Interview with Author Noor A Jahangir
Well…I’m back. In the most general sense.
Traveling, despite being a vacation, can be quite taxing. Not to mention downright nerve-wracking. While I do plan to get back into talking about my own writing, as well sharing some interesting tidbits from my trip to Italy, this shift back into author mode will take some time. I’m not saying I haven’t been mentally working throughout my hiatus (and absorbing LOTS of fantastic inspiration for my new novel), but getting back into the swing of things is harder than it seems, especially when you’ve been out of it for a month.
And so, for today, I will let another author do most of the talking.
Today’s author interview is with Noor A Jahangir, a British Asian author, who’s here to talk about how he got into writing and his latest novel, The Adventures of Some Kid.
Do you remember when you first decided you wanted to be a writer?
Hi. Yeah, I remember quite vividly in fact. I was seven years old and sitting on the floor with my classmates, whilst our teacher was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was the bit when the kids and the beavers are hiding beneath an outcrop, listening to sound of footsteps approaching. I was completely spellbound and knew that this, captivating children and young people through fiction, was what I wanted to do.
When did you start writing seriously?
I wrote the first draft of my first novel when I was 14, and started a correspondence course with The Writing School a year later. I took a volunteer staff writer post with a magazine when I turned 17, and spent three years working there in the evenings whilst studying. But it wasn’t until I was 23 that I had my first short story published by an online journal.
Have you written anything before The Adventures of Some Kid?
My first novel was The Changeling King, an epic fantasy adventure about five kids who have been sucked into another world and forced to overthrow a monstrous tyrant, whilst a sixth kid is hunted by trolls in our own world. It was published in 2011.
Do you write full-time? What are your writing habits?
I wish I could write full-time. That would be my dream job. I often fantasise about having that luxury to focus on my writing. Instead I have to write late in the evenings, on weekends and on holidays. I have a nice laptop hooked up to an ergonomic keyboard. I usually write a couple of drafts, send it to some test readers, and then use their feedback to write another couple. Then it’s over to the editors.
What’s the hardest part about being a writer?
Writing is a difficult thing, but it’s also a source of pleasure. It’s the marketing and promotion stuff, or finding an agent or publisher that is really soul-sucking.
Who are your favorite authors?
Wow, the list is massive! I’ll give you a few though. It would have to be David Gemmell, Raymond Fiest and Neil Gaiman. Of the new authors, I really like Jade Kerrion’s stuff.
What inspired you to write The Adventures of Some Kid?
It actually came about from a chat I had with my local librarian. She basically said that there wasn’t that many adventure stories out with a protagonist that was just a normal kid. It’s all super spies, boy wizards and demi-gods. That got me thinking about the Tintin stories I grew up with, the Indiana Jones movies and the Tomb Raider games. So I invented this character, Zach Caan, who is loosely based on my kid brother, and thought up ways of getting him into serious, life threatening danger.
Who did the cover art for The Adventures of Some Kid? How do you go about finding an artist?
The cover is by an artist called Elbert Lim, from Singapore. My go to place is the DeviantArt community online. I posted a brief on the Job Offers forum and got back a stack of responses from a whole bunch of amazing artists. I wish I had the number of projects and the money to hire them all, but sadly that isn’t the case. Elbert sent me a quick sketch of what he thought the cover would look like, and that really caught my attention. Elbert Lim will be doing the cover for the next two “Some Kid” books.
What are you working on next?
I’m currently working on the sequel to The Adventures of Some Kid and also the sequel to The Changeling King. I’m hoping to release the next Some Kid book around the Christmas holidays.
The latest book from the author of The Changeling King, Noor A Jahangir, is coming out on 27th June 2014, in digital and print.
ZACH CAAN isn’t a boy wizard, a super spy or a vampire’s assistant. He doesn’t have any super powers, martial arts training or cool gadgets. In fact there is nothing remarkable about him at all. He’s just some kid.
But when he boards Flight X4573, he embarks on the most unlikely adventure a person can experience in the twenty-first century. Pirates, lost tribes of Aztec warriors and mysterious islands are not usually part of his daily routine. and when it’s all over and his classmates read about him in the national newspapers, they will have great difficulty in believing that it actually happened to him. You see, nothing ever really happens to Zach Caan. That is, until now.
Ebook available to pre-order now from Smashwords and your favorite eBook stores!!!