[Interview] Rai Aren

Rai Aren lives in Calgary, in the province of Alberta, Canada.

She made her debut as an author with the publication of Secret Sands (RFS Publications, 2007), a novel she co-wrote with Tavius E.

The novel has been described as "fast, furious and absolutely mindblowing."

In this interview, Rai Aren talks about her concerns as a writer.

When did you start writing?

I have always loved writing; I started by writing my own Nancy Drew stories (early fan fiction) when I was 10. Throughout school, I always had a very easy time with essays, any kind of written question.

Then, about seven years ago, my co-author and I started talking about how we wanted to do more with our lives than just earn a living, we wanted to create something larger than life, to follow in the footsteps of the epic stories that we love.

From conversations we had over the course of a year, and a program I saw on the Discovery Channel came the inspiration for Secret of the Sands.

How would you describe your writing?

These stories are mystery/alternate historical fiction/speculative sci-fi tales.

The trilogy that we have planned, starting with Secret of the Sands, is like a combination of Indiana Jones meets The Mummy (the ancient part at the beginning of the movie) meets National Treasure. There’s the camaraderie of the main characters, the mystery at the heart of the story, and an exploration of a fictional past that is woven into actual historical events and monuments.

Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is people interested in adventure novels, especially those who are interested in Egypt’s ancient past. This series is suitable for anyone, ages 12 and up.

We write for this audience because these are our favorite books. Secret of the Sands is the type of story that we absolutely love and would scoop up in a heartbeat.

Who influenced you most?

For me, I would say that the movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars, are my big influences. Those stories captured my imagination so completely, so wonderfully when I was a kid, and they have stayed with me. Their popularity is directly linked to the heart at the core of those movies.

The story of the Lord of the Rings is also a big influence because of the stakes the characters face, how they handle it, how things are not perfect. There is tremendous personal courage at play, but also terrible loss and doubt.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

It flavors every major character and conflict that I write. Literally. It imbues the characters and situations with life, with emotions that I feel and have experienced.

For the setting of Secret of the Sands, it is dealing with subject matter, Egyptology, which I have been fascinated with since I was in grade three.

For the solo novels I have planned, they are all exploring aspects of our society that I feel passionately about. They come from my observations of, and strong opinions, about our world.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Just to be widely accepted and appreciated.

I am very clear on what I write, why, and how to go about it. I just want it to mean something to the world at large, in addition to myself, and those I am close to.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

On one hand, it’s the seemingly endless waiting to hear back from agents and publishers.

On the other hand, it’s how to manage all of the ideas I have for novels, figuring out the balance to life that is needed for personal responsibilities to others, book promotion, and writing time.

When did you decide you wanted to be a published writer?

I decided that about twenty years ago. It was one of the things I wanted to achieve in my life, to be a novelist. It’s just something I respect deeply and am fascinated by.

When my co-author and I started talking about writing a story together, getting it published was one of our main goals. We want it to be out there, we want people to read and enjoy it, so we started sending it out to publishers, but the wait is long.

After getting a handful of rejections, we sat down and seriously re-worked the story, edited and whittled it down from about 173,000 words. We felt we had a winner at that point, so we decided to self-publish it and start building a readership base.

That has turned out extremely well, so we are actively seeking a publisher for a mass-market paperback edition of Secret of the Sands. We’d love to have a hard-cover special edition released one day too.

Do you write everyday?

I do something for the books every day, either writing or promoting. I just start as soon as my personal responsibilities allow, and only stop when I must, either I am falling asleep or duty calls. It’s the thing I love doing most.

How many books have you written so far?

One finished (Secret of the Sands), the sequel to it is over half-finished, and I have one solo novel, also about half done.

Which aspects of the work that you put into Secret of the Sands did you find most difficult?

For me, personally, it’s letting go of things that I have written.

