Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was Born in 1976, in Durban South Africa, to two government-school teachers at all-Indian schools, in a country governed under the law of apartheid, and began a life that held little promise.
A boy who was taught to believe in his dreams and to take the necessary risks in pursuing them, I have lived – and continue to live – a life devoted to freedom and truth, mostly against the currents of convention.
My debut book, ‘My Life My Africa’ is a true life story that took place between 2001 and 2006, when, at the age of 23, I looked at my life and began questioning whether I had any purpose more meaningful than waking up to an alarm every morning and rushing to a job that returned no sense of fulfillment. It’s a journey that led me into the wild of rural Africa, to learn some pretty important lessons about myself and humanity.
I have spent 2006 to 2013 setting up a Children’s Foundation in an Informal Urban Settlement in Johannesburg South Africa, to keep children off the streets and in a mentorship program that helps them to find their own identity and purpose in life.
I am currently still in Johannesburg, marketing my book and preparing for my next adventure, in search of ‘Real China’, which I plan to begin in January 2014. In between this, I have just begun work on my 2nd book, the sequel to My Life My Africa, which follows my Journey into the ‘Squatter Camp’ (Informal Urban Settlement), where I learn some deeper truths. And through this next season, I continue to search for the way in which I am called to assist the Youth of Africa to release their voice and reclaim their identity.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My debut book is My Life My Africa: a Real African adventure…in search of Love, Freedom and True Community.
I heard a call on my heart, back in April 2000. It was a very clear Voice that came to me after years of searching within myself, for my purpose…my calling. The Voice said, “Go where I tell you, and write your story for the world to read.” So I dropped everything, said goodbye to friends and family, threw my backpack over my shoulders, and went.
So I started off, being inspired to discover my potential and – to a degree – that is still my driving force. But as I have grown, I have discovered a beautiful relationship between me and my Soul, and it is the building of this relationship, by me trusting and following my Soul’s prompting and nudging, that truly inspires me.
Whenever I am writing, I am shedding my masks and getting closer to my True self. And whenever I follow my Inner Voice, I am swept away on fantastic adventures. I haven’t found anything more inspiring than that, so that’s why I write.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
There’s a character that I sometimes go into, when I’m feeling ‘in the zone’. So I get out my cocktail shaker and make myself a vodka martini…stirred, not shaken, otherwise the ice cracks and that influences the taste. I load it with olives and take it back to my chair and set it on my little side table. Then I light up a cigar, kick back, and allow myself to drift into a Sherlock Holmes moment 🙂
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am not really influenced so much by authors as I am by books. Although I do have some possible issues of hero-worshiping Paulo Coelho 😉
Most influential books: The Celestine Prophecy, Fingerprints of the Gods, The Alchemist, The Awakening of Intelligence, The Gospel of Buddha, The Bible, The Baghavad Gita, Conversations with God, Shantaram
What are you working on now?
Well, that’s a tough one that I’m busy figuring out. I am currently journaling my next adventure in rural China. Now I don’t know if that will actually be the next book I release, or whether I will release the sequel to My Life My Africa, which takes the adventure into the Squatter Camps. This picks up from where My Life My Africa ends.
So, I don’t know really. Am just following my Path and will see what is revealed along the Way
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Since this is my debut book and I am running my first major promotion, I can’t really tell you much. Check back with me after September 2013 and I’ll have more useful information for you!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Oh wow, this is such a tough one, because it is the brutal truth that no writer can avoid. And I say this with love and total respect, because I have been – and am still being – drawn through the refining process. So here goes…
The difference between writers and wannabee writers is just this one thing…writers write.
So write. Everyday. Write. One sentence. One word. I don’t care, just write.
Love it, hate it, it doesn’t matter. Just write.
That’s the hard truth. Once you’ve got past that stage, then here’s some other things that have helped me:
1. get a nagger. This person’s only responsibility is to nag you to insanity, ensuring that once a week, there is something…anything, in their inbox, that you have written.
2. set small targets. really small and achievable ones. the brain works like that, it likes to feel a sense of achievement, and somewhere in the mystery of the creative realm, the more we feel a sense of achievement, the more creativity is unlocked.
3. get yourself a copy of Steven Pressfield’s ‘The War of Art’.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“If you can dream it, you can be it. If you believe it, you will achieve it.” My father planted this into my head and my heart from as early as I can remember, and it has been my guiding voice of encouragement to follow my dreams
What are you reading now?
I am currently reading “The Winter Bushman Has Come” which is the story of Paul Myburgh, who spent 4 years living with the last Free Bushmen of the Kalahari
What’s next for you as a writer?
Rural China is the next adventure that begins in January. There’s a book in that.
Then there is the sequel to My Life My Africa, which I have already mentioned.
And then there is the prequel to My Life My Africa, which is when I go back to my roots, as I trace the village in India that my family came from, to reach South Africa, back in 1896.
So it’s a very exciting Journey that lies ahead 🙂
What is your favorite book of all time?
I won’t commit to one single book. I have already mentioned my most influential, and then there are plenty others that influenced my life’s Journey at different stages.
I see books like that. They come to me at different times of my Journey, and they are all perfect for that particular moment.
There have even been books that have heavily influenced me, that I never completed; there was just a particular message within in it, that I needed to hear, to move me forward along my own Path.
So I would be lying if I ever picked a favorite book, song or movie.
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