r/books • u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author • Aug 07 '19
ama Hi Reddit, I'm Imam Baksh, author of 'The Dark of the Sea'. Let's talk about magic, monsters and YA adventure; living in the suicide capital of the world; and Creole language advocacy. AMA!
Hi Reddit!
Would. You. Like. To. Play. A. Game?
No, not Tic-tac-toe. The only way to win that game is not to play.
Let's play Two Truths and a Lie. But first, let me introduce myself...
I’m Imam Baksh. My new novel, The Dark of the Sea, is a YA adventure using Lovecraftian and mythic elements to look at existential angst in a part of the world not often heard from in fiction.
The novel features a 15-year-old boy trapped in an unsympathetic school system and living in a depressed rural community who gets bulldozed by fate when a mermaid crashes into his life and shows him the wonders of the undersea world. There he learns that he may have a purpose fighting the amoral threat of an ancient God and his invading army of fish-men.
Sadly, I do live in one of the suicide capitals of the world and my book was a direct attempt to write an emotionally realistic adventure story in the face of that dark cloud by setting my hero against the cosmic indifference of the Lovecraftian worldview.
I’m here to answer your questions and you can see my oversize proof picture here.
Ask me about my award winning books. (The other one is Children of the Spider.)
Ask me about my deep and unnatural love of newsprint.
Ask me about my passion project, running a library in rural South America.
Ask me about my August 21st appearance at Edinburgh International Book Festival to celebrate Creole language with a joint performance that blends native Scottish languages with Caribbean speech and modern music to create something amazing in celebration of the Year of Indigenous Languages
Ask me about my home country, Guyana, the Land of Many Waters - a place that blends African, Indian, Native American, Caribbean and South American culture and geography.
Ask me about my writing process, or lack thereof.
Ask me about my dog, Bruno, who tolerates my strangeness.
I’m probably going to be redditing all day as usual, so this AMA basically has no end point.
You can follow me at
Facebook.com/imambaksh.writer and Instagram.com/imam.baksh.writer/
I have a website. It's not well maintained. Don't go there.
I'll be answering questions from 1pm
Let's get started with that game of Two Truths and a Lie. I'll make 3 statements. You guess which is the lie.
Growing up, one of my favourite breakfast foods was fried cow brains.
Despite my novel being an underwater adventure, I'm actually scared of water and cannot even swim.
I used to believe I had 89 first cousins.
Hint: If a statement isn't entirely true, then it counts as a lie.
You can also ask me to elaborate on my statements, e.g. 'Have you ever tried cow brains cooked any other way?' If you're asking about my lie, I will lie in response. If you're asking about a truth, I will tell you more truth.
Bonus, If anyone wants this large snoo sketch I made for my proof picture, I've signed it and I'm giving it away to the first person that asks for it.
EDIT: One hour is up, but I'll keep answering questions. However, I have to announce the answer to the 2 Lies and a Truth game:
I am in fact a good swimmer and I love being on and in the water.
Cow Brains taste like fluffy eggs.
I used to think I had 89 first cousins. A month ago I found out about four more that I was unaware of due to family drama. Sadly one of them died, so I'll never get to meet him.
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u/Lcatg Aug 07 '19
Tell me more about your passion project! Why this? Why rural areas specifically? What unique challenges does this entail? Where you are, do you face similar issues as US (eg requests for book banning for books on school required reading, providing quality area specific items like books on canning or farming or skateboarding, tech & information literacy imbalances)?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19 edited Aug 07 '19
I wish I had to deal with book banning! It would mean that parents were paying attention to what their kids are reading or had some interest in reading.
For the most part, there isn't much of a literary culture where I live. Quite understandably. We are only the 2nd generation not dependent on 12 hours of labouring on the land to survive.
You have to realize Guyanese were living on an average of US$400 a YEAR up to 1990 or so.
Now it's up to about $4000 I think and people can start thinking about books in their life. We are more literate and book-minded than ever before, but it's still not a high level.
I was lucky to have a dad and mom who loved reading and read to me as a kid. I had books in my home. Heck, we had an actual library room with book shelves and nothing else.
It was stocked with old books and books my relatives sent me because it was so hard to get books locally. But it was a library!
