World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day, is an annual celebration organized by UNESCO to promote the joys of reading, publishing, and copyright. It takes place on April 23rd each year, a date chosen for its symbolic significance in world literature as it marks the death anniversary of several prominent authors, including William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes.
Participating in World Book Day is a wonderful way to celebrate the joy of reading. Here are some ways you can get involved:
Redeem Book Tokens: If you have received a World Book Day book token, you can redeem it at participating retailers for a free World Book Day book or get a discount on other books during the redemption period.
Attend Events: Check out local libraries, bookstores, and schools for special World Book Day events, which may include readings, author signings, and book-themed activities.
Dress Up: Many schools and communities host costume events where participants dress up as their favorite book characters. It’s a fun way to engage with literature and share your love for a particular story.
Share a Story: UNESCO encourages sharing stories and reading aloud to children for at least 10 minutes every day to foster a love for reading.
Gift a Book: Consider gifting a book to someone, especially children, to encourage reading. It’s a great way to spread the love for books.
Join Online: Participate in online discussions, book clubs, and social media events centered around World Book Day. Share your reading experiences and recommendations with others.
Support Local Bookshops: Visit your local independent bookseller to explore new titles and support the community. Many bookshops participate in World Book Day by hosting events and offering special deals.
Remember, World Book Day is about celebrating books and reading in all forms, so any way you choose to participate will contribute to the global appreciation of literature!
Crafting a compelling plot is essential for keeping readers engaged. Here are some tips to help you create a satisfying story ending.
Decide What Kind of Ending You Want:
Consider the genre of your story and the impression you want to leave on readers.
Common types of endings include:
Resolved Ending: Neatly ties up all plot threads, leaving no lingering questions. Suitable for romance, standalone stories, and the last book in a series.
Unresolved Ending: Resolves the central conflict but leaves loose threads, intriguing readers about what happens next. Ideal for mid-series books.
Ambiguous Ending: Keeps things open to interpretation, allowing readers to imagine different versions of the end. Often used in horror.
Surprise Ending: Ends with an unexpected twist, but foreshadowing should be present. Great for thrillers and mysteries.
Tied Ending: Brings the story back to the beginning, showing character or world changes. Works well for various story types.
Expanded Ending: Extends beyond the main plot events, often through an epilogue1.
Change and Growth:
Stories thrive on change. Ensure that your characters evolve throughout the plot, facing challenges and learning from them.
Setup and Payoff:
Introduce elements early in the story (setup) and then deliver on them later (payoff). This creates a satisfying sense of completion.
Causality:
Actions should have consequences. Show how character decisions impact the plot, creating a chain of events.
Mystery and Revelation:
Keep readers curious by revealing information gradually. Balance what they know with what remains hidden.
Emotional Balance and Cohesion:
Ensure that the emotional tone aligns with the story’s overall theme. A satisfying ending resonates emotionally with readers.
Remember, a well-structured plot includes elements like the inciting incident, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and resolution. These components weave an immersive world that captivates readers until the very end. Happy writing!
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852, has been a subject of controversy for its portrayal of African Americans and the institution of slavery. While the novel played a significant role in the anti-slavery movement, it has also been criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes.
The novel has been scrutinized for creating stereotypes that continue to affect Black Americans. Stowe’s character, Uncle Tom, is seen by some as a symbol of passivity and subservience to white people, which contrasts with her intention of portraying him as a figure of faith and resilience
At the time of its publication, the novel was criticized by some whites who thought Stowe’s portrayal of black characters was too positive, and later by black critics who believed these characters were oversimplified and stereotypical.
The controversy surrounding “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” reflects the evolving understanding of racial representation and the impact of literature on societal views. It remains a significant work for its historical context and its role in shaping American attitudes towards slavery and race
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s research for “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was extensive and multifaceted. She drew from her personal experiences, the stories of formerly enslaved people, and anti-slavery literature.
Stowe was born into a family that held strong abolitionist beliefs. Her experiences and the discussions she had within her community provided a foundation for her understanding of slavery.
