Good evening everyone. Tonight we have EvelynHail and RainerSalt, joint authors of the runaway hit Mind The Gap, in the studio here at AdultFiction, via Zoom conferencing due to current circumstances. 

Elveloy : Firstly, can you tell us a bit about why you decided to submit a joint entry for this year's Open Novella Contest? And how you tackled the process?

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

Aye, that's a curious one. I was dutifully copying a line out of a dreadful maths assignment. 'Twas, as follows: "If a 🚂 A left the station going 60 mph & 🚂 B left the station going 70 mph... At what time..."

I stopped and thought.

At what time would I give a fuck?

At the time when each of dem 🚂s would carry a unique soul, that's when.

Rainer ☔️:

Well, if these trains hurtled past each other at a cumulative speed of 130 mph, neither of the two souls would give a fuck about each other as you so aptly put it. They wouldn't even get a glimpse of each other.

So we started giving the concept of two thoughts on separate trains some more thought. There'd have to be a station somewhere in between... a place where they'd stop. And the two souls need a reason to be in these trains, a life to drive them forward, and a yearning to pull them out.

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

Or, more seriously: The concept for the story came up last year when we discussed a Serbian song called "Voz" (Train), by a performer called Bajaga.

(See above)

Within the lyrics, there is a stanza which goes like this:

Train... On the train, wrinkled passenger's faces...

You... are somewhere behind those mountains...

Are you asleep, perhaps? Or are you awake like me?

Are you bothered by restlessness? Or is nothing bothering you?

Rainer ☔️:

From there, we spun our thread.

And when we found an ONC prompt that matched, there was no stopping us. We plotted the chapters and forged the characters. When that was done, the writing began. We drafted and reviewed chapters, back and forth. We fought, bickered, and laughed over words, jokes, and ideas.

And then, one day, it was complete.

Almost complete. Then Evelyn added the breathtaking drawings.

That finally made it complete.

Elveloy : Amazing! What were the highs and lows of the collaboration?

Rainer ☔️:

One thing that daunted me was that we had "overlapping" scenes in consecutive chapters, once from Iris' point of view and once from Evan's.

Usually, describing the same event from two different views is boring, for the writer as well as the reader. Here, with two characters so different and them knowing so little about each other, it was a blast, at least for us writers. It was fascinating to see the gap between them, the way they see things differently, and how easy it is to get each other wrong. That, combined with the co-writing experience, made this quite a ride.

Oh, I did have to struggle with my co-writer, mostly chasing after the sparks cast by her vivid, beautiful imagination.

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

Shapin-up the novella was so difficult for me!

When I write, the river of words just bursts out through the keyboard-finger dam.

I'm like in some kind of a bloody moon-walking trance! Puppet on a string, speed-playing the piano!

Two hours later, 2000 words have been laid down, but they are all Level 1 words!

Many of them to be improved, cut, re-shaped, better-worded. Grammar mistakes to be fixed...

On the road to Level 2... Tis is where the co-writing steps in!

Stretch yer arms.

Free-fall backwards.

Have no fear, your co-writer is here!

Always there to cyndilauper catch you if you stumble.

Elveloy : I've noticed there are a few entries for this year's ONC submitted by two writers in combination. Some of them, such as @InkandMagic have created a joint profile. Did you ever consider that option?

Rainer ☔️:

*whispers* I was afraid to move into a common profile with a beast so wild. *eyes 👩🏻‍🦰, hoping she hasn't heard him*

*clears his throat, talks more loudly* Maintaining a common profile is a hassle, so... we never considered it seriously. Wattpad should really add the possibility to share books among profiles. I clamored for this years ago, see the Chapter "Shared Books" of my Book "Dear Wattpad". But to my utter surprise, Wattpad didn't oblige. *grumbles*

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

*lets out a ferocious roar, which ruffles ☔️y's hair*

*clears throat*

*smiles sweetly*

Maintaining a common profile is a hassle, so... we never considered it seriously.

It was simply for the best for the ONC entry to sit pretty on my profile.

Of course, this was a commonly reached agreement.

There was no pressure nor coercion, whatsoever. *bats eyelashes, sips hot choc.*

Rainer ☔️:

*says nothing*

Elveloy (looks down and clears throat) : I see... your story, Mind the Gap, won 1st Place in Round One of the ONC 2020. Congratulations! How have you found this year's ONC?

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

I personally found it supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Akin to Diagon Alley, really.

Crossing the threshold into the magical world of the "ONC2020 Alley" fashioned a unique experience for me.

It made me wish, just like Diagon Alley Harry, that I had about eight more eyes! 💜

I would turn my curious head and my restless fingers in every direction as I walked up the ONC steps, trying to look at everything at once! Read everyone at once! ✊🏻

And so it was, truly enchanting. Beautiful colours waved at me from one entry. A hushed whisper, from another; a gruesome murder in a parallelverse splashing the screen red, lay in wait in a third one!

