As a genre, horror often intrigued me. As a child, like every other kid, I was afraid of watching horror movies. But, with some fascinating content by genius writers of horror (be it on-screen or via books), horror became my favourite. When I started writing short stories, those weren’t thrillers. The stories were my life experiences. It got published online and some in print versions as anthologies, albeit with upcoming publishers.
When my job stint demanded travelling to different parts of the country, I curated a few experiences and baked them into a couple of stories first. Then, slowly, the count increased. I currently have more than twenty such paranormal stories under my kitty, and I thought of penning down the first set of ten stories. What’s the point of just writing down and not finding any readers? And, that’s when I thought I should publish it so that readers can get absorbed into the world of dread.
Readomania came to the resue!
The interesting logic behind writing these stories was the mind-boggling experience of seeing people becoming victims of supernatural entities. The victims get slayed and never overcome the jinx—be it ghosts, demons, or evil spirits. In these stories, paranormal creatures are protagonists, for they win in every single situation. Sometimes, the reader might wonder that there is no climax to these stories—but if they deeply delve into the mystic afterlife scenarios, my pages of terror will entrap them.
I feel the horror stories I’ve read so far do not deal with the commoner’s suffering and focus mainly on the manifestation of the evil entity. So I ensured that this collection contains stories that depict every emotion the characters go through in their real life, such as love, friendship, marriage, relationships, parenting, sorrow, lust, and betrayal.
So, this book should break that normalcy.
The stories focus on the characters’ internal and external conflict as a central premise, and horror comes into their lives as an earth-shattering moment creating tragedies. It always ends in a disaster when evil strikes, wherein there’s no escape from the menace. A few who’ve read it have said, ‘These are dark and scary as hell!’
And, the fans of horror have some treat waiting for them—a treat in the form of a walkthrough to fear, trauma, and anxiety in a realistic, day-to-day environment.
So, coming to the question of why I wrote this book? Very simple. I want to scare my readers!
Trepidation is a good thing. Once you’re fearful of something, you’ll find the courage to deal with it. It is an optimistic way to instill confidence in your soul.
The second reason is, horror in India seems to be very dramatic. The writers, readers, and horror movie fans from India attune habitual and customary elements to the horror genre. Like curses, jinx, voodoo dolls, tantric, puja, alleviating spirits by reciting Hanuman Chalisa, and whatnot! Otherwise, it is just a carbon copy of Western, Korean, and Japanese movies or literature.
We have very few writers in India who write TRUE horror. Thus, I thought of a fresh perspective on the horror genre could offer.
Thirdly, the Ten Commandments in Christianity are said to have been written by God. These are a set of principles if followed diligently; then, humans can lead a life of morals and an ethically defined path to reach the kingdom of heaven. What if there is a contrast to these rules? A set of commandments from the Devil? Which, if followed, a person might face the fate of hell.
Read the book to know more!
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