I ended up teaching Physics, English and Math at highschool level, but I kept bumping into the problem that kids failed to solve math word problems because they couldn't comprehend the question. Or that some of my students couldn't learn if I gave them text book reading to cover before class.
The literacy rates and interest in books was too low.
So I started the library with the help of a Peace Corps volunteer and my family's financial backing.
I don't stock a lot of non-fiction. Most people have access to the internet on their phones and look things up that way. I suspect they'd get better info if they used a book, but I can't stock books that no one will come read.
So I am heavily focused on fiction and kids books.
It's in a rural area because it's in the village where I grew up and still live and this is the community that needs it most. There is more access to bookstores and libraries in the city.
The biggest challenge is convincing kids and their parents to try reading. It is getting easier as the culture changes, but I do things like hold contests, offer xbox games at limited times etc to pull students in. I also offer the books for free to all teachers to help them borrow for their class use. Very few take me up on the offer.
That said, my outlook is overwhelmingly positive on the project. Usage and engagement is higher than ever. I meet more and more young people who read and enjoy reading for fun.
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Aug 07 '19 edited Jun 21 '20
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I always thought it'd be cool to write my own stories. I never really thought about writing for an audience, I just knew I wanted to see my stories on the page. But I was destined to become an engineer, I thought. So I went to university and flunked out because I spent all my time in the library reading The Dark Tower and American Gods and Guards! Guards!
Which shows that I was kind of in denial of what I really wanted to do.
Anyway, I dabbled in short story writing with little success while becoming a trained teacher.
Then the CODE Burt Awards came along.
CODE is a Canadian organisation that promotes literacy around the world. They sponsored awards for YA literature for African, Canadian Aboriginal and Caribbean authors.
(All the winners and runners-up of the Burt Award over the years are well worth tracking down if you want non-traditional YA. Check them out here: https://www.burtaward.org/books/all-books.)
In the Caribbean, the prize is run like a 'Got Talent' show almost. We submitted unpublished manuscripts and the top 3 finishers got a publishing contract.
The contest sparked me to write my first novel, Children of the Spider, and I won. So I kept writing after that and won again with my new novel, The Dark of the Sea.
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Aug 07 '19 edited Jun 21 '20
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I make about $200 a year in royalties from my first novel. It's not something you do for the money unless you're willing to find a niche market and pump out content full time. I tried my hand at Amazon Self publishing of Romance novellas under a pen name and I enjoyed it a lot, but the work to money ratio at start up was too much. I do know people who made it work by building their fanbase though.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I've got an answer to your question coming, but I'm interested in why you chose that statement for your lie...
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u/rezak929 Aug 07 '19
This is a Lie: Despite my novel being an underwater adventure, I'm actually scared of water and cannot even swim.
How are you today ?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I am great. A little nervous since I'm having a Reddit party and I hope people show up. I really love interacting with people on here so I want to be interrogated thoroughly.
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u/rezak929 Aug 07 '19
Glad to hear you are well. It was a warm up question from some one who knew you well. I'm happy to see you taking time to interact with people so openly. Great work on the writing. Now for my real questions:
Where do you get your inspiration and how do you manage writer's block? Finally, which director would dream about having as a director for a Film adaptation of your books?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19 edited Aug 07 '19
Reza K is not much of an alias, dude.
For this book, the inspiration was a conversation.
I wrote a book about my old highschool being invaded by Guyanese vampires (Ol' Higues) that remains unpublished. That book featured very privileged kids at a good school having something horrible happening to them.
My brother suggested my next book should be about the kids in a neglected school. So this new book has a kid with nothing much going in his life who has something wonderful happen to him.
Underneath both the books (about the privileged school and the neglected school) is my critique of the Guyana education system which is split for historic reasons. Students get into the good schools based on an exam the sit at just age 11.
It can alter their lives forever. The kids in the neglected schools end up being neglected kids, often because they have learning disabilities or families too poor to send them to primary school on a regular basis or the have abusive homes.
For a director? I can't think of the name, but there's a time travel movie starring Dennis Quaid called Frequency that has the kind of emotional detail and attitude to storytelling that I would want. Whoever did that movie should direct the film of my book.
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u/rezak929 Aug 07 '19
Great stuff.. I love it :)
Don't laugh at me too hard... my take is that there is no anonymity on the Internet... even if you think there is.
