Through this global emergency as a writer, I am putting my mind and efforts together to produce creative assets that can make a difference and create an impact

As his many readers know, Victor Ghoshe is one of the most ingenious authors in the genre of ‘Historical Adventures’ in the Indian subcontinent. His first book, The Job Charnock Riddle, 2016, has been tagged as ‘Our Own version of The Da-Vinci Code,’ by Times of India. Now his latest book, Tomb of God is reviewed – “A compelling script waiting to be made into a full-length feature film – a gritty thriller that would be liked by the fans of Lee Child and Dan Brown.” The Telegraph

An international Brand & Social Communication professional, former Sr Adviser of BBC India, Ghoshe is responsible for developing mass communication strategies for over five nations other than India. He has headed creative teams in leading advertising houses like DDB Mudra. Ghoshe lives in Delhi with his wife Juthika and two sons.

Some glimpses of our conversation with Mr. Victor Ghoshe.

Q1. Your latest book TOMB OF GOD is doing so well and bringing fantastic reviews from readers – What is your inspiration?

Firstly, I am a born storyteller (laughs). I have been telling stories since standard two in school. And I love telling stories.

But, if you are asking me about my present inspiration,
I would say, creative people throughout the world are all creating impactful things that they can develop through this time of emergency!

As a writer I am continuously putting my mind and efforts together to produce creative assets that can make a difference and create positive impacts. Like writing stories, novels and poetry that can help people feel better, feel liberated.
Through my writing I am taking people out of their confinements caused by the pandemic; out on fantastic journeys they always wanted to make… even through all the restrictions of this massive global emergency.

Tomb of God is one such book which has made this possible. Believe me I have received hundreds of Thank you notes for giving them Tomb of God in the time of the pandemic.

Q2. Both your historical adventures have done well, What do you think is working for these adventures?

Firstly, as an old-school writer, I enjoy researching, developing new plots, and writing stories that I want to read, so I never compromise on any of these.

I believe writing isn’t about making money or becoming a celebrity; it’s about enriching lives of the people who read your work and enriching your own life in the process.

Secondly, I believe that – the best stories intrigue its readers so much that they start to walk along with the characters and live the story themselves. I have started believing that my books can do that.

Q3. Writing a historical adventure is immensely hard, as a lot of research goes behind to make it a believable story, so tell us about your research process.

The research for my kind of books is multi-layered. For the places I write about – I try to visit them, and if that’s not possible at all, then I glide through the Google Map routes; I study travel videos of the place by professional vloggers and talk to them personally to make sure that the descriptions are correct.

And for the more serious parts of my research, I study the topics and read research works of specialists from all over the world. After that I take appointments and talk to those scholars, historians, and other subject specialists. I take memberships of several university libraries in different continents to get access to their historical / technological researches and latest findings. For Tomb of God – I had spent 6-7 hrs everyday for over a month at the British Museum.

I believe – I do all of these to be able to make sure that what I write is absolutely correct and also my readers learn something new and interesting from every book that I write. May be my hard work is appreciated when my readers say that
I weave facts into a fiction extremely well.

Q4. You write strong female characters. They’re not waiting to be rescued- they’re smart. My favorite character is Marina, in Tomb of God. Please tell us about the development of these characters?

I get asked this a lot. Obviously, I take it as a compliment because I do want my characters to come out strong. Now, firstly I am surrounded by strong women— my mother, my aunt, my wife, my sister and my Sister-in-laws. They all are great role models and they helped me understand the real strength of women.

Later, I learnt more about women as a social sector professional… I learnt how far a woman can go to fight for her people. In my profession I meet women from many walks of life on a regular basis. So, I talk to them, I carefully listen when they narrate their stories, I try to find out their perspectives about life and other things.

For this character Marina Martinez, you referred to; I actually met and talked to women who are like that. Demure at times, but when needed she can be a fighter. Almost invisible in a group of people and doesn’t bring attention to herself at all. But when you start reading about her, you have a feeling – she must be much more. Later in the adventure you find out – you were right.

