Around four years ago, when I had just finished reading a complex Ludlum classic in 11th grade, I gave Matthew Reilly’s Temple a try due to praises it received from a book club. This was an eye-opener for me. Temple made me realize that books can be an epic action movie with a limitless budget when compared to Hollywood where the filmmakers are limited in creativity despite all the advancements in CGI and VFX technology.
Reilly’s narrative in all his books isn’t just limited to limitless action. His plots are critical of the real problems in today’s world like capitalism, white supremacy and the unchecked strategic power of the first world nations. Though a casual reader may just enjoy his books, the critical parts can be observed when reading with a focus on the subplots and the bigger picture of his stories. This made me realize that I can inspire a social change in the readers along with just the fun of action. But I don’t think I have achieved this yet.
After browsing the net for fun books that I’d enjoy, I borrowed Clive Cussler’s ‘Inca Gold’ from a library around the same year. This book read like a classic mix between an amphibious Indiana Jones and James Bond. I instantly admired Cussler’s flagship protagonist, Dirk Pitt, who inspired me to pit characters against nature’s fury and survive with hellish damage. Pitt is classy, funny and a person every man wants to be. Cussler has used detailed technical descriptions in his classic books which made me understand the vehicles and machines in his stories to a good extent. I’ve tried my best to do it in my book – Alaskan Storm.
I then bought Cussler’s ‘Atlantis Found’ and was stunned by the outrageously epic magnitude of plotting the book had. The historical conspiracy in it breathes life to multiple myths and legends with enough realism which is done using science. The climactic battle in this book with an Antarctic setting was chaos multiplied exponentially. The fun in this memorable scene is something I aim to reinvent and surpass someday in my career.
James Rollins, on the other hand, showed me the level of research that is needed for a serious action adventure thriller through his scientifically accurate writing. About two years ago, I borrowed Bloodline from a library and got hooked onto the Sigma Force series which makes science scary with grim realism. Rollins’ characters, the Sigma operators, are fleshed out so well, that his books are like an emotional journey. The use of animals like Kane, the Belgian Shepard, for tactical purposes in his book fascinated me enough to use Buck, a St. Bernard in my book – Alaskan Storm. I plan to flesh out Buck much more and give him an emotional role in the 3rd part of Blood Stone Impact, but just imagining that scene in my head makes me curse myself.
These books have shaped how I currently write and I hope to evolve my content into a new style. Every day of inaction in my limbo floods ideas into my head’s limited memory space that’s filled with a lot of weird stuff. I wish to write faster to put all my characters into the public sphere but I’m just figuring out how to write. I’ve learned that the only cure for impatience is actually doing the work that is going to take me from point A to Point C through Point B instead of trying to jump the distance.
I’m immensely lucky to know two great Indie authors whose unique masterpieces are something I hold as a standard for my writing to level up to someday. One of them, Aiden L. Bailey, has brought out a fictional socio-political revolution around the world through quantum computers in his book – The Benevolent Deception. Amazingly, he hasn’t gone into the technical part of the story but has focused on four unique characters whose lives are socially changed by this revolution. The other author, Andrew Warren, has brought out the dark side of life in his neo-noir book – Tokyo Black. His descriptions and characterizations are something that traditionally published authors should aim to achieve. These two awesome gentlemen have mentored me with patience and I feel very lucky to have known them.
My book Alaskan Storm is available on Amazon Kindle for just $0.99 and I hope that I eventually do justice to everyone who’ve inspired me, directly or indirectly, by constantly learning and evolving my writing skills.
KRONOS 