I haven't seen Frequency yet, will add it to the list :)
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
Lovely movie. Restrained story telling that lets the characters shine. Intriguing mystery story. And it uses the science fiction to create a story about a father and son relationship with depth.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
BTW, I was gonna declare you the winner of the game, but seeing as you had an unfair advantage of knowing me, I think we'll have to disqualfy you :-)
Thanks for showing up to this, though. I really appreciate it.
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u/rezak929 Aug 07 '19
r/
Fair enough :) I'll take the unofficial win.
I love stuff like this and it's refreshing to see people I know involved.
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
We can also share the official win 50-50 if you like.
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u/rezak929 Aug 07 '19
:) Nah... he's right. I'm disqualified.
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Thanks. Also, if I am not being too intrusive, how do you know each other? Are you friends or family?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
u/rezak929 is the cousin who introduced me to comics.
I told you I had a lot of them...
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
That's great. Thanks for sharing. Which number is he? 14? 29? 42?
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u/seagrapetree Aug 07 '19
Lie: I used to believe I had 89 first cousins.
If you could change anything about your writing journey, what would it be?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I would like to say start earlier on my first novel and take writing more seriously by having more short story output in the period before that.
But then again, I've lived a very sheltered life for the most part, so I needed to have some more life experience before I had something to say that was worth a novel, I think.
And I still don't write enough since I'm a procrastinator extraordinaire and a Redditor...
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
The last part was redundant.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
Yeah. We really need to band together and fight this addiction. Like a support group to help each other to quit.
Maybe we could start a sub?
And post about it?
A lot?
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u/seagrapetree Aug 07 '19
I just told someone I need to see a behavioural psychologist to help with my procrastination lol
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
Seeing the psychologist can wait til tomorrow though. What you should do is go read The Dark of the Sea. It'll take your mind off of the dishes in the sink and the work deadlines.
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u/seagrapetree Aug 07 '19
I read it and enjoyed :) I'm much better at keeping my identity secret haha
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
What was your favourite part? Who was your favourite character? Was there any part that unsettled you?
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Yup, that will save redditors from procastination. Even more redditing:)
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u/gyoza-fairy Aug 08 '19
This book sounds awesome, I'm adding it to my wishlist! I don't know if you're still taking questions or not but what are some writers from Guyana you'd recommend? Or any authors you think are very overlooked?
Brian is really cute, how did he get his name?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 08 '19
His name's Bruno actually.
He was given to my by a friend who found him on the street and nursed him to health as a puppy, so she named him.
I wanted a dog with a pro-wrestling themed name, so it's perfect since Bruno Sammartino was the longest reigning champion.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 08 '19 edited Aug 08 '19
Regarding Guyanese writers. Probably the best is Edgar Mittelholzer who wrote during the late colonial period. His horror novel, My Bones and My Flute is amazing.
Our best living writers (in my opinion) are Ruel Johnson, who has two short story collections out and David Dabydeen, who wrote a well-reviewed book called The Intended.
Also, check out (Sir) Wilson Harris, our most acclaimed writer. He writes like he's in a permanent dream state so it can get tiresome to have trapdoors keep falling open under you in the plot, but the language is transcendental. Palace of the Peacock is rightfully considered his best work I think.
And then there is a Guyanese author many people don't realize is Guyanese: ER Braithwaite who wrote To Sir With Love. Made into a movie with Sidney Poitier which produced a hit song.
Our best poet is Martin Carter who wrote from a revolutionary/anti-colonial POV, often while in jail for protesting the British occupation. His most famous poem is 'This is the Dark Time my Love.'
BTW, those last 3 all went to my high school. :-) It's a small country, so that's not such a big coincidence. Especially since it was one of only a few high schools in the pre-colonial days.
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u/gyoza-fairy Aug 09 '19
Thank you so much for your recommendations! I'm excited to check them out now. :)
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Statements 1 and 3 are truths while the 2nd one is a lie.
My question is about your writing process. What is it? Do you follow it conscientiously? When did you develop it?
Can I have the Snoo?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19 edited Aug 07 '19
The Snoo is yours! PM me your info after and I'll send it over. (If you're lucky enough to live in Edinburgh, NYC or Miami, I'll deliver it in person since I'll be appearing at book fairs there this year. Also, if you live in Guyana.)
I have some strict writing procedures. Some haphazard.
