Anandajit Goswami
Anandajit Goswami is an Associate Professor at Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies and has authored two sci-fi books on sustainability science. After his post-graduation from Jawaharlal Nehru University and PhD from TERI School of Advanced Studies, he has been popularizing sustainability through his fictions, music, art and creative story telling.
Debashis Chakraborty
After studying economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Debashis Chakraborty joined Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, where he is teaching for the last one and half decades. The readings within the academic literature and beyond during the doctoral research on trade and environment interrelationship helped him to perceive, rather than view, the sustainability questions. An avid reader himself, of late he is keen in popularizing the sustainability narrative among readers in wider forums.
1. Who and what inspired you to write?
Anandajit : The self-reflections, contradictions, events around have been an inspiration for the writing. One single individual or person is not the inspiration. It is the multiplicity of the contexts and events and parallel existential crisis within my own-self which has inspired me to write.
Debashis : I had been an avid reader since childhood, reading across all the genres. Over the period I developed a particular liking for the science fictions literature - starting with Premendra Mitra and Satyajit Ray in Bengali language initially, then graduating to the classics of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne and further to Isaac Asimov, Authur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury and others. Professionally, that was also a period when I read through a lot of academic literature on environmental sustainability challenges. While I continued to write academic papers on sustainability and climate change concerns, an idea was coming to my mind on how the need for environmental protection can be popularized through fictional narratives. At this juncture, my path crossed with Anandajit Goswami, who also had similar academic upbringing and thought process. He had already written the first journey of Lucy (Love-Understanding-Creation-Youthfulness), which had both the elements of environmental negligence led dystopian future and eternal optimism about the good within mankind. The discussions with him generated several ideas that we both considered interesting for the readers to experience through the eyes of Lucy. So, we set out to document this incredible journey of Lucy as fellow travellers.
2. What challenges did you face while writing and getting published?
Anandajit : Occasional writer’s block often can impinge upon my writing process and self-rejections to my own idea are both the challenges and training I went through in the process of getting published.
Debashis : The seed of the story was in our mind and once the fingers touched the keyboard, we let Lucy free, who then simply galloped along her destined path. We merely documented her journey. While writing however, the basic challenge had been two-fold for me. The first had been time-management – I had a very demanding schedule and lots of writing responsibility already, as part of my academic life. So, we had to literally steal time out of our respective routines. The Second challenge had been writing-spirit management. We had been writing academic journal articles for far too long a duration and initially, we had to edit the language periodically to ensure that the text does not look like another article. But as we were aware of both the challenges right from the beginning, it was a manageable challenge.
I must admit that the advantage for me was that I started collaborating with Anandajit from the second book in the Lucy series. As the first book was already out from TERI Press and received critical acclaim, the potential publishers had a basis in front of them to contemplate publication of the next books in the series. Looking back, I would say that convincing the potential publishing houses on the importance of a book on environmental negligence led dystopian future, in the post-covid world, was theoretically easier but practically an argument intensive and relatively longer process.
3. How did you come to know about the literary agency THE BOOK BAKERS?
Anandajit : I came to know about the literary agency THE BOOK BAKERS through a common network in the publishing industry.
Debashis : While we were approaching the publishing houses with a draft of the manuscript, we were introduced to The Book Bakers by common friends. Anandajit went to the Jaipur Literary Festival where at the margins a detailed and very fruitful meeting with The Book Bakers team had been conducted, that led to the collaboration with them.
4. How did THE BOOK BAKERS help you and what would you like to say about them ?
Anandajit : THE BOOK BAKERS went through the entire book and manuscript proposal, assessed the potential of the book, and guided me in the entire process of the manuscript pitching and its final translation to a book release in the market. The agency is extremely sensitive and helpful starting from the inception to the final publication and marketing of the book.
Debashis : The support received from The Book Bakers team has been invaluable. They have guided us both with leads on potential publishers and with constructive comments on the initial version of the manuscript. We sincerely appreciate the supports received from them during this journey with Lucy.
5. How supportive is your publisher of your work?
Anandajit :The publisher has been very supportive at every stage of the work.
Debashis : We found The Locksley Hall Publishing house to be a real professional entity, which had been reflected during all the stages of our interaction with them. In particular, I’ll sincerely appreciate the superb efforts undertaken by them during proof-reading and illustrations, which enabled us to come out with a flawless manuscript.
6. How do you see literary success for yourself?
Anandajit : Literary success is rooted to culture, people and society. If the work contributes even in a single, incremental, positive transformation of a particular culture, individual, society, community, I think that is a success of the literary work.
Debashis : There are two layers by which I’ll consider the success of the Lucy series. The short run success would be measurable by numbers, i.e., if the series is read by more people across all age groups and that appreciation would definitely be a motivation while documenting Lucy’s next journey by an early date. The positive feedbacks from the readers would indicate that we are on the right track. The long run success would however be ordinal, i.e., if the readers perceive the inherent message on sustainability. My long run success perception would of course crucially depend on the realized short run success. A couple of academic institutions have attended the book-reading sessions for Lucy 2 and during the subsequent discussions have expressed interest to have the books in the series included in their sustainability curriculum. If this trend picks up, I’ll consider this as a tangible success of the book.
7. When can we expect your next book?
Anandajit : I am currently writing a book on culture, identity and violence and the work will take two to three years for completion.
Debashis : We have already started thinking about the next journey of Lucy and a tentative structure has emerged. Of course, documenting the same would require some time. Possibly towards the end of next year we can expect documentation of Lucy’s next journey to be completed.
8. How has your experience being working with Locksley Hall Publishing?
Anandajit : Locksley Hall is a very professional publishing house with an eye for strong detailing in every process of book publication.
Debashis : As noted earlier, the publishing experience with The Locksley Hall Publishing has been absolutely fabulous. It will be a pleasure to work with them on future journeys of Lucy in coming days.
9. Any message or tips for aspiring authors?
Anandajit : Keep whittling your brain nerves with new thoughts and writing.
Debashis : An aspiring author must be having so many stories to narrate in her / his mind in compressed form. But it is crucial for her / him to identify the expanded storyline that he / she can come out with maximum conviction. The potential reader, as an impartial judge of any literary work, would not be simply attracted by the plot. The attention of a reader can be gripped only if they find the storyline is also smoothly narrated in a realistic and novel fashion.
BOOK NAME : LUCY 3 : LUCY AND THE RISE OF THE PARABOLA
PUBLISHER : LOCKSLEY HALL PUBLISHING
BOOK SYNOPSIS/BLURB :
When dangers on the planet rise, the Earthlings turn to only one girl, who has saved them twice before. Lucy! Aware that she is the only one who can venture into the future and find out the answer to save the world from imminent doom, Lucy sets off on a mega adventure. But the journey is filled with treacherous twists and sinister entities. Who is the dark force young Lucy needs to face? Will Lucy be able to find the answer in the nick of time? And most importantly, will she be able to return from the future to the present times or will she be lost forever? To know more, read a highly engaging Science Fiction magnum opus like never before!
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