake the sleepy environs to the spectacle of the speeding train.”
From there on, it was as though a ‘novel’ chemistry had developed between my muse and my characters’ psyche that shaped its fictional course, and soon, I came to believe that I had something unique to offer to the world; so, not wanting to die till I gave it to it, I used to go to lengths to safeguard my life till I finished it with a ‘top of the world’ feeling. What one Spencer Critchley, an American critic, thought about my contribution – “It’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs” - made me feel vindicated, though there were no takers to it among the Indian publishers and the Western agents.
So, I had no heart to bring my pen to any more paper (those were the pre-keyboard days) though my head was swirling with novel ideas, triggered by an examined life lived in an eventful manner. Sometime later, that was after I read a book of short stories presented to me; I had resumed writing due to a holistic reason. While it was the quality of Bhibhas’ satire that set me on a fictional track from which I was derailed by the publishers’ indifference, strangely, it was the lack of it in that book that once again spurred me onto the novel track to pursue the joy of writing for its own sake, and that led me to the literary stations of Crossing the Mirage and Jewel-less Crown. But in the wake of the hotly debated but poorly analyzed Godhra-Gujarat communal rioting in 2002, as I was impelled to examine the role religions play in social disharmony, my fictional course had taken a non-fiction turn with Puppets of Faith.
Then it was as if my muse, wanting me to lend my hand to other literary genres led me into the arena of translation, pushed me onto the ‘unknown’ stage, put me on a stream of consciousness, took me to crime scenes, and dragged me into the by-lanes of short stories. However, it was Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, who lent his e-hand to my books in search of readers. Who would have thought that life held such literary possibilities in English language for a rustic Telugu lad in rural Andhra even in post-colonial India? The possibilities of life are indeed novel, and seemingly my life has crystallized itself in my body of work before death could dissipate it.
My body of work of free ebooks, in varied genres, is in the public domain.
January 2, 2018
BS Murthy in WantonReads
Excerpt of my Author interview in WantonReads https://wantonreads.com/author-interv...
What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
I am a romantic by nature and my life lent substance to it in myriad ways to eventually let my muse provide it creative wings to venture it into the fictional zone.
Tell us about how you write.
As nothing could wean me away from the profound joy of shaping each of my ten books, I devoted myself, hour after hour, with nominal breaks to address my mind's fatigue, day after day, month after month till 'the end'. When I was barely midway into my maiden novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love, believing that in it I had something fresh and unique to offer to the literary world, I did not want to die till I could complete that magnum opus, and so I used to go to extreme lengths to preserve myself. And as if nature was at play, but for my compendium of stage and radio plays and the collection short stories, the rest of my eight books, were ready as manuscripts in nine months each.
Do you listen to or talk to to your characters?
In all my fictional endeavors, it was as if, a novel chemistry had developed between me and my characters, which shaped their life and times.
What advice would you give other romance writers?
As each writer finds his own moorings, sooner or later, that makes his work apart, it is only proper that each one charts his own literary course that's conducive to his self-expression.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
After going through the normal 'rejection' course, I had self-published my first sex books, and thanks to the open world of ebooks, I had turned those, along with four fresh arrivals, and entered them into the wide web world as free ebooks.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think I am in no position to hazard an informed guess about the future course of book publishing.
Which romance sub-genere(s) fit your stories best?
Erotic romance on literary footing
What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
I am a romantic by nature and my life lent substance to it in myriad ways to eventually let my muse provide it creative wings to venture it into the fictional zone.
Tell us about how you write.
As nothing could wean me away from the profound joy of shaping each of my ten books, I devoted myself, hour after hour, with nominal breaks to address my mind's fatigue, day after day, month after month till 'the end'. When I was barely midway into my maiden novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love, believing that in it I had something fresh and unique to offer to the literary world, I did not want to die till I could complete that magnum opus, and so I used to go to extreme lengths to preserve myself. And as if nature was at play, but for my compendium of stage and radio plays and the collection short stories, the rest of my eight books, were ready as manuscripts in nine months each.
Do you listen to or talk to to your characters?
In all my fictional endeavors, it was as if, a novel chemistry had developed between me and my characters, which shaped their life and times.
What advice would you give other romance writers?
