An Interview with the Best- Selling Author of Half-Life : M H RAHMAN

KNOW HIM:

M H Rahman, 24, is many a thing at the same time. Primarily a blogger and a hobbyist writer, he wrote a fan-fiction called The Vampires In My Diaries (of the original US TV SHOW, The Vampire Diaries). Rahman's debut international fiction/thriller, HALF LIFE, was released on September 1, 2014 and is now a BESTSELLER on NewsHunt.

Rahman recently laid the foundation of his very first Start-up called B' Busters N Busted. Being the Founder/CEO of B' Busters N Busted- an e-media outlet, Rahman will be personally interviewing some rare talents of the world while narrating their success stories in a different way.

He also started his band recently called The B.A.N.N.E.D Indians and on Januray 1, 2015 they released their first music album called HALF LIFE (named after Rahman's debut novel) on soundcloud. The music album is based on the theme and characters of the bestselling novel.

INTERVIEW:

1) What inspired you to start writing this book?

Ans. JK Rowling inspired me to write stories. She gave us the best childhood fantasies through Harry Potter. As for this book (HALF LIFE), let me first clear the doubt that many have... this book was not inspired by the popular computer game by the same name or Chetan Bhagat’s Half Girlfriend :P ;) 

Back in 2008, I was watching this movie called HALF LIFE (which I couldn’t finish by the way), which got me thinking all about this term “HALF LIFE”. From that day onwards, I have had long, deep thoughts about what all it could mean: an incomplete life, a ghost, a half living-half dead human and that’s when the supernatural theme struck me and I spun the whole story around it.

2)What is “THE B.A.N.N.E.D INDIANS”?

Ans. THE B.A.N.N.E.D INDIANS is my musical band that I co-own with Sheen Shamshad. I’m essentially the song-writer for our band while Sheen is the composer and the singer. We formed this band when he approached me with a proposal to create a Music Album on my novel's (HALF LIFE) theme and characters. And let me tell you that this guy is really talented.

If you listen to this Reborn song music (which is the theme song/music for HALF LIFE book as well as HALF LIFE music album), it gives you these goose-bumps. When I had first listened to it, in that very moment I had made up my mind that I had to work with him on this project.

For the past few months, we have been busy with our first music album which is also called HALF LIFE after my bestselling book. We have released the first song, “Reborn” on soundcloud, reverbnation and youtube. The other songs will be released soon. Besides, our band has decided to create music and songs for all my books in the future.

3) Writing or Music, which one you prefer most?

Ans. That’s a pretty tough one to answer. I can’t choose. I have been singing even before I started writing. If writing is my heart, music has been my soul. And I would not be alive without either of them. This was one of the primary reasons why we formed THE B.A.N.N.E.D INDIANS so that I could stay connected to both at the same time J

4) Do you have any nightmare?

Ans. Yes, I guess it’s odd but I have nightmares quite often. There’s this one which I have since childhood. I watch myself falling from the top of a giant  ferris-wheel. And just before I am about to hit the ground, I wake up... panting for breath.

Besides, sometimes I also have nightmares where I’m trying to outrun vampires and werewolves who are trying to hunt me down. And a year ago, I had a weird nightmare and it intrigued me so much that I’ve decided to turn it into one of my stories. Well, now you know it’s not just the protagonist (of my book HALF LIFE) Parker Williamson who has trouble sleeping due to nightmares ;) :P

5) Parker dreams of his property but what does M H Rahman dream of?

Ans. Hahaha! I see where this is going ;) I dream of The Vampire Diaries actress, Nina Dobrev :) <3

But on a serious note, Mayank... DREAMER is that ONE word that could describe me entirely. I have reveries, dreams and often nightmares too. I dream of a lot of things. HALF LIFE was my dream. THE B.A.N.N.E.D INDIANS was a dream for me too... to be able to contribute to the music world. And now, I dream of this world being a much better place to live than it is now. I dream of making some contribution to the society and this is where my start-up, B’ BUSTERS N BUSTED comes into play.

6) How long it took you to write this book?

Ans. HALF LIFE took me just about a year to write but I had been working on the plot since I was in the 12^th grade(2008). All this time I spent on researching about the supernatural background of the plot... also the locations I would set the story in and with each passing year, the twists kept piling up, the number of characters grew. And then I spent an awful amount of time eliminating the loopholes the story might have and perfecting the narration.

7) You recently launched your 1^st start up- B’BUSTERS N BUSTED, www.bbusternnbusted.com What is it really all about?

Ans. B’ Busters N Busted (3B) aims to share the FAILURE STORIES as our tagline goes, Behind every SUCCESS, there’s a FAILURE. Apart from such stories, we cover the stories of women in our society who are paving their own path of success but do not get recognized for the same. Most people are scared of failure and this stops them from even trying. We aim to take away this fear by telling the world that it’s okay to fail… you only have to be successful once.

8) B’BUSTERS N BUSTED’s tag line says "Behind every success, there is failure”. So, how many times you faced failure in the process of getting this book published?

Ans. Fortunately or unfortunately, I just applied to 3 publishing houses and two of them rejected it.

9) Your blog, www.thevampiresinmydiaries.blogspot.in received a great response, especially from the lovers of “The vampire diaries”. What pushed you to write a parallel and different version of “The vampire diaries: Season 5”?

Ans. Yes... to my amazement it has received a really great response and what delights me even more is the fact that it all started out as part of an experiment. The Vampire Diaries (TVD) writers regularly have long discussions where each of the writer shares his/her own idea as to how the story could move forward. And that one storyline or theme is selected which is in accordance with or more relevance to the ending of the show that the creators of the show have in mind.

