Today's interview is with a Russian author - Nik Krasno, who writes novels about Russian oligarchs.
Hi Nik and welcome to Creativity@Work. Thanks for sharing your writing process with us.
1. When did you first start writing?
I started about 2.5 years ago... On the first book Rise of
an Oligarch we were working together with my friend and co-author. He was
doing most of the actual writing (2/3 or 3/4 even), while I was providing most
of the content and ideas. Towards the end, I'd gained enough confidence to
write some scenes, pieces and chapters myself... So much confidence, that the
2nd book Mortal Showdown, I'd written on my own -:)
2. What are your books about? Are you self /
traditionally published or hybrid?
Oligarch series describes the story of a fictional
Ukrainian oligarch (a tycoon with considerable political influence) from his
early childhood as a poor Soviet kid to a mighty billionaire and his showdown
with powerful enemies that are apt to destroy and assassinate him. Probably
something like Godfather Ukrainian style -:). The series also follows short but
turbulent history of a young state - Ukraine, which became independent in the
aftermath of the USSR's dissolution. The first book is more of a political
thriller mixed with historical fiction, while the second - is a hard-boiled
action thriller.
I'm
self-published, while my friend and co-author on the first book is a trad-published
author of his non-fiction books and indie on fiction with me.
3. What's your writing process like? Do you
outline? Do you write by hand / type / dictate?
I need to have an idea, a basic story to try to write it.
Yes, I outline, but then again it happened quite a few times when new ideas,
scenes events popped-up in the course of writing and generally I'm not that
meticulous about following the initial layout. I type my work on the computer
and send it by e-mail to myself pretty frequently, to have this additional
option for recovery, if the computer fails...
4. What's your editing process?
As I'm not a native English-speaker, so I'm hiring editors
and do at least a couple of iterations before the book goes live. And even
then, sometimes I discover some typos afterwards.
5. Who or what inspires you? Where / how do
you get your book ideas?
The real life events, I guess. Who would ever think that
Russians and Ukrainians would turn weapons on each other? No one, never, not
even in a nightmare. Yet it happens.
For many years I had been sharing my time between family
in Israel and business mostly in former Soviet republics, virtually living on
the plane between Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Witnessing the meteoric rise of a small number of
individuals from modest citizens to mighty billionaires, I felt I could create
an interesting and revealing story based on the Wild West enrichment scenario.
In the fictional plot of Oligarch series I combine real and imaginary events
with some 'lawyers' folklore' and known corruption and criminal schemes
customary for Ukraine and other former USSR republics. I also give some
fictional interpretation of the glorious and simultaneously tragic events of 2013
uprising in Ukraine resulting in ousting of the president, ensuing Russian
aggression in Crimea and tensions and war in the Eastern regions of Ukraine.
The imaginary characters are designed to reflect a real behavior and mentality
and provide decent entertainment for the readers.
I watched with interest movies based on Bill Gates' and
Mark Zuckerberg's biographies describing their path to wealth and glory.
Although they were truly amazing, in my personal opinion the rise of their
Eastern billionaire peers is just a little more thrilling and unorthodox.
6. When in the day do you usually write? For
how long?
I'm self-employed, so it makes it a bit easier to combine
my writing with other stuff and to allocate sufficient time to writing in
between work and other tasks. When writing a book I tend to have between 1 and
2K written words daily, although the writing may be spread unevenly along the
day.
7. Do you now, or did you ever have any day
jobs? Did they add to or detract from your writing?
Sure, my writing causes more spending than income, since as
an indie I need to invest in editing and cover design, while I didn't see these
expenses return, so I continue with my legal practice as an independent legal
practitioner and hope that one day I won't view writing as an expensive hobby
-:) My practice as a commercial lawyer saves me a lot of research since my work
gives me access to intricacies of various fields and industries, sometimes from
a negative aspect of problems, set-ups and frauds, which fictional analogues I
can use in my thriller stories.