I write tons more than makes it into the final draft, so there is always a lot that needs to be edited out. It’s deciding what the essential core is, and allowing the rest to be edited out. I dream about one day releasing the rest of the story, a la Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales …

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

Getting into the ‘zone’ -- where I am writing, but then it’s no longer just me sitting there trying to write a story, the story takes on a life of its own. That is so exciting, so rewarding. It’s what I call my ‘magic carpet ride’ -- where I am not thinking it up ahead of time, when scenes and characters just spring to life. The way I describe it is like reading a story you love, but it’s way more intense, you are experiencing it, feeling it come alive, and it surprises you. Quite enchanting.

What sets the book apart from the other things you've written?

This is a collaboration, and as such, I really feel it is much more than the sum of its parts, more than either of us would have achieved on our own with this story. There were many more things to consider with this, because both of us had to be satisfied and agree on the final draft.

In what way is it similar to the others?

It’s subject matter that I love, and will never grow tired of.

What will your next book be about?

The sequel Destiny of the Sands, carries on from where Secret of the Sands leaves off.

We also have a third instalment planned.

Each story gets progressively darker, the stakes grow higher and no one is safe.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Finishing the first novel and having it be something I am incredibly proud of.

I have re-read it many times for editing purposes, and I never grew tired of it. I think we created something to last.


Related books:

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Related articles:

• "Author-2-Author Interview: Secret of the Sands", by Christopher L. Vaughn, American Chronicle, June 3, 2008.
• "Rai Aren & Tavius E.", AllTheseBooks.com, March 26, 2008.

[Interview] Wendy Mewes

Wendy Mewes lives and works in Finistere and has been teaching and writing about history for more than 25 years.

Her non-fiction books include Crossing Brittany (2008); The Nantes-Brest Canal: a Guide (2007) and Discovering the History of Brittany (2006) -- which focus on the history and attractions of Brittany.

She has also written and published two novels, Moon Garden (2004), a novel of love, growth and natural magic, and, The Five of Cups (2006), which explores explores love, loss and renewal.

In this email interview, Wendy Mewes talks about her writing:

When did you start writing?

I wrote my first ‘book’ when I was eight. It was about ancient Greece and I still have the faded pages of careful handwriting tied together with cotton. I remember consulting many books in the library and my father’s collection and enjoying the process of selecting information and telling things in my own words.

Since childhood I intended to be a writer, recognising it as a fundamental part of my nature. I thought then, however, that I would be a poet. Through my teens I wrote poetry and ran a poetry club at my school. I won prizes for poetry but it was not exactly an option for a profession.

I studied ancient history at university and wrote a serial set in ancient Rome. A very popular teen magazine said they liked the style but the story was too complicated for their readers and would I write a short story? Life got in the way and I didn’t follow up this opportunity. First mistake!

I worked seriously at my poetry during my twenties and submitted a collection for a major award at the age of thirty. Again, it was well-received, but I’d misread the rules and was six months too old. After this I was seriously ill and gave up writing for nearly ten years. Then, in a good phase of my life, I suddenly started a crime novel, set in England and Poland, which had a female heroine and a humorous tone. I was very confident that at last I’d found my niche and decided to give up my teaching career in London, move to the country and concentrate on writing. A reputable agent took on the novel and assured me I’d be a millionaire. The first editor rejected the book despite saying that I ‘had really got something’. After that the agent lost interest and I wasted 18 months, trying to write a sequel, but without any advice or encouragement. I could not even get the manuscript back from the agent.

I began writing articles for the editor of a local magazine who was also a publisher. We later married and together wrote a little walking book which was a sell-out locally. I then joined a professional writers’ group in Glastonbury, where I learnt a lot and benefited from serious criticism of my work from established writers.

I wrote another crime novel, rather dark this time, which I still think is one of the best things I’ve done, even though it has not been published. Another agent took it on, but did even less for me than the first. Second mistake -- bothering with agents!

I began writing a light-hearted novel about natural magic. Although my husband specialised in publishing transport and local interest books, he said he’d try publishing the novel. So Moon Garden came into the world and has in fact done well over the last few years, without any advertising or publicity. It is a bit of a cult book in pagan circles and has enjoyed many excellent reviews on the internet.