Stowe conducted interviews with people who had escaped slavery, gathering firsthand accounts of their experiences.
She used existing anti-slavery literature as part of her research. One significant work she drew from was “American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses,” co-authored by Theodore Dwight Weld and the Grimké sisters.
Through her novel, Stowe aimed to vividly dramatize the experience of slavery and influence the attitudes of her readers towards African Americans and the institution of slavery itself. Her work contributed significantly to the abolitionist movement and remains a landmark piece of American literature.
You can never be satisfied with the emotions that Hemingway creates. I remember mentioning to a friend that reading his books are like having an interaction with a very close friend of mine, I don’t even realize that am reading, it’s like him talking to me. Hemingway is my favorite and other writer who comes closer is JD Salinger.
Coming back to this book, in the surface (like sea) we get to read a simple plot which includes the following characters, but when you finish this book and as the thoughts starts pouring in you get to see the Hidden treasures.
The Characters
Santiago The old fishermen whom, the community had taken every chances to put down. Even though he was a skilled fisherman in his prime, now with this age, he was considered to be lost the skills and unlucky. Unlucky because he had gone 84 days without a catch.
Manolin The boy, who learned the skill from Santiago. This kid got a huge respect for Santiago and he believed in the old man. The boy also helps and provide for the old man.
Marlin is a kind of fish, with whom the old man spends several days at the sea to capture it.
The Story
Our old man goes into sea, a solo voyage, to prove his community of fishermen that he is still capable to make a big catch and his skills are as upto date as it was in his prime days. In this endeavor He succeeds or not?
Before I get into the treasure hidden beneath the sea, I must record the connection Hemingway constructs between the Old man and the boy, is something that will stay with me forever, it provide me a greater venue to present examples about some relationships. Same was the case with the character named Catherine from the book ‘A Farewell To Arms’, even though I read this book years back, I still remember how strong a character she was.
Now about the treasures we can find from this subtle story, let us name it under current themes are the followings.
Pain / Suffering
Nothing comes to us easily (most cases). For a fisherman’s worthwhile catch comes from painful physical and mental injuries. Enduring pain that is what it meant to be a fisherman. The old man’s hands are marred with scars, which show us a lifelong struggle with the opponents at the sea.
Samsara
Hemingway, with his narrative audacity throws the thoughts that sea is cruel and beautiful. It gives life and takes it away. Isn’t the case of our lives with ups and downs? The sharks devours marlins, the man catches fish.
Pride & Respect
The old man is pride of his skills and wants recognition for them (each one of us want it right?, so don’t just like it, do comment your thoughts too). On his solo voyage he wished that the boy was with him not only to dispel loneliness but to show the boy that what kind of a man he is and to witness the greatest catch of his life.
Inspirational
I felt it like one of the inspiring story that possibly we could have come across. When all other hopes are set comes the book to give you that boost to kick start and keep going, this one is truly an inspiring read. It is the story of perseverance. Instead defying his streak of bad luck, the old man keeps going out to fish, trying even harder than the previous time. No matter what Santiago is not defeated nor is his spirit broken. Isn’t the shot we all needed to make believe, fall six times rise seven? Indeed it is, you will also connect once you read this story.
Like Jesus bearing his cross, our Old man will carry his mast to and from his skiff day in & out doing what a fisherman are meant to, to set sail and catch fish.
Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence (MOI), deciphers the complex Turkish identity of individual and society which is dwelling between the modernity and values of Eastern and Western culture. In the novel, Pamuk has brought several narrative layers that depict the postcolonial changes in Istanbul throughout the 1970s to 2000s (Allmer,163). It reflects upon identity issues, turbulent Turkish history, and the influence of European culture (Pang, 2). The study aims to examine the possible meanings of the three major perspectives: heterotopia, Kemal’s infidelity, and the materialistic culture reflected in the novel. Pamuk’s novel ends up forming a curated museum which is a heterotopic place juxtaposing the real and imaginary world. The novel also raises concerns about the portrayal of gender issues (Khamitova, 16). The protagonist, Kemal belongs to a wealthy family from the elite group of the Istanbul community. Kemal narrates about his obsessive and lost love, and how it changed the course of his life along with a detailed description of Istanbul’s life (Yuncu et al. 241). The novel models the narrator using storytelling, his memories, and the use of objects for the description of personal and collective memory (Khamitova, 17). The novel consists of Kemal’s intense monologues and the frantic act of collecting objects (Pang, 3). This novel is a unique work with which Pamuk created a literary and architectural space to coherent rationale for the theme. The literary space in the novel could integrate the theory of Lefebvre’s special triad (Yuncu et al. 244). Thus, the museum acts as a fine exemplar of the explicit architectural correlation with the novel setting (Yuncu et al. 250).
Heteropia
Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia can be used as a tool to understand the heterotopic quality of Pamuk’s novel and to understand how these spaces create challenges or resistance in the novel (Ansin, 1). It helps in identifying the features of the selected spaces within the novel. The love story of Kemal and Füsun occurs in the ambient milieu of Istanbul where the traditional values and Westernization oscillate towards the end of the 20th century (Ansin, 1). The novel involves the subjective experience of passionate love and obsession of Kemal the transformative power of the spaces over him with time. With the progress of recollecting his memory, the narrator is making the reader visualize a museum with curated things that reverberate with the backdrop of the story. The tragic death of Füsun devastates Kemal and he tries to find solace in the things he collected over the years (Merwa, 18). The museum is curated with the various belongings of Füsun which act as Kemal’s most personal spaces where he takes shelter. Thus, the Museum of Innocence acts as a space of hope for Kemal, and this literary expression of Foucault’s heterotopia makes the time constant in the museum (Shamla, 28). This space can be witnessed for Kemal’s love story and a reference for Istanbul’s political, cultural, and social events during the time (Sönmez, 1018). Pamuk’s attempt to narrate Kemal’s love story caused the genesis of a novel for the Turkish literary world but contributed to a museum for the global audience. Since the story of the novel and the museum are the same, Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence acts as a heterotopic world.
Kemal’s infidelity
The novel ends with Kemal telling the writer Orhan, ‘Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life’ (MOI, 532). This statement makes the reader raise a question to Kemal, ‘Did Füsun ever have a happy life?’ Kemal is engaged to Sibel before meeting Füsun and they represent educated, Western-influenced wealthy people belonging to bourgeois Istanbul. Füsun represents a financially backward girl who lives in a populated dark alleyway which is the less modernized side of Istanbul. On the peripheral layer, MOI talks about Kemal’s memory, passion, love, emotional attachment, and obsession towards Füsun (Dakhil and Zhang, 132). The novel begins with Kemal’s detailing of his sexual encounter with Füsun, which keeps on repeating over the time frame. Kemal’s passion is ruled by his libido and gets stirred by Füsun’s physical attractiveness (Dimitria, 68) and sex outside marriage is still a stigma in the society. Kemal commits emotional and sexual infidelity with Füsun (Rahayu and Khoiri, 1), and with the progress of the novel Kemal ends his relationship with Sibel and seeks Füsun’s reconciliation. MOI is the best example where Pamuk diligently talks about the issues of feminist existentialism such as patriarchy, freedom, objectification, suppression, equal rights, sexual harassment, prostitution, and suicide (Dakhil and Zhang, 132). Füsun expects Kemal to be part of her life but she gets irrevocable pain when he decides to live with Sibel maintaining his social status. Their relationship was more on personal interests and more precisely on Kemal’s sexual satisfaction (Rahayu and Khoiri, 2; Dimitria, 72) which instilled anguish and emotional misery in Füsun. The theory of love is a concept developed by the existential psychologist Rollo May and Pamuk uses this love in this novel. Kemal’s love can be defined as the most influential factor in his infidelity (Rahayu and Khoiri, 5). This novel also urges the reader to instigate the reader to interpret the text concerning the theory of feminism and how the supremacy of a male-dominated society relegated women to mere objects (Dakhil and Zhang, 135). Pamuk has portrayed Füsun as an example of the victimization of Turkish women in that era. Through the novel, Füsun undergoes sexual objectification and the sexiest oppression from the men in her life. In the name of helping Füsun with mathematics, Kemal had masked her ulterior motives of using her for his sexual fantasies (Dakhil and Zhang, 137). This leaves no room for the care, love, sincerity, and emotional security deserved by Füsun. There exists mutual objectification between Füsun and Feridun. Kemal’s sexual oppression causes him to keep Füsun away from all film opportunities. Feridun took away her opportunity to become a star and this caused pain, frustration, and resentment in Füsun (Dakhil and Zhang, 139). Füsun faced extreme suppression from the patriarchal society in the form of helplessness, vulnerability, unemployment, depression and which caused her suspected death from suicide. The issues faced by Füsun are common to both feminism and existentialism (Dakhil and Zhang, 140). Pamuk intentionally throws questions at the readers to think about the equality and rights of women in Turkish society (MOI, 410).
