Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an Indian novelist, playwright, short story and non-fiction writer, translator, a little thinker and a budding philosopher.
My novel output comprises of Benign Flame: Saga of Love, Jewel-less Crown:: Saga of Life, Crossing the Mirage: Passing through youth (plot and character driven novels all), Glaring Shadow: A stream of consciousness novel, Prey on the Prowl: A Crime Novel and Onto the Stage: ‘Slighted Souls’ and other stage and radio plays besides Stories Varied – A Book of Short Stories.
All my ‘novel’ endeavors were borne out of my conviction that if fiction were to impact readers, it should be the soulful saga of native characters rooted in their soil but not the meandering wanderings of a hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas.
While “Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife” is my non-fiction work, Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help (sans 110 interpolations in verses with contemporary idiom) and Sundara Kãnda: Hanuman’s Odyssey, also in verse, symbolize my trancreative effort.
My above body of work is available as free e-books at umpteen websites such as Project Gutenberg Self-publishing Presshttp://www.gutenberg.us/authors/bsmurthy, Internet Achieve, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple iTunes, obooko.com, Smashwords.com, Free ebooks net, Freebookspot. Feedboks, Ebookjunkie , http://e-library.net etc. besides Amazon.com
My philosophical proposition, ‘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, which is incorporated in the Epilogue of his Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life.
I have had contributed more than a score of articles on general and materials management issues and general insurance topics in The Hindu,The Economic Times, The Financial Express. The Purchase and The Insurance Times, the prominent among them being – Organizational Ethos and Good Leadership, Reinvigorating Individual Managerial Environment (RIME) in The Hindu, Low Morale in the Public Sector in The Financial Express, The Psychology of Centralization and Lead-time Management – Key to Inventory Control in The Purchase, Conceptualization of Indemnity under Fire Insurance, Rational Evaluation of Stock Losses in Manufacturing Units under Insurance Claims, Incongruities of Machinery Insurance, Handling Irrelevant, Bogus and Fraudulent Fire Claims, The Surveyor’s Profession in India, and Redundancy of Spoilage Material Damage Cover in The Insurance Times.
I take keen interest in politics of the day, has an ear for Carnatic and Hindustani classical music and had been a passionate Bridge player.
I’m a graduate mechanical engineer from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India, is a Hyderabad-based Insurance Surveyor and Loss Assessor since 1986. He is married, to a housewife, with two sons, the elder one a PhD in Finance and the younger a Master in Engineering.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Stories Varied – A Book of short Stories is my last creative work.
With the addition of ‘Prey on the Prowl – A Crime Novel’ the ninth book 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, the idea of “Write India Campaign of Times of India”, to let the aspiring writers build their stories on the ‘prompts’ provided by eleven of India’s popular authors worked for me as my muse, at last, found its way into the short story mould.
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 Chetan Bhagat, Aswin Sanghi, Ravi Subramanian, Preeti Shenoy, Tuhin A. Sinha, Ravinder Singh, Durjoy Datta, Madhuri Banarjee, Jaisree Misra and Anita Nair, I had experienced the joy of short story writing.
That in the end, I could pen my ‘Twelfth Tale’, sans any prompting, perhaps, is a testimony to the success of the said Write India Campaign.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write with passion and without a break that is save to rest and recuperate till the completion of the book, and maybe that’s unusual in these times when writers tend to write for a couple of hours or so per day.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was fourteen or so, my maternal uncle, Challa Subba Rao, advised me to read English classics for they, widen one’s understanding of life, deepen the thinking about it besides imparting language skills. Luckily, his advice led me first to English classics of Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte, Henry Fielding etc.hen to continental fiction of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Gogol, Zola, Flaubert etc. whose works I had read with gusto and insensibly internalized. Nevertheless, savoring those masterpieces, I never dreamt of becoming a writer myself but thirty years after I began reading, my muse overwhelmed me into expressing myself through “Benign Flame: Saga of Love’ and the other works during the next two decades and more.
What are you working on now?
The saying that all good things come to an end has become true for me that is after that creative ecstasy that lasted over ten books in varied genres. Besides, I think I’m through as one’s creativity has its limits, so it seems.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Since, more the websites host one’s books even more are the chances of getting noticed by the prospective readers, I had strived to place my free ebooks on as many willing domains, and as can be seen from the search for “BS Murthy, Indian Author” on Google, succeeded to a considerable extent.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
One may venture into the fictional arena with his pen and paper only after examining life for some period of time and in some depth. That apart, a writer must have something unique to offer to the literary world that affords a new reading experience to the interested readers. When, I was halfway through my maiden novel, Benign Flame, believing that I had something great on offer and not wanting to die till I completed it, I used to go to great lengths to preserve my life.
It’s as if to vindicate my sense of purpose of “Benign Flame” that one Mr. Spencer Critchley, an American critic felt 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.”
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Hard to say, but, may be, ‘follow your nature’ could be one of the most influential.
What are you reading now?
. Marcel Proust’s “Remembrances of the things Past”, oh, how it affects!
What’s next for you as a writer?
In the time left for me on earth, I would like to try to find as many potential readers as possible to my body of varied books, and it is the only literary goal left for me in life.
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?
Without any disrespect to the great classics I’ve read, I would like to bring all my ten books to savor for I love each one of them, for what they are.
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