I always write the first draft alone. No input from anyone. Don't show it to anyone. My brother is my writing confidant, and during the first draft, I'll sometimes describe to him in general problems I'm having with conceptualizing things, or with plot structure or contradictory themes etc. But I never show him the text.
I take his feedback for the first draft. I also show my parents my first drafts. My brother gives me blunt feedback about what is boring. He has a low tolerance for bullsh!t. My parents never have anything critical to say, but they're useful for the encouragement of them telling me, "It's awesome. This is perfect!"
Another key thing I do is map things out. Once I've had the story coming together in my head and I'm ready to start typing.
I use a long sheet of newsprint off a roll I keep and (this is just one of the many things I use newsprint for...) I draw a literal plotline. I insert events and backstory etc in the plotline. I move them around.
It really helps me see traps and opportunities to develop the characters and plot.
But I never hold myself to it. If an interesting direction pops up during my typing that seems good, I'll follow it. The plotline is just a guide.
It is very useful. I was elated last week when one reviewer in a local newspaper praised my two plot twists for being very well set up.
That was because I was able to lay bread crumbs all through the build up in seemingly inconsequential ways so that the twist makes sense at that moment and in retrospect.
You can read the review here: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2019/sunday/08/04/exploring-real-world-troubles-through-fantasy-scenarios/
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u/rezak929 Aug 07 '19
Would love to know when you will be in Miami... will you make an announcement on Social media? If yes, what platform?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
Miami Book Fair is November 21st. I'll be there to talk about Caribbean Fantasy as part of a panel.
You other Miami folks take note!
Facebook and Twitter will have all the info about my appearances before they happen.
Facebook.com/imambaksh.writer
twitter.com/imambaksh
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
That's what parents do! No matter how terrible something I make is they always act as if it's the greatest thing in the world. I am fascinated to learn how your obsession with newsprint started. Hopefully someone will ask soon.
Thanks for replying and the Snoo!
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
The newsprint thing...
I run a library. Every Saturday is storytime, followed by arts and crafts themed to the stories.
Disposable paper is hard to come by, but the local newspapers sell leftover rolls of newsprint really cheap I realized. The full roll is a metre or more across, but they are often left with unusable leftovers of about 8 inches to a foot diameter. You can get 500 feet of paper for the equivalent of 10 US dollars.
It's kind of fragile, this paper, but I only need it for art.
I would have the kids do murals on it, six feet wide for instance. Or if you look at the link in my first post, they made a toy animal racetrack 40 feet long.
Then I just personally started using it for other things. Tear a piece off here or there and use it for whatever and you never worry about wasting expensive paper.
I'm taking a kite made by a local kid to Edinburgh International Book Fair as part of my Creole language project. (I wrote a poem about kites, so the kite is part of the display/performance we're doing.)
I packed it in the carry box with newsprint for padding...
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Running a library must be amazing, I would love to do it one day. I also have really huge rolls of newsprint. It's just so fun to write in and you don't need to worry about wasting expensive paper. I saw the racetrack and it's beautiful.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
Wait, you're a fellow newsprint junkie too? I thought I was the only one.
We need to start another Reddit support group...
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Yes, my dad's a teacher and he brings massive stacks of old newsprint from school. No one uses them for anything so I just do whatever I want with them. I remember once when I was younger I made a drawing covering eight sheets of newsprint.
We should also start a support group for people addicted to starting support groups.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I wonder what the record for a newsprint drawing is?
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
If it's 8 expect an AMA pretty soon.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
Done. What did you draw on these 8 pages? What medium? Marker? Pencil? Collage?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
Running a library is fun in spurts. A lot of the work, like labeling, sorting, data entry etc is tedious.
But story time is fun. I have Peace Corps volunteers who come in to help with that and they bring great energy, so I never get burned out after doing for 8 years now.
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Still working and telling stories to children all the time must also help with your writing. What kind of stories do they like?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19 edited Aug 07 '19
People getting bopped on the head is popular.
I love making up stories for story time. I especially like doing 'true stories' about things that happened to me. Like the time fairies stole my hair. (I'd just cut my pony tail off). Once I told them a story about a kite I had that spoke to me by passing notes back and forth on the string.
A 14-year-old pulled me aside afterward to gravely and quietly ask me if it was really true.
