‘My novels hit a new record at the young writer’s market’: Mohammed Esmat

By Rana Khaled

Listening to loud background music with a big cup of hot cocoa in his hands, novelist Mohammed Essmat uses his remarkable talent to encounter his daily fears, concerns and doubts. Although he is one of the few notable Egyptian horror writers who can weave bloody creepy novels about serial killers, demons, zombies, werewolves and vampires, he admits he can be easily frightened.

The first edition of his first novel “Al-Mamsous” (“The Possessed”) was published in January 2014, causing waves of admiration, criticism and curiosity. After less than a year, Essmat challenged himself to present a divergent horror style mixing comedy with fright in his second novel, “The wrong Talisman”. A few days ago, his third novel “Zatawy” came out in the bookstores raising a lot of questions about its mysterious name.

Talking to Daily News Egypt, the 25-year-old writer unravels the mystery of his new novel, revealing a lot of secrets about the local and international horror literature industry and its various audiences around the world.

When did your passion for writing start? Does it have anything to do with your childhood?

I was addicted to reading since I was a little child. I used to satisfy my increasing curiosity by searching for answers between the pages of the books, novels and short stories. Gradually, the writing volcano started to erupt inside my heart and soul, and I decided to use the pen to get my thoughts and feelings out on the paper. Despite of my great passion for writing, I studied Accounting at the Faculty of Commerce in Mansoura University. However, my parents encouraged me to resume writing and showed a lot of support that I can’t deny.

Why did you choose the horror fiction genre, although it isn’t very common in Egypt?

The horror literature is very important and it makes the highest revenues and profits on the local and international levels, although certain segments of the audience don’t prefer it. I was always drawn to the horror novels, although they were and still few in number, and that’s why I decided to walk in the footsteps of the few writers who introduced the horror fiction genre to the Arab world.

Horror writing releases my fears, allowing me to overcome any anxiety and panic by getting them outside my mind on a piece of paper.

How did you come up with the extraordinary idea of your first novel “The Possessed”?

When I started thinking about writing my first novel, I aimed to show respect to the reader’s mind and satisfy his curiosity. I wanted to present something weird, innovative and remarkable at the same time. A crazy idea popped up in my mind, as I thought about mixing different horror themes together in one story and that’s exactly what I’ve done. I blended six horror fiction themes giving priority to the bloody horror theme, as it was never written in Arabic before.

How could you publish your first novel? And what are the main difficulties novice writers face when they publish their first literary work in your opinion?

After finishing my first novel, I submitted it to a publishing house that refused to publish it assuming that horror novels won’t make the desired profits. They claimed that publishing the novel won’t go with the publishing policies of the house, but I didn’t give up! I sent the novel to “Noon” publishing house and they were very excited to release it during the book fair. After less than 10 days, the first and second issues were drawn from all the book stores.

I was surprised when the publishing house that refused me called after they heard of my first novel’s success offering to publish my second novel, but I refused to deal with them.

From my own point of view, the main difficulty facing young writers nowadays is that big publishing houses prefer to play with the winning cards, instead of taking the risk of publishing for the anonymous novice writers. However, “Noon” publishing house broke this disturbing taboo and became the first supporter for a big number of young writers.

In your second novel, “The wrong Talisman”, you introduced a new genre of the ‘horror comedy’ that caused waves of criticism because of your excessive usage of slang with the main characters. What were your main objectives behind publishing such novel and how did you receive the criticism?

The novel is fraught with political and social implications on the current political circumstances in the Arab world that were presented through a funny story of a magician who used the wrong talisman to call a zombie, vampire and a werewolf to come to Egypt and help him scare people and rule the world. I used slang to simplify the idea, as it’s easier to convey the jokes to the readers in the spoken language. I think the story must be read deeply to be able understand the hidden meanings.

The novel sold more than 10,000 copies in less than three months which is a new record in the young writers’ market. A lot of young actors called to congratulate me, including Ahmed El-Garhy, Hesham Maged and Sheko and I received a lot of offers to turn the novel into theatre shows and plays.

What does “Zatawy”, the name of your new novel, mean? And why did you choose this unfamiliar title for it?

“Zatawy” is an Arabic term that means a child with Autism. The novel in general talks about Autism and how it can be cured through nutrition diets, medicines and psychological treatments and how patients with autism must be treated as active members of the community. However, all of these important issues were presented in an interesting context talking about a three-year-old kid who was accused of a murder. All the criminal evidence points to him as he’s the only one who can benefit from committing such crime.

 

Most intellectuals argue that horror literature doesn’t enrich the literature in general, as it aims only at amusing the readers without providing them with any valuable information – to what extent do you agree or disagree with that?

I believe the main objective of all novels with their different types and genres is entertainment. However, horror novels can be used as a method for conveying important messages and information for the readers. My last novel is a good example of this, as it sheds lights on a rare disease and teaches readers how to deal with it. It’s all about how cleverness of the writer who can use different tools to inject his story with important messages that can benefit his readers.

Who are your favourite Arab and foreign authors in general? And what are your favourite genres of music?

Generally speaking, I adore Youssef Idrees, Khairy Shalaby and Youssef Ezz-el-din Essa. On the international level, I’m a big fan of John Grisham and Michael Crichton. As for my favourite horror writers, Stephen King and Charlie Higson and Ahmed Khaled Tawfek always come on the top of my list.

Regarding the music, I prefer listening to Fayroz, Mohammed Mounir and I’m big fan of underground music bands, especially Cairokee, Masar Egbary and Sharmofers. I also love the Jazz music as well as the trance tracks especially Armin Van Buuren.

Did you receive any offers for turning your novels into films?

As most of the young writers, I dream of watching my novels on the big screen but I didn’t get any offers for cinema till now. However, I received a lot of theatre offers and I selected one that we’ll start working on with an important actor. I think it will be a pleasant surprise for my audience, God willing.

How do you see the future of the horror literature in Egypt? And do you think female writers will have any remarkable fingerprint on this field?

Horror literature is the future, and the near future will witness the birth of many talented horror novelists who will keep enriching this area for long periods of time. It’s all about respecting the readers which is the main aim of the horror writers. As for the female writers, I think some of their trials deserve respect, including “The Dark Corner” by Shimaa Mahmoud, or “A Code from the Other World” by Fatma Mady, as well as the perfect literary works of Manal Abdel Hameed and Shereen Hana’y, who tends to write mix fantasy with horror.

Do you have any future projects?

The writer is a big project! It’s known that horror literature is divided into 16 different themes. My life goal is writing a novel under each theme. I started with the bloody horror theme in my first novel, passing by the sarcastic horror in my second novel and the psychological horror in my last novel. My next novel will belong to the scientific horror and it is planned to be published in the  book fair of 2016, God willing.