Interviewer: Ahmed EL Faky
Edited by: Mona Timor Shehata
1-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Can you briefly talk to us about your life?
PhilippReinartz: I am a Berlin based writer and a creative entrepreneur. I majored in Drama, Film and TV Studies, further studied Journalism and Design Thinking. I am a co-founder of the game and gamification studio Pfeffermind. I help clients to use game mechanics in non-game contexts and run one of Germany’s leading room escape businesses. Besides writing essays for German magazines including ZEIT online and SüddeutscheZeitungMagazin, I started writing novels while still in university. In 2017, Random House started publishing my new crime fiction series featuring detective Jerusalem Schmitt.
2-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is the turning point, which helped in changing your life?
I actually never changed my life. I just keep doing what I love to do since I was born. When I was young I was already inventing games all the time, I presented shows in radio and television. I always enjoyed doing different things. I think it’s the only way I can see myself working. I can’t imagine being forced to perform one repetitive task every day – over and over again. I like having different things happening at the same time. It keeps me going and fuels the new ideas as well.
3-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is the next step in your ambitious journey and what is the new talent that you will discover and add to your talents?
PhilippReinartz: I have a few months to finish up the second part of my book. And I’d love to work on developing my company. The story of the second Jerusalem-novel, which I am currently writing, evolves around multicultural, socio-political issues and I plan on developing the third part of the series, which I will start writing in autumn, in the same direction as well. But apart from that – no idea [laughs]! I used to work on a few TV programs back in the day, so maybe I’d like to go back to that. But who knows! I like to keep my options open.
4-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Describe your journey in Egypt (Alexandria) as if it’s a short story you wrote?
PhilippReinartz: Well, Alexandria is interesting as a setting and of course interesting as a source of inspiration. I held a workshop, teaching a bunch of incredible courageous Arabic journalists the use of Gamification Mechanics in journalism at Alexandria Media Forum, and gave a reading at the invitation of the Goethe Institute in Alexandria and could really feel the driving energy of the foreign, the mind-expanding effect of the impressions, faces and stories of another world. It helps your writing to get all these influences.
5-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: The title “The Last Colors of Death” has many meanings, so I want you to tell us about this book’s background and why did you choose this name? And are you thinking of adapting it into a film soon?
PhilippReinartz: It’s the second book I’ve written, but this one is very different from my first novel. “Die LetzteFarbe des Todes” is much darker – it’s my first attempt at criminal fiction. The novel is told from different perspectives, each character sharing their own point of view on the story – which is why I want to be as close to my protagonist as possible, to be able to see and feel what they see and feel. The title reflects the fact that several victims are found dead in Berlin, each having a colored point in their neck. We have chosen this name because it helps the reader to recognize the book as a crime story and because it has a literary sound. I always write having pictures in my head, so the book could be adapted into a film for sure.
6-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is your expectations about writing and inventions, taking into account the rapid and unexpected developments in the future?
PhilippReinartz: Well, for writing fiction I see a shift from books to more visual forms of storytelling like TV shows. For non-fictional writing, journalism, one trend I definitely expect is the rise of gamification. In former times people thought: “Games are fun, journalism is serious business!?” Well, maybe, but why not making serious business so much fun that people actually love it? Gamification means getting tasks from the inner “Have-To” to the inner “Want-To” list. Games are motivation masterpieces. And as storytellers of the 21st century we know: we all fight for the people’s limited attention. Good sources, good stories, good writing – that’s one thing. But the story’s presentation is getting more and more important.
7-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Finally, what do you want to write in the last chapter of your life’s story?
PhilippReinartz: Comedy, I hope.