Today, Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Karim Khan who goes under the pen name of Ernest Dempsey.

Ernest is from Pakistan and is a research associate in Geology. He is the founding member of World Audience Inc and is the author of three books, The Biting Edge, Island of Illusions and Blue Fairy and Other Stories. In addition, Karim is a reviewer for Bookpleasures.com and other sites.

Good day Ernest and thanks for participating in our interview.

 Ernest:

Thank you Norm!

Norm:

Ernest, does your writing career ever conflict with your career as a scientist?

Ernest:

Certainly it does and I must admit that my passion for literature has long taken over my enthusiasm for scientific study and research. While I have long been passionate all along about creative writing, I took to scholarly readings in science during the final 2 years of my graduation in geology. But since then, literary fiction, poetry, drama, and essays have been my most cherished readings. Also, the lack of research facilities and adequate environment for scientific study in my part of the world has distracted me from delving deeper into science. Writing literature on the other hand is not demanding in the sense that it leaves you free to create anything without budging from your bed. To me, writing is luxury and I enjoy it better than anything else.    

Norm:

What do you think over the years has driven you as a writer? What's the most difficult thing for you about being a writer?

Ernest:

Writing has been a part of my self ever since I was a child. I was a lonesome kid and writing as been my best friend, besides my younger brother Shais who too is my crony. Penning down my ideas on paper in a lonely corner, on the roof of our old house, or out in the fields, used to give me a thrill beyond description.

In times of any emotional turmoil, I found writing as the sole soother of my angst. So there was no question of parting with it. The most challenging thing that I have faced as a writer is lack of confidence in attempting to win social approval of my writing. In my hometown, and in our country at large, creative writing has never been thought of as a desirable activity because it doesn’t have any employment prospect. I stuck to my hobby doggedly despite the lack of the least encouragement from my society.

 Now, at this stage of my career, the thing that troubles me most about writing is my inability to find ample time to develop my innumerable ideas in to written works. I have to do a daytime job as a research associate and cannot find the privacy and freedom to fulfill my dream of becoming a prolific writer, especially a novelist.  

Norm:

Could you briefly tell our readers something about The Biting Edge, Island of Illusions and Blue Fairy and Other Stories?

Ernest:

The Biting Age is my first book, a collection of humorous/satirical stories, published last year in New York by the World Audience Inc. There are some 24 short stories in the book, all having a ‘biting’ quality both in plot and tone. Islands of Illusion is my second book. It is a poetry book, recently published in New York by the same press.

The poems in the book vary in their subject matter but nearly all of them are tied to the main themes of ‘freedom’ and ‘uncertainty of thought’. Hence the name Islands of illusion. The Blue Fairy and Other Stories is a book of my short stories treating the theme of ‘death’. Several of these stories are based on real life situations of death that I personally experienced among my family, friends, or the people in my surroundings. This book is in the process of publication and is expected to come out in a couple of months.         

Norm:

What is World Audience Inc all about? How did it get started?

Ernest:

World Audience Inc. is a publishing company in New York that was started by Mike Stefan Strozier and it quickly developed into a publishing platform for writers of quality literature. I became a part of the company as a regular writer and reviewer soon after it started in 2006. We have grown since then and produced over 60 titles in various literary forms like poetry, essays, fiction, drama, biography, and short fiction. Recently, I have been appointed as the president of the company while Mike continues in his role as the CEO.

We publish two quarterly journals and are growing rapidly. Information about our company, its books and journals, and other details are available online at www.worldaudience.org.     

Norm:

What do you think of the new Internet market for writers?

Ernest:

The Internet has revolutionized the writing world in a whole radical manner. By eliminating the regional distances, it has opened the gateway of publishing for all writers. There was a time when I could not even think of submitting to a publisher in America due to the postage required for submitting, let alone the impossibility of getting information about publishers in the US or even many of them in my own country. But the Internet has arrived as a magical solution to the problems of barriers.

Global writing communities have formed online and writers are only a few clicks away from getting their voice out into the interconnected community of writers and publishers. At the same time, freelance writing opportunities available online have made it possible for any talented writer to earn a living or supplement his regular income while staying at home or just connecting to the Internet from any corner of the planet. I believe that writers in general have found a truly amazing medium in the form of the Internet.       

