Interview With Author Bo Gregner

 

 

1. What inspired you to write this book? A mind opener occurred when I met the Tibetan exile leader the Dalai Lama in his home at the foot of the Himalayas in north India. I could finally bring the meaning of life to the table. Simultaneously the American actor Richard Gere, who was around, pointed out a grim reality: the unique culture of Tibet was in the process of getting wiped out after the invasion/liberation by China. Only debris would remain among refugees outside Tibet. So there I was surrounded by so many lovely people who said ”Thank you” when giving something away and who regarded monasteries as gyms and who laughed a lot. Highly existential. The South African bishop Desmond Tutu came by. The  Dalai Lama thought of him as a good Buddhist and Tutu called Dalai Lama a very good Christian. They laughed a lot together.
 There a new backdrop was set behind the stage of my life, hope interwoven with those old disillusions about politics and economics, warfare and violence.   

But why so many shortcomings of humankind? I stumbled over the same roots again and again: greed driven by ego. Call it evil. What about love? What if? What if love between two people, no matter how impossible, had a potential of winning over evil? A late lama Lobsang Dharjy in MacLeod Ganj encouraged me to follow that thread. And slowly a story emerged as if it had already been written. My task was to take it down. If I didn’t do it, the story would never come to life. So, curious as I am, I wrote. 
  

2. What exactly is it about and who is it written for? In the Indian Himalayas, a fake Tibetan monk on a secret mission meets a Western woman who wants to become a monk. 30 years later in Sweden, a female journalist meets a Tibetan monk at an exhibition. The meetings, both in 1969 and 2001, trigger what appears to be epileptic seizures. The convulsions include a strange wordless language seemingly giving away predictions about the future. A man and a woman and a woman and a man and something bonding. Coincidence anyone? Rumours of the incidents reach some dubious faceless individuals who personify desire and greed. To them the idea of a possible access to realms beyond the normal is paramount. The same goes with an eccentric lama who’s destiny is to undermine the rules of evolution.  

Who is Mango Chutney? As a writer, I sometimes have to grasp for resonant symbols and imaginary without necessarily fully understanding it myself. Imagine love as a beam of light. Imagine evil as the Hydra in Greek mythology. If one head is chopped off two new grow out. Can love between two people develop and bloom against all imaginable bad odds? Sweet mango and spicy chutney?  

The book is written for anyone who at any point or any time has come across the question ”What is the meaning of life?” Could fiction be a kind of magic to reveal truths that are dulled by our senses? Time to challenge our contemporary ego culture? And what about similarities of faiths rather than differences? And how about the idea that our precious species Homo Sapiens does not fully understand everything about time and space and the nature of love? Oh yes, so many question marks… 
 

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? My hope is that the reader will surrender to the prerequisites of this book. As I point out in the pretext, it is not based upon a true story but upon a myriad of true story fragments. Truth? One piece is what happened a long time ago, when Buddhism came to the Himalayas. Demons of shamanism had to be tied down by sacred mantras because some were able to act beyond the illusion of time and space. Alas and abrakadabra, there you have a different kind of authenticity. You don’t have to embrace science fiction or quantum physics to perceive, that there might be angles of reality that we are not yet aware of.           

"There is no such thing as the super natural, everything is natural”, said a Tibetan friend of mine and laughed. So this book is as much an internal journey as an external. I hope that the reader will be confused on a higher level. I hope that the reader will come to the conclusion, that love has a potential to beat evil.  

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? The title ”Who is Mango Chutney?” evolved over time, as mysterious to me as to anyone. Obviously you can obtain a lovely jam by mixing sweet mangos with spicy chutney. I guess that could also go with relationships. If mixed wisely with care. Or perhaps the question is somehow wrong? Maybe the title is a verb or an adjective? How to mango-chutney something? Or how to turn something mango-chutnish? Any input from readers would be valuable.  

The cover is borrowed from a traditional Buddhist Thangka painting, suggesting various spheres of life in the Universe, though slightly out of focus. The white field in the middle of the picture is added for the reader's interpretation. Someone suggested that it is the intense bright light experienced at the time of death. 
 

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!? As a writer, you will never have time enough. You have to grab it. Once you start a project, write each and every day in order not to lose the thread, come sun come rain! When writer's block occurs, even one single hour or 22 words will do. Something is always more than nothing. Don’t lose the thread. I always start each session by reading what was created the previous day. Some days you may write more, other days less but most important: the average amount of words should stick to a plan over time. You have to compensate for lazy days and are of course entitled to enjoy some relaxed time after very productive days. Start by estimating the total number of words for your book, then divide the sum with a realistic average output per day and you will automatically get the amount of time for a first version. Then of course, writing is rewriting.
  

