Interview with Biswajit Patnaik

Your book ‘The Hidden Truth’ has had a lot of initial success, at least in the way it has built an author identity for you, though you have been writing and blogging for a long time and have a considerable base of readers already. Congratulations that you are a published author now.

What was your biggest inspiration behind writing your book ‘The Hidden Truth’?

My love for the genre. From the early days of reading comics till reading a Dan Brown thriller, this genre has always instigated me to use my grey cells to write something new. So as time passed by, new stories kept on hitting me and in that mad rush of concepts hidden inside the archives of my system to the stories I had written, gave birth to ‘The Hidden Truth.’

Can you talk about your initial experience of writing? Any specific challenges that you faced or assistance you got which helped you shape your imagination as a writer?

I wrote my first story during my school days. After that, I started writing some random posts on blog during my engineering days. Slowly that progressed into serious writing.The initial challenge I faced was to put the vision I had for a scene in words but slowly with time when I kept on writing, it improved and till date the process is still on. The main challenge I face is introducing sub plots in the main plot and I love taking up the challenge every time. I won’t say assistance but got inspired through reading various books.

Can you tell us a little about the way you look at crime fiction? What is your understanding of this genre and its relevance in the world we live today?

I see crime fiction as Beethoven’s symphony. For people, crime fiction is disturbing but for me the best part of it is the mystery which gets unraveled at last and the entire process of it. I feel relaxed when I read a good thriller and I feel disturbed when I don’t. I don’t think I am the right guy to comment on its relevance in today’s world but to be honest, somewhere down the line these stories are a reflection of the dark side of our society which we tend to ignore. But this darkness has been a part of the society for ages. Somehow, books make us see this gory picture.

In your writing, there is a constant sense of threat and betrayal lurking beneath the otherwise calm and composed surface. Do you think that this is a relatable portrayal of this time and people are really that insecure and interest-driven?

Actually it’s a YES. In our daily lives, we do encounter people who are interest- driven and opportunistic. People were always insecure and with passing time it has increased to many folds. Some of the major crimes in real lives are a result of someone’s insecurity and betrayal of trust. They fuel the inspiration to pick some traits from their characters and induce it in our books. But these things do exist in everyday life and it would remain as an integral part of our lives.

Would you like to tell us something briefly about your next book? Just a little bit of how far you have gone on the road to publishing it.

To be honest, I haven’t started writing my next book. For about a year I have been working on different concepts, but nothing has materialised till now. But now, I have finalised the concept and I have a brief outline of my story. This story is very close to me and I am taking my time to write it. I have developed the characters and currently I am working on their individual stories. In terms of publishing, it’s a long road ahead but I would take the path very soon.

Thank you very much for your time. We wish you every success on your journey as a writer.

2019

This interview was published with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without written permission of the copyright holder.

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