Bhubaneswar, Aug. 20: Odia boy Uday Satpathy's book went viral among online readers when he took part in an online contest for the first crowd-curated book or one to be published following public reviews and demand.

Ever since, the IT expert-turned-author's journey has been full of thrills, albeit different from his bestseller thriller Brutal.

An electrical engineer from VSS University of Technology, Burla, Uday is a management graduate from XIM, Bhubaneswar. He is an IT expert in the field of health care and life sciences and, at present, based in New Jersey. The author in him has, however, been budding right from his childhood, said the 31-year-old.

"My father worked in several industrial sectors and that kept our family moving across India. I could observe the geopolitics of our country up and close, and being a fan of Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy, I had decided much early that I would write thrillers. Brutal has all these elements in it plus lots of my imagination. I have also used a lot of scientific advancements in the plot," said the young author.

It was on well-known author Rashmi Bansal's unique website Bloody Good Books where he had posted his book two years ago. The book got popular immediately on the website and helped him win the contest to be published through popular public reviews as well as great reviews by author Ravi Subramaniam and Bansal, herself, who said she had started reading it at 11pm and finished it by 4am because it was so engrossing.

Immensely popular and a bestseller at amazon.in, Brutal has received rave reviews from readers on the shopping portal, too. The book is about a series of murders by a schoolteacher - which leads to his killing and a series of other mysteries set with the political backdrop of the country. Brutal is co-published by Bloody Good Book and Westland Ltd. Westland will be releasing the print book on September 5. It was launched as a Kindle version and an e-book on August 5.

Being published early in his writing career and on demand of public reviews is the best start he could get, said Uday.

"I had written the book two years before I entered the contest. And it's an amazing start to my career. I can promise many more thrillers to my readers," said Uday, who also gives credit for his success to wife Astha Agarwal.

"She is an IT consultant and, therefore, pretty busy herself. But she would sit and read with zeal every word that I wrote and encourage me or even be a harsh critic when needed," he said.

Apart from office and writing, Uday spends his time in various activities. "I am a movie connoisseur, a cricket fanatic, a quizzing enthusiast and a travel freak," he said, adding that he had a "special place in his heart for cooking as well".