TIM GURUNG
_ Guest Author _
G'day folks,
Today, I introduce my first guest from Hong Kong. Tim is a writer of conscience; a man who writes on social & global issues, for people, society and mankind. Most importantly, he writes for his
own happiness.
Welcome, Tim ...
1.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.
A – I am a writer of 8 books now, based in Hong Kong, I
write on serious global and social issues, and use all the proceeds from my
books to run my charity ISSLCARE.
2.
WHEN AND HOW DID YOU BECOME A WRITER?
A – I
started writing in 2009, but I only published my books in 2015, and have
planned to write at least 2 books per year. Since I have been working from 17,
I never wanted to work for money again after I turned fifty and writing was the
easy choice. Writing makes me not only happy but I can also use it for helping
the others and I wouldn’t trade my position for anything else for now.
3.
WHAT TYPE OF
PREPARATION DO YOU DO FOR A MANUSCRIPT? DO YOU PLAN EVERYTHING FIRST OR JUST
SHOOTS FROM THE HIP?
A – I always have the main theme of the book
well thought out before I start writing, the prose of the story is roughly
thought out as well, and of course, I make changes during the course of writing
as the story progresses. In addition, I also keep notes of the main events,
characters and other necessary details on a separate file, so, it won’t go
ashtray.
4.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
A – The most
beautiful thing of writing is you can put all of your imaginations into a story
that can not only become real but also helpful in some aspects of other
peoples’ life and for good or bad, it
can change their life. My story is always for good, I want people to learn and
inspire from my works and bring necessary changes in their life if possible.
5.
WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
A - You cannot
earn a decent living out of it, your life will fly away before you can become a
well-known writer and for that reason alone, most will give up on the middle of
the way.
6.
WHAT WERE YOU IN A PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?
A – I served as a
Gurkha soldier for the first 13 years after I joined them at 17, then I worked
in the manufacturing industry back in China while raising my young family, and
decided to become a fulltime writer after I turned fifty.
7.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?
A – Despite not going to university, English not being my
first language and without any proper courses or training, I somehow managed to
become probably one of the very few Nepali writers who write in English and
whose works are internationally available now.
8.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?
A – My 8th book is going to be published by
early 2016; I am applying some finishing touches onto it, and working on for my
future books now.
9.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
A – I think the world has become more materialistic, people
have become more selfish and self-centered, and nobody wants to be bothered by
other peoples’ problems. Unless it starts affecting our own lives, it is
someone else problem and that sort of mentality is making this world more
apathy and indifferent. But we mustn’t forget our responsibility towards the
global society, making our life good alone is not sufficient for me, and we
should always help the poor, needy and weak ones. That is the only reason why I
keep writing, I want to use it for goog cause so it is not wasted, and it also
makes me happy.
10.
WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?
A – As I only write on serious global and social issues, my
books are mostly a mixer of both fiction and non-fiction, and I prefer to say
they are in literary/contemporary fiction.
11.
DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW WRITERS?
A – I am a very humble and modest writer, I am not sure if
I am even qualified to give any advice, and if I really have to say, I would
say, don’t leave your daytime job yet, good luck!
12.
DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?
A – Yes, it happens to all sometime, but for me, it is
momentary and if I just go out and do other things for a while, it will be just
fine.
13.
DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?
A – No, I normally write on the afternoon at the office,
the morning rush hour is filled with checking mails and other stuffs, and I
don’t work at home and I don’t have other weird ideas of writing on the middle
of the night or at the wee hour of the morning and so on.
14.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?
A – No, I just write on my office and that is all.
15.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST JOY IN WRITING?
A – Writing is in my blood, it not only warm my heart but
also provide solace for my soul as well as help save me from insanity.
16.
WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?
A – I don’t have that many, I mostly liked the first book
of any big name writers that I have read so far, but after reading his/her 2nd
book on, the magic is somehow gone. I do like to read books from all the Nobel
Laureates though.
