Interview – Author, Krishnarjun Bhattacharya
As part of author Nancy Chase’s, “The Seventh Magpie” book launch extravaganza, I’ll be interviewing a series of participating authors. Check out all the interviews here.
Today I’m happy to have author, Krishnarjun Bhattacharya!
Q: What compelled you to write your first book?
A: A need to communicate, an urge to simply tell stories. It’s pretty incredible that something like that can hit a boiling point that makes you drop everything and simply work on a book. My head’s bursting with stories most of the time, it’s really the medium you choose to express those thoughts that defines you—might be ink, celluloid, paint. Might simply be words. I love writing Fantasy, and I suspect I always will. In fact, I’m starting my own Storytelling Sessions soon enough, Stories of the Supernatural, something which is, again, part of my expression.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I’m working on the third novel of the Tantric Trilogy, titled Myths of Old, as well as a graphic novel titled Stormcatcher. I’m also re-writing and editing the second book of the trilogy, Horsemen of Old, trying to get it out there by Christmas. Keep an eye out!
Q: If you could live in one of your books, which one would you live in?
A: Seeing that my debut novel and future books are fraught with all kinds of creatures that make your flesh crawl, and environments dystopic and desolate, survival would too much of a scary thing. No, I’d keep my distance from my own books. I’d probably move over to J. R. R. Tolkien’s side of the library, and settle in the Shire once the War of the Ring is done with.
Q: How do you balance out the writer’s life and the rest of life? Do you get up early? Stay up late? Ignore friends and family for certain periods of time?
A: This is extremely difficult. I moonlight as a Film Maker and Editor (that’s what my Education has shaped me as), and Time is perhaps the greatest enemy, a fact I subconsciously or otherwise include in my work. I have a lot of hobbies, and working on Films, Gaming, and Reading are things I consider extremely important, and it takes incredible effort to stay up to date on everything, not to mention the writing.
I’m mostly nocturnal with my writing, so my days are spent with other activities. After the sun sets, it’s unhealthy shots of coffee that keep me sharp—though the silence of the night is essential—and going through the night. I sleep after dawn, grab a few hours before getting up again. There’s no time to lose. Too much to be done.
My Family is the dearest thing to me. I might disconnect from time to time, particularly when I get too obsessed with my work, but they love me, support me, and above all, they understand, even though they’ve got nothing to do with any of my chosen professions.
Q: What is your writing space like? Do you have a designated space? What does it look like? On the couch, laptop, desk? Music? Lighting? Typing? Handwriting?
A: I believe writing demands a certain kind of discipline, something only a desk does for me. I work on a well built, antique wooden writing desk. I used to write on a Macbook Air, preferring its mobility, but lately I’ve been writing on my desktop, an assembled supercomputer of sorts. I like large screens in which
I type in silence—music distracts me, the only sounds allowed are the lack of it, the silence, and the low, low hum of my machine; a reassuring noise. I believe in being serious about what you do, and having the proper technology to support it. I can see the entire page without having to scroll, and I use a very high end mechanical keyboard (I’m REALLY picky about keyboards) with a typewriter-like clicking response and backlights for the dark.
Thank you so much for your time. I wish you the very best of luck! Let’s chat again soon.
A: Thank you! It’s been fun talking.
Author Bio
Krishnarjun Bhattacharya is the author of the dystopian, dark fantasy Tantrics of Old. He dreams of writing compelling Fantasy Fiction for a living, madman that he is, and telling stories lost to those who would remember. A wanderer of cities and a passionate Game Reviewer, he’s an absolute lover of all things dark and grotesque. He resides in a post apocalytic world, terrified of aliens, the walking dead, and secret government WMDs, not to mention what lives under his bed.
Krishnarjun is a graduate in Film and Video Communication from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and a post graduate in Video Editing from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.
Tantrics of Old Synopsis
Tantrics of Old is dark fantasy, following a young Necromancer, a Tantric, Adri Sen, as he runs from an ancient Horseman, Death, in a city just as old.
Enter the two cities; New Kolkata, pristine, untouched, ruled by an iron fist by the perfect government, MYTH—a city existing in the shadow of the old one, and Old Kolkata, forgotten, broken, crumbling, where demons roam free and shadows whisper.
In a world where death is sudden and quick in its tendency to not forgive, Adri must wade through threats new and old; political conspiracy, the demons of his past, a government that remembers, and above all, whispers of impending doom, the coming apocalypse, drums of the dead.
Follow Krishnarjun’s short fiction on twitter at https://twitter.com/akta_golpo_shon
Find out more about Tantrics of Old at http://www.krishnarjunbhattacharya.com/books.html
Watch the book trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcrKbzVyv4w
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