I moved in the direction where Silas isn’t Stefan’s doppelganger and I sent it over for the production crew. Obviously, they were clear with their own idea of TVD Season 5. So, I put up this alternative plot/storyline as Fan-fiction in public domain for my friends and the TVD fans to enjoy a parallel version of TVD Season 5.

10) Any plans to take this blog further?

Ans. I’m so delighted that the blog and it’s official Facebook and Google Plus page have been doing so very well. Besides, I am often asked questions like- is The Vampires in my Diaries (TVMD) returning? Are Stefan and Damon dead? Will you write a TVMD Season 6? Well, it’s too early to make promises but YES, I am definitely woking on it’s NEW SEASON. To all my friends and fans out there, I just wanna say that 'guys, you never know what surprises 2015 has in store for ya'!!

11)Any plans for the next book?

Ans. Of course, I do want to keep writing more books because there are so many Supernatural Thrillers yet to be told. But as of now, I can’t tell you exactly when my next book would come. I have been busy with two book projects right now.

One of them is a story of a cursed town named CROSSVILLE (which is also the title of the novel). And the second one is a quartet (four book)-series titled, IMMORTAL BLOODLINES (#1.The Hunt #2.The Chase #3.The Feed #4.The Kill) , which I like to call my dream project.

12) Advice to budding writers?

Ans. To all those budding writers out there, I just want to say that please don't write for others, please don’t write for money or fame... but write it for yourself because that is what will keep you going even in the face of adversity, rejection and/or skeptic reviews. Additionally, I'd like to quote what one of my author friends once told me, "write the story the way you want to hear one". I wish ya all the luck in the world! :)

Connect with MH RAHMAN:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/authormhrahman

Twitter: wwww.twitter.com/authormhrahman

Email: dropyourloveforrahman@gmail.com

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Interview with Author and Entrepreneur Sameer Kamat

Sameer Kamat is the founder of an MBA admissions consulting venture,careers in India portal and a website that provides tips on getting published in India. His first book, Beyond The MBA Hype published by HarperCollins, is currently in the third reprint.

His second book Business Doctors - Management Consulting Gone Wild, a story based on the bizarre concept of management consultants trying to turn around an underworld organisation. On the day it got listed on Amazon India, it broke into the Top 25 in Indian Writing.

      1)   Your 1st book was published by Harper Collins and it is still doing quite well then why did you choose to self publishing your 2nd book ‘Business Doctors’?

Writing a book is the easy part. What happens after that, in case you decide to go down the traditional publishing route, needs far more patience and perseverance.

It took 5 years for my first book to reach bookstores after it was first written. For my second book, I did not want to wait for that long. Even though I have published one book, I don’t have a track record in fiction. So the process wouldn’t have been a cakewalk anyway.

Here’s the bigger story of why I decided to get Business Doctors self-published in India.

2) Self publishing is very popular in west but in India it is still considered as a last resort. Don’t you think that you took a gamble?

I have no intentions of becoming a full-time professional author. So it wasn’t very important to me to build an image as a non-fiction author or a business fiction author.

That allows me to experiment more with my writing projects. The audience for the second book isn’t very different from the first one. Both would connect with professionals who’ve been working for a few years.

3) The toughest part of self publishing a book?

Marketing the book is the trickiest part.

4) Is your new book inspired by your personal experiences as you were once working as a management consultant?

Thankfully, it is not. The story is too bizarre for that!

Management consulting isn’t a mainstream profession. In fact, many readers (including students) who haven’t spent enough time in the corporate world to cross paths with the species wouldn’t have heard of management consultants.

So I was looking for ways to introduce the idea to folks who may not be familiar with it. Instead of writing a boring non-fiction book, I thought it might be interesting to spice things up and present it like a Hollywood action movie.

As a consultant, I have lived and worked across many countries, including USA. So I tapped into some of those memories. For the businesses featured in the book where I did not have any first-hand experience, I did some research.

5) Any plans for the next book?

None, yet. For now, the primary objective is to get the word out for Business Doctors. And I need the help of your readers to get there.

6) MBA from Cambridge University, worked as a management consultant and your first book was a non-fiction, when I consider all this, I conclude Mr. Sameer Kamat is a ‘scholar’. What about your other side, are you into adventure or sports?

Wrong conclusion. I was good at studies, but never a ‘scholar’. I’ve had my share of the not-so-scholastic stories (involving sky diving, bungee jumping, hang-gliding, tae-kwon-do etc). However they don’t find a place in my current avatar as an entrepreneur and author.

7) Many reputed publishers, who were publishing quality book are now publishing chick-lit kinda book may be for easy money. Is it right in your personal opinion?

It’s easy for an outsider to be judgemental. But the publishing industry is struggling to survive. Piracy and technology have made it difficult for the traditional publishers to continue doing what they were doing earlier. Bookstores are closing down.

In such a tough situation, if some publishers have found a way to keep their boat afloat, it’s only because there are readers for the genre. They are running a for-profit business, and commercial viability is crucial for them.

There’s no good or bad genre. It’s all relative. What’s high quality and entertaining for me, might be trashy for someone else. As always, the reader has a choice about which book to pick up and which to ignore.

8) Your favorite author and book?

 I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I don’t read much. From the little that I’ve read, I do like PG Wodehouse though.

9) Any message for the budding authors?

Don’t wait for the perfect idea, don’t wait to write the best-seller, don’t wait till you understand everything about the publishing industry. Start writing today.

More importantly start sharing your work informally. Blogging is a great way to polish your writing skills and getting it in front of an audience. Minus all the hassles of going through publishers.

Book Review of Business Doctors By Mayank Kashyap

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