Zahid Anis Ahmad is an emerging author whose passion for storytelling began in childhood, inspired by the stories he heard from his mother. A Bachelor of Arts graduate, Zahid has explored diverse professional fields, including sales, customer service, and teaching. His creative imagination is also influenced by his interest in gaming and action-driven narratives. With Spetsnaz Z, he brings together survival, suspense, revenge, and global conflict in an intense story that reflects his passion for action and storytelling.
Author Interview Questions
Elite One Stories: What inspired you to write Spetsnaz Z, and when did the idea for the story first come to you?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: The heroics of Russian armed forces whether that be during the time of WWII or the conflict in Syria. The friendship between Russia and India is also a comforting source for me to write about the goodness we have with the Russians for a very long time. The story was stuck in mind for more than a decade ago and somehow forced me to start writing.
Elite One Stories: The novel begins with a devastating calamity in Russia. What made you choose this setting for the story?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: The demographic and vastness of Russia is very diverse and intriguing, being the biggest country in the world. It challenged me to show that if Russia is effected, the consequences will not be limited to the national border.
Elite One Stories: How would you describe the protagonist, and what aspects of his personality were most important for you to explore?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: The protagonist is a principled man. His flawless career as a special forces soldier with multiple successful mission under his belt. The transition from a Spetsnaz soldier to civilian / undercover life after his first and only failure. This change is significant and I tried to show this through the struggle he goes, from self-doubt to setbacks and so on. As he never experienced failure, so it was difficult for the protagonist to adapt the changing situation.
Elite One Stories: The story combines survival, revenge, and international conflict. How did you balance the personal and global aspects of the narrative?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: The story is personal and it have survival elements but it’s not about revenge. Soldiers don’t go on a revenge spree, they avenge to serve justice. There is hint of global or international conflict but it’s not full blown conflict yet. As there is no declared war between two nations.
Elite One Stories: What role do the protagonist’s memories of the fallen play in shaping his decisions and emotional journey?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: The memories of the fallen is the only reason that the protagonist never stopped in his pursuit of justice, even when there was clear signs that it can become full blown international conflict. He made a promise and their memories became his strength, helping him in overcoming the difficulties he faced.
Elite One Stories: Your interest in games such as PUBG, Tomb Raider, and Tekken is mentioned in your author profile. How have these experiences influenced your storytelling?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: These three are not the only games that helped me develop stories of my own, there are many games that I have played. Games and stories are interconnected, they tell stories, takes you to places where you can’t go in real life. You need visas and money but games have taken me to places like liberty city, Seattle, renaissance Italy, Ottoman Turkey and many more. I mostly played games for their story like CoD MW series and Black Ops 1 and 2 only. And the fun naturally followed helping in ways that can’t be explained in words. Games gave me a world to escape into the stories that I was playing.
Elite One Stories: What was the most challenging part of writing Spetsnaz Z?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: To bring the story to a conclusion while leaving no lose end and to not deviate from the path that I have chosen.
Elite One Stories: How did your professional experiences in sales, customer service, and teaching influence the way you developed your characters and story?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: These experiences helped me in understanding human nuances. Whenever I met a new person, I create a back story for them. I see strangers, I create stories around them, give them meaning and reasons and if something stick about it, stays with me for a long time.
Elite One Stories: What do you hope readers take away from the themes of courage, justice, resilience, and revenge explored in the novel?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: The readers should take failures with a soft pride as it teaches a great lesson. If you don’t fail, you will not understand it. The protagonist succeeded every time and his first failure turned his world upside down. You don’t have to go chest thumping about your failure but be subtle and learn what your mistakes are, where you can improve. Whether you should try again the same thing in which you failed in a different setup or move onto something completely new.
Revenge can cost you your life, there’s a fine distinction between revenge and avenge. The protagonist is on a mission to avenge not revenge, you should be wise to choose the better option.
It takes courage and resilience to fight for justice because there’s a machine out there willing to fight it out, to defeat you. However, it’s up to you to keep challenging it, there is immense satisfaction in achieving justice for you and others.
Elite One Stories: Now that Spetsnaz Z is reaching readers, what can they expect next from Zahid Anis Ahmad?
Zahid Anis Ahmad: Be on the lookout for a sequel that I have started developing and couple of more stories waiting to completed. Thank you everyone for purchasing a copy of my first novel, and be sure to leave a genuine review if you like it and even if don’t like it. I would appreciate healthy criticisms.
