It was at the age of 12 he felt the urge to write for the first time. At 14, he had written his first book. A couple of years later, his second book was released. Now, over a decade later, Kevin Missal is all set to share his latest works, Raavanputr Meghnad – Prince of Lanka and Mahayoddha Kalki: Sword of Shiva – with readers. While Raavanputr Meghnad – Prince of Lanka (Simon & Schuster) is a stand-alone book on one of the strongest warriors in Ramayana, Mahayoddha Kalki (Fingerprint) is the third book of Missal’s bestselling Kalki series which takes forward the life and times of Kalki avatar.
“Raavanputr Meghnad – Prince of Lanka is not based on the Ramayana. My focus, as well as the story arc, have been purely from the point of view of Meghnad who was the eldest son of the king of Lanka, Raavan. It is a work of fiction where some situations and scenes have been reconstructed and imagined,” shares Missal, talking about the book. Born to a Rajasthani mother and a Maharashtrian father in Amritsar, Missal grew up in Delhi and graduated from St Stephen’s College.
“I always wanted to be a writer. I did History Honours as a whim so I could write for theatre in my college. I failed miserably. They thought my writing was bad but criticism made me want to write more. Today, I am a bestselling author; it feels good to have proven my naysayers wrong,” says Missal whose next releases are Narasimha Book 2 – Hiranyakashyap and Sindbad Book 1 of The Sindbad Series. The Sindbad Series is targeted at young adults; one wonders if they at all find time to pick up mythological fiction over their busy social media commitments? “To be honest, they don’t.
Therein lies my challenge, I will try my best to market and create this book in such a way that they find it even more interesting than social media,” shares Missal who self-published The Kalki Trilogy. Ask him why he chose to do so and pat comes an honest reply, “The fear of rejection was the main reason. Also, I was angry that I had been continuously rejected for so many years. Anger plus fear led to Kalki being self-published but then it became a blockbuster.” For Missal, Rick Riordan is one author who inspires him, and is also the reason he wants to give a superhero (Kalki) to the Indian readers.
“The manner in which Rick Riordan blends the contemporary with the mythology to create an interesting tale is what I like the most about him,” says Missal, though quick to point that usually he gets drawn towards the kind of stories his father told him when he was small. The Delhi-based author says he doesn’t get flustered if his books don’t get a good review. “I am quite critical about my own writing so when I see negative reviews, I usually agree with them.
But I make sure, I don’t repeat the mistake,” he says, adding that writing is energising to begin with but gets exhausting by the time the story nears its end. To be a good storyteller, Missal says one needs to be selfless. “You need to give more when you are storytelling. You can’t be like ‘this is my art’. If you want to be a good storyteller, you need to be a good people person first, understand what audience wants and deliver it to them,” he says. And does he believe in a writer’s block? “No. It is just a fancy word for being lazy about your writing. In writing, one needs to have discipline. And those who don’t have it (discipline) blame it on writer’s block,” says Missal, with a smile.
Quick take
Fiction or non-fiction: Fiction
Favourite childhood book: Percy Jackson
Favourite childhood author: Rick Riordan
At present, I am reading…: Nothing, sadly