As each writer finds his own moorings, sooner or later, that makes his work apart, it is only proper that each one charts his own literary course that's conducive to his self-expression.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
After going through the normal 'rejection' course, I had self-published my first sex books, and thanks to the open world of ebooks, I had turned those, along with four fresh arrivals, and entered them into the wide web world as free ebooks.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think I am in no position to hazard an informed guess about the future course of book publishing.
Which romance sub-genere(s) fit your stories best?
Erotic romance on literary footing
BS Murthy in Awesome Gang
Excerpt of my Author interview in Awsome Gang as under http://awesomegang.com/bs-murthy-3/
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m BS Murthy, an Indian novelist, playwright, short story, non-fiction and articles writer, translator and a ‘little’ thinker and a budding philosopher with “Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the world” published in The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal, Vol. 05 Issue 18, Summer 2004.
The fictional part of my body of work of ten free ebooks (widely available in the web-world) comprises of three ‘plot and character’ driven novels, Benign Flame: Saga of Love, Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life and Crossing the Mirage: Passing through youth; a stream of consciousness novel, Glaring Shadow; a crime novel, Prey on the Prowl, a book of short stories, Stories Varied and Onto the Stage – Slight Souls and other stage and radio plays.
The above creative endeavor emanated from my conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas.
While my Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife is a novel narrative non-fiction, possibly a new genre, Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of self-help and Sundara Kãnda: Hanuman’s Odyssey) are my trans-creations of Sanskrit classics in contemporary verses.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Stories Varied – A Book of Short Stories” is my last book with a story behind it.
With the addition of ‘Prey on the Prowl’ to my body of work, I thought the accretion was over without short story genre. Not that I didn’t try my hand at that, indeed I did, but finding the output wanting, I didn’t refill my pen again.
Maybe, literature was keen to have my contribution in this fictional sphere as well, so it seems, as beginning from July 2015, Vinita Dawra Nagia came up with “Write India Campaign of Times of India”. Her idea was to let the aspiring writers build their stories on the ‘prompts’ provided by eleven of India’s popular authors starting with Amish Tripathi.
When I penned Ilaa’s Ire on Amish’s prompt, it felt like I had crossed the unassailable frontier, and thereafter, for the next ten months, thanks to the prompts by the leading lights of Indian English writing, I had experienced the joy of short story writing.
That in the end, I could pen my “Twelfth Tale”, sans any prompting, is a matter of personal satisfaction.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write thick, fast and furious to bring my creative idea to its literary fruition as a manuscript, maybe owing to my impulsive muse, and if it were to be an’unusual’ writing habit, so be it.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was yet to touch an English book, at fourteen that is, it was C. Subba Rao, my ‘journalist’ maternal uncle, who advised me to first read classics for they would improve my language, broaden my vision of life and deepen my understanding of it. He also provided a rider to his advice that if I first venture into the fast-paced modern fiction, then I would never be able to develop taste to savor the slow-paced descriptive classical novels.
Fortunately, as I went by his advice, my literary course took me to the continental fiction of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Zola, Flaubert, Proust and some such ‘greats’ by which I am benefited literally and otherwise.
While I was savoring their works, never did I dream that in my mid-forties my muse, shaped by those, would stir me into penning my Indian writings in English.
What are you working on now?
Looks like, I’m done with it for after all, like everything else in life, one’s creativity too is bound by its limitations.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Given that our ‘world of letters’ has become a book jungle for readers to wade their way through it to find the work that could be right for them (a reader for every book and every book has a reader) there is nothing else an author can do than to try to place his works in as many websites as he possibly could, in the hope that some readers might notice them and find them interesting as well.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I have come to believe that my life had prepared me to be a writer, and possibly that could be the case with every aspiring author.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
There’s no dearth of sound guidance to good life in the air of any land, and it depends on how much of it we inhale and how much of it we exhale.
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m preoccupied being a trumpeter of my body of work and hopefully I would start experiencing the joy of good reading, sooner than later.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Live and die, with the satisfaction that my body of work could be giving joy to some readers.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
If I name only three books of others out of dozens I hold dear, not only that would be unfair to those I would leave out but also to my own works, and on the other hand, if I name my own ones ( in itself unfair to leave 6 or 7 of them), it would be ungrateful on my part to leave out the ones that shaped my life and times.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m BS Murthy, an Indian novelist, playwright, short story, non-fiction and articles writer, translator and a ‘little’ thinker and a budding philosopher with “Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the world” published in The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal, Vol. 05 Issue 18, Summer 2004.