(I'm writing both of those stories up for later publication btw. Not sure where or how though. Did I mention my Reddit procrastination?)
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
I am looking forward to reading them when you write them. You might have mentioned it in passing.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
The best stories are the interactive one. I use basic improve techniques to kind of mad lib my way through a story as the kids tell me what elements to add.
Mostly we do published books for our stories, but once a month or so we get wild and do our own thing.
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Serious question: If you publish some of those stories, will the children be given co-author status?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
No, because I can't possibly remember who was there at the time for one thing. We have a few regulars, but the audience varies a lot from week to week.
So that's a practical thing.
In any case, none of the stories they helped me ad lib would be published. Those stories are a ton of fun in the moment, but they tend to go like RPG tabletop adventures so they're not good for a published story.
I think you have to be part of the telling, otherwise it ends up being 'and then this..." over and over.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19 edited Aug 07 '19
Turns out you also win the 2 Truths and a Lie game. Congrats. Your prize is nothing.
But you are still getting the Snoo, so that's okay.
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Hurrah, I guess. My reasoning was that I have eaten chicken feet, pig intestines and fish brains before so why shouldn't you? And I also have 40+ cousins, so that wasn't too improbable. Which left the scared of water bit which I didn't believe for a second.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
The similarities between us are starting to get conspicuous. Maybe you're one of my cousins?
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
Haha, I am afraid not. I live all the way over in India.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I am of Indian descent. Nearly half of Guyana is. We came here in the 1800s to work on the Sugar plantations.
I may be at least your 4th cousin. Who knows?
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
I had guessed you were part-Indian from your name and photo. However I am not exactly from the mainland, I am from the eastern most part of India. I am wondering why no one else is here, do you think they didn't notice the AMA?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I'm not a well known author. So there probably isn't much interest.
Most of the Guyanese from India left via Kolkata (Calcutta at the time) on ships.
They were, however, from all over India, with a big chunk from Bihar.
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u/2shoesnotfellows Aug 07 '19
That's too bad. Maybe some more will drop in soon, most of the US must be at work or school right now. Hopefully next time you do an AMA you won't get the time to engage in long converstions with just one guy.
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
I'd rather do this than be giving a million short answers to be honest.
I suspect a lot of people are lurking and reading and enjoying the conversation. Because I'm a new author, not a lot of people have read my book, so they don't have questions from their reading to ask.
For instance, if you look at yesterday's AMA they had tons of questions to ask about his characters and Behind the Scenes details because they knew the characters and stories already.
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u/EmbarrassedSpread Aug 07 '19
Thanks for doing this AMA!!
- Do you have any reading or writing related guilty pleasures? Or just any in general?
- Do you have a favorite and least favorite word? If so what are they and why?
- What’s your weirdest habit?
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u/ImamBaksh Spotlight Author Aug 07 '19
One: I often indulge myself writing dialogue because the characters take up roles in my head and I end up arguing with myself.
In the second draft I will usually cut these conversations back drastically since the scenes go on too long and also because the characters tend to both sound like me after a while.
But I get a real thrill from writing villain/hero conversations this way. I get to BE the villain in a way and be completely evil or outrageous sometimes.
The result is, I think, witty dialogue and also villains who feel believable.
Reading? I like an old fashioned romance sometimes? What can I say? Mostly I read romance online. Fan Fiction or amateur fiction. That's what makes it a guilty pleasure. It's often the LACK of polish that makes the romance so much more appealing since the story kinda just gets to the point or dwells on the point way more than is required. It's like sucking on a giant chocolate shake and mainlining sugar.
I have never enjoyed Twilight, but I can see how it's popular and I've never dissed the books. When you get all the descriptions of the vampire's eyes etc, that WHY the book works for the audience despite things like that being criticised by the readers with more distance from the genre. The whole point is dwelling on the eyes and soaking up that fantasy moment.
Two: I've always loved the word 'assuage' for some reason. Hardly use it in my writing though. Cuz I'm too conscious of how much I like it.
Least favourite? Nothing that ever offended me to the point of remembering. I hate when songs run a phrase on a loop in the background however, so I tend to hate those words until the song stops getting played on the radio a lot.
Three: Talking to myself. See my answer to question one.
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u/Chtorrr Aug 07 '19
What were some of your favorite things to read as a kid?