FEAR AND FIRE SERIES

When Valmiki was 17, he went to a university for graduation in engineering... 

 

His life was about to become a dramedy with morning classes, but little did he know it would turn out to be a supernatural thriller when he discovered his passion: storytelling! Instead of textbooks, he began devouring the likes of Wilkie Collins, Stephen King, Agatha Christie, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien (is that Tolkien or Tolkein?) and many more. He still mulls over how Stephen King described fiction as: The Truth Inside A Lie.

 

Valmiki was the only one among a batch of 600 students who didn't have the burden of finding a job placement when he graduated in 2007. Any guesses why? Because he was waiting for the release of the last installment of the Harry Potter series. He reread the series (as any sincere fan of the series would do), and waited first in line to get the hardbound. He earned a job later and in the eyes of everyone around him, and much to his own surprise, became a successful professional.

 

His life continued to be a dramedy of professional success in the day (amid office cubicles) and a fantasy thriller (rather a mystery?) in the night when he continued to work on his books. In the years between his teenage and tweenage, he married before it was too late and soon the romantic comedy between an unlikely pair became a family of fantastic four.

 

As you might have understood by now, Valmiki tends to see the world through genres. He becomes a thriller detective when he delves into inner spiritual musings (searching for that Truth Inside A Lie) and looks at his dream of becoming an author as a fantasy. The time he spends with his kids are cross-genre action-adventure-thriller-comedy moments.

 

Valmiki grew up surrounded by stories, movies, myths, plot twists, comical and sometimes persuasive villains, angry heroes, distressed damsels, magical rings, wizarding schools, lightsabers, dreams inside dreams and that big long truck tipping over. Now he spends more time discovering good books and movies rather than reading or watching them.

 

So when Valmiki was 17, he went to a university for graduation in engineering but instead became an author. And speaking of Truth Inside A Lie, Valmiki is the pen name of the author behind Fear and Fire series. The real author might be hiding in your plain sight.