The fictional part of my body of work of ten free ebooks (widely available in the web-world) comprises of three ‘plot and character’ driven novels, Benign Flame: Saga of Love, Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life and Crossing the Mirage: Passing through youth; a stream of consciousness novel, Glaring Shadow; a crime novel, Prey on the Prowl, a book of short stories, Stories Varied and Onto the Stage – Slight Souls and other stage and radio plays.
The above creative endeavor emanated from my conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas.
While my Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife is a novel narrative non-fiction, possibly a new genre, Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of self-help and Sundara Kãnda: Hanuman’s Odyssey) are my trans-creations of Sanskrit classics in contemporary verses.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Stories Varied – A Book of Short Stories” is my last book with a story behind it.
With the addition of ‘Prey on the Prowl’ to my body of work, I thought the accretion was over without short story genre. Not that I didn’t try my hand at that, indeed I did, but finding the output wanting, I didn’t refill my pen again.
Maybe, literature was keen to have my contribution in this fictional sphere as well, so it seems, as beginning from July 2015, Vinita Dawra Nagia came up with “Write India Campaign of Times of India”. Her idea was to let the aspiring writers build their stories on the ‘prompts’ provided by eleven of India’s popular authors starting with Amish Tripathi.
When I penned Ilaa’s Ire on Amish’s prompt, it felt like I had crossed the unassailable frontier, and thereafter, for the next ten months, thanks to the prompts by the leading lights of Indian English writing, I had experienced the joy of short story writing.
That in the end, I could pen my “Twelfth Tale”, sans any prompting, is a matter of personal satisfaction.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write thick, fast and furious to bring my creative idea to its literary fruition as a manuscript, maybe owing to my impulsive muse, and if it were to be an’unusual’ writing habit, so be it.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was yet to touch an English book, at fourteen that is, it was C. Subba Rao, my ‘journalist’ maternal uncle, who advised me to first read classics for they would improve my language, broaden my vision of life and deepen my understanding of it. He also provided a rider to his advice that if I first venture into the fast-paced modern fiction, then I would never be able to develop taste to savor the slow-paced descriptive classical novels.
Fortunately, as I went by his advice, my literary course took me to the continental fiction of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Zola, Flaubert, Proust and some such ‘greats’ by which I am benefited literally and otherwise.
While I was savoring their works, never did I dream that in my mid-forties my muse, shaped by those, would stir me into penning my Indian writings in English.
What are you working on now?
Looks like, I’m done with it for after all, like everything else in life, one’s creativity too is bound by its limitations.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Given that our ‘world of letters’ has become a book jungle for readers to wade their way through it to find the work that could be right for them (a reader for every book and every book has a reader) there is nothing else an author can do than to try to place his works in as many websites as he possibly could, in the hope that some readers might notice them and find them interesting as well.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I have come to believe that my life had prepared me to be a writer, and possibly that could be the case with every aspiring author.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
There’s no dearth of sound guidance to good life in the air of any land, and it depends on how much of it we inhale and how much of it we exhale.
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m preoccupied being a trumpeter of my body of work and hopefully I would start experiencing the joy of good reading, sooner than later.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Live and die, with the satisfaction that my body of work could be giving joy to some readers.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
If I name only three books of others out of dozens I hold dear, not only that would be unfair to those I would leave out but also to my own works, and on the other hand, if I name my own ones ( in itself unfair to leave 6 or 7 of them), it would be ungrateful on my part to leave out the ones that shaped my life and times.
June 18, 2017
BS Murthy's 'Smashword' interview
The following is Smashwords' Interview with BS Murthy, Published 2016-01-13. https://www.smashwords.com/interview/... …
When did you first start writing?
I had started writing articles on management when I was 32-year old but began penning fiction only turning 46.
What is the title of your maiden fictional work?
Benign Flame: Saga of Love, which I believe raised the 'novel' bar.
What is your body of work to date?