Pamuk-Kemal collector’s model
According to Pamuk, the novel and the museum are two representations of the same story (Pamuk, 2008). Kemal has collected most of Füsun’s objects such as earrings, yellow shoes, a tricycle, ashtrays, cigarette butts, quince grater, etc. over the years between 1975 and 1983 to indemnify her for not being in his life. Pamuk makes the narrator feel proud of his obsessive collection as an expression of his love rather than letting him feel culpability. His love for Füsun is cataloged with several notional objects curated in the museum. These belongings of Füsun are detailed in the bourgeois Istanbul grounds (Allmer, 166). Finally, Kemal makes an exhaustive catalogue of Füsun’s possessions and this in reality leads Pamuk’s novel to be shaped into an architectural project, a museum. Pamuk opened the architectural discourse of The Museum of Innocence at Çukurcuma, Istanbul in 2010. Thus, bringing life to his creative illusion of Kemal’s love. This also reveals Pamuk’s inquisitive approach in carefully considering the novel’s factual reality narrated by Kemal and bringing the encyclopedic quality of the novel into the museum. Beyond the obsession of Kemal over Füsun, this depicts Pamuk’s interest in collecting objects and Pamuk’s model collector shows similitude with the German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s approach to collecting objects (Allmer, 167). Both Pamuk and Benjamin resonate various emotions with respective objects and aid in proving Pamuk’s artistry through the museum. Similar to Füsun’s house, Merhamet apartment symbolizes the collector’s nature of Kemal’s mother and acts as a milieu of materialism. Pamuk’s curated museum practices the Picture Theory of William Mitchell in expressing the images in words (ekphrasis) (Allmer, 169). In MOI, Pamuk explains the theory by providing verbal representation for his images through writing the novel, the reader develops their visual images while reading the novel and curated museum from the textual novel for the reader. The similarity of visual signs in the museum and their contextual elucidation in the museum is termed as anchorage by Barthes in his Rhetoric of the Image (Barthes, 1977 and Ogut, 4). The artifacts act as agency of objects with Kemal’s self-contained memories. These artifacts not only bring in the materialistic culture but also introduce Lyotard’s concepts of ‘Figure and Discourse’ (Ogut, 10). This museum is a representation of Kemal’s nostalgia, his yearning for his past: his childhood memories of his community and country (Yuncu etal. 242)
End notes.
On the first read, the novel seems to talk about the love, passion, resentment, memory, and obsession of Kemal for his lover. But between the textual discourse, Pamuk has written the finest novel which evokes the reader to think about various issues prevalent in the male-dominated society and how it impacts the Turkish women The characters and the events speak for the sensitive socio-political issues and critically question its prevalence. Panuk gives the novelized realism a heterotopic architectural facet. Sexual objectification and suppression are major issues explained through Füsun’s feminist existential crisis. Pamuk questions the female subordination to the patriarchal authority endemic in Turkish society. Pamuk has explored the possibility of curating Kemal’s love and obsession for Füsun and her materials. With Kemal and Füsun, Pamuk created a literary space as well as an architectural space for his readers. These artifacts remain untouched by the ever-growing modernization occurring in Istanbul and continue to tell their stories to every visitor. The building of the museum diminishes the boundaries between literature and architecture thereby novel getting spatialized and the space gets textualized.
“Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature and dip into some book now and then.”
The above quote from the book ‘Dead Souls’ is quite relatable. I guess this feeling is mutual among us who adore and adopt books. This book was another marvelous accident, picked as part of the weird reading goal of mine – the goal of reading one book per country around the globe.
The Book : DEAD SOULS
Country : Russia
Author : Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol
Pages : 424
Genre : Politics/ Satire
First published : 1842
Translated by : Robert A Maguire
Publishing House : Penguin Classics
About Gogol
Nickolay Vasilievich Gogol is the founder of Russian Realism. Gogol is adapted pen name which means ‘Golden-eye Duck’. He was born at 31st March 1809 in a town of Velliki Sorochinici, Ukraine, which was a part of the great Russian Empire at that time. It is observed that the inspiration for this novel, The Dead Souls, came from his friend Pushkin; originally imagined as trilogy, modeled upon Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’.
The first part represents the hell; the second part after decades of works was destroyed by Gogol himself. It is also learnt that he became a religious fanatic and burnt the second part of the novel influenced by a priest. Nine days later Gogol died (self-imposed starvation), but luckily some pieces of the manuscripts he had been working on survived. This makes the novel an unfinished work.
Dead Souls – A Poem
Yes, that is what this novel has as a subtitle. This book is the representation of Russian life as a mosaic of strangely intersecting inanities. Gogol mocked, ridiculed and exposed the flaws and foibles of the landowners, mostly rich, stupid and idle, the corrupt bureaucrats who connive with them, the pretty royalties and the hypocrisy of high society and placed them in comic scenes, one after another.
The Plot
The plot of this book is simple, but the narration and detailing make this work an extravagant reading material. Gogol criticizes the owners of the large estates, their life style and habits. In this novel he attempts to display the bureaucracy and feudal organizations in Russia at his time. The lead character Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is described as anti-hero similar to a real-life person, unscrupulous and immoral of nature. He tries to buy dead souls as the collateral to obtain a large loan. In pursuit of this mission he travels across provinces, along with his assistant named Selifan (I liked the name a lot) and meets Manilov (The Kind Manner), Plewkshin (Mr. Spitoon), Sobakievich (Mr. Dog), Nozdayor (Mr. Nostril) and Kovobachka (Mrs. Box). Each meeting with the above-mentioned landlords is super engaging and ultra humorous.
Why buying Dead Souls?
This is exactly where Gogol tightens the rope of sarcasm. It is exposing and a satirical examination of 1800s Russian nobility and society. In post-Napoleonic Russia, land owners owned serfs who worked on lands. A man’s wealth was not only measured by the amount of land he possessed, but also by the number of souls he owned. Chichiko, our proclaimed hero decides to become rich by buying those dead souls. In Russia during those days the census was taken only once in a year of these serfs. Chichikov tries to exploit this by owning souls cheaper and then claims those dead souls as his own. Therefore, it could happen that some of the dead people were still considered to be alive. Chichikov asks the land owners to sell him those dead souls, as they would in return become free of paying the fees for all their dead serfs. The actual intention of Chichikov was to set up an estate in the region where the government was selling cheap land. He needed those dead souls so that he could register them to get a bank loan.
About Translator
This work is translated by Robert A. Maguire, who was the Boris Bakhmeteff Professor Emeritus of Russian studies at Columbia University. His area of specialization, on which he has written widely were the Soviet period and the early nineteenth century. He also received several awards for published works and services to his field of study.
I’m so glad that I could read this book as a part of my reading goal. Even though the work is an unfinished one, this book truly takes us back in time and allows us to experience those glorious vintage stuff and life style of 1840s. As an admirer of history and historical fiction, this takes me through its narration into a time zone which otherwise would have remained like the mystery of black hole.
