Fiction

6 Degrees – Game of Blogs

/ Aishwarya Mohan Gahrana / एक टिप्पणी छोड़ें

Name of 5 characters are same. Descriptions of these 5 characters are same. They are characters of 3 different stories, not written by 3 different fiction writers but by 3 different teams of bloggers. Location of these stories is one – Mumbai. Is it case of plagiarism? Oh no! All this is in one book, yes one book.

“6 Degrees – Game of Blogs” is a collection of 3 fictions written by three teams and have 3 different dimension of fiction writing. All three stories have suspense and thrill. Each story has about 30,000 words spanning more than 120 pages.

Bloggers participated in a blogging event called “Game of Blogs” organised by BlogAdda. Descriptions of Five character and a few other details were shared. The bloggers were put into teams of 8-10, and each team must come up with a story. 10 days to come up with 10 episodes. The best teams move forward to the next round. 3 rounds of this game of blogs were not a simple fun but a hard competition. 300 bloggers from 30 locations participated. One this is most common – the collaborative spirit. After 3 rounds, 3 teams emerged as winners and those stories were published into a book – 6 Degrees – Game of Blogs.

The Awakening

This is a science fiction where mythology is used to carry fiction forward. This makes approach different but lovable mix of myths, science, family, and thrill – for we Indians. A closely knit family of three was living a happy life in Mumbai. Two guests appear from nowhere. Page by page new mysteries reveals themselves. Humanity came into danger and need urgent intervention from some sort of superpower.  Though, readers assume the climax well before, how events turn up is real fun.

Entangled Lives

This is a murder mystery with lot of drama and doubts.  A loosely knit happy family of three with one maid suddenly face murder in the house in presence of two strangers. No one knows the criminal. Police investigations legally ended up with a confession which creates doubt in mind of investigating officer. But, mystery never solved legally. This is strongly built and best story in the book.

Missing – a journey within

A daughter of happy family goes missing. A son of another happy family leaved the hope and home. Fortune bring them to same point of time and place to make them friend. This story has well knitted stories of different characters.

This book is a nice collection of collaborative spirit of creative minds to develop same idea into different direction into well knitted, well crafted, well-developed, well written, well-edited, well presented fictions. Language is easy English with few local terms from Mumbai and Delhi. Stories has good and steady pace with required melodrama and suspense.

Book Details

Title: 6 Degrees – Game of Blogs
Authors: 3 teams of bloggers
Publisher: Leadstart Publishing, Mumbai
Publishing year: 2016
Genre: Fiction – Science Fiction, Murder Mystery, Thriller,
ISBN: 978-93-5201-389-0
Binding: paperback
Number of Pages: 422
Price: Rs. 349
This book is available here.

Team of Bloggers:

The Awakening – Team by lines

Anmol Rawat – http://anmolrawat.blogspot.in
Preethi Venugopal – http://tulipsandme.blogspot.in
Saumyaa Verma – http://callitate.blogspot.in
Tina Basu – http://twinklingtinawrites.blogspot.in
Ashutosh Bhandari – http://aybeescorner.blogspot.in
Paresh Godhwani – http://pareshgodhwani.blogspot.in
Prerna Maynil – http://prernamaynil.blogspot.in
Ramanathan P – http://allthreeaces.com

Entangled Lives – Team Potliwale Baba

Shoumik De – http://thesolutionbaba.wordpress.com
Srilakshni I – http://iamstri.wordpress.com
Sneha Bhattacharjee – http://snehabhattacharjee.blogspot.in
Hemant – http://shoooonya.blogspot.in
Shamim Rizwana – http://livelaughlovewithsharu.wordpress.com
Nirav Thakkaer – http://niravthakker.com
Tushar – http://tusharmangl.blogspot.in
Ritu Pandey – http://altruisticgirt.wordpress.com

Missing – A Journey within – Team Tete – a – Ten

Sharon D Souza – http://thekeybunch.com
Oindrila De – http://notallmoonshine.blogspotin
Anupriya Mishra – http://anupriyamishra.com
Vaisakhi Mishra – http://thewordpool.blogspot.in
Tinu Menachary – http://someolfnewstuff.blogspot.in
Gauri Kamath – http://survivaloftheoptimist.blogspot.in
Ritesh Agrawal – http://abookisasexything.com
Aayan Banarjee – http://gyanban.com
Raghu Chaitanya – http://ummwowhuh.blogspot.in

6 Degrees is India’s first book published through collaborative blogging, written completely by bloggers for the Game of Blogs activity at BlogAdda. Know more about Game of Blogs here. You can buy 6 Degrees: Game of Blogs if you liked the review.

The Bestseller She Wrote

/ Aishwarya Mohan Gahrana / एक टिप्पणी छोड़ें

A story written with difference has usual but well crafted plot of ambition, love, like and mistake. I decided to drop this book once, at its cover… “soon to be a motion picture”, motion pictures is one of my dislike in literature. But, a master storyteller certainly knows how much is how much. The story with appropriate pace and words arrested my mind and heart for the weekend. Love, prejudice, betrayal, strength, and ultimate winning of great family values seem to be time-tested concept of Indian masala movies. A reading reveals the author kept in mind possibility for a movie and focused in that way on play, pace and dialogue. One good thing, characters speaks themselves not the writer.

It engaged me with real life characters, but… at point to point it connects and disconnects with big names until I realize, it talk about none… a fiction. However, reference of real persons, events and sequence make book interesting and give a real feel to reader.  Author has firsthand knowledge of IIM, Banking, Writing and Publishing, it well reflects in the book.

This is story of an extremely successful author who is doing a mistake. She is equally competent young aspiring promising but more ambitious.  The story, about relationship, has element of romance, drama and light dose of mystery.

The book has small chapters. Earlier chapters it look like a love and romance but slightly light mystery take shape. Readers seem to know, what may be in background and want to confirm. Interestingly, It happen with perfect pace. When Mystery unfold, it suddenly turn into usual drama and more than just before end, you seems to lost interest as story has some more pages.

This book may also be a utility for younger generation of aspiring storytellers. It unfolds many aspects of writing, publishing, publicity and of course book launch. Book  publishing part may  be read as a case study for budding writers and others interested in career in publishing industry.

Author did best when it kept the mistake a mistake without any usual justification. However, author seems to typecast the background the girl; either to give some sympathy or justification. However, all this information may be more dramatic. At the end, when mystery unfold, it lost second relationship somewhere in deep-sea, a story which may be also be equally crafted. I am hopeful, in motion picture we may have more to know. Authors and film – makers may keep some mystery for future ventures.

Author

Ravi Subramanian, an alumnus of IIM Banglore, naturally crafts stories on backdrop of financial services industry. He has Golden Quill Reader’s Choice Award for If God Was a Banker, Economist Crossword Book Award in 2012 for The Incredible Banker and the Crossword Book Award in 2013 for The Bankster.

Book name: The Bestseller She Wrote
Author: Ravi Subramanian
Total number of pages: 391
Cost: Rs 295
Binding: Paperback
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
ISBN No: 978-93-85152-38-2
Published By: Westland Ltd.

This book is available here.

I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!