“THE COALFIELD EXPRESS… The Thrill is About to Begin”. It’s a thriller designed and crafted specifically to take the readers off their feet.
This book is about a mystery in the arena of Love. More than love, what it pops up in front of you are those mind boggling puzzles that you need to solve before you can proceed to the next chapter.
Susmit Sarkar is a 4th year Electrical Engineering hailing from Kolkata. His hometown is Durgapur, a city whose references you are sure to find in the book.
At St. Xavier’s he used to write for school magazines, had been in love with English from childhood. But had it not been for that incident, he would have never ever written the book. he says, “I hope you know that The Coalfield Express is a real train with departure time of 5:20 pm at Howrah Station and expected arrival time of 7:30 pm at Durgapur. More popularly it is known as Dhanbad Howrah Coalfield Express.”
To quench the thirst of your curiosity, the entire incident has been detailed in the opening pages of the book.
Who was your intended audience and why you felt they should read your book or your story?
The book being a thriller, I intend to grab the attention of not only college going students but also a wide range of audience who love to have twists in their life. There won’t be a single page where you can guess what is going to happen next. You meet strangers everyday but how many of those encounters changes your life. Well this one surely will.
Do you have any unique talents or hobby?
Apart from being an author, I am a lyricist and have composed a wide variety of songs in English, Hindi and Bengali. From childhood I have been into music but it was in college when I realized my composing capabilities. Be it Teacher’s Day, 4th Year Farewell or the Cultural Fests, I would try my best to scribble down the best words with my tune. I hope to bring out an Album someday.
What is your favorite genre in writing?
My favourite genre has always been fiction. But when it comes to writing non-fiction never fails to grab my attention. I keep on participating in short story competitions with both fiction and non-fiction, sometimes stories related to my own life or with incidents I have experienced so far.
Who inspires you most to write and to whom would you dedicate your creative success?
I dedicate my entire creativity to hard work of those innumerable teachers who have prepared us with the mettle to think out of the box. My parents also played a great role in it. But it was Mr Dan Brown whose words and style had taken me aback when I first read Da Vinci Code. He is the one who had inspired me to chisel out words out of my imagination.
Could you describe yourself as a writer?
I like to take a plunge as deep as possible just to dive into the eternity of words. To spread the essence of thrill and to pump up the heat with unexpected plots has been my only goal.
Do you have a favorite place to write or a scheduled time to write every day?
Not as such, but the only thing I require the most is Peace. Be it the darkness of night or the crimson hue of the morning, my pen sets a go wherever it finds peace.
Who are your favorite authors and what is the genre that you like reading most?
As I have already mentioned earlier, it’s Mr Dan Brown who has never ceased to be my favourite. But apart from him I also enjoy Ravi Subramanian a lot. As for the genre fiction is something I like reading the most.
What are the difficulties you faced after you wrote the book and sent it to publishers?
Yes, rejection is indeed the word I had to face in the beginning. My heart did break when I opened the rejection letter from Rupa Publication. Even convincing literary agents was not a feat I could be proud of. But finally it was Partridge Publication who came to my rescue, enabling me to get published internationally worldwide. Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Flipkart everywhere.
How long had you to wait for their reply?
Once I sent them a mail, the reply was pretty quick. Within the next three months, my book was live at almost all the e-commerce sites both in paperback and e-book formats.
What kind of publishing would you prefer, traditional or self? Why?
For me both. There are times when you tend to run out of patience waiting for the traditional breakthrough. That’s where the word ‘self’ comes to rescue. But yes once you have made the breakthrough, keep on trying for the traditional too.
Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?
Who knows where? For the past four years I have been composing songs, giving them my best lyrics, writing novels, creating short stories and last but not the least trying to keep a balance with my Electrical Engineering studies. So it’s really a tough choice. But yes in the next 10 years I would surely like to find myself in a profession where I could tune in to the melody of heart without losing the strings of creative words.
Which is that virtue that keeps you going forward in this line?
The passion to create something new, something innovative, something that no one has tried ever before.
What is the message that you want to convey to the readers through your writing?
The passion to create something new and innovative is the only key that will unlock the true potential within you. Love and relationships are the two oars that will carry you through.
What advice would you give young writers or would be published authors?
Don’t lose heart if you have to trash the first paragraph you have scribbled just now with the hope of being an author. Start again and trust me this time you will create something unbelievable.
Is there anything else you would like to say?
The book starts off in a flashback when Susmit, an Electrical Engineer trips over Sheena, a student of Archaeology. And the place circumscribes the compartment of a train named THE COALFIELD EXPRESS, with departure time of 5:20 pm at Howrah Station and expected arrival time of 7:30 pm at Durgapur. The novel sparks up with Love but ends with a mystery.Things in the compartment starts to get a bit rocky, when the combo of Susmit and Sheena meet a series of disasters.Crossing a lot of hurdles, their feet succeeded in laying them to their destination, in short, their home. The time was 2:00 am. Before the next 24 hours can pass they are separated. The flashback ends when after two years Susmit stumbles over again in the Coalfield Express, but this time with an old man. But a lot had happened in the last two years. No, its not that Sheena had fallen in love with any other geek. Its even more serious. Sheena had fallen into trouble. . A trouble that started with an excursion through the sands of Rajasthan, where she finds a cryptex, which got lost even before she could blink her eye. Are they able to crack it? Or Mr Roy, a villain gets it before their game even begins? That’s the question. I hope you enjoy the trip. I hope to meet you soon with another thriller at hand, a hint of which has been given at the end of my first book. That’s all.
You can freely express something that helped you to move forward to write and persist in this area despite odds!
It’s my parents who have held me strong through the thick and thin of my life. It’s my friends who have never let me down. And above all God without whose blessings I would have never ventured out in this field. Thank You!An extensive excerpt is available at books.google.co.in. You just need to type the book’s name. For India the book is available at Flipkart.com and Amazon.in, both in paperback and e-book format.