There is lot of ink left in my pen but I am saving them for another occasion. Happy reading.
Unfortunately, the Sapiens’ regime on earth has so far produced a little that we can be proud of. We have mastered our surroundings, increased food production, built cities, established empires and created far-flung trade networks. But did we decrease the amount of suffering in this world?
Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?
SNAP!
What am I talking about?
Book: Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Country: Israel
Language: Hebrew
No. of pages: 498
Year: 2014
Published by: Vintage Books (London)
Reading history and related stuffs (I am not good at remembering dates though) bestow upon me immense pleasure. This book which is based on the evolution of humans to the present state was something that was revealing, shocking and breath-taking at times. Even though we are far ahead of our forebearers, the genus Homo in Africa, we still have no hint where we are heading towards. It seems to be an aimless and hopeless wandering. More of like a pie, the share may differ but the size of the pie remains unvarying. If at all one day the share becomes equal, then comes the extinction, everything which had a beginning has an end too.
Trust me, this one will be one of the most captivatinginvestments you could possibly make, of your time. It’s always favourable and a congenial occurrence to go after the roots to see how the dirt yield such a fragrance of pride to our present state of affairs.
About the Author
This guy specializes in world history. His research focuses on broad questions such as:
What is the relationship between history and biology?
Is there justice in history?
Did people become happier as history unfolded?
He has a PhD in History from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Some interesting facts from the book
You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven. But why is it important? Well, after all, fiction can be dangerously misleading or distracting. People who go to the forest looking for fairies and unicorns would seem to have less chances of survival than people who go looking for mushrooms and deer. And if you spend hours praying to non-existent guardian spirits, aren’t you wasting precious time, time better spent foraging, fighting and fornicating?
Voltaire said about God that ‘There is no god, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murders me at night.’
A single priest often does the work of a hundred soldiers, far more cheaply and effectively.
The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud. Who was responsible? Neither Kings, nor priests, nor merchants. The culprits were a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than vice versa.
Haunting and unsettling specifics
The natives of Tasmania, having survived for 10,000 years in splendid isolation were completely wiped out, to the last man, woman and child, within a century of Cook’s (Captain James Cook, an experienced sea-man as well as an accomplished geographer and ethnographer) arrival. European settlers first drove them off the richest parts of the island, and then, coveting even the remaining wilderness, hunted them down and killed them systematically. The few survivors were hounded into an evangelical concentration camp, where well-meaning but not particularly open-minded missionaries tried to indoctrinate them in the ways of the modern world. The Tasmanians were instructed in reading and writing, Christianity and various productive skills such a sewing clothes and farming. But they refused to learn. They became more melancholic, stopped having children, lost all interest in life, and finally chose the only escape route from the modern world of science and progress – death.
Even afterlife, science and progress pursued them. The corpses of the last Tasmanians were seized in the name of science by anthropologists and curators. They were dissected, weighed and measured, and analysed in learned articles. The skulls and skeletons were then put on display in museums and anthropological collections. Only in 1976 did the Tasmanian Museum give up for burial of the skeleton of Truganini, the last native Tasmanian, who had died a hundred years earlier. The English Royal College of Surgeons held on to the samples of her skin and hair until 2002.
My takeaway from the book
No to meat (Chicken, Mutton, Beef, Pork), that’s what my take away from this book. The incident which I read was unsettling and is the very reason to avoid meat. I also remember this was even in practice at my native. During my childhood days I had witnessed it without any emotional baggage.
The dairy/meat industry has its own ways of forcing animals to do its will. Cows, goats and sheep produce milk only after giving birth to calves, kids and lambs, and only as long as the youngsters are suckling. To continue a supply of animal milk, a farmer needs to have calves, kids and lambs for suckling, but must prevent them from monopolizing the milk. One common method throughout history was to simply slaughter the calves and kids shortly after birth, milk the mother for all she was worth, and then get her pregnant again.
