Brandon Ingram Launches Book Number 2!

Pic by Deshan Tennekoon

Colombo’s controversial writer is back with book number two and it launches on the 25th of June. After his first book titled ‘The Fairy Dance’ in 2007 took on the prevailing issue of Child Sex Tourism in Sri Lanka (which is rated among the top 3 countries in the world on the subject), Ingram now rattles a different cage with his second book titled ‘Living Their Lie’.

The key focus of the second book is relationships, those between married individuals and people of the same sex. When asked why he chose the subject Ingram replied ‘because I like talking about what no one else likes to talk about, it was the same with my first book.’

The rest of the world may have opened their eyes to same gender relationships and the issues around it but do you think Colombo is ready for it?

No one is ever really ready for anything in this life, otherwise it’d be too damn boring to live. But yes, I did wonder whether or not the people of Colombo would be open to such a topic, it was something I thought of from the moment I started writing the book. Honestly, I had my doubts but I’ve come to believe that the people of Colombo are far more open to new ideas than others give them credit for. Besides, I’m not telling them something they don’t already know, I’m just trying to explain it the best way I know how.

The first book took you a year to write, how long did this one take?

Well that is a tricky question because I wrote this particular book three times. I think I started working on it during the latter part of 2007 and three times later, here it is, ready to finally see the light of day.

The story revolves around three individuals who are caught up in a non-traditional love triangle, how difficult was that to write about?

Not difficult at all. This is the sort of mindset that I’m trying to change. People always seem to think that a relationship is different if the two people involved are from the same sex. The truth is that there is nothing different about it at all. In fact, if you replace the situation in the book to reflect what you call a ‘traditional’ love triangle then you would find that it would flow pretty much in the same direction.

What is the overall message that you intend carrying through this book?

I think that we all have a weakness of trying to understand every single thing under the sun. I’m trying to tell people that that isn’t always necessary. It’s like coming up with the big bang theory to disprove creation because the latter is too difficult to grasp. People have grown accustomed to tangible evidence and in-depth, mechanical explanations to how something works and so when they don’t understand something, they are quick to come up with labels. It’s like a magic show, if the disappearing act is really good, more than half the audience will be looking for the hidden trap door, they will NOT accept the fact that it’s simply magic.

Aren’t you worried about how society will perceive you when this book is launched, especially since it’s written in the first person?

Why should I be? I recently read “The Quickie” by James Patterson, the story was told from the point of view of the main character – a female detective and it was written in the first person – does that make James Patterson a woman? Besides, if everyone was going to shape their lives to please society we’d all be living their lie. I think I just explained to you the concept of my book.

What plans for book number three?

Well I’m going to take a bit of a break after this one but I do have an idea of what I want the next one to be. Can’t give you too many details but I will say that I plan on making it funny, it’ll be a good break from the seriousness that surrounds the first two books and comic fiction is slightly more difficult to write because making people laugh is much harder than making them think, so we’ll see.

Ingram is a full time writer and part time actor. He is currently employed at LOWE LDB as a Creative Group Head and is also part of Mind Adventures, a theatre company steered by Tracy Holsinger (artistic director) and four others including himself. He is also a poet and has studied speech and drama at the School of Effective English Communication (SEEC) through which he participated in and got through examinations hosted by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) with Honours.

Ingram also writes a daily online soap, mainly for Indian audiences, titled Kurukshetra (kurukshetraonline.wordpress.com) and has to date written more than 300 episodes with a very decent following. The website receives between 50 – 150 hits a day.

His second book – Living Their Lie launches on the 25th of June at 7pm at the Barefoot Cafe in Colombo.