THE MAKING OF … THE BLOGCHATTER BOOK OF LOVE

In his book, ON WRITING A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT, Stephen King pens:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others; read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

As a writer, I embrace this as the gospel truth.

Apart from these two things being instrumental in one’s writing pursuit, I firmly believe that who we follow and associate with, helps us become better writers. I attribute a lot of all the literary strides I have taken to the communities that I associate with, and the connections I have forged within the writing community.

While writing is a solitary journey, I often feel the need to relate to like-minded communities and people. I have been fortunate to have started my writing sojourn with some extremely gracious platforms. Some of them have shut down, but the lessons I learned, remain. As does my gratitude towards them.  

Today, if you ask me who my Numero Uno community/ platform is, I would say Blogchatter without batting an eyelid.

About BlogChatter:

It’s been two years since I joined the Blogchatter community, and my impression of them remains the same. Always vibrant, always inclusive, and always professional. It is a community that is passionate about books, blogs, and life.

Last year, Blogchatter announced a writing contest. The winning stories would be compiled into an anthology. I was all set to participate when I read the theme carefully —thriller; something I do not read or write. Later it was announced that they would release the book during a retreat in Varanasi. Now, I cannot say for sure if it was the regret of not participating or not attending a retreat in Varanasi, that gave me a sleepless night! Looking at the fabulous pictures of the book launch and the retreat I vowed to myself – whatever the theme be, I will participate next time.

This year around February, Blogchatter announced the writing contest again; this time the theme was LOVE. I could not be happier because I hadn’t written a love story since I started writing, four years ago. And for the same reason, I was anxious about it as well.  

Background to why I chose to write what I wrote:

Born and brought up in a small quaint hill station of Uttarakhand, my notions about love were limited to what a certain Mr. Shahrukh from Bollywood was teaching. That was until I read Gone with The Wind, by Margeret Mitchell during 9^th grade. My naïve self tore apart reading it. And then I read Erich Segal’s Love story, immediately after that. I woke up with swollen eyes the next day. Another year, and I found myself drawn to Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Dicken’s Great Expectations. A large part of how I now understand love has everything to do with what I read in my growing-up years.

I see love as the rainbow we all want to witness after a heavy rain and not like a butterfly in our stomach. I have always found love to be a little elusive, and evasive. I wanted to explore forbidden love, the one that’s tangled and tumultuous.  I guess that is the why and how behind writing – A CRY FOR LOVE; the short story that I submitted for the BLOGCHATTER Contest.

A little about my story:

A CRY FOR LOVE is the story of two women mourning the death of a man they both were in a relationship with. Set in the holy land of Prayag Raj, the story begins with Savitri, a middle-aged woman, staring at the dead body of her husband Shreekant, amidst a houseful of grieving relatives and friends. While the family members are hellbent on making a stoic Savitri cry and vent, the entry of a mystery woman in the house takes everyone by surprise.

All hell breaks loose when this mystery woman identifies herself as Mithilesh Kumari- the one true love of Shreekant’s life. All family members object to Mithilesh’s declaration as outrageous, inappropriate, and malicious. But Mithilesh pleads for only one thing- to let her cry beside the body of her beloved. Will Savitri agree to this? Will Mithilesh’s love get the acknowledgment, it deserves? Will Savitri find closure?

And it’s a win!!!

Yes, not only did I participate but my story also made it to the winning list!  My story A CRY FOR LOVE, is now a part of the anthology – THE BLOGCHATTER BOOK OF LOVE.

About THE BLOGCHATTER BOOK OF LOVE:

There are 18 fellow authors whose stories have found home in this anthology. Reading this book is like walking through 18 different kinds of gardens. And like all good gardeners the authors have nurtured their respective gardens with creativity, passion, knowledge, and a lot of love. Do give it a read. 

About the Book Compilation & Book Publishing Process:

Writing a story is only half the work done. Getting it published is the other half; a half that many new writers on the block, struggle with. With BlogChatter, this should be the least of your worries though. If you have registered for a writing contest, they will never leave any of your apprehensions or queries unattended. 

The participants got to attend a creative writing class with the best-selling author Ms. Anita Nair !!! Once the winners were announced the BlogChatter team went all the way to arrange for a comprehensive editing workshop with Ms. Indrani Ganguly, the managing editor of Readomania, and a bonus Book Marketing session with Ms.Richa Singh, the CEO of Blogchatter in the next few days. All this, within the stipulated time frame given to us months in advance!

If this was not reason enough to celebrate, we were informed that the anthology would be released offline in Kolkatta as part of Blogchatter’s two-day creative retreat. 

The Kolkatta Retreat & Book Launch event:

When I first received the message to register for a retreat cum book launch happening in Kolkatta; I felt it was like a calling to keep aside my daily hankerings and attend the retreat.

What I like most about BlogChatter is that they are a bunch of transparent and professional people to work with and associate with. Right from locking the place, dates, venue, participant itinerary, workshops, and the book launch schedule, to our food and stay arrangements, everything had been handed out to us months in advance. I knew I hadn’t met any of the participants, and fellow co-authors. But I also had the gut feeling that – it will all be fine! It is a BLOGCHATTER retreat after all!

The retreat happened from the 27^th September, 2024- 29^th September, 2024, in Kolkatta.

I consider myself fortunate that I got to meet and listen to experts from the field of Art, literature, and culture of Bengal. I particularly enjoyed the immersive session on Tagore. One of the speakers was Dr. Madhurima Vidyarthi, an endocrinologist, and a passionate writer. She spoke at length about her latest book The School for Bad Girls, a book that highlights the women’s emancipation movement in 19^th Century Bengal.

The day of the launch was of course a red-letter day for all of us who made it to Kolkatta. I was delighted and touched by the presence of several other participants in the retreat, who were attending the launch even though they were not part of the anthology to be launched! I saw people I met 24 hours ago, clicking our pictures, clapping for us, and cheering us. I thank each one of you, today! I think it was in those rare moments that I came face to face with life, and some friends, if I may call them that now. 

Ms. Indrani Ganguli, the managing editor of Readomania along with Richa Singh, the co-founder and the CEO of Blogchatter gave the book launch the graceful touch, the occasion rightly deserved. Ms. Ganguli was kind enough to deliver an insightful session on book writing, and publishing. 

In the night an Ikigai Session was scheduled post dinner which eventually turned into a room bursting with the echoes of unfiltered laughter of people who were practically strangers a day ago. During the two-day retreat, we discussed many things. Right from Biswokabi Tagore to our own sweet little writing journeys, to our dreams; Even our failures. I haven’t laughed so much since then.  

The Blogchatter team gifted us a thoughtful goodie bag as a parting gift.  Only people whose heads and hearts are in the right place can curate such a heartfelt hamper.   

Now as I sit down to put it all together for you my heart is still full. I look forward to writing many more stories, and hopefully, some of them will also ensure my ticket to a Blogchatter Retreat again!

P.S. THE BLOGCHATTER BOOK OF LOVE IS NOW AVAILABLE on READOMANIA’s website and Amazon Kindle.