Another method is to keep the calves and kids near their mothers but prevent them by various stratagems from suckling too much milk. The simplest way to do that is to allow the kid or calf to start suckling, but drive it away once the milk start flowing. This method usually encounters resistance from both kid and mother. Some sheep tribes used to kill the offspring, eat its flesh, and then stuff the skin. The stuffed offspring was then presented to the mother so that its presence would encourage her milk production.
A new word I learned from this book – IGNORAMUS.
The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions. Pre-modern tradition of knowledge such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism asserted that everything that is important to know about the world was already known.
I hope you read this book and get to know more about yourselves.
Here is a sneak into our authors conversation series, Birud Ghosalkar’s The Boy With A Paint Brush is a sweet emphatic journey of a little boy into the world of creativity. Here, Birud tells her own journey into the first of children literature and what inspired her to write this book.
Book: The Boy with a Paintbrush
Release Date: 22 April 2022
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Elevator pitch for the book: One starry night when stars were bright Neel had a Dream! Join little Neel in his dreams and discover in this heartfelt story about Neel’s doubt and how his parents help him overcome it through art.
We can clearly see the love and warmth flowing out of each and every page of this beautifully illustrated book? Could you tell us what’s the inspiration behind the story?
The inspiration is my 5-year-old son who as a kid keeps talking about his dreams. When I heard his stories, I thought of writing this book (A boy with a Paintbrush) and sharing with the audience the possibility of achieving higher sense of joy through painting/art.
Does being a mother interest you in writing children’s literature?
Yes, that is one of the reasons for me to write in this area. I have read lot of books for my son from different authors having diverse backgrounds such as Julia Donaldson, Chetan Vohra, Eric Carle, Oliver Jeffers, Sudha Murthy, Ruskin Bond. One common thing which I have observed is that the authors want to share their feelings and creativity with the audiences. I share similar aspirations and hence want to share my work with others.
What’s your writing process? Every writer follows a certain routine, discipline, some sit over the manuscript for a while and let it cool off so if they may come up with more insight.
I first conceptualize the idea of the story; in this case it was the child struggling to express the feelings/emotions and eventually parents helping the child. I do not have a set pattern to write and finalize the manuscript. As & when ideas comes to me I continue writing the story. During the writing process I keep sharing my work with my friends and family member for their feedback which helps me understand readers point of view.
The story subtly moves towards parents helping their child believe in his dreams. Which I must concur is one of the best moments of the story where we can all see such a forthright example of parenting. What’s your perspective on parenting in this age and times?
My perspective is to not just being a ‘parent’ but be a guide for the child. Let the child explore things on their own, allow them to succeed and more importantly fail and then learn. Now a days parents keeps saying that kids are always around gadgets but the time in which we are living currently is driven by technology so let them enjoy that and use it for their benefits. It is easier said than done, I struggle myself to keep up with these principles on a regular basis, but I keep trying.
Writing a story whether for adults or children is a deep intuitive process, it’s almost like pupating. Would you like to share your journey with us?
I couldn’t agree more. It is a journey where you transform an idea into a living story which people can feel and experience. This was my first experience of publishing a book and I had to figure out everything right from finding illustrator up to publishing house. It was challenging but at the same time very experiential. I learned a lot through the process. I was clear with the illustrator (Tasneem) with whom I wanted to work so that was the first phase. We did some iterations on the content and illustrations based on feedback received and finally worked with the publishers to complete the process.
The book has such vibrant illustrations. Did you give some input into the illustration process?
Yes, I was actively working with Tasneem who has done a great job with illustrations. I remember we did 2-3 iterations on illustrations based on the flow of story and looking at the final product.
Lastly, would you like to share your views on writing and give a message to young readersand writers.
I like to write because I want to share my ideas, perspective and experiences with the readers with a hope that they enjoy my work. It gives me greater feelings of happiness. My message to young readers is to continue the reading journey because that helps to gather different perspectives, acknowledge differences and have an open mind. Try and connect with the author and share your feedback which will help the writer to improvise. For young writers, I would say that writing is one of the most creative and challenging work around us. Your writing can inspire, entertain and educate the readers. There would be some days when you feel not to write, it’s completely fine to do so. You should use such time for other activities which will rejuvenate you like music, travelling, reading books. So, continue on your journey.
