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Heizal: Who is Ani? What are her quirks? Tell us everything!
Ani: Hello friendly readers! I'm Ani Talwar, a reader who is passionate about the environment (and ranting about my favourite fantasy novels).
I'm an author, and love writing both fiction and non-fiction (although my love is with fiction) and as for my quirks…well I decided I wanted to write novels at about 12 or 13 years old and never looked back, is that quirky enough? Before you say no, do feel free to imagine what I was like in school sat at the back of a classroom with my homework diary half filled with homework and half filled with stories instead (which I think my teachers simply just got used to…as long as I also did the homework!).
Heizal: Your enthusiasm for writing is contagious! What inspired you to merge the impacts of the climate crisis with fiction in your writing?
Ani: This is a fun one, because the answer is actually quite simple: why not? As I mentioned earlier, I am passionate about saving the environment- I don't want us to lose our beautiful world- and I also love reading- in fact I can probably timeline my life through the books I was obsessed with. So, when it came to writing stories, it seemed natural to combine the two things I really liked so that I could enjoy them together in one deliciously adventurous and nature heavy book. Why not?
This allows me to approach the more poetic and qualitative reasons you should love your planet in a way that is engaging, and entertaining. Novels are a way to put yourself into someone's shoes, and see the world through someone else's eyes, and I love having my books be a way to write about the way I see the beauty in things and share that with people. It allows you to form an emotional connection to the characters, and then the planet too, and combines a cool story (If I may be as biased to say) with a wonderful setting.
When you close one of my books, you don't have to leave the whole universe behind. Yes, the characters may stay in the pages, but their settings, and their world: the trees they climb, the ocean's they swim in, the way they run across fields and dip between houses finding flowers in pavement cracks and secret worlds in nature…that's all still out there in the world around us. My books just use that to frame the scene of some crazy adventures along the way.
So when I consider all that I'm able to do and the way I can share my love for the planet through the characters I create and people ask me why I'd combine the two, I come back to the same answer: why not? (That, and I’m a huge fan of Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries, best not let me talk to long on that or I would fill a whole extra page…)
Heizal: and how do you then approach blending real-world environmental issues with fictional storytelling?
Ani: This is a bit harder to answer simply, because I've been writing for over 10 years, and I started when I was 13, so my writing style has massively evolved through the years (I read some of my early work like you'd watch a cringy childhood video sometimes, but it sure is entertaining), and so some of the ways I embed real world issues have changed, and my memories of what exactly I thought when I scribbled a note into a book 10 years ago aren't exactly crystal clear.
However one of the key things I do is see the issue from different angles.
Take Atro-City The Flood for example (which is my first novel, cheeky shout out there). Kayla Stevenson sees the issue of environmental degradation from a post-disaster negative angle, because it is the thing that is drowning her home. However Lizzie way back 200 years earlier sees it from a completely different side. For her, exiled from her home and on the run, her environment and the things she sees are an adventure, constantly changing and exposing her to new ways to see the world, and in the end, exploring outside the dingy and overbuilt village she grew up in provides her with everything she was looking for in life.
Play with subtlety would be my next step. Both Kayla and Lizzie and Lily in Atro-City The Flood express all the time how they are fighting for the environment, in a not so subtle nod to the fact that I love the environment and sustainability, however once I've established their reason for embarking on their adventure, I can nod to my love of the environment in more subtle ways too. It's subconsciously understood in the way Lizzie describes the places she explores, and the way Kayla hates on the decaying world she embarks to travel across
Heizal: How do you balance the need to raise awareness about the negative impacts of climate change while also highlighting positive solutions in your work?
Ani: I suppose this is achieved by the myriad of ways I approach sustainability. For reference, I write novels, non fiction info articles, and I also work as an Environmental Social Governance Consultant, so my whole life is about this. This means that between those three things, I get a mix of spreading awareness, proposing solutions (feel free to browse my blog if you're interested! I have an open forum for suggestions on what you'd like to read about too!), and writing for the fun of it.
Heizal: The power of storytelling to influence attitudes and actions towards the climate crisis is undeniable. How do you see your work contributing to this cause?
Ani: With the way I write, and the topic I write specifically for, I think (and I hope) I can make a positive difference. Especially because Atro-City is a child friendly book- it means people can be exposed to the idea of environmental protection and sustainability from a young age, in a way where you might not even be aware you're taking in the message, and in a way that fosters positive emotions so that when you reach a stage where you look up all the news headlines, you're a bit better prepared to wade through what can be a lot of negative news.
Heizal: Can you tell us about any upcoming projects or books you're working on related to climate change and fiction?
Ani: So I'm working on my second novel- which I have been saying for about six years, but I finished it completely, took a year out to finish my degree, and then re-read it and realised how many holes and bad bits there were, so I started in August of 2023 completely overhauling it, so that's ongoing- I've written about 200 pages since then and counting!
I'm also working on a 'behind the curtain' series where I dive into what an author actually thinks of (in my experience) when writing books. And as always, I'm working on an article or four- which I actually think I'll squeeze in some time for after this! I am also working on a couple of collaborations at the minute which should be dropping in the next few months so keep your eyes peeled.
Heizal: Finally, what advice would you give to other writers who want to incorporate environmental themes into their work effectively?
Ani: This is the first time I think I've ever been asked this…so bare with me whilst I take thirty minutes to decide which of my random trial and error learn-on-the-spot moments is possibly brilliant enough to be re-told as advice…
…I think one of the best things I can say about how to incorporate the environment into your work, is find what makes you tick when it comes to wanting a better world. Find your favourite thing, or your thing that just takes your breath away every time, and work with that.
For me, I love how beautiful spaces can be in the natural world, not even that far from built villages and cities. I did a photo series on my instagram page a few years ago where I posted these really beautiful pictures of nature, and then the zoomed out version on the next slide to show how these photos were taken in really urban spaces and that you can find beauty if you look hard enough. I actively wanted to go hiking somewhere in my life where I could stand at the top of a hill with the world laid around me in the wind and rain because I wanted that fresh misty Wuthering Heights atmospheric feeling, and I use that feeling and that drive to see the beauty in everything to fuel how I write.
I've created characters that just love the rain, and enjoy the freshness of falling drops on the ground (because…I like the rain!), and written about the feeling of standing amongst trees with nothing but the wind to shout beside you (because that's such a fun experience for me), and so I'd say, find the thing you love and the reason you want to protect the world, and write from that angle, because it'll be the most authentic way you can write, and that will shine through underneath whatever situation you then put your characters through.
Heizal: Ani, this was really fun! Thank you so much for sharing your insights!