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading? One does not have to be a rocket scientist to observe the obvious: a) The Book World is business, b) the writer's name is often brand. A lot will go if the author is a celebrity or otherwise well known, perhaps empowered by some talented ghostwriter, c) the future for books looks bright. When it comes to fiction, mankind has never ever had more need for storytelling than today. And the book is unbeatable as a medium. It is compact, requires no electricity, is easy to transport and on the whole cheap. As the written word is queen and king, books are furthermore excellent sources for all other media.  

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? Did I jump into fiction writing at a ripe age? No, I started very young as a kid, loosing myself in fantastic imagined Worlds of trolls and fairies. But that window was soon closed by school and during my later career as a journalist. I had to simplify facts so that people understood. And only so called facts counted. Not totally in vain however, I was able to meet all kinds of people who I otherwise would never have met. As a journalist you are kind of entitled to approach anyone for a chat. And there were characters for sure, some wiser than others, some outstanding, some less. 

In private life, having children opened a new dimension to me, in particular when my ex-wife at the time and I choose to adopt. From that I learned that you cannot own children. You can actually not own anyone. And maybe you can’t even own yourself being a part of something much greater. So when writing this book, with that background, there were lots of bits and pieces that came in very handy when I mixed them with a child’s recovered joy for writing. Then last but not least, I was blessed with a loving partner.
  

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to? Being a Swede I did choose to write in Swedish. Only in that way I could truly connect with my inner. But unfortunately just a tiny part of the World understands Swedish and I really, really wanted to reach out. How about a translation to English? Tricky, because something always gets lost in the process. And I could not afford a professional translator. Would too much get lost? Could I make a virtue of necessity?   

The solution: back to journalistic simplicity. This meant that I had to give up temptations of flowery language and elegant phrases and instead focus on a development driven by story with a simplified language I could handle. The situation also presented an additional opportunity. I had to dig deep into the meaning of words, English as well as Swedish. What do words literally and metaphorically stand for? In this respect I was now back to the old journalistic rule of making ideas understandable. In addition, I also implemented some experience from video and film editing into my writing. Overviews and close ups are as essential as the cutting.  

I would not dream of comparing myself to any well-known writer, but with my back against a wall one first thought would be Ernest Hemingway with his background in journalism. He also has a straightforward approach when it comes to language. It is difficult to pick out writers or books similar to mine as my genre hardly exists. ”Existential thriller”, suggested the publisher. Fair enough, how about Paulo Coelho or Carlos Ruiz Zafon or William Shakespeare?  

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? The main challenge for me to overcome was when I realised the extent of this project, to build 90000 consistent words holding hand. Question: was I prepared to set aside the time required, would I be able to finish it, would it be any good? Until then I had enjoyed the luxury of only writing short stories, newspaper and magazine articles. Here I was to create an entire World if not a Universe. Well, yes! So first step: I tried various techniques of the trade preparing storylines, character development, spectrum, settings, substance, antagonism, crises, climax, resolution and so on, and so on and you name it. Second step: I abandoned the role of becoming an academic writing engineer and returned to be an author. I buried all the rules in my subconscious and focused on a beginning, a middle and an end of a story and to identity the main characters, may it wear or break. Then I wrote.  It worked. Third step: to know when to stop and start rewriting. And when to stop rewriting. And then the translation which turned out to be a second round of rewriting. A final challenge was to open the story for an additional upcoming freestanding sequel. 

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours?The story will bring wings to lift you up from your normal context, be it geographically or within body, mind and soul, thus offering you a different angle to life. At the same time, you might recognize scenarios and characters from around the World or closer than that. If you apply the question ”why” to a selection of human shortcomings, the book will definitely give you an alternative view along an intersection of mystery and perceived reality. You might even find support from something bigger than yourself. Compassion? As mentioned earlier, the book is entirely based upon true fragments. Besides, I need your help to find out: Who is Mango Chutney? 

About The Author: Born curious in the land of Vikings, I started my career as a journalist covering news. Fate brought me to the capital Stockholm where I worked with the News Agency TT and Radio Sweden. However, over time, I noticed in the mirror how I turned more and more cynical from covering too many shadows. I did not like what I saw and decided to go freelance. And lo and behold, suddenly another World opened up. Adding photography and film to my palette, I was able to find out what caused so many of those shadows in the news: greed and desire on a human level. What finally made me an author on the fiction track was when I met Tibetans refugees in the north of India. A childhood's joy of writing was resurrected. On a private level I share my time between the UK, where my partner lives, and Sweden, where I have two lovely children and two grandchildren. For more info, please see: https://bogregner.ampbk.com/

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.6 million pageviews. With 4,800+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.