Writezenith Author Interview: BS Murthy - Novelist, Playwright 'n Writer

 https://writezenith.com/interview/bs-...

When you're working on a book and a new idea pops up, should you pursue it immediately (also known as 'UP syndrome') or finish your current project first? What do you think is the best course of action?

As I tend to get absorbed in every work on hand, so my muse too stays focussed without letting my mind to waver.

Which character do you enjoy writing the most as a writer and why? If choosing a favorite character is like choosing a favorite child, which character do you find requires the most attention and detail from you as a writer?

I would like to answer the question by quoting Raja Rao, the hero of my maiden novel, Benign Flame: Saga of Love - “Characters of fiction are authors’ children and critics’ neighbors, even if we perceive them as inadequate, nevertheless, we should appreciate the fact that they are the products of someone’s imagination, however limited that might be. It’s not often that you come across a book from which you could quote much,”

Can you explain your writing process? Do you prefer to create an outline and plan beforehand, or do you prefer to write more spontaneously and organically?

I may say that I only provide the skeletons to my muse for it to add flesh and blood to them so as to form myriad characters of my fiction.

What are some books or authors that you would recommend to our readers?

As I was benefited from my maternal uncle, C. Subba Rao's advice to first read the classics, which he later told me that his law author father C. Kameswara Rao of 'Law of Damages and Compensation' fame, bestowed upon him, I would like to pass on the same to the young readers.

Tell us what you enjoy most about writing [genre].

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.

What have you found to be most challenging about writing in [genre]?

The playwrighting, unlike the muse-ease novel narrative, is the most challenging of the genres for it requires the writer to contrive the plot and connive with the scenes to keep the audiances riveted to their seats.

Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in [jobs/education] in your writing?

I could conceive Sathyam's manipulation of the open tendes in Benign Flame: Saga of Love, and plot Gautam's fraudulent fire claim in Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life owing to my being a purchase officer and an insurance surveyor and loss assessor respectively.

Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?

All the characters in my works of fiction have been characterized, not in black and white, but in myriad shades of grey

Would you like readers to have any specific takeaway from your book?

I believe that my books enable the reades to have a novel ‘Indian’ feel.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?

If it can be said as unusual, I tended to write for twelve hours or so, day after day, till the completion of each of my twelve books, most of which took nine months for their fruition.

Share some advice for aspiring authors. What advice would you give to your younger self?
What is your favorite line from your book?

The aspiring authors 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.

A couple of lines out of many of my favourite ones from my books in their context are as follows:

1_ Benign Flame: Saga of Love

‘Possession, to be meaningful, should be timely,’ he reasoned, as he increased his pace to come closer to the women. ‘When we would meet next time, who knows, she could be carrying, and shortly thereafter, holding her child in my lap, won’t I be left wondering as to what it would have been like had I possessed her before? Then, won’t it turn out to be a life-long regimen of seeing a bloated Roopa belatedly? Thus, with nothing left to inspire possession, and having gained to make it difficult, won’t she leave me pondering over her past contours in her rotund presence? And in time, won’t the hoped-for possession on a grand scale passion end up being a damp squib in a platonic fashion? It would be for sure and sadly at that.’

2_ Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life

When Sneha brought some schoolchildren for a picnic to Nagarjunasagar, Dame Luck smiled on him as though to tempt his destiny. Assigned by his boss to guide the party, as he entered the guest-house that morning, he saw her in the sofa waiting for the unknown him. Bewildered by her beauty and bowled by her charm, he stopped in his tracks. When she got up to greet him, the flow of her frame stunned him even more. As she went about assembling her flock, struck by her poise, he didn't take his eyes off her. Further, enthralled by her bewitching smile and enchanting tone, he felt as if he had retrieved his lost hope. While he stood rooted lost in her charms, sensing that she had stolen his heart, she bowed her head as though in guilt.

Have you ever experienced writer’s block? How did you deal with it?

Now after penning a dozen books in varied geners, I'm unable to push my pen on my working title ‘Layers of Life ‘n Onion like Fate’ and it is to be seen what life has in store for my work on it.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

When not at writing, I strive to find readers for my writings in the vast e-book world.

Was there anything you had to research for the book?

My novel non-fiction, Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife (A Critical Appraisal of Islamic Faith, Indian Polity ‘n More), possibly in a new genre, was the only research based book in my body of work of twelve books in varied genres.

Did you have any say in the cover design?

The designs of the book jackets of all my publications were conceived, for the most part, by my childhood ‘artist’ pal E. Rohini Kumar, of coure, in tune with my brief.

Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you want to be when you grew up?

So to say I was absorbed in reading all along till I happened to be a novelist in my mid-forties about which I wrote in My ‘Novel’ Account of Human Possibility and the interested can Google for it.

As was the case with most youngsters of our generation in India ( I was 1948 born ), I was merely myself as I grew up.

Where do you like to write? In a coffee shop? In your home office? On the beach?

Whenever I write a book, my muse has no issues with me wherever I happen to reach for my pen and pad.

What other hobbies do you have outside of writing?

I've been a man of many interests that was before I started writing from which time I got into the habit of pursuing my writing-related activities at the cost of most of those.

Do you have any personal connection to the story or characters?

Whereas my fiction has human connectivity, much of it also has my personal connection