What inspires you to write?
Life, mostly. The people around me, my own experiences, and the big questions about time, love, and second chances. Losing my mother pushed me toward poetry, and my visual work with large LED shows for live events keeps feeding my imagination — I tend to think in images and scenes.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When my first book, AMMA’S LOVE, was published in January 2023 and I held a copy in my hands. Before that, I was someone who wrote. That book made it real.
Are you a full-time or part-time writer, and how does that affect your writing?
Part-time. By day I’m a Visual Engineer building large-scale LED visuals for live events; the writing happens at night and on weekends. It means I write in stolen hours, but the day job feeds the work — visual storytelling, pacing, thinking in scenes.
What day jobs have you held, and how have they influenced your writing?
I trained as a Restoration Artist at Prime Focus Technologies in Mumbai, restoring old films frame by frame — that taught me patience and an eye for detail. Now I’m a Visual Engineer at PXL Media in Thiruvananthapuram. Working in light, scale, and spectacle every day is probably why my stories lean cinematic.
What have you written so far?
Four books: AMMA’S LOVE A Poetic Journey (2023), a poetry collection written for my mother; LOOPED: A Time-Bending Odyssey (2024), a time-loop science fiction novelette and Book 1 of the LOOPED series; Echoes of Veloria (2025), Book 2; and Between the Noise and Silence (2026), a semi-autobiographical psychological slice-of-life novella. My line for all of it: stories that bend time and touch the heart.
Did you independently or “self” publish, or did you go the “traditional” publishing route, and why?
I’ve self-published all four books so far — it gave me control over the work and a direct path to readers. That said, I’m open to both routes: my novella Between the Noise and Silence is currently under consideration with five traditional publishers in India. The story decides the path.
Can you share a little bit about your latest book?
The LOOPED Second Edition (2026) — a time-loop science fiction novelette about reliving moments and the weight of second chances. The story itself is unchanged; the Second Edition polishes the cover and the interior. No AI was used in writing it.
What made you decide to sit down and start writing this book?
I’ve always been fascinated by time — loops, second chances, the idea of reliving a single moment. LOOPED grew out of that question: what if you got to live a moment again, knowing what you know now? Once that idea took hold, I couldn’t not write it.
Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work?
Anand Neelakantan, Devdutt Pattanaik, and Amish Tripathi. They’re Indian storytellers who take myth and history and give it scale and urgency — they shaped how I think about telling big stories rooted in Indian imagination.
What is your next project?
A few things in motion: Veera Stree Kathaas, a series retelling the women of the Mahabharata, starting with Uttara: The Mother of the Unborn Empire; When Cancer Comes Home, a plain-language guide for families dealing with cancer; and NIZHAL, a folklore horror novel.
Want to learn more about Sathyaraj Natarajan?
Leave a Comment