Norm:

What has been your overall experience as a published author?

Ernest:

I have realized that publishing is more than just getting your name into a printed page or archived on a website. By sharing my writing with the world, with people, I have invited a look into my views on matters that I have written about and see how they look at things in the light of their understanding. At the same time, by publishing every single page or any item, I send out a message to come together through the written word, and make a difference in our own life and that of other people. When you are writing, you actualize your potential of creating thoughts; publishing your work offers everyone to use your thoughts for getting meaning from it and return in the same useful way.  

Norm:

As you are also a poet, what makes poetry come alive in a classroom? How can teachers foster a love of poetry, rather than a fear of it, in their students?

Ernest:

Since I live in a society where English is not the native language, teaching poetry in English is excessively hard to students who are complete strangers to the characteristic rhythm of English verse. Translating the verse while maintaining the rhythm is a really arduous job and that is why my experience of teaching poetry to students has been a very tough one. But I think the situation will be different in a place where English is the mother tongue of students.

The musical quality of poetry can make it an attraction for students who find it different or unique from ordinary conversation. One thing is especially important while teaching in classroom and it pertains more to teaching poetry: the ability to convey corresponding expressions as the text demands them. In a classroom, students are looking at you; not just listening to what you say but actually looking at you. If the teacher continues to read in an indifferent, neutral, and disinterested tone, most of the students are likely to find his words forced and routine stuff. But if you put on facial expressions corresponding to what you are saying, make gestures that reinforce the message or scene of the verse, and impart the feeling that your students are your audience; their attention tends to zoom in on you. A good poetry teacher, in my view, is a good actor who knows how to engage his audience.          

Norm:

Do you feel that writers, regardless of genre owe something to readers, if not, why not, if so, why and what would that be?

Ernest:

Well Norm, this is a fairly complex question, demanding a good deal of discussion. To cut it short, I’ll say that the answer can be both ‘yes’ and ‘no’, depending on the level of the writer’s thought. On one level of thinking, I consider that I owe my readers nothing when I am in the process of creating. I stand in my own shoes, letting my mind free to conceive a point and express it to myself in the way that comes best to my artistic spirit.

Here, the reader is nowhere in the scene, or if he/she is, then just confined to a dark corner. But soon as I think of sharing my writing with an audience, I shift places to a second level of thought where my writing is no more my sole property (except in copyright); it is a shared medium of meaning in which the writer has to make his creation as meaningful and beneficial to the reader as possible. So professional writers always owe their readers the duty of creating useful material that is at once educating and entertaining. In such a case, a piece of writing must be positively educational and altruistic in its aim.

Personally, I would go against the kind of persuasive writing that coaxes the reader into putting off the critical faculty of their mind and following a general mania. As published writer, I feel I owe my readers the responsibility of evoking their critical thinking. It is the best thing a writer can do.         

Norm:

What are you upcoming projects?

Ernest:

 I am completing my next book Dump Your Problems, a collection of humorous/satirical tidbits. My first novel From the Word is in progress, about half of it done so far. More recently, I have started working on a book idea that discusses the philosophy of human problems. And there is a long list of ideas, waiting their turn to loom into fully developed works.    

Norm:

How can our readers find out more about you?

Ernest:

My bio and works are available online at www.worldaudience.org. My reviews of some English classics are there at http://classiclit.about.com/od/reviewers/a/aa_edempsey.htm. My book reviews are already part of Book Pleasures and are also added to my blog site www.bookreviewpot.blogspot.com. Recently, I have started a parenting website at www.caringparent.org.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Ernest: Just that my poem Don’t You Dare Tread has recently won the Editor’s Choice Award at www.poetry.com and I am being nominated for the Pushcart prize by my press.   

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Ernest: Thank you Norm!

The above interview was conducted by: Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.

Norm is also a travel writer and together with his artist wife, Lily, the couple meld Norm's words with Lily's art. To check out their travel site click on Sketchandtravel.com   Click here to view Norm’s Reviews & Interviews.

To Purchase From Amazon The Biting Edge Click Here

To Purchase From Amazon Islands of Illusion Click Here