Arthur Bozikas has set the literary world on fire with his groundbreaking book ‘The Book Glasses.’ In this story Samantha Page, his protagonist, can’t read, and is facing hard times, but everything changes when she finds a pair of glasses, which gives her an amazing superpower. The epic adventure he takes Samantha on will keep readers enthralled from the very beginning and have them wanting more when they finish this spellbinding read.
While Bozikas is a brilliant writer, his life story in nothing short of miraculous, and was supposed to be short. At twelve, he was told he would die young because he was born with a chronic genetic blood disorder called Beta Thalassaemia Major (Thal). Back then most people with this condition did not live past early adulthood because they didn’t have a treatment. But life doesn’t always turn out as we expect, and after 600 needle sticks, 700 blood transfusions and 2,200 donated blood packs, Bozikas is still alive, gratefully hitting the age of 60.
Blood donors don’t often get the chance to read about the life-saving consequences of their incredible generosity, so ‘The Book Glasses’ also celebrates their wonderful gift which will hopefully inspire others to do the same and give people like Arthur a chance to have long happy lives. “I’d like to dedicate this novel to all the past, present and future blood donors for their precious generosity. I like to consider myself an action writer, but their action has and will always continue to save lives all around the world. I consider them all to be the true action heroes!”
We recently sat down with Bozikas to learn more about his work and what’s coming next, this is what he shared up with us.
In “The Book Glasses” Samantha Page, your protagonist finds a pair of glasses that turn her into a supercomputer, which sets the stage for a rather amazing story. How did you settle on using this plot line for this must read book?
The premise was always the glasses having supercomputer powers for the Sam, I couldn’t settle on how Sam first got a hold of them. The more I planned, the more it just didn’t work out. It wasn’t until when I bravely started writing that the idea of Sam getting a job at the Australian Museum, finally to my relief, came about.
Speaking of Samantha Page, she is a very dynamic and compelling character. Clearly you are particularly talented at character development, can you tell us one of keys you use to create the characters in your stories?
The key for me are virtues. I aim to have my readers either love or hate my characters because my ambition is to create a memorable personality by instilling them each with the three most important virtues: prudence, justice, benevolence. In addition, also with the following four main human virtues: prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice.
If you can pick one word that best describes “The Book Glasses” what would it be and why?
Reading. Envisage a day in your life without reading a single word. Step completely into the experience and let yourself stay there for a few minutes. Then open your eyes and appreciate the fact that you can read. What will you do, if you were Sam?
You released “The Book Glasses” in February of 2021. I’m assuming you were working on it during the pandemic, so I have to ask if it was more challenging to write a book during this time?
I resisted writing it for over ten years and finally did so out of frustration because I couldn’t get my debut novel, Black Ops: Zulu (Tom Stiles Thrillers Book 1) published. Plus, I just couldn’t get The Book Glasses out on my head. Anyway, the pandemic wasn’t challenging for me, it was the fear writing something out of my comfort zone. I didn’t know The Book Glasses would get published almost immediately, paving the way for Black Ops: Zulu to finally get published a few weeks later the same month!
Do you have another book in the works you can tell us about?
Yes, I have three books in the works. The sequels to both The Book Glasses (early 2022) and Black Ops: Zulu (early 2023). Also I’m just finishing up completing my autobiography (80,000 words) called: Iron Man Saved My Life. It’s a silly title for a memoir but at the impressionable age of twelve, this really did come true, well, at least for me it was real.
More information about “The Book Glasses” is available on his website.