17.
WHAT’S THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?
A – I got quite a lot of great compliments from the reviews
of my book AFTERLIFE, I have listed them on the description of the book itself
at Amazon and some of them were pretty interesting. But it was the very first
of my article in a local paper in Hong Kong that got almost 4 k likes on its
first publication and established me as a writer in our society.
18.
WHAT WAS THE WORST COMMENT FROM A READER?
A – It was not from the reader but a fellow writer, who
without even reading my book rated my book 1 star out of envy and even
contempt, it did really upset me and I even wrote an email to him with not so
good words in it. But that was at the very beginning and now I am perfectly
fine with it.
19.
WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR
OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?
A – Oh yes, that is for sure, we do usually write from our
own experiences, events that occurred to our life definitely affect our writing
and especially writers like me who write on serious global and social issues,
it plays a great role in our writing.
20.
OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?
A – I used to love watching and playing football, the
English football type, not the American, and after I turned over fifty, I
learned the importance of living simple, and I can do without many things in
life now. So, I am just writing and running my charity for now.
21.
DID YOU HAVE YOUR BOOK / BOOKS PROFESSIONALLY EDITED BEFORE
PUBLICATION?
A – Yes, that is the most important part of publishing, I
have a long time professional editor, it costs me a lot but I don’t want to put
craps on peoples’ hand and be ridiculed. Editing doesn’t mean it is okay to
edit by our own, it doesn’t matter how many times you edit but there is a big
different between doing it by yourself and a professional. If you want to be a
decent writer, it is a must and you should never put your works out there
without editing it by a decent editor.
22.
DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY.
A – I wake up around 6:30, after washing up, I feed my
lovely cat Vanila, change water and clean the littering, water my plants,
prepare the worship place for my dear wife, eat breakfast, go to office, check
emails, work on promotions and updates of social networking sites, read news,
eat lunch, write at the afternoon, by 5pm we return home, water my plants
again, feed my cat, pray, eat dinner, watch TV and go to bed by 10-10:30pm
23.
IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD
IT BE? WHY?
A – My lovely wife, because without her I cannot simply
survive, and I am totally dependent on her. SERIOUSLY!
24.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO SPEAK TO WORLD
LEADERS?
A – Stop being hypocrite, think for the people before
yourself and the power invested to you by the people is not for quenching your
egotistical thirst.
25.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
A – I am planning to write at least 2 books in each year, I
have a campaign of helping the poor children in Nepal that will eventually
expand to the whole nation one day and until that is happening, I have to keep
trying hard.
26.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON
BOOK TRAILERS? DO THEY SELL BOOKS?
A – I haven’t made one, so, I am not in the position to say
anything, sorry!
27.
DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN ANY OF YOUR CHARACTERS?
A – As I
call myself a writer of conscience and righteousness, most of my main
characters are good people, they don’t drink or take drugs, and they always
tend to help other people and the society. Therefore, I think it is quite
natural for writer to portray their heroes as they are and I am not exception.
28.
DOES THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY FRUSTRATE YOU?
A – Yes, in some extent, they only shoot for the shining
star, people hardly give chance to the new ones, and it is very hard to be
published through so called traditional publishing. I have never tried it, I
didn’t have to as my expectation was not that high and I am not writing for
money or fame. Vanity publishing has also given itself a bad name, 80-90% of
the books on Amazon are craps, people just want to be called a published
author, and they don’t give much thought about writing good books, promoting it
properly and eventually succeeding on it.
29.
DID YOU EVER THINK OF QUITTING?
A – No, never, it is never been the case for me, thank you!
30.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE MANUSCRIPT TO WRITE? WHY?
A – OLD MEN DON’T CRY, my 7th book which going
to be published on 6 Jan 2016, was perhaps the best book I ever wrote hitherto,
it was also the book that I worked really hard and I had to do a lot of
researches as well. It is a book about Hong Kong, it is also very sad and
moving story and I wanted to write all the sad things of my life into it so
henceforth I don’t have to write such sad book again. As of that I called it my
own version of ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, and I do hope it will also turn
out that way for me as well.
