The Speaking Stone by Ratnadip Acharya
~Book Tour~
11th to 17th November
About the Book:
Mumbai, December 2016:
A young man found an ancient-looking piece of stone with strange images and Sanskrit inscriptions. A quest to know the origin of the stone brought him to the distant part of the country.
Chandannagar, December 2016:
A young vivacious historian woman read an old book on a century-old secret story about a little known part of the country. Her curiosity got the better of her as the book disappeared mysteriously before she could complete it. She reached a sleepy quaint state of the country to satiate her curiosity.
Eventually they both met and their search began from the city museum to a far-flung rock mountain which revealed a century-old story of a seductive danseuse, her enigmatic lover, a string of her admirers, a painter with a photographic memory, a bird that could speak in many voices, a benevolent king and a gruesome conspiracy. And the most important clue to decode the final secret was with the missing part of The Speaking Stone. But in the process of unearthing old secrets their lives were also in danger…
Book Links:
Interview:
Answer: As I
understand, almost all the authors are doing something more(apart from writing)
to make a living. So an author/writer is not someone whose only entity is that
he/she is a writer. Well, in my case the desire for writing sparked (I am an
electrical engineer with a complete technical background) in early twenties
when I devoured the short story of Guy De Maupassent, Tagore and O Henry. The
surprise ending in their stories left me simply awestruck. I realized greatest
stories can be spun from ordinary lives. I became a better observer (as I feel)
and felt that I could voice my thoughts in words and thus the journey began.
Question: What
are your ambitions for your writing career?
Answer: I l
write with love; unless an idea overwhelms me usually I don’t write it. And
when you write with total love, you want to be read. I am already financially comfortably
off, hence no monetary ambition from writing.
Question: Give
us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special?
Answer: Look,
I have written three novels. The first one, Life
is always aimless… is a love story
and the protagonist dreams of becoming an author one day; a young man with all
doubts and confusion in whom we all can find a glimpse of ours.
In the second novel, Paradise
Lost & regained, the protagonist is a deer who narrates its life in
first person singular. This novel is a grand flight of imagination, and I see
my self-projection in that little deer.
And third novel, The
Speaking Stone, has two protagonists, Shuvashini and Saikat, again both the
characters are formed from people I met in real life hence they are very
special to me. Besides, they also know that I took the liberty of using their
characters to manufacture this large novel.
Question: Do
you have a special time to write or how is your day structured?
Answer: I
usually prefer to write at night, chiefly post ten pm when there is an
agreeable silence around. During
holidays, at times, I work during day, too. But again, night time is my
favourite. Before getting into writing, I invariably note down the major events
which will be the spine of basic storyline chronologically. It affords me to
complete the writing faster.
Question: Where
do the ideas come from?
Answer: I
don’t know. I don’t think any sincere author can answer this question. All I have
to do is keep my being open, and ideas pour in from all around, barely few of
them I write and the rest remain with me. When you write keeping your readers
in mind and the kind of stuff they love to read, and produce the same sorts of
stuff, you can answer from you get the ideas, otherwise no author can answer
it.
Question: Do
you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes
you?
Answer: Usually,
I write a meticulous outline for without it, it is difficult to write a large
novel. However, at times, the flow of events makes the story move this way or
that.
Question: Any
tips on how to get through the dreaded writer’s block?
Answer: Give
yourself time, let silence be your best friend for a while and eventually you
will break the writer’s block and come up with a better way to take your
writing project ahead.
Question: What
can we expect from you down the line?
Answer: The
first and foremost is that there will be no commonplace storyline. Whether it
is mystery novel or a work on life it will be an extremely original work with
lots of surprise element.
Ratnadip Acharya is the author of two successful novels, Life is Always Aimless... Unless you love it and Paradise Lost & Regained. He is a columnist for the Speaking Tree in The Times of India. He contributed many write-ups in different collections of Chicken Soup for the Soul. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Sophia and son, Akash.
Contact the Author:
