I’m a molecular biologist and literature is not my profession but a passion that I take procrastinatively professionally. I don’t write fiction everyday, even if I have spare time. I have writing periods for my projects. In between, I do research, outline, plot, make music, travel, i.e. gather creative energy for my next fictional effort.
This year I’ve moved to Oxford and am now exploring its flora and architecture. Check out the photos in my Flickr albums.
No, I haven’t been idle all this time. I’m taking driving lessons now. Hide your lamp posts.
Humour aside, I’ve been working on my first non-fiction project too, a catalogue of modern Russian literature, everything that’s been written afte rthe collapse of the Soviet Union. This turned out to be quite a colossal task, but I’m making progress. It feels like I’m student again, this time in humanities.
I’m also plotting the follow-up of the Made in Bionia novel, a satirical thriller I’ve published this April. I think my major problem is at I’m not mean enough to my characters. No wonder I didn’t like the Game of Thrones books (a decade ago, I had laboured through three of them before quitting) – too much violence to my liking.
They say that one has to write everyday. But they don’t say ’work on your novel’ every day. So, I include any writing into this. Even songwriting.
My latest tune is about an alien suffering from unrequited love. And he’s about to avenge. I have electronically amended my voice on the track to make it sound creepier. The song is called Invasion.
Oh, and yes, I’ve joined a local writing group and also new translations of my books are coming up later this year. I’ll crack on with ‘writing’ writing now. Toodle pip!