Besides Benign Flame: Saga of Love, my fictional endeavors are Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life, Crossing the Mirage- Passing through youth, Glaring Shadow – A stream of consciousness novel, Prey on the Prowl – A Crime Novel, Onto the Stage – Slighted Souls and other stage and radio plays.
My non -fiction works comprise of Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife, besides trans-creations of Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help and Sundara Kãnda: Hanuman’s Odyssey both in verse, originally published as free ebooks by published by Project Gutenberg Self-publishing Press.
I have switched over to writing short stories, a collection of which I intend to make available to the public as free ebooks.soon.
How do you describe your work?
I would like to call my work "One passion Nine affairs".
What is the hallmark of your writing?
My entire fictional work was borne out of my conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and foreign caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas that the so-called Indian Writing in English has come to symbolize.
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
It's the fulfillment associated with the creation of distinctive characters and uncanny situations in my body of original fiction.
How has Smashwords contributed to your success?
Besides taking my body of work on board, It has facilitated it to find its way to sites such as Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
The prospect of further examining life.
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
Besides Twitter activity, I spend most of my non-writing time mostly reading and at times listening to music.
What do you think of the fiction of the day?
Our monthly 'fictional' output is more than what it used to be in any century of yore, as a whole, and that's absurd. Ironically, the improved literacy of our times, makes its fiction, for the most part, an instance of 'wasted vocabulary'.
When did you first start writing?
I had started writing articles on management when I was 32-year old but began penning fiction only turning 46.
What is the title of your maiden fictional work?
Benign Flame: Saga of Love, which I believe raised the 'novel' bar.
What is your body of work to date?
Besides Benign Flame: Saga of Love, my fictional endeavors are Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life, Crossing the Mirage- Passing through youth, Glaring Shadow – A stream of consciousness novel, Prey on the Prowl – A Crime Novel, Onto the Stage – Slighted Souls and other stage and radio plays.
My non -fiction works comprise of Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife, besides trans-creations of Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help and Sundara Kãnda: Hanuman’s Odyssey both in verse, originally published as free ebooks by published by Project Gutenberg Self-publishing Press.
I have switched over to writing short stories, a collection of which I intend to make available to the public as free ebooks.soon.
How do you describe your work?
I would like to call my work "One passion Nine affairs".
What is the hallmark of your writing?
My entire fictional work was borne out of my conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and foreign caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas that the so-called Indian Writing in English has come to symbolize.
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
It's the fulfillment associated with the creation of distinctive characters and uncanny situations in my body of original fiction.
How has Smashwords contributed to your success?
Besides taking my body of work on board, It has facilitated it to find its way to sites such as Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
The prospect of further examining life.
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
Besides Twitter activity, I spend most of my non-writing time mostly reading and at times listening to music.
What do you think of the fiction of the day?
Our monthly 'fictional' output is more than what it used to be in any century of yore, as a whole, and that's absurd. Ironically, the improved literacy of our times, makes its fiction, for the most part, an instance of 'wasted vocabulary'.
April 30, 2017
In Author Spotlight of World Library Foundation Newsletter
BS Murthy's interview in Author Spotlight is excerpted from the World Library Foundation Newsletter, March 2017, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (Inagural issue)
http://www.gutenberg.us/eBooks/WPLBN0...
Could you tell our readers a little bit about your writing journey?
Schooled in letter-writing, I published my managerial ideas in over 30 articles before penning fiction, starting with Benign Flame: Saga of Love. Perhaps my “Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the World by Eastern Speculative Philosophy,” which was originally published in The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal (Vol. 05, Issue 18) and which is incorporated in the epilogue of my Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life, could become my philosophical pinnacle. How many books do you currently have published? Ten in all: three plot-based, character-driven novels; one stream-of-consciousness novel; one crime-detective novel; a collection of short stories; a compendium of stage and radio plays; a non-fiction novel; and, two translations of Sanskrit epics into English verses.
What has been your favorite book to write so far? Why?
My fiction writing arose from the belief that fiction should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil, not a hodgepodge of local and foreign caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas. My nonfiction endeavors were driven by my love of language. They are all equally dear to me, but the delivery of Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life was by far the most challenging.
Are you currently working on a book? Will this be your next release?