Next we moved to Brittany, north-west France, and my husband set up a new publishing company Red Dog Books, and I began to write guidebooks, walking books and a history of Brittany, coming back to my training and teaching experience. In the last few years I have written seven books about Brittany, including another novel set in the wild landscape where we live. All have been good sellers.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

In my non-fiction work I am trying to make the landscape and history of Brittany accessible to readers and visitors who may not speak French well. Many of my readers actually live here and want to discover the background of their adopted country in a language they can read easily. I try to write concisely but with clarity and good organisation of material. Simplifying the complexities of history is a challenge, but my skills seem to lie in this area.

As far as novels go, I write about making choices and hope to inspire people to move forward in their lives. The two published novels have a ‘feel-good’ factor, but I think the next may be something else altogether. It is true that I had the pagan world in mind when I began Moon Garden, but in fact it has been enjoyed equally by readers of all backgrounds.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

This is a hard one! In non-fiction I don’t feel I have models, but in fiction I admire enormously the fizzy skills of Janet Evanovich with her unique combination of humour and menace, especially in the earlier Stephanie Plum books. But I think the writers I most admire in serious fiction, such as Hilary Mantel, are doing something quite different from me. Maybe I consciously choose to read the opposite of what I write! When I read Thierry Guidet’s short account of his walk along the Nantes-Brest canal in French I thought I’d like to do the same and write about that journey myself, but my perspective as a foreigner and historian is completely different.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

In non-fiction I have always been motivated by producing quality work that is accessible to the general public but also academically sound. I am not interested in sensationalising history or sacrificing evidence to the demands of a good story. I believe that reality is just riveting as fantasy!

In fiction, so far I have thought about being entertaining and amusing in my characterisation and dialogue. I think in my next novel I want to explore my own emotional experience and understanding more deeply.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

In fiction I have drawn on events and people from my own life but circumstantially rather than profoundly. I was astonished to get a letter from a reader who met me years ago saying how easily he could see me in one of the characters in Moon Garden. In fact I had based this person on someone I knew and didn’t like very much! I’m not sure if there’s a lesson here or not!

The Five of Cups was a novel from my experience of coming to live in a foreign country with all the emotional upheaval that can bring, but the actual story is very different from my own. I found this book painful to write because it brought home to me many unsatisfactory aspects of my life. Since then I have not been able to ignore them!

In the novel I have just begun, Walking for the Broken-Hearted, I intend to draw much more closely on my own psychological experience. I feel the time has come for that and in a way I’ve been holding back up until now.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

I suffer from too many ideas and too little time! I also find it difficult to reconcile the demands of writing fiction and non-fiction. I often feel I’d like to be free of the demands of constantly writing books and just concentrate on getting back to poetry. But financially I have to produce guidebooks. My novels take a huge effort and a lot of time to produce but do not have great financial returns, although I’m quite pleased with making a small profit from them. If there was no commercial imperative, sometimes I wonder if I’d write at all -- in many ways when it becomes simply work, the magic can ebb and flow.

Do you write everyday?

No, not every day. I am often out for days of walking or doing researching for historical books or having meetings with tourist organisations. (I also run an association here in Brittany for walks and visits to interesting places guided in English, and this takes up a lot of time).

For fiction, I am always reluctant to get started because there is not the easy agenda of a non-fiction book. The latter can be planned and then worked through in an orderly fashion. I don’t feel like that about fiction -- it churns me up emotionally and I often have to force myself to write. The Five of Cups only met its deadline by a strict 1,000 words a day which nearly drove me insane (but I always keep to deadlines)! Because I see the business from my husband’s point of view as a publisher, and how the delays of other writers cause him problems, I’m strict with myself about getting stuff in on time. Generally I am well-organised and disciplined as long as it’s non-fiction. Here I start work in my study at 9 am and make notes or write up all morning. My favoured method is to get something down one day and then review and refine it the next day before going on with a draft.

Afternoons are not good work times for me but I often come back to writing in the evenings. But nothing after 10 pm!

What is your latest book about?

In my most recent book, Crossing Brittany I describe a walk of 365 kilometres along the Nantes-Brest at a time when I was thinking a lot about the meaning of identity in my own life, so it’s both historical, personal and a bit of a nature study! It has taken me two years to write, despite being a short book, because it has been fitted in around other publications.

