About the Author:
Nitish Bhushan was born in Ghaziabad, UP, and grew up in Delhi & Gurgaon. After attending various schools in these two cities and passing out HSC form Kendriya Vidyalaya Sec 8 RK Puram, he attended Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology & Applied Nutrition, Bangalore. He holds Masters degree in Personnel Management from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (PU). After PG he worked with Wipro, and later with CMS IT in various cities across the country, finally settling in Gurgaon.
The experiences he gathered in school, graduation, PG & work are what helped him write his first fiction – LOVE SWIPE BLACKMAIL which was rated Absolutely Unputdownable by Ayush Pant. LSB narrates the story of a couple affected by dating apps. The plan was to launch e-book and paperback together, but the e-book format came much ahead of the paperback version due to disruption brought is by the spread of COVID19.
Check the review here: All about Friendships & Dating – Book Review of Love, Swipe and Blackmail by Nitish Bhushan.
1: I was curious for asking you this question What made you write this book?
A: I stumbled upon young people in a cafeteria using a certain dating app. I confused it with a messaging app like WhatsApp initially and thought that folks are simply chatting with each other. But after some time I realised that this wasn’t a messaging app. Rather, it was an app used for dating. When I discussed about this app with younger people I knew, I got to know about the utility of the app. I researched the app and got to know a lot more about how it works. In my mind thereafter, a story began taking shape. All around us we have heard and experienced of a lot of successful love stories and failed love stories. My mind in all its creative splendour, superimposed those love stories with the app, and voila there was an idea so compelling that I had to write.
2: Is it difficult to write this genre? How?
A: When you are writing something for the first time, no matter how much you research for it, it is always difficult to write. Plus, you are not narrating something that has happened, because when you do that, you know exactly what to write. Rather, while writing a piece of fiction, all the time you are thinking, improvising, imagining and fantasizing till your mind creates a story that you find convincing. This process consumes a lot of quality time. Per se romance is a genre that is ever green. Countless stories have been written and countless more will be written.
3: If you have to write a book in any other genre which genre you would write in?
A: Spirituality. And I am already researching on it.
4: How long it took to write this novel?
A: The writing of Love Swipe Blackmail is split over 3 years – 2017, 2018 & 2019. Most of it was written in 2017.
5: A piece of learning that you would like a reader to take from your book?
A: I have two pieces of advice, first for those who use dating app (regardless of the reason they use the app for) – be careful. The second piece is for those who are in love – accept those you love as they are, not as you want them to be. If they love you back, they will themselves bring in the change you desire in them. And if you still want them to change, do it by explaining how will it improve them as a person.
6: What is your work schedule like when you’re writing?
A: I do not look at time when I am writing something that gives me a kick.
7: What types of books do you enjoy reading?
A: History, astrophysics, mythology, military, strategy, economics.
8: A recent book that you read?
A: ‘So You Want to Know About Economics’ by Roopa Rai
9: What is Success for you?
A: When I achieve the targets I set for myself.
10: Passion rules us all, Do you agree?
A: Passions drives everything. If we are not passionate, we will achieve nothing. Without passion we are not able to put in our best efforts for what we want to achieve. Apart from writing, another idea that is evolving into a passion, is re-greening the earth so that we bequeth a better planet than the one we inherited. And I am working towards it.
11: An advice for aspiring writers?
A: Writing is a function of thinking. So think hard, think deep and think long. If you have done this, writing will be smooth, easy and will take little time.
12: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
A: That I could write. I never fathomed myself as an author. But once the idea for Love Swipe Blackmail germinated in my head, there was no stopping.