Novellas that harvested souls, novellas that descended to hellish pits, staircases that made you follow detectivesque endeavours while cackling mad with laughter...

At one point, I myself got super dizzy, my head whirled, and I went like: whoa, Evelyn! I did not know what to look at, listen to or touch, anymore! And let me tell you: I loved that vertigo feeling!

Yet, the forte of the wonderfully orchestrated ONC contest this year, just like last year, I found... Lay in a tight-knittedness.

I will be frank: ONC harbours a relatively small number of entries, in comparison to the overall number of the writers on Wattpad!

Yet all who have participated and that I have crossed paths with... Everyone!... has been incredibly kind, supportive and no amount of good words.

Gosh, I have met so many beautiful people! 💜 No other Wattpad competition creates such a sensation of community.

Rainer ☔️:

Well, Evelyn has said it all. What more could I add?

I totally agree that the finest part of the ONC is the people you get to know. There are all sorts, like everywhere. But everyone I interacted with was supportive, kind, and respectful, which tends to be rare these days, in particular online.

And the books... The ONC has made me read unique and fascinating works of art. Some modest but well drafted, others daring and wild. I felt that each one of them was a little, precious soul-shard of a writer deeply caring about their work.

Elveloy :  I agree absolutely! And on a different track, can you tell us a little about what you each do in your non-Wattpad lives?

Rainer ☔️:

In my non-Wattpad life, I'm a family guy and a physicist. Professionally, I write a lot, but it's all non-fiction—boring technical and legal stuff. Nothing to see there. 🥱

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

A non-Wattpad life? What is this thing you speak of... A... non-Wattpad... life 👀?

Uhm let me give it a go.

Just swish and flick:

My favourite two hobbies are dancing and cooking! xD *clears throat*

Okay now fer real.

I am a chameleonic Jill-of-all-trades (would that be a female equivalent of Jack? 🤔)

An avid book reader, illustrator, steampunk trinkets fashioner and a gamer. A university teacher. Neil Gaiman stalker.

I dabble in fistfighting, katana fencing and sUm harmless dagger wielding, a lil'.

*dimples*

Philosophy is my middle name. Oh and: I admire Nikola Tesla.

I like sipping Rooibos tea and hot chocolate. Not at the same time! Although maybe... I could try.

As fer food, I like devouring bacon cheese fries and white choc.

Again, not at the same time.

I stargaze and butterfly gaze.

I am also an undercover assassin, street ragamuffin, the most silent and the most deadly lock/pocket picker and the leader of Pink Panther gang. 🤫

Rainer ☔️: Food, did anyone say food? I love food! Real food. Such as dark chocolate and cheese fondue.

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰: Dark chocolate? ⬛️ 🍫 is so bitter it makes me crave sugar spoons in ma face 😛 despite the fear of hyperglycaemia! White chocolate is my jam. Though... I am fondue-fond! 🧀

Elveloy : And what's next in the pipeline for you?

Rainer ☔️:

I'm working on a post-apocalyptic adventure, When We Shed Civilization. It's mostly completed offline, and I'm posting two or three chapters a week. After that, it's editing time. *winks at Evelyn*

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

Oh geez. My next stop... Pardon the train pun...*giggles*

Um can I admit something? 🙋🏼‍♀️

They are more like "next stops" rather than a single stop.

I feel like a juggler 🤹🏼‍♀️ at the moment since I am preparing a thorough spring/summer pre-watty cleaning of my two books:

"The Prophecy of Water" and "Lily Lamar and the Dimwitted Druids."

And then there are some other, erm, edits that I'd like to complete.

*tries to wink back at ☔️y, her eyelids stoop clumsily, cusses*

*tries to raise an eyebrow*

*fails*

And ooh, ooh!

I almost forgot!

I have also been working on a next rookie first drafter: a short Scrivener skeleton 💀 of a book that can only be described as Steampunk X Hunger Games!

Elveloy : Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy lives and attending the Interview tonight. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Rainer ☔️:

Oh, in another interview we've been asked if the story is a standalone or part of a series. That's a good question.

Evelyn 👩🏻‍🦰:

Why, how quaint that you've asked. It has always been envisioned as a piece of series. Volume 2 shall be called "Mind the Baby!" The cover will surely depict Evan's hands on the lower half and Iris' hands on the upper half. Baby in the middle. All that shebang.

Rainer ☔️:

And Volume 3 will be Mind the Hearing Aid, when the two of them have grown old and even more beautiful, but their auditory capabilities are on a decline. Fortunately, though, this will be a Science Fiction book, and possibilities there are endless: So, before hearing loss can create a new gap, they'll upload their immortal souls into bits and bytes, where they'll have their true HEA.

Elveloy (laughs uneasily) : And on that note, we'll say Goodnight, from all of us at Adultfiction

(And you can click here, to see the review of Mind The Gap in our Book of the Month for June.)