Exploring the Multiverse of Imagination with Bharti Isaac: Unravelling “Sarah’s Seven Lives”

Today, we have the pleasure of delving into the boundless creativity of Bharti Sumarajan, known by her pen name, Bharti Isaac. A corporate trainer and life coach by profession, Bharti is a perpetual learner and dreamer who firmly believes in the power of setting and pursuing one’s goals at any stage of life. Her latest literary endeavour, “Sarah’s Seven Lives,” takes readers on an extraordinary journey alongside the protagonist, Sarah Menon, as she navigates the complexities of life, time travel, and self-discovery.

1. Tell us a little bit about Sarah’s Seven Lives. What inspired you to explore this unique theme of seven different lives?

Ans Sarah’s Seven Lives is the story of a young woman who is frustrated with her life and hopes to have a complete control of her life by designing it herself. Luckily she meets a time traveller who grants her a wish to live six more lives that she would design herself for one year each and decide after all the seven lives which one she would like to continue. What happens in each life? How does she grow through each life? And which life she chooses in the end? Is the story of Sarah’s Seven Lives. Well, inspiration for this theme is based on a common human desire. Most of the people on the planet at some or the other time would have thought of living a different life, of starting over again or wishing to control their life. Inspiration stuck me on a mundane boring afternoon when I encountered similar feelings.

2. In “Sarah’s Seven Lives,” Sarah is granted the opportunity to live seven different lives, each designed by her. What do you hope readers will take away from Sarah’s journey of self-exploration and decision-making?

Ans There are amazing life lessons to be learnt from Sarah’s journey but I will just focus on two of them. One of things that Sarah shares is that she has learnt to value every emotion after going through all the seven lives. We generally have a tendency to categorise emotions as good and bad, then we embrace the good ones and resist the bad ones. I wish for people to know that every emotion is important and can be a great mentor. Sarah says she has learnt different things from different emotions. Betrayal taught her the importance of loyalty, grief taught her to value people while they are still around, fear helped her to be more courageous and sadness let her connect with her own soul. Life is a mixed bag and each one of us will experience different emotions in the course of our life.  I hope we don’t resist any emotion but feel them deeply and learn the lessons they are meant to teach us. Second thing that Sarah says is – the ultimate power is not in life itself but it’s with the person who is living it. We might say easy life, tough life, sad life and so on but the truth is we all are much more powerful than what life throws at us. So, let’s remember that and more power to all of us. 

      

3. Could you share any insights into your writing process?

Ans I would say my writing process is a blend of structure and imagination. It begins with imagining, bouncing different ideas, sleeping on them and testing which ideas stick. Next  I like to outline the story and create a big picture. Once I am convinced with the plot in a broader sense, I like to break it down into events and scenes. When I am working on the scenes, I let my characters free and follow where they take me. So, it’s dancing between imagination and structure to make sure that creativity and focus are maintained. 

4. As a corporate trainer and life coach, how do you balance your professional responsibilities with your passion for writing and creativity?

Ans I love my job and I love my passion for writing even more. When you love something in a true sense, you make room for it in your life and in your schedule. It’s true for people and passion. So, I make time for writing. I schedule it. Sometimes I stay up late at night writing. Another important part of true love is sacrifice. I am willing to sacrifice to make time for writing, something like my favourite TV show or hanging out during weekends. Whatever it takes, I am willing to do that because I love writing. 

 

 5) Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring authors who might be sceptical and unsure of their creative endeavour?

Ans Many times aspiring or new authors might fall in the perfection trap. They might get way too critical of their work and sometimes that sows the seeds of doubt in their minds. We see lots of memes online showing the writers do everything except writing or how a writer goes to any extent to avoid writing. One of the major reasons is the fear of not being able to create something perfect. I would like to use Sarah’s words to speak to the aspiring and new authors. Sarah says this to her friend Charlie- ‘You want to write the perfect book and it’s an impossible feat because nobody has ever written one. But people have written beautifully flawed imperfect books which maniacs like us love. Imagine if those authors waited to publish perfect books, we would have none of the great work that we love today. You will have to start with that sloppy writing that you hate and instead of scrapping it, you will rewrite it, refine it and make it better with each try till it becomes a beautiful story. Mind you, beautiful is not perfect. We don’t love perfect things Charlie, we love beautiful things made with a lot of love and sincerity.’ 

So, that’s my advice, don’t aim for perfection but write with love and sincerity and you will create beautiful work. And second, do not be worried about criticism. Any creative work cannot exist without criticism. Some will love your work and some will despise it. You are writing for the ones who will love it and will be benefited by it. The rest, you can ignore. 

 

6. Where can readers find “Sarah’s Seven Lives” to embark on this extraordinary adventure themselves? Could you share the link to your book?

Ans You can find Sarah’s Seven Lives paperback and e-book on Amazon.