It is published with Red Dog Books as usual because they specialise in books about Brittany. The main problem has been over the title. I have always called it "The Long Thought", a theme of the book, but the publisher and representatives/distributors in the U.K. did not find that a very inviting prospect to publicise so at the last minute after a lot of soul-searching and arguing, I have agreed to change the title to Crossing Brittany (or as I think of it to myself, "Cross in Brittany"!).

Which aspects of the work that you put into the book did you find most difficult?

This book is the most personal one I have written and it caused me to reflect deeply and often painfully on my life. I wrote it during a difficult time in my personal circumstances but not all of this can be easily exposed in the text, so I’ve had to make many compromises. It is also challenging to integrate a personal narrative with historical details and the description of my physical journey on this long walk.

I wanted to get a good balance between history, nature, walking, identity and observations about living in a foreign country. Constant reworking of the material was necessary to get this and, as the agreed length was quite short, I had to be extremely selective of material gathered over two years of research.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I liked the actual walk, which I did over four seasons, bit by bit. Sometimes I walked for several days, staying in accommodation overnight and carrying all my gear; other times I did a day’s stint of about 25 kilometres. My method of composition was to make notes in a dictaphone as I went along, as well as taking photos and talking to people on the way. So the research was great!

What sets the book apart from the other things you've written?

The personal tone is quite different from my objective historical voice, and the discipline and descriptive powers required in a travelogue to keep the reader interested poses new demands. I wanted them to be able to see what I saw but also to recognise my individual reactions during the trip.

In what way is it similar?

The subject matter -- the landscape and history of Brittany -- is my normal sphere of work. But both are so varied that I rarely find myself writing about the same things twice.

What will your next book be about?

My next project (for 2010) is Britons in Brittany, a book about links between Great Britain and Brittany through the centuries.

Also, not quite out of nowhere but very suddenly, a new novel has jumped into my head, and Walking for the Broken-Hearted is progressing slowly. I shall be looking for a main-stream publisher for this book.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Helping British people living in Brittany to feel a sense of connection and understanding with their chosen place of settlement in a foreign country even if they find the language barrier an insurmountable one. Making history a subject with life and energy has been very satisfying.

I am also proud of the fact that so many people have enjoyed my two novels and written to me about the sense of encouragement for change and growth in their lives that they got from the books.

Possibly related books:

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[Interview_1] Chris Hoare

Fantasy and science fiction author, Christopher Hoare’s three novels, Deadly Enterprise (Double Dragon Publishing, 2007), The Wildcat's Victory (Double Dragon Publishing, 2008) and Arrival (Double Dragon Publishing, 2008), are set in a 17th century alternative world and revolve around the lives of the people of the stranded starship, Iskander.

Currently he is working on another book in the the Iskander series.

In this, the first of a two-part interview, Chris Hoare speaks about his concerns as a writer.

How would you describe your writing?

While I also write fantasy and supernatural humour, most of my work now is on an Alternate History/Science Fiction adventure series about the people of the stranded starship Iskander on a 17th century alternate world. It combines sociology (the science) with some anachronistic additions to sword and gunpowder swashbuckling.

Since the early 1980s, I have never got far with any project that draws on my own experience in various areas of the oil business, including exploration in N. African desert and the Arctic. It seems that I've not yet managed to negotiate the narrow path between real events and fiction that Rudy Wiebe pointed out to me.

Who is your target audience?

I think I write primarily for women of active imagination. Since older women buy most of the fiction published today, I'm glad that my fascination with the daring and clever Security Officer, Gisel Matah (from the Iskander), ties in with their reading habits.

I am always torn between writing stories that appeal on a pleasure level and ones that point up the illusions of life.

I prefer to write the kinds of stories that I enjoy. On the other hand, I would hope to have some aspects buried in the writing that would one day be considered a contribution to literature.

I work on varied projects with the aim that every area of the craft I learn will add something to the next project I venture.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

I think a writer's greatest concern is securing a place in the crowd.

Today, the writing isn't enough. While we may have sweated blood over our portrayals of our fictional realities, no one will see them unless the finished novel reaches the attention of potential readers.

