In Conversation with Sambit Daspatnaik

 

Sambit Daspatnaik is a brilliant and multitalented writer. He loves writing science fictions. His interests are in aliens, historical fantasy, and space travel. He draws inspiration in writing from different experiences and thoughts. He has received multiple awards in his field. He loves to paint and sketch. He never loses an opportunity to capture beautiful moments of daily life through photography. He is a software professional residing in Hyderabad, India. Let us know more about him in this interview. 

1. Hello Sambit, how do you define yourself to our readers? Which profession are you working in?

A: Firstly, I would like to thank Koala Kraft for giving me this opportunity to interact with such a large audience. I am a science fiction author. My debut book is ‘The Last War & Other Stories’. The Last War is a science fiction story in the backdrop of Ancient Bharat which is scientifically and spiritually advanced. While the rest of the stories are around futuristic space travels and extra-terrestrials in remote alien planets. Apart from writing, I love to do art work and photography.

I am a software professional with expertise in managing IT software projects.

2. When did you start writing? What was your writing experience?

A: I have been writing since childhood. My first story was a thriller fiction that was appreciated by my family and friends. I was inspired by science and art both, and I started writing short science fiction stories. It was during my professional career phase, when I penned few stories in the sci-fi genre from time to time that I collectively published in my debut book ‘The Last War & Other Stories’.

3. What motivated you in writing? How do you source ideas for your writing? What does success mean to you?

A: Since childhood, I was inspired by science fiction novels, TV series and movies. Many of the scientific gadgets and progress we see today was shown as part of these science fiction rendering decades ago. That really fascinates me and I have been researching on scientific pursuits of the past as well as the possibilities of the future. This has motivated me to write based on the theme of phenomenal possibilities. 

My science fiction stories and characters stem from the real-life experiences and situations of people around us that I attempt to glorify in the fantasy world. My readers love this experience penned by me using simple words and diction. This gives me immense satisfaction and means success to me in the true essence in my writing sphere.

In general, success to me is about reaching satisfaction in all the stuff that I really love to do.

4. What do you enjoy the most about writing? What do you do apart from writing? What was the most challenging task in your writing career?

A: The most beautiful part that I love in my writing is to express a fantasy filled world of dreams and possibilities in the sci-fi genre that my readers love and appreciate me for. However, to achieve this, there is a lot of research that goes in terms of collecting facts of our ancient civilizations as well as future possibilities. For instance, in my story ‘The Last War’, I had to research on both our ancient Bharat culture as well as the Mayan civilization. And I found so many similarities, that I could not help but include them as part of my story rendering. The research work and the writing blocks that arise out of it, I believe are the challenging aspects for which I need to juggle my time a lot between my profession as well as my passion.

Apart from writing, I love to do art work and photography. I love painting using water colors and oil pastels, and experiment with new art forms from time to time such as Glass Painting, Coffee painting, Tanjore art to name a few. I usually carry a camera or my mobile to capture moments during my travel.

5. How do you find time to write and are you doing something as of now? What is your strength? What suggestion will you give to aspiring writers?

A: With profession and so many hobbies, it does get difficult to take out time for writing. This is where effective time management helps. Currently, I am writing short sci-fi stories. Some of them have been published in anthologies or in story features as part of magazines. My readers loved my simple style of writing for such complex subject such as science fiction and that I believe has always been my strength. And that is exactly my suggestion for aspiring writers as well. Write short sentences. Use simple words and the right grammar. Do not over use the words for the sake of using. Ensure the words and sentences justify the essence of your idea.

6. Kindly attach the link of your book so that readers can get a grasp on these beautiful reads.

A: Here are the links to my work:

‘The Last War & Other Stories’ : The Last War: & Other Stories eBook : Daspatnaik, Sambit: Amazon.in: Kindle Store

Poetry Anthology: ‘The Ancient Aliens’ poetry: Soul Hymns: A Bouquet of Poems eBook : Official, The Creative Circle, Paralikar, Nidhi , Mitra, Niladri Shekhar : Amazon.in: Kindle Store

Story Features in Authoropod Magazine: 

The Herbal Chai: Authoropod magazine – Jan 2023 edition: Authoropod-Magazine/Podcasts

End Game: Authoropod Magazine – Oct 2022 edition: Authoropod-Magazine/Podcasts

You can also read few short stories and interesting writeups on my website blog: Blog (authorsambit.com)

7. Is there any message you want to share with our readers?

A: It has been a pleasure to interact and receive feedbacks from my readers from time to time. Some of the feedbacks are so interesting, when my readers request to write on certain topics or even story plots. And I have started working on some of them already. The readers group are so well read and versed with the literature field. 

I also have encountered few who haven’t read much only because they encountered a particular book that they did not find interesting. To them, I would say that you haven’t yet found the right book for yourself so never stop reading and continue to explore the unexplored.