Mumbai-born, California-based ten-year-old Indian American author, Akshaj Mehta is ready with his latest novel, E-Tron. Clearly, writing is child’s play for this young, bright talent
Mahim-born Akshaj Mehta seems well on his way to writing his own destiny. Nominate Exceptional Youth Category in the prestigious N Factor Awards and having recently published his third book, E-Tron, the 10-year-old Indian American prodigy looks set to add more titles to his portfolio.
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Akshaj Mehta at his favourite place in the world, his writing table
This student from Natomas Charter School's Star Academy in Sacramento, the capital city of the US state of California, was ready with his first book, Super Mouse in January 2014. Super Mouse is a fictional chapter book about a mouse blessed with superpowers, and how he fights against the Cheese Monster to save Mousecity.
At the time, the prodigy had donated 100% proceeds from its sales to the Sacramento Children's Home. His second title was The Robot Mind Game, published in November 2014 (NANO Writing Challenge). Another book that is ready is Sunken that he wrote in June 2014.
E-Tron is a pre-teen novel that was published in April 2015. The novel deals with the relationship between 21-year-old Emmanuel and his grandparents; here, the young boy sacrifices his freedom to fulfill their dreams for him to join the military.
Like his other titles, he will donate the proceeds; this time, to Make-A-Wish. He's also penned 16 short stories, three articles, two essays and three poems. Last year, Akshaj earned a partial scholarship from University of California Davis for a young writer's workshop.
He loves making trailers for the books he reads. His collection includes Roald Dahl, Maze Runner, Diary of Wimpy Kid, Geronimo Stilton, Minecraft, Panchatantra, Tin Tin, Horrible Harry, Percy Jackson and the Harry Porter series.
Apart from writing and reading, he is a keen pianist since he was a second grader; in fact, he's mastered the Star Wars Theme. His parents inform us that he is learning to code, program in Java, as well as design video games.
Excerpts from an email interview with Akshaj Mehta
Q. How and why did you get hooked on to writing?
A. I started composing poems when I was 4 years old. It escalated from there, and I wrote my first story, Adventures in Pyramids for the PBS writing contest in 2012.
Super Mouse
Q. Do you see yourself take up writing as a career?
A. My aim is to get into either Harvard or Stanford for my higher studies. I want to pursue writing till I am 70 years. I want my books be Cadelcott medal winners. I want to become a NASCAR driver, a movie director where I get to direct stories from my books, be a Lego design engineer and write manuals for instructions and safety. I also want to keep reading books to kids in the library even when I grow old.
E-Tron, which is Akshaj's latest book
Q. Who are some of your favourite writers? Do you idolise any of them?
A. Some of my favourite authors include RL Stine, RJ Palacio and James Dashner. I do like to read about Hindu mythology, like the epic, the Ramayana. I am a big fan of fiction books. I do not idolise any authors or writers.
Akshaj's titles are available on Amazon, Kindle, NOOK, iTunes and Google Play.
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