Welcome to 2023! It’s the time for new resolutions, plans and visions for a bright and a lovely future. Going in accordance with the Roman Calendar, marking January as our vision board, I would like to look back at what all we have achieved together at Paperbacks and what we are envisioning going forward, this year looks promising on the publishing front. In the past few years the publishing industry had seen some of the darker moments and setbacks but the 2022 graph shows a slow and steady rise again.
Paperbacks is all geared up with lots of surprises for its reader and writers slated to be released in the next few months. We have authors interviews, book reviews, and newsletters lined up.
I would like to take a moment here and appreciate all our writers, readers, reviewers and followers to vest their faith in Paperbacks. I’m grateful for your contributions and interests. You have made 2022 a brilliant year for us and we look forward to the similar support in 2023.
The new year is not only about beginning a fresh year but also a time for making commitments, keeping promises and a way forward to achieve milestones. We, the paperbacks editorial team, work hard to curate and bring forth the best of the literary world to our readers.
As a writer there are several things that demand your attention even if you are a full time writer, or a part time, if you are a diarist or you simply like journaling your life. Specification, attention to details is demanding nonetheless and most often than not life and mood comes in the way of putting pen to paper, or shall we go with the more modern phenomenon of typing words on screen. Whatever be the case, writing is not just as simple as sitting down to write and scribble or type. And yet, I will say that it is exactly just as simple as that. I have this one and only solution to overcome the writer’s block that you might be going through and at first it might sound irrational and useless but that is what I have found works best for me and for most writers I have interacted with.
So what is exactly writers block? For most of us, it is simply a lack of will to write. This lack of will could have been generated because something went wrong in school or work, or you have been in a fight or you lack the energy, you are tired, you are simply in the wrong mood as compared to the genre that you are currently writing. The list and the reasons go on. You can add as many as you like but it all turns towards the one end of not being able to write- wordlessness.
Now, how does one overcome this block? Surely, it cannot be as easy as to sit down, breathe and write. But what if I told you it is? I promise this is not a self-help post, which will inspire you this second and will turn on you just as soon as you shut down the page. This is a diligent practice that needs patience and reflection. So when you are unable to write because you are angry, or tired or lack the peace of mind, all you have to do is feel your honest feelings and write.
Write the feelings that you feel and see the words unroll.
I am not saying the block is merely a façade, nor am I saying that once you start sorting your feeling out you will be able to sail through your manuscript. What I am saying is when you come face to face with the block and with your own feelings; you overwork your mind and stop analyzing things. Giving up comes easy than perseverance. So when one starts sorting their own feelings, and tries writing them down, it puts words on paper, clearing one’s mind of them. If you are angry write down what you are angry, what is the reason behind it, and the same goes for any other emotion. Write down every aspect of what you are feeling. It doesn’t have to be analytical or a philosophical journaling of Beauvoir, it can be as simple and as childish and as honest as you want to make it. Write down you had tea in the morning and you fought with your boss over unnecessary matter. Write how you feel about the character on the book that you are reading. Write an idea on a plot of the book that you didn’t like and what would you do to them had you been the writer. Write a letter to someone close. Write the making of an easy recipe. Write your hate. Write your love. Write your raw emotions. And once that is out, you can try continuing the process for a few days. Slowly, you might initiate working towards what you want to actually write and even if it does not happen soon, you have already broken the block, by writing down your day-to-day feelings. It is not that simple and yet it is just as simple.
Write Raw. Write Honest.
Writers block is not really a myth but it also does not hold the kind of power that we allow it to hold over us.
Happy Writing.
Moushmi is the Author of POSIES and 03:21 AM: An Ode to Rust & Restlessness, Resignation of an Angel is Moushmi’s third poetry collection. Her works have been published at various online literary magazines and she has also been a contributing writer for anthology collections namely, ‘Mirage’ and ‘The Lockdown Stories’
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