Neboysha Saikovski Interview Published on: 22, Sep 2021

There is a big difference in the way we used to spend our childhood, so I dedicated the whole chapter in the book to our childhood adventures and how they used to be. When we were children, we spent the whole day outside, enjoying making bases and hiding places, climbing and running, exploring the surroundings. My parents had to drag me back into the house. How did we spend our time? In running and playing sports, on a tree, with improvised games and toys made of cloth and wood. We drank tap water and swam in rivers and lakes without parental supervision. We didn’t spend much time with our parents during the day.

The differences between childhood then and now are growing, now the demands of children are qualitatively different so that expectations and the context of growing up have changed completely. Parenting is one of the most difficult tasks of today, there is no doubt about that. Today, a large percentage of children have a different orientation in their games and social life: they play less outside, they are much less in action and not on the move. Girls and boys have more of a task to continue what has already been designed, and less to create toys and create the necessary conditions for that game. They spend most of their free time indoors, so as not to get wet, so as not to get dirty or perhaps injured in the game.

When I was a child, parks used to sprout from nowhere, children ran, jumped, fell, they were empowered for some future life. Such children knew how to play social games, to communicate, to gain and keep friends, they were creative and carefree. Today, all that has been replaced by social networks. The more friends or fans or followers you have, the more you are worth. Then, games outside were replaced by games on computers, tablets. Conversations with friends have been replaced by chats. Physical activity has been replaced by indoor activity, children are becoming more passive and out of shape.

I know these are advantages and disadvantages of the modern age, we must live with it, but let's try to change what is up to us. Maybe just to remind ourselves that time is passing quickly and what we are left within the end are childhood memories. How many will my children have? What I can do personally for my children is to try to create as many shared memories as possible, because traveling and adventures together will be the only thing they will remember - not material gifts. If you don't believe me, ask your children if they remember that expensive toy you bought them when they were 4 years old? Probably not, but they will remember some pleasant situation or positive emotion you experienced together.

I have been practicing writing as a hobby for some 25 years or so, writing essays and stories predominantly about the war experience. I used to be shy about my writing, keeping it just for myself or closer circle. Writing this novel was a creative torment of ten years, as my experience and reflections grew mature and sought its birth in written word.

Reading, watching movies/TV series, tennis, yoga, hiking.

When I was a kid I was always drawing and coloring, painting and making little sculptures. I would call it a rather happy and carefree childhood, I was a vivid, temperamental child, a natural leader of my group, and a leader in mischief. My friends, playing outside, sports, all marked my childhood and youth a very happy era of my life. Until the war stopped it all when I was forced to replace my basketball with a gun and participate in a brutal civil war in Bosnia. As I grew older, I found a creative outlet through music and especially in film. I had been wanting to write a novel since I began to read them because I always thought that I have interesting life stories to tell.

The seeds of all my writing go back to my post-war period when I started to read and write more actively. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of the Pink Panthers, this elusive gang, originating from my homeland, was actual as they terrorized the global jewelry industry over two decades. After hundreds of heists in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia with the prey of about $1 billion, this shadowy network of brazen robbers targeted some of the world’s most luxurious jewelry stores. With their imaginative audacity in carrying out outrageous crimes fitting for a Hollywood movie script, they intrigued the world including myself – but who are the real Pink Panthers? Nobody ever really answered that question. So, I set out for a personal investigative crusade and presented all the findings in my book “PINK PANTHERS: The Greatest Thieves in the World”.

The process is never simple, not only writing is important. Yet, even when finished, I pitched the novel for almost a year with no success, nobody in my homeland in Bosnia and Serbia accepted to publish it. Nevertheless, I didn't let rejection or lack of support stop me! I had it edited and translated into English and published it in the USA in June 2020, prior to publishing in my homeland. Only after that, the publishing offers from my homeland started popping up.

My life has been one full of struggle, effort, adventure, and adversity, which all have enriched me and gave breeding ground for narratives and scenery for my stories and novels. I had to give up a career of a successful basketball player and participate in brutal and devastating fratricidal civil war, facing violent discord of my homeland – Yugoslavia. So, I passed through hell of two years in war, then faced obligation to work to support my family afterwards in an economically devastated society. I managed to survive all of that and then attain successful career as a logistics specialist having worked for large international organizations and corporations such as the United Nations, Halliburton/KBR, or DynCorp and Vectrus. How to survive it all? Here is the advice which is listed in the book too: one thing at a time, step by step, task by task, hour by hour and day by day.