Q5. Apart from Historical Thrillers have you thought of writing in other genres?

Yes, the other genre, in fact – the genre in which my first two books were published is Paranormal & Supernatural. I have three such story collections in my credit but they are all in Bengali. There are talks on publishing a paranormal story collection in English. I take immense interest in Paranormal and have years of study in the subject. My published books are Ethernet ebong onnanyo golpo (2010), Megher Khata (2012), and Paranormal (2019).

Q6. Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Well, this is the first time someone asked me this. Actually it is something I keep doing and it excites me in a way…. believe me – we writers keep writing in our semi-lit studies through endless nights only with expectations that someday some people will read my book, and may be one or two will understand what were my thoughts behind.

I include secrets in my stories, but in such ways that if you know – you know, and if you don’t – you won’t miss anything. Some of the historical names I use have hidden meanings or connections with other characters. There are mentions of scenes from classic films I love, even if you haven’t seen the film it won’t harm your reading experience. But I have to admit one of my dreams is to hear from an excited reader asking me “is [the thing] really what I think it is?”

Then, secrets are one of the main themes of all my books and as these books are in a series when one book ends a reader might think that the questions are all answered. But only I know – there are still some unanswered ones in plain sight. I only hope a few of my readers also know what I know.

Q7. What is the most difficult part of your creative process?

Two major successful books back-to-back, and yet every night after the kids go to bed – I face a blank MS Word page and struggle for at least half an hour to get immersed into the story.

To me, the most important part of producing anything creative is to be able to get immersed in it. Now, at the same time, it is also the most difficult part in the entire creative process. Because unlike any other field of production – a creative mind can be disturbed by the simplest of the simple things like a headline in the newspaper or a distressing situation in a distant land or even the knowledge of someone close is in pain somewhere. Now for me the best remedy for this is the fact that I know my characters don’t care whether I am in a good mood or not, if the books found success or not. So, when I can’t immerse into the story – I simply follow my characters – and they take me where they want the story to go.

Q8. You also get compliments on your intense pacing. From page one, you take readers on a mind-blowing adventure. As the writer, how do you keep track?

As I said, I try to write books that I would want to read. I read books from several genres – barring romance. Now, if a book doesn’t hook me right off the bat, I struggle with it because I know I have ten others sitting on my shelf. So, what I try to do is – I don’t give a reader an excuse to put my book down.
Someone once told me that when writing a mystery, it’s good to build up to this climatic moment 25 or 30 pages into the story. For me, if I have to wait 25 pages before something important happens, I’m putting that book down. So I start my book with something huge – a murder or someone being put in a death-pit. I want my reader to say – ‘’Wow, let’s not put this one down.’

Q9. Your books have a cinematic effect, someday would you like to make them into movies as well?

All I can say is – there are already discussions on film adaptations of both my books. Let’s see.

Q10. Both your books have Codes as central themes – tell us something about it?

I like the concept of secrets hidden in plain sight. And always been fascinated by codes and deciphering them. Believe me, at the age of ten I could write and read more than 20 different codes including a few from the World War II.

I believe a code is like the screen that stands between you and the truth. So much of the world is like that. I think all our ancient scripts & scriptures are codes – the greatest of all codes. The problem with us humans is – we want to read metaphorical stories as facts.

Q11. Are you working on a new book? Can we get some idea about it?

I am already working on the next novel.

When the Covid 19 pandemic hit India in March 2020, I had already finished all the works around TOMB OF GOD, so I started my research for the 3^rd Eric Roy adventure during the first lock down.

After writing about the covert agency and the secret brotherhood of the tomb, in the latest, I found myself compelled to come up with a more secretive topic. Fortunately, I recently learned about a shattering historical possibility, more buried – even than the secret of the TOMB. This new secret – if revealed, can truly change the world, which will take the centre stage in my next novel. Until then, of course, mum’s the word.

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Buy My Other Books:
The Job Charnock Riddle