Interview with Varun Sayal – Author of Time Crawlers

1. Where did you get the inspiration for some of the names from your story as they were so unique?

I always try to give those names to characters which have some meaning attached to them, such as, Guru Trikalacharya in story “Nark-astra”. His name is derived from word Trikal which in Sanskrit means all the three timelines, past, present, and future. Kaaljeevi roughly evaluates to one who lives within time or beyond it. Jokie is someone who will usually take everything as a joke or lightly.

2. Why did you choose to do some of the story in an ‘interview style’?

When I started writing as a student, I started as a playwright, writing and adapting umpteen number of plays for our college competitions and they were fairly popular. At that time, I built a strong grasp on how I can communicate stories via pure dialogs, which influenced my writing a lot. And hence you see a lot of stories here written in pure dialog or interview format. That’s my natural style of writing. However, I found out the hard way that many readers find this a tough format to read. Or many feel that they liked the story but they wish some more details were given out in pure prose. So I am inclined to change my style, tough thing to do, but I love such challenges. J

3. The stories themselves are filled with facts and data. Do you have training in this area? Where did you learn about all of this for your story?

I am an engineer by education hence I have studied a lot of advanced level Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Which influences my writing style, when I try to bring realism to my stories by using facts from these disciplines and that also helps me stay true to my writings in terms of their scientific meaning. For example, I will rarely write about an animal or creature which is 5 feet tall and suddenly grows to 50 feet. I just can’t do that because I don’t believe such a sudden change in mass of a body is possible out of thin air.

4. When I was reading some of the stories I really had flashbacks to some of Clive Barkers writers. Did any of his novels inspire you, or did any other author inspire your writing?

No, I haven’t read Clive Barkers, but now that you mention him, I would check out his works. I am more inspired by Isaac Asimov, because despite being a Sci-Fi writer, he never wanted to bamboozle his readers with details of Space Opera, armadas and planets etc. He kept his stories real and instead focused on the human conflicts arising due to technical or robotic advancement. At the end of a story if it’s just a dump of details then it’s just a Scientific Pulp fiction, which may entertain a reader for a few minutes, but won’t leave an everlasting impression on her or his mind. Nothing against those genres, but I want to focus on scientific realism.

5. One of your short stories focused on the darknet and what was happening down there. Did you make it up or did something push you to choose that side of the darknet?

I have thought a lot about how dark-net functions and I do believe in some of the controversy-theories around it, that we are slowly becoming slaves to a secret hidden AI entity. All those caricature-pics, which you see casually being shared on Facebook where people are shown to be glued to their cell phones, something sinister is indeed going on in the background. Within your friend circles or acquaintances, you can see normal people sharing jokes / memes on people who have died, in a lighter vein. Sharing funny videos of people flying, crashing into boxes, each other etc. where I believe those people in the videos might have been badly hurt. So people are losing that sensitivity towards other humans, and that too just for sake of a few microseconds of mirth. In this scenario, I don’t believe “Death By Crowd” is a far-fetched thought but in fact it may already be happening is some other form.

6. In your spare time, what can you be found doing?

I watch a lot of American TV series on Netflix. They just take my mind away from work, from worldly tensions and help me relax. Mentalist and House of Cards were a few non Sci-Fi ones I immensely loved, but usually I love the likes of Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG1, Altered Carbon and even paranormal ones like John Constantine. Oh I can go on and on about these TV Series.

7. What inspired you to be a writer?

My inspirations are rather negative ones .. haha, which means that I saw other published authors and thought I could write better.. I have been writing short stories for a very long time, but never published formally like now, mostly on blogs, sharing with friends. But when I read some of the Indian “Best Selling” authors, I gained a lot of confidence. Because I felt I can write better than them, at least in terms of content. In terms of grasp of language on prose, I feel I still need to learn a lot take some giant strides.

8. Why did you choose this kind of sci-fi genre, and your particular niche of the dark kind of reality?

I love writing sci-fi, and I will be honest, there are times when I think of writing a pure romance story, or a pure drama, but I don’t find that kind of fire within me to do so. But when it comes to sci-fi I love those times when I am creating an entirely new universe, with diverse characters, fantasy-filled scenarios, and problems or situations arising out of something scientific.

9. If anyone wanted to write a book similar to yours, on that detailed kind of sci-fi topic, what would your suggestion be to them?

Firstly, I would say do your basic research well, because Sci-Fi is usually read by readers who have some basic fundamentals of physics and mathematics cleared up. You won’t believe the kind of technical discussions that happen on FB groups “Science Fiction” and “Time travel”. So, you would not want to have embarrassing, glaring potholes being brought out in reviews. Secondly, dystopias generally go well with Sci-fi but you may not always have to show a post-apocalyptic world, just because it’s Science Fiction. You can pick a particular situation out of a normal non-dystopian world and just write about it.

10. When you are writing, what are some things that you cannot do without?

I try to bring a sort of peak into my story which pinches the reader somewhere within. Without that, I think the story fails to get attention or leaves the reader unfulfilled. Having said so that feeling of a pinch is different for different readers. Some find a mystery built up critical to a story, some find a heart-wrenching incident is required, and some others may want a more descriptive set of scenes to connect with the narrative. Tough to please all the audiences.

11. Do readers get to expect another book from you?

Absolutely, I am very excited by the warm reception “Time Crawlers” has received and the rave reviews it is getting on GoodReads that too from top reviewers. I have already written the summary of my next book which is a novel, now I need to carefully execute it with some smart words to captivate the readers. It will be a full prose novel with elements from Time Travel, multiple dimensions, parallel universes and some themes from ancient Indian Mythology. I may include some paranormal characters and situations if they make the story more intriguing. Stay Tuned!

12. What are your hopes with your current book and any future writing you may create?

With these books, I aim to bring a few new tales in this world, narratives which are not just flowery descriptions that enable readers to pass time, but each of them should make the reader put down the book for a second and think about what would happen if that story were real. If I am able to do that I would consider my writing endeavors a success. I also have a secret desire that one day one of my sci-fi stories will be picked by Hollywood. Seems a bit far-fetched, but you never know.