8. How much research do you do? What kind?
If I write about things, places, notions or other stuff I
don't have my own knowledge and they are not purely imaginative, I read
available info in the public domain, because I certainly do not want to write
something ludicrous, when I don't mean it. On the other hand, I try to stick in
my writing to the themes I do have some knowledge about, so I would need to
supplement it rather than learn anew.
9. How much marketing do you do? Which platforms are you most active
on?
My marketing is low-key really. I haven't done any paid
marketing yet, but I might try it someday. I haunt Goodreads pretty much, try
to get some interest and reviews from bloggers, do the interviews, when
opportunities arise. I'm mostly on Goodreads, where I participate frequently in
debates and other communications and where I try to develop and make
interesting a group that I've founded - 'Enrichment, Tycoons and Oligarchs'.
10. What project are you working on now?
I'm at the pre-publication
stage with the third installment, which should conclude Oligarch series, at
least for the time being, and it has a little surprise in it.
Michael tops Forbes billionaire's list only
to find out that those, who really dominate the global economy, rule illicitly
and stay away from the public eye. He needs to confront the ancient cabal in
order to survive and to save his country...
For good or bad, it should
be a transgressive, radical, uncompromising, grotesque, action-packed and
philosophical read.
Bio:
Nik Krasno is one of those writers
who never thought he would end up authoring a book. He just knew that he had a
story that apparently waited for the right moment to break out.
Nik Krasno is one of those writers
who never thought he would end up authoring a book. He just knew that he had a
story that apparently waited for the right moment to break out.
Krasno was born in Kiev, USSR
(Ukraine). Seeing the enormous Soviet Empire crumbling around him as a
teenager, Nik immigrated to Israel, where he became a lawyer and after the Big
Bang of the USSR returned to already independent Ukraine as an Israeli citizen. For many years Nik had been sharing
his time between family in Israel and work and business mostly in former Soviet
republics, virtually living on the plane between Middle East and Eastern
Europe.
Witnessing the meteoric rise of a
small number of individuals from modest citizens to mighty billionaires, Nik
felt compelled to expose to the world the unique phenomenon taking place in
this less familiar part of the globe. In the fictional plot of his Oligarch
series he combines real and imaginary events with some 'lawyers' folklore' and
known corruption and criminal schemes customary for Ukraine and other former
USSR republics. The author also shares some insight into the glorious and
simultaneously tragic events of 2013 uprising in Ukraine resulting in ousting
of the president, ensuing Russian aggression in Crimea and tensions and war in
the Eastern regions of Ukraine. The imaginary characters are designed to
reflect real behavior and mentality and provide decent entertainment for the
readers.
Remember movies based on Bill
Gates' and Mark Zuckerberg's biographies describing their path to wealth and
glory? Although they were truly amazing, Nik thinks the rise of their eastern
billionaire peers is just a little more thrilling and unorthodox.
Besides writing the series, Nik
currently resides and works as an independent legal practitioner in Israel.
Most Recent Novel: Mortal Showdown
Mortal Showdown is an action
packed thriller sending the reader on a kaleidoscopic race through violence,
sex, scamming and anti-scamming, political upheaval and murder.
Michael (Misha) – a Ukrainian oligarch who was rapidly climbing the Forbes rich
list, wakes from a coma caused by an assassination attempt and realizes that
he's in the thick of a multilayered attack on him and his business empire.
Making things even worse - among his numerous adversaries is one of Russia’s
most influential strongmen. From rich and powerful, Michael very quickly
becomes a fugitive, struggling for survival. Counting on his wits and a handful
of loyal associates, he searches for a way to even the score with each of his
adversaries and to save his country from the Russian bear’s grasp.
In order to have the slightest chance in a face-off with his prime nemesis, Michael needs to attack head on, undertaking the greatest risk of his entire life. Unfortunately, the dangerous mission goes wrong from the very beginning...
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