“I just want to write something for children and adults to enjoy,” he said, explaining why he enjoys writing his own fairy tales. “It’s what comes out of my mind.”
The 37-year-old resident of L’Orignal has several self-published books of his fairy tales, in both softcover and electronic versions, available through online dealers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the Indigo platform. He has read all of the traditional fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and also the classic original tales penned by Hans Christian Andersen.
While he was born in Delhi, India, Herk’s cultural background and influence is mostly North American. His family moved to Canada in 2009 and settled in Calgary, Alberta first, then moved to Brampton, Ontario the following year. Herk himself moved away from his family and made his home in L’Orignal last October.
Herk has always done some writing during his life, but he focused more attention to his literary creations a few years ago after he went on disability. His latest collection of stories includes more than 150 tales, including some that he calls “anime-style” as they borrow from the Japanese animation speculative fiction literary style that has become popular in North America and Europe.
“It’s lighthearted,” Herk said, describing his anime-style of fairy tale, “with a bit of science fiction.”
The writing process for him varies, depending on both opportunity and how he feels when he settles down to crafting a new fairy tale.
“Sometimes I try to write it down on paper,” he said. “Sometimes I type it out on my computer. And then sometimes I write part of it down and dictate the rest onto my phone and write those portions down later.”
On average a new fairy tale takes him between two and three hours to compose, from start to finish, including revisions. A few may take longer with the revision work spread out over a week.
When not creating new fairy tales, Herk explores the poetic side of his literary endeavours, with most of the results being inspirational poems.
What he knows is that he needs to write, and writing fairy tales is his favourite creative pastime.
“I thought this last book would be it,” he said, smiling. “The final complete collection. But I’ve already started writing more stories.”
