Featured Interview With Mubarak Sandhu

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Hi !
My name is Mubarak Sandhu. I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and worked in the same industry for more than 2 years before turning into an entrepreneur. I founded a music record label in the year 2015 and co-founded an event management company in the following year. I have always loved writing, and kept on working as a freelance content writer and at times, ghost writer as well, along with working on the growth of both my companies.

The pandemic stopped all the ongoing work, and hence gave all the time to complete the novel that I started writing in the year 2015. I completed my novel in 2020, and it was published worldwide in July 2021. Looking at a very positive response for the same, the novel was translated in Punjabi language and the Punjabi Edition was published in February 2022. The name of my fiction novel is ‘Boris – The Last Qahn Alive (Unearthing the Spear of Neutrality)’ and this makes me an author of two books, which are available globally via online platforms.

I was raised at Patiala, Punjab and I put up in Mohali, Punjab now. I do not have pets, but I love dogs and treat the stray/street dogs like pets only.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was about 11-12 years old when I became curious about how writers think and put their thoughts into words. My curiosity was never about reading but more about writing something of my own. I initiated with small poems, gradually moved on to longer poems and articles, eventually creating clearer thoughts and a better understanding of how to pen them down.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I am not a consistent reader, but there were some books that left deep impact on me. One was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and the other was I Too Had A Love Story by Ravinder Singh.

My favorite genre is fiction, followed by real-life stories.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The name of my latest book is ‘Boris – The Last Qahn Alive (Unearthing the Spear of Neutrality)’ which is a fictional work and is inspired by curiosity that everyone has for one thing or the other.

This book narrates the story of Boris, who lives with a group of nomads but belongs to the legendary race of Qahns whose leader Yura once sacrificed his own self to save the Kingdom and its people, when attacked by the ferocious King of Seabed – Crato. Boris faces the same responsibility, which is to save the Kingdom of Ekaardus during Crato’s next invasion. He explores the lands and forests and learns immensely from his journey and leaves a mark wherever he goes. Eventually, he returns to the Kingdom when it is about to fall prey to Crato’s wrath, and wins over the war by using the Spear of Neutrality.

Boris – The Last Qahn Alive is a novel for one and all – complexities of situations are put in rather simple words, characters are described well to picturise them conveniently, bifurcations of chapters is done for easy references and bookmarks, and brief poetic conversations work as icing on cake, making the story more engrossing and tasteful.

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Featured Interview With Jeanette Watts

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Chicago, which says a lot. Chicagoans are a gregarious lot. It takes an extra 15 minutes to get through a grocery store, because somewhere along the way, we’ll end up in a conversation with a complete stranger about where to find the soy sauce, or how long it took me to make the coat I’m wearing.

The first time I moved, I was 3 years old and my father went to graduate school in Bozeman, Montana. That started a trend that has lasted all my life; I’ve lived in Illinois, Montana, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. I want to add a few more states to that list. I absolutely adore New England, and I’d also like to live in the Pacific Northwest sometime.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
If the family stories are to be believed, I have loved words since I figured out what they were. By the time I was three, I had memorized all my favorite storybooks and would correct the adults if they skipped a word when reading to me. When I was 4 or 5, we were in the college bookstore buying my father’s books for his graduate school classes, and I walked up to my mother and handed her a book. The title of it was “Teach Me to Read.” You can guess the rest.

When I was in 4th grade, I used to entertain my best friend Terri on the walk to school with my own stories. I didn’t know what fan fiction was, but I was making up my own Star Wars fan fiction. I narrated serial installments every day on our walk. When my best friend asked me to repeat some of my stories to another friend, she kept having to stop me because I was forgetting things. Finally she looked at me and asked, “Are you writing this stuff down?!” I wasn’t. I had to fix that. I have been writing ever since. It’s all her fault. She will cheerfully admit it’s all her fault.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite influences since high school and college are Margaret Mitchell and Edith Wharton, but mostly I read history books. I discovered the biography section of the school library when I was in 4th grade, and that started my lifelong love of history. My favorite authors are David McCullough and Shelby Foote and Ron Chernow. Hey, if Hamilton is good enough for Lin-Manuel Miranda, it’s good enough inspiration for me!

Tell us a little about your latest book?
“My Dearest Miss Fairfax” will be released on March 14th. It is a retelling of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” from the point of view of her rival/frenemy, Jane Fairfax.

I have two other books that are inspired by Jane Austen, so I am in a lot of online chat groups. I ended up in a conversation that culminated in my going out and buying a used copy of “Emma,” marking it up prodigiously with highlighters, and using the original text to reconstruct the events as they occurred in Jane Fairfax’s life. It was a very interesting process! When I wrote “A Woman’s Persuasion,” it’s a modern-day translation of “Persuasion.” I went chapter by chapter in order, taking the original text and setting it in 2008 United States and asked what would happen if Captain Wentworth was another woman? It took a lot of thinking, but it was all a linear process.

