Author Interview: Serafima Bogomolova

About the Author:
The author of a psychological thriller ‘My Trickster‘ and the editor of Avantoure infotainment blog, Serafima Bogomolova lives and works in Dubai, UAE.  Born and raised in St Petersburg, Russia, Serafima received a degree in English and American Literature in the private Institute of Foreign Languages. Her studies had a big influence on her literary preferences with her two favourite authors being Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest writers of short stories in history, and John Fowles, a master of mystification in post modern English literature.

Serafima’s love for travel and exploration brought her to many cities and countries including London, New York, Moscow, and Dubai. In Moscow, she had an opportunity to run a cigar magazine, Hecho a Mano, the first glossy publication on tobacco in Russia.

In 2006 her publishing experience led Serafima to launch her own rich media publication, Avantoure. This innovative, ahead of time project had made a stir in the digital publishing world and was produced in its avant-garde format until late 2009.

Her debut into literary world started in October 2010 in New York, where Serafima met a man whose dream prompted her to begin writing her first novel ‘My Trickster‘. The book was finished and self-published in the beginning of 2012.

Currently, Serafima divides her creative time between working on her second novel and editing Avantoure, recently re-launched as an infotainment blog.

Interview:
What made you want to become a writer?
My debut into literary world started in 2010 when I met a man in New York. And it was a vision he dreamt on Christmas Eve and shared with me that prompted me to begin writing my first novel 'My Trickster'.  Though this crucial event helped me launch my writing career, I do not regard it as something that made me want to become a writer. I believe that one does not
become a writer; one is born a writer. In my case, I have always known that I am a writer. It is just that at first, my career took a slightly different turn and I did not focus on writing books.
 
Where do you get your inspirations from?I get my inspiration from my own life and people and things that surround me. I am also inspired by other artists' work, by nature, by travelling, by conversations with interesting people, by reading books, by watching great movies...
 
Other than writing books, what else do you do in your free time?
I love to explore and study. For example, at the moment I am learning French, and I'm also trained to become a runner. I take pilates classes, read, watch movies, go out with my friends and travel a lot. 

If you could work with another author, who would it be? 
I love being independent and I prefer to work on my own.
 
What are major themes of your work?
There are three main themes that I worked with in 'My Trickster' book: internal conflicts of the main characters saturated with doubts, mistrust, and misperceptions; relationships between women and men corrupted with psychological games; and 'nothing as it seems' situations presented through different perspectives and angles.
 
What do you think people look for in a book?
My book is written in a way that encourages people to use their imagination and arrive at their own conclusions. That is why each particular reader will look for and find things that will be unique only to her/his experience of reading the book.
 
Are there any recent works that you admire?
I should say that the book History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason has had quite a profound effect on me. The reason for that being that Richard Mason created a very charismatic main character that I instantly connected to.


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