No. Maybe I’ve given all that I’ve to give; after all, one’s creativity has its limits. What do you enjoy most about writing? I am fascinated by seeing my characters gradually altering the plot I set for them and enjoy capturing their emotions in compelling language. Which of your characters is your personal favorite? Least favorite? Why? I have had the good fortune to write scores of unique characters—good, bad and ugly—they are equally dear to me. Maybe for being she’s the first, I lean a little toward Roopa in my first novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love. So far, what has been your favorite scene to write? I don’t have a favorite scene; every sentence is shaped by my creative passion.
What lessons have you learned since becoming a writer? Do you have any tips for new writers?
First, a writer should be deeply rooted in literature and prepared to make mistakes. Second, he should reconcile to the fact of life that his family and friends may not share his enthusiasm for his work. Writing is all about giving: one should write only if he has something unique to offer. If you were to recommend your books to someone, which book would you advise them to start with? Why? I think any one of my books would be of interest; but, if I were to recommend just one, then I would pick my first novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love. While it was half-written, I came to believe that I had something unique to offer to the world. So important was this book to me, that I went to great lengths to ensure I lived until it was finished.
What are some of your favorite classic literature stories that you have read?
I have read much of Proust, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Zola, Turgenev, Gogol, Musil, etc. Continued next page15 Are there any classic books that you have read which you feel have made a big impact on your life? Why? I benefited by my uncle’s advice to first read the classics, because they deepen one’s understanding of life while broadening one vision of it, in addition to improving language.
Can readers find you at any live events, such as book signings or conventions?
No, I have no book signings or convention appearances scheduled. Do you have anything else you’d like to share with readers? My books illustrate the fascinating contours of India’s social milieu in all its varied hues and colors.
Book Spotlight Title: Benign Flame: Saga of Love Publication Date: 24 February 2017
Genre: Literary Fiction.
Description:
The attractions Roopa experienced and the fantasies she entertained as a teen shaped a male imagery that ensconced her subconscious. Insensibly, confident bearing came to be associated with the image of maleness in her mind-set. Her acute consciousness of masculinity only increased her vulnerability to it, making her womanliness crave for the maleness for its gratification. However, as her father was constrained to help her in becoming a doctor, she opts to marry, hoping that Sathyam might serve her cause though the persona she envisioned as masculine, she found lacking in him. But as he fails to go with her idea, she becomes apathetic towards him, and insensibly sinks into her friend Sandhya’s embrace, for lesbian solace.
In time, she comes in contact with Tara, the suave call girl who unsuccessfully tries to rope her into prostitution. She achieves that by introducing Ravi the seducer. However, when Roopa goes to attend Sandhya’s wedding, she loses her heart to Raja Rao the groom even as Prasad, her husband’s lecherous friend falls for her. The scheming Prasad induces Sathyam to go the corrupt way besides weaning him away from Roopa with the aid of whores to make his path clear to her amour and that throws her into a dilemma. But as fate puts Raja Rao into Roopa’s arms, how the tale ends is best described by one Mr. Spencer Critchley, thus: “It’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs.”
Unfolding the compelling saga of Roopa’s love and loss, governed by the vicissitudes of life, this novel nuances man-woman chemistry on one hand, and portrays woman-woman empathy on the other. Who said the novel is dead? Benign Flame raises the bar.
Title Link:
http://www.gutenberg.us/eBooks/%20WPL...
Author Bio:
BS Murthy was born in 1948, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India. He has worked as a Hyderabad-based insurance surveyor and loss assessor since 1986. He is married with two sons, the elder one holding a Ph.D. in finance and the younger a master’s degree in Engineering.
Author Link:
self.gutenberg.org/Authors/BSMurthy
http://www.gutenberg.us/eBooks/WPLBN0...
Could you tell our readers a little bit about your writing journey?
Schooled in letter-writing, I published my managerial ideas in over 30 articles before penning fiction, starting with Benign Flame: Saga of Love. Perhaps my “Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the World by Eastern Speculative Philosophy,” which was originally published in The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal (Vol. 05, Issue 18) and which is incorporated in the epilogue of my Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life, could become my philosophical pinnacle. How many books do you currently have published? Ten in all: three plot-based, character-driven novels; one stream-of-consciousness novel; one crime-detective novel; a collection of short stories; a compendium of stage and radio plays; a non-fiction novel; and, two translations of Sanskrit epics into English verses.