31.
HOW
WOULD YOU DEFINE ‘SUCCESS’ AS A WRITER.
A – I think it is a very subjective question,
it depends on individual writers, and as far as I am concerned, a writer is
successful when he or she has managed to write a book that she liked the most,
read and accepted by at least tens of thousands of people and have substantial
number of followers on social networking site, I suppose.
32.
WHAT SHOULD READERS WALK AWAY
FROM YOUR BOOKS KNOWING? HOW SHOULD THEY FEEL?
A – It is at least a decent book, oh, I didn’t notice this
or that before and now I am going to do something about it. If this can be
achieved, I will be more than happy!
33.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR BOOKS
MADE INTO MOVIES? EVER WRITTEN A SCREENPLAY?
A
– Yes, of course, it will be a dream come true for all the writers, I used to
dream sometime about Jackie Chan playing the main part of my book OLD MEN DON’T
CRY, when I was writing it and I intentionally make the character with big nose
to just fit in there. But of course, it doesn’t matter that much now.
34.
HOW MUCH THOUGHT GOES INTO
DESIGNING A BOOK COVER?
A
– I mostly provide the synopsis of my books to the designer, the covers of my
first 6 books were made by my own children and they were perfectly matching
with the story, the other two covers were made my designers and I choose them
if I liked them at the first look. Sometime, I also discuss with my other
friends and families, and make necessary changes accordingly before the final
decision. It is quite important to have the right cover for any books and one
must choose it rightly so.
35.
WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?
A – I just want to keep on writing
until I can expand my charity campaign to entire country of Nepal and help as
many children as possible. If that can be done, I will be more than happy and
that will be all for me.
36.
WRITING IS ONE THING. WHAT ABOUT MARKETING YOU, YOUR
BOOKS AND YOUR BRAND? ANY THOUGHTS?
A – Marketing is much
harder than writing especially for writers, we are naturally a shy and
introvert people and marketing book is not easy. Especially for the new and
aspiring writer, it is extremely difficult and unless you have enough time,
money and passion, you should let the professional do the marketing for you.
Luckily for me, I already had much experiences on marketing through my previous
jobs, besides, I have time, money and passion to work on my new project and
still working really hard to set my feet on this new world. It is a very long,
slow and assiduous road, it needs patience and hardship and one must be
prepared for a very long haul.
37.
ARE YOUR BOOKS SELF-PUBLISHED?
A – Yes, I decided to
become a self-published writer, I didn’t even contact one publisher for my
books and I have already explained my reasons for that above. I only write for
my charity, my expectation is not that high and whatever I will be able to
achieve in the future, I will be more than happy with it, so, I will just do my
best and that is all.
38.
DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN FIVE WORDS.
A – Honest,
hardworking, determined, kind and conscience
39.
WHAT PISSES YOU OFF MOST?
A – People’s choice of materialistic things,
barking on the wrong tree, prioritizing on frivolity, and having a stereotyped
view on almost everything in this world.
40.
WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE LAST
BOOK YOU READ? GOOD ONE?
A – The last good book
I read was ONE YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Marques and that was quite a while ago,
thank you!
41.
WHAT
WOULD BE THE VERY LAST SENTENCE YOU’D WRITE?
A – The End! On each
and every end of my book…!
42.
WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER THAN YOU ARE NOW? CARE TO
SHARE?
A – I wish the people were more kind, equal
and reasonable. I wish the world was more nice, fair and peaceful. And I wish
there were no sickness, sadness and sorrow in this world.
43.
ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD?
A-
That would be all for now, thank you so much
and have a nice day!
Clancy's comment: Thank you, Tim. I hope you are not my first and last guest from Hong Kong. Spread the word, my friend. I love your passion.
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