AN Islamic scholar and community cohesion leader has launched a bid to become the next big sci-fi writer.
As well as juggling work as the principal officer at Building Bridges in Burnley, with family life and his commitment to his faith Nasrullah Anwar, 32, spends lunchtimes, evenings and any free time crafting his science fiction novels.
And after more than a 15 year’s of work Nasrullah, from Great Harwood, has produced his first 80,000 word manuscript that he is trying to get published.
Nasrullah, who writes under his pseudonym Noor A Jhangir, has written The Changling King and is trying to secure a deal with an American publishing house after he was turned down by British publishers.
And he is currently getting tips from American sci-fi fantasy writers such as Raymond Feist.
The Changling King has a few main characters including a boy called Nathan and a group of his friends as well as a Mogul prince who are fighting to get back to Earth after they are transported to another alien world while aliens are on earth trying to stop Nathan’s brother Adam.
Nasrullah, who has also stood in as an Imam, said: “I have a day job that I am passionate about but I write after my wife has gone to sleep. I burn the midnight oil.
“My wife is very supportive and thinks about spending my advance and parents have never stopped believing in me.
“My Islamic teachers didn’t want me to write but the principal encouraged me to keep at it.”
Nasrullah was first inspired to write after his primary school teacher Christine Bracewell at the then Western County Primary School in Great Harwood read CS Lewis’s Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe aged seven.
Nasrullah is now a governor at the school which has become Great Harwood Primary.
He continued reading and writing when he attended an Islamic boarding school in Bury as there were no televisions and the boys would want to listen to football on the radio.
Nasrullah said he will start attending science fiction conventions to prmote his work and is already working on his next manuscript.
Nasrullah added: “The point of fiction is like parables they are trying to tell people about a universal truth and how people deal with situations “People are surprised by the book and quite excited by it.
"Although it is science fiction it is about cohesion.
“If Asian and non-Asian people pick up the book it can be read across the board.
“I am and will keep fighting to get this publish and people who give up don’t get published.”
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