What has been your favorite book to write so far? Why?
My fiction writing arose from the belief that fiction should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil, not a hodgepodge of local and foreign caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas. My nonfiction endeavors were driven by my love of language. They are all equally dear to me, but the delivery of Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life was by far the most challenging.
Are you currently working on a book? Will this be your next release?
No. Maybe I’ve given all that I’ve to give; after all, one’s creativity has its limits. What do you enjoy most about writing? I am fascinated by seeing my characters gradually altering the plot I set for them and enjoy capturing their emotions in compelling language. Which of your characters is your personal favorite? Least favorite? Why? I have had the good fortune to write scores of unique characters—good, bad and ugly—they are equally dear to me. Maybe for being she’s the first, I lean a little toward Roopa in my first novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love. So far, what has been your favorite scene to write? I don’t have a favorite scene; every sentence is shaped by my creative passion.
What lessons have you learned since becoming a writer? Do you have any tips for new writers?
First, a writer should be deeply rooted in literature and prepared to make mistakes. Second, he should reconcile to the fact of life that his family and friends may not share his enthusiasm for his work. Writing is all about giving: one should write only if he has something unique to offer. If you were to recommend your books to someone, which book would you advise them to start with? Why? I think any one of my books would be of interest; but, if I were to recommend just one, then I would pick my first novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love. While it was half-written, I came to believe that I had something unique to offer to the world. So important was this book to me, that I went to great lengths to ensure I lived until it was finished.
What are some of your favorite classic literature stories that you have read?
I have read much of Proust, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Zola, Turgenev, Gogol, Musil, etc. Continued next page15 Are there any classic books that you have read which you feel have made a big impact on your life? Why? I benefited by my uncle’s advice to first read the classics, because they deepen one’s understanding of life while broadening one vision of it, in addition to improving language.
Can readers find you at any live events, such as book signings or conventions?
No, I have no book signings or convention appearances scheduled. Do you have anything else you’d like to share with readers? My books illustrate the fascinating contours of India’s social milieu in all its varied hues and colors.
Book Spotlight Title: Benign Flame: Saga of Love Publication Date: 24 February 2017
Genre: Literary Fiction.
Description:
The attractions Roopa experienced and the fantasies she entertained as a teen shaped a male imagery that ensconced her subconscious. Insensibly, confident bearing came to be associated with the image of maleness in her mind-set. Her acute consciousness of masculinity only increased her vulnerability to it, making her womanliness crave for the maleness for its gratification. However, as her father was constrained to help her in becoming a doctor, she opts to marry, hoping that Sathyam might serve her cause though the persona she envisioned as masculine, she found lacking in him. But as he fails to go with her idea, she becomes apathetic towards him, and insensibly sinks into her friend Sandhya’s embrace, for lesbian solace.
In time, she comes in contact with Tara, the suave call girl who unsuccessfully tries to rope her into prostitution. She achieves that by introducing Ravi the seducer. However, when Roopa goes to attend Sandhya’s wedding, she loses her heart to Raja Rao the groom even as Prasad, her husband’s lecherous friend falls for her. The scheming Prasad induces Sathyam to go the corrupt way besides weaning him away from Roopa with the aid of whores to make his path clear to her amour and that throws her into a dilemma. But as fate puts Raja Rao into Roopa’s arms, how the tale ends is best described by one Mr. Spencer Critchley, thus: “It’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs.”
Unfolding the compelling saga of Roopa’s love and loss, governed by the vicissitudes of life, this novel nuances man-woman chemistry on one hand, and portrays woman-woman empathy on the other. Who said the novel is dead? Benign Flame raises the bar.
Title Link:
http://www.gutenberg.us/eBooks/%20WPL...
Author Bio:
BS Murthy was born in 1948, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India. He has worked as a Hyderabad-based insurance surveyor and loss assessor since 1986. He is married with two sons, the elder one holding a Ph.D. in finance and the younger a master’s degree in Engineering.
Author Link:
self.gutenberg.org/Authors/BSMurthy