I'm disappointed that the big corporate publishers are widely accepted to be the arbiters of quality when in reality they pander to every public whim and launch huge volumes of dross into the world in the hopes that some of it may return them a profit. I wish they really were purveyors of the very best quality and concentrated on that, but I realize that is foreign to everything our economic system stands for. I mourn for a better world where books were published because someone believed in their message or content.

Do you write everyday?

Before I became embroiled in weeks of promotion, I used to write most days. When revising chapters, I may write a paragraph or a couple of pages; when writing a first draft I might get 3,000 words down once I know where the scenes are going.

I generally start with some housekeeping, saving completed work to a storage site or into a thumb drive, making new notes in my scenario or plot files. Usually I write in complete scenes and only end when I reach the final actions. These may also require revising in order to keep up the pace and tension before I write on into the next scene.

Who would you say has influenced you most?

Most has been influence in a negative direction -- pointing out things I avoid. I find TV drama to be terribly flawed, and novelists who write from such a perspective to be mistaken. I avoid following all the writers who portray women in action roles as damsels in distress. The one that sticks in my craw most was a Brit TV series about a young woman bequeathed a detective agency, who, in peril, in a deserted summerhouse with an enemy possibly breaking in, walks around investigating with a revolver delicately held between thumb and forefinger as if it were a dead mouse. How patronizing!

Then there are the scads of 'funny face' science fiction. These green humans with pointed ears might be acceptable as fantasy, or if they were the product of a deeper exploration of a natural system that might logically produce them, but by and large they are simple parroting of what has been done before. I’d rather fill my writing with people like ourselves, instead of clichés.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

I like to think that my own experience shapes the stories I tell without having myself intruding into them.

Throughout my life I have never fitted easily into the societies and positions I found myself in, and rather than change to conform, I have looked with outsider's eyes to see the cracks in the edifices. I like to think my novels take place within some of those cracks, and show readers something they might never have noticed.

When did you start writing?

I completed my first novel around 1974, a huge historical epic about the arrival of the Anglo Saxons in Roman Britain, entitled Wyrd's Harvest. I started it in 1967 in Libya, researched details in the British Museum Library, wrote the first attempt from a truck camper travelling across the States, and finished the last draft on night shifts at the old Calgary Refinery. It was never published.

How did you make the transition from wanting to write to becoming a published writer?

After finding out I could plug away through several hundred thousand words and keep my spirits up to complete a novel, I decided to learn more of the craft with short stories and eventually produce a publishable novel. I soon came to hate the short stories I worked on.

I started the next novel (about the workers trying to buy the Calgary Refinery) in the late 70s and took the first draft to Rudy Wiebe, then writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary. I found out that I needed to learn better control of my imagination and prose when he laughed through all the dramatic bits.

I have attended other writing functions, the last with Guy Vanderhaeghe who won the Governor General's prize for The Englishman's Boy, now a TV drama. He taught me the importance of every detail -- such as what would or would not be in the POV character's sight in every scene. After that I joined the best of the online writing groups, NovelPro, and have had every novel thoroughly critiqued until they were worthy of showing to the world. NovelPro is as valuable as most MFA programs.

How many books have you written so far?

The three Iskander novels published or contracted are Deadly Enterprise (July 2007), The Wildcat's Victory (January 2008), and Arrival (July 2008). They are all published by Double Dragon e-Books. They all feature my courageous and clever female Security Officer, Gisel Matah, who works to protect the interests of a group of modern people marooned on a 17th century world. When the moderns work to introduce technology we might relish, established power elites attack them to maintain the status quo.

My fantasy, Rast, is due out from Zumaya in January 2009. It takes the side of a small magical kingdom, Rast, invaded by an imperialist power whose mechanistic philosophy denies the existence of things that cannot be touched. Rast is maintained by the magic of its succession of sorcerer kings, who must eventually meet their end under the power of the forces they wield. The Prince must succeed his doomed father while fighting many enemies; meanwhile his sweetheart has her own struggles against a rule of succession that says she cannot bear his heirs.

Related article:

Chris Hoare [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, March 7, 2008