Name: SAMIR KARIMO
What attracts you to the genre in which you write?
I like to create different worlds, namely strange and surrealistical ones with known characters which try to attract the audience. I have a strange relationship with the reader, I like to play with him/her, e.g. I like to try them to question about things, even the smallest ones and that’s why most of my stories are flash stories. In those short stories I try to synthesise my conception of horror, science-fiction and terror.
What piece of writing advice do you wish you’d known when you started your writing adventures? First of all, follow your dreams, whatever they are and try to have a certain writing style. People will always criticise the way you write but it’s important to create your own style with your features. When I began I wanted to write grammatically well but now I want to have a style of my own.
If you could have dinner with any famous person or character who would you choose?
Pirandello, Unamuno and Pessoa due to their idea about the being, not being and the different characters we assume every day. Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hide, Adriano Meis, Sheherazade from Arabian Nights without doubt and Ramayana’s Valmiky.
Who has been the greatest influence on your own work?
As I have mentioned, on one hand I was deeply influenenced by Pirandello, Unamuno and Pessoa. Their ideas are still updated and even today we don’ t know how to interact in society…. I like that idea of double personality, the heteroynms and ortonyms, on the other hand, as you read the book, you’ll find references to Indian mythology, Nordic folklore and also D.Juan’s Myth. Kafka also, there’a flash story, DAMNED WORDS which looks Kafka’s IN THE PENAL COLONY. But I have also a muse called Reyam who inspires my work. Besides I have a text dedicated to her, music divine.
Do you think the e-book revolution will do away with print?
Someday maybe, but there are still people wanting to feel the “taste of the book”. I like both, but more and more people are using e-books . And besides, e-books are more compact and easy to carry than a book. And with the digital stuff in e-books it is possible to create more things than in a book, like for example holograms, and so on.
Which 3 books would you take to a desert island and why?
Arabian nights because I love the stories Sherazade tells to the sultan, and because is one of the most important books of the world which influences our way of seeing the world.
Lucian of Samostata’s true story because it’s a very advanced book, even today with their creatures and the idea of Moon and, finally, Charles Nodier’s Infernaliana, one of best scary books ever written. Some stories make me beg for more, one of my favourites is the “Devil pact”.
Author bio and book synopsis
Please introduce yourself (250 words or so):
My name is Samir Karimo, and besides of being a translator, I’m also a writer. This book SOBRENATURAL is my first English book which was written almost at the same time that in Portuguese and Spanish also. I usually write in Portuguese to BABELICUS EM PORTUGUÊS and in Spanish and English to MINATURA. I also collaborate with DEMENCIA magazine and WAX MAGAZINE, both in Spanish . And I’m also a comic screenwriter to a comic magazine called H-ALT where by September it will publish my first story.
My first stories appeared at FENIZ FANZINE in Spanish in 2013. But I published my first Portuguese poems in late 1998.
I like to create strange situations with strange characters…. like Kafka
Tell us about your book(s) – title, genre etc (short)
Sobrenatural (supernatural surrealistical scary stories ), a small anthology of flash stories and tales where the reader will find famous characters in strange situations. Imagine yourself having a dream where nothing is what it seems, when you find space vampires and their connection to dinosaur’s extinction, killing noses and other alien creatures. Imagine if D.Juan would go to paradise or, finally, would find peace. Also imagine Oscar Wilde as an attorney or Dulcinea having a relationship with a snake…. And imagine a character called INTRODUCTION, and a FUN GOD falling in love by a cyborg woman in Harlequin Carnavalin.
Finally, the book cover was done my the ESFS Awards winner’ JUAN MIGUEL AGUILERA
Links
For United States
For United Kingdom
https://www.amazon.co.uk/sobrenatural-supernatural-surrealistical-scary-stories-ebook/dp/B07262DJFX
Social media
https://www.facebook.com/samir.karimo
https://www.facebook.com/sksobrenatural/
Library of Erana 