To Be Read: An Anthology Curated by Blogchatter

To Be Read: An Anthology Curated by Blogchatter is a collection of short stories and articles in the form of an ebook written by the participants of a creative writing e-course, Blog Imprints, as a part of their assignments during the course.

Stories in To Be Read: An Anthology Curated by Blogchatter

The ebook To Be Read has fifteen stories, one biographical material on cricketer Yuvraj Singh, and one article on Time.

Lost and Found is a story of a talented woman who reduces to just a ‘wife’ status after her marriage and how she deals with it.

Women in the Mirror is a story of a woman who starts to hear strange voices when her car gets stuck in the freezing cold night somewhere in a remote deserted area and what happens next.

Unrequited Love is a story of a divorced woman who develops feelings for someone from where reciprocation is almost impossible.

Deathly Mirror is a story of some friends whose life takes 360º turn when they buy a particular mirror.

The Heart Connection is a story of a woman who is in a state of ‘marry or not to marry.’ She is confused about whether to pursue love or a career.

The Marriage Proposal is a story that talks about how women are treated as objects for showpiece at the time of their marriage and often rejected for petty reasons.

Coming Out is a story of childhood friends whose parents fix their marriage to each other but one of them is not ready for it. It’s about how they deal with the situation.

Just Like That is a story of a girl’s train journey that brings twists & turns in her life in a very usual way.

The Shadow of Someone is a story of a mysterious woman’s fate, who throws lavish parties.

Circa 2100, Location: Venus is about what happens when a Martian enters into Venus – an all-women planet.

Yuvraj Singh and A 90s Kid is about the cricketer & writer’s admiration for him.

A Step Back is a story of a single mother who was abandoned for giving birth to a girl child and who is currently living with an NGO working for women like her.

Jeopardies of Desire is a story of a girl who loses her weight, her friends, & everything for her love and what she gains in return.

Home is a story of a girl studying in boarding school, who is seeing everybody packing their bags for going home during holidays but she could not because her father works on a ship.

Brothers are a Blessing is a story of a working mom and what she has to deal with in day to day life.

Time is an article in which the writer tells the story of time from a philosophical as well as a scientific point of view.

The Move is a story of a girl who believes that everything is fair in love & war and could go to any extent to have her love in her life.

Horror Genre

Three stories in the book are placed under the genre of horror, but only one story could able to provide the spookiness required for the genre, and that story is Woman in the Mirror by Aditi Kapur.

Knock!  Knock!!  Knock!!!

She is knocking on the door.

Both the above lines convey the same meaning, but the kind of effect they have on us is totally different.

Just read those lines & observe yourself how you experience them differently.

The line ‘She is knocking on the door’ only draws the attention of your mind, but ‘knock knock knock’ not only draws the attention of your mind but ears also.

The things you experience register better in your mind than the things you only read. And, if you want your readers not to just read your story but also experience it, then you have to use the language that appeals to senses also.

Aditi beautifully targets auditory & visual senses through her words to impart the required spooky effect on her readers.

Leha is brilliant in drawing the attention of your senses through her descriptive writing. In her story, The Shadow of Someone, she excites all the senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste – all of them but not to generate horrifying experience on readers.

Her story didn’t frighten me but compel me to contemplate. I find her story philosophical, not horrific.

The last story in the horror category is Deathly Mirror by Anurag Singh. It has the potential to haunt you, but unfortunately, the writer wants the readers to do his work.

What we saw in the mirror was horrifying.  There was a woman in the mirror with a terrible face crying in a terrible way. We fell down unconscious after seeing her.

As I understand, it’s the writer’s responsibility to describe the adjectives ‘horrifying’ & ‘terrible’ in the above sentence to get the desired effect on the readers, but he leaves it with the readers to imagine the most horrifying scene themselves & get goosebumps from their own imagination.

Sci-fi Genre

The sci-fi genre has two stories: Unrequited Love by Anupriya Gupta & Circa 2100, Location: Venus by Manas Mukul, and both fulfill the requirements of the genre.

Other Genres

Well, I don’t understand on what basis other genres are different from each other, or on what basis stories are classified into genres.

As it appears to me, the stories Lost and Found by Aadhira, The Heart Connection by Dr. Amrita Basu (Misra), & The Move by Zainab Raazi deals with a love story, but they are categorised as contemporary, romance, & drama respectively!

Top Achievers

Anyway, the top achievers are Dr. Shivani Salil, Samarpita Mukherjee Sharma, Aditi Kapur, & Anupriya Gupta. Their works show the writing of a professional level.

I’d have also added Leha Divakar‘s name in this list if her story was not categorised as horror. If she was writing a horror story & came with The Shadow of Someone, then she definitely failed. But, if her story was mistakenly put in the horror genre, then she absolutely deserves to be in the list of top achievers.

Underachievers

Aadhira, Sivaranjini Anandan, & Anurag Singh are underachievers. I’m calling them underachievers because of their poor expression techniques, not because of their contents. They all have great content.

Well, if anyone is poor in content, then she is Zainab Raazi but her expression skills are good.

In other words, Aadhira, Sivaranjini, & Anurag have something to say, but they don’t know how to say it effectively. On the other hand, Zainab knows the art of telling effectively but doesn’t have much to say.

Amateurs

The rest are in between and show amateur level writing skills, excluding Paresh Godhwani & Sudip Saha because I’m only evaluating fiction for this post, not non-fiction.

As per the standards of non-fiction, both Paresh & Sudip seem to have done a good job at first glance.

Hidden Gem or Lambi Race Ka Ghoda

Mulk Raj Dabur, a character in the blockbuster movie Deewar, defines Lambi Race Ka Ghoda as someone who initially lags but when picks up the speed, leaves everyone behind.

Aadhira, Sivaranjini, & Anurag are Lambi Race Ka Ghoda. They are hidden gems, which need polishing. Their content quality is good but the packaging is poor. They need to work on their narration style.

Aadhira did a good job in building an intricate framework for her story – right from when & how her protagonist met her would-be, became friend with him, fell in love, got married, lost her identity & how she found it later, etc. The foundation is solid. Her story has the potential to be converted into a full-fledged novel by simply filling the gaps because all the basic works have been done already.

Sivaranjini also did a fabulous job in carving the details of her story, especially the roles & problems a working mother has to face at home & personal level.

Some Quotable Quotes

I look for quotes in the book but couldn’t find many in this. Here are few that I got:

• Life doesn’t always go as we think. Sometimes a surprise element surpasses our expectations. (Woman in the Mirror)
• Horror stories are not mythical or imaginary. Somewhere, someone daily feels and experiences such incidents. (Deathly Mirror)
• Life always surprises us unexpectedly. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad. In the end, it teaches us new lessons. (The Marriage Proposal)
• Sit peacefully and ask yourself what you want to do. Your intuition will show you the right path and help you decide well. (Brothers are a Blessing)

Amazon is currently running a Story Contest – Pen to Publish 2019, in which you can submit a short story between 2000 to 10000 words or long one greater than 10000 as well.

First Prize for Short Form is ₹50000 & for Long Form is ₹500000. The last date for submission is December 14, 2019.

If you are interested in participating in it & want some help regarding your story, you can mail at booksasisee@ravishmani.com or DM at Twitter handle @booksasisee.

You can also contact if you want to have detailed feedback on individual stories in this anthology like I did for Tina’s short story Naked Illusions.