INTERVIEW WITH: MichaelShivaSurya

BOOK: Things Not Subject to