This time, the information I needed was scattered across the entire book. Only in writing this did I realize that Jane Austen had written a murder mystery of sorts, and the protagonist fails to solve the crime! Of course, the crime in this case is a secret engagement, not a murder. But Emma fails to put all the clues together. I was constantly having to go back and rewrite events, because new details are introduced after the fact. I had to rewrite every letter, and change the book’s title, because I had forgotten about a letter at the very end of the book that was full of important details!

Painstaking as it was, it was worth it. The end result, I like to think, feels like a thorough, honest reporting of what was going on from this different point of view.

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Featured Interview With Kingsley Osajie

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Kingsley Osajie. I was born in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria. I have been living in Nigeria since I was born. But as one who is adventurous and an Albatross by nature; I love to move to United States of America to see life in the other part of the world and to move out of my comfort zone because no one grows or succeeds in a comfort zone. Yes, I have a beautiful puppy Simba. Simba is a plaything! Lol; he does not let me be.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I realized my passion for writing in high school. I was 16 at that time. I wrote my first manuscript when I was close to finishing from high school. I started writing in 2010. But is has not been an easy journey becoming a published author. There is a video I made where I talk more about my struggles in becoming a published author. I would like to share with you.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favourite authors are Buchi Emecheta, Tea Obreht, Cyprian Ekwensi, Charles Dickens, Chinua Achebe, John Grisham etc.

In my writing, my influences have been Buchi Emecheta. She was an Award-Winning Author. Not only that she is also a heart-based writer. I get inspired by Tea Obreht, Charles Dickens, John Grisham too because their books and style of writing are so compelling, inspiring and heart-based. I like to describe them as born writers.

Apart from these authors. My inspiration comes from within. I get inspiration from my environment, families. Inspiration in my writing can be in the form of a nudging from the Universe, Kwan Yin and my Angels too.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Cindy and Her Beautiful Bird is an exquisite book about Cindy and her loving moments with Amy, her pet bird. This is a story of the intimacy and challenges of a little girl called Cindy and her beautiful songbird, Amy. Cindy’s bird, Amy, affected her positively. It shows how children can be attached with pets once a cordial relationship has been formed. In this story, Cindy showed us that children can have unwavering faith, even if it seemed goofy, unrealistic, and an illusion! Despite all odds about the whereabouts of Cindy’s bird, she kept believing and having faith.

I can be crazy some times (LOL); I often joke to people that Cindy is my child. I will say, “I have two children Cindy and Quimby…” (Quimby is the brother to Cindy in this story). In turn they will ask me, “how come you have two children when you are not yet married yet”? Anyway, I still consider Cindy and Quimby my children (do not worry about their mother. She is fine…hahahaha!!). The reason I call Cindy and Quimby my children is because they are my brainchildren and such I consider them my children in way—kind of…(winks, smiles and kisses).

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Featured Interview With KEITH BRADBURY

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Born and raised in Manchester, England, I studied Drama and english there before going into teaching. Eventually i escaped to Spain to write. I live in Madrid currently, I love cats and have had several over the years. I spend my time when not writing, playing guitar, walking the streets of Madrid or people watching from the terrace of my local bar. I am fascinated by Spanish history and architecture – especially the 800 years of the Moors. My current novel, published Feb 28th took me three years to research and write. I also drink a lot of red wine!

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I began reading at an early age, maybe 5 or so. My parents and my older brother read to me a lot when I was very young and they also made up great stories too. I fell in live with Winnie the Pooh and then moved on to Tolkien when I was 12. I began writing poems first when I was about 14 then song lyrics. I am always writing something – even if they’r just ideas or pictures in words.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I am a big fan of Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I like detective novels too for escapism – anything from Conan Doyle to Ann Cleeves or the Morse novels. I love Peter Ackroyd – for me the greatest living English author. Kate Mosse too, though I prefer her earlier books. Ackroyd and Zafon are big inspirations but my children also inspire me!

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Lucy E Hawksmoor, authority on all things Arabic, finds the present crashing in on the past as far-right groups try to stop her quest to find the final resting place of Boabdil, the last King of the Moors. She meets the mysterious and attractive Gloria whose family claim to have guarded the secret of its location for 600 years. Lucy, unaware of the dangerous world she is entering, receives death threats and then a Muslim student is murdered. She is plunged into a nightmare world, not knowing who she can trust. Is Gloria who she claims to be? How far will her enemies go to stop her? As riots sweep Granada, Lucy’s search for Boabdil’s tomb becomes a political timebomb – one that will endanger the lives of everyone involved.
I wrote it because I wanted to write a book that reflects all that is wonderful about the 800 years of the Moors in Spain, and to introduce a new kind of hero, Lucy Hawksmoor, whose life is turned upside down by events beyond her control. And through her I want the reader to experience all that is good about Spain, from the food to the architecture to the ordinary people, as well as showing how history does matter and we need to learn from the past to avoid making the same mistakes. It is a mystery, a thriller, a political commentary and at times a love story.
It took me three years of reading, travelling to different locations and writing. I learnt a great deal about not only Spanish history but also about the politics of Europe and how dangerous the rise of extreme right parties is and yet seems to go unnoticed.

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