The Pink Panther fictional fantasy, a classic, comedy-crime adventure film, has lent its name to a real-life international criminal syndicate nightmare spanning two decades, given to them by Interpol due to the audacious manner of their crimes. The Pink Panthers’ has mounted well-planned and elaborate robberies around the world, most notably in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia; the gang’s legendary trademark is the ability to carry out robberies with carefully planned and precise attacks lasting just minutes. The ideas that the Pink Panthers introduced as a ‘patent’ in committing the robberies were more intriguing than even the greatest movie-minds could come up with. And I'm not just talking about disguising themselves as women, fleeing by speedboat and the like, but that all the robberies were committed without a single victim, and that's what makes the Pink Panthers unique in the criminal world. With their imagination and extremely expressed audacity in carrying out their robberies, they left the world breathless, including me. So, I wrote this story based on true events about them and named the book as the Interpol named them: The Pink Panthers.

Dare to pursue your dreams! No one else can or will do it for you! Nothing is impossible! Try your best to live up your dream, don’t focus on obstacles and excuses instead. Never give up your dreams. Don’t be afraid of challenge, don’t subdue to your own fears and insecurity. Do what it takes, make every reasonable effort, go for it because in future, you will regret not for the things you did but for those that you wanted to try yourself in but never dared.

I write intriguing and compelling narrative, devised to make readers think of the world they live in, question the known notions of good and evil and take responsibility of their contribution to the world they leave to their children. I write such literature that is easily convertible into attractive and appealing movie narratives. By personalizing the functioning of criminal cartels, the horrors of war, the violent discord of country and pitiful dissolution of family and showing the results of these bold events have on individuals is the general theme I tried to dive into with my writing. Due to those complex themes, I couldn’t present all the events in a single book only, but it had to be divided and developed into a trilogy. My books can be read as standalone but also tie a connective thread through all the books

It is always individual; we must choose our own passion projects. For me it was writing, for someone else it may be something else that you love to do and can monetize. I am one of very few indie authors from a small country as Bosnia who succeeded to publish their work at the international scene. Nobody supported me, I have no agent or publishing company and still managed to pull it through, and my book is now featured at all major outlets such as Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes Noble, Kobo etc. Through my success, I developed a system which I named the Saikovski-Method, which guarantees international publishing presence at all the major global book platforms for indie authors, and now I help other underprivileged authors to achieve the same success as my book.

Yes, and I wrote about them in detail in the first book, and more tragic scenes are coming in the next chapters. I turned the Mafia and War theme into popular art that satisfies on every possible level — as a family drama, a crime saga, a military war thriller, a love melodrama and an impeccable evocation of a historical period covering more than 30 years of Southeast Europe prewar and postwar period in the Balkans. Detailed coverage of the background of origins of war and how those bold events shaped the youngsters from former Yugoslavia into mastermind thieves suggests its narrative power, extraordinary characters and mythic values register as strongly for younger readers as for the older ones. I have personally experienced many of my characters’ struggles and adversities: the frustration of ending youthful successful sports career due to a brutal war, demolition of all my boyish dreams in the cruelest reality of civil war, and the poverty and anomia in my country afterward. Thinking of all of these was a torment to comprehend and apprehend such brutal reality. All that deep and extensive reflection of the modern world, the destiny of my country, my people, my relatives who suffered a lot due to war and post-war anomia and moral as well as the economic crisis in our society brought about the fruit through the writing of this book, which has made that torment be sublimed through creativity.

Currently, I’m focused on publishing activities in Bosnia and Serbia, as well as promotional activities in the USA and worldwide. In some months, I’ll start writing the second novel in the Pink Panthers Trilogy. The second and third part will show the further fate of the main characters when some members of the group try to start a normal family life in a tragicomic way before returning to what they actually do best, while the others "re-specialize" in their criminal career. I also have a novel in the works about my vision of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia and then a big novel on the return of the son of God, Jesus Christ. The Christians tell me I should not write about Christ… but I love Christ and doubt that he would prevent me to write about something that I love, and also already found the publisher who wants to publish it so I guess I will still write it.

The website itself is easy, and nice to navigate. Very convenient, even if someone is not very computer literate. Very impressive writing portal, you are doing a great job, and up to date with technology. I think it’s great, enjoyed this cooperation, and am very grateful for the promotional activities you provided for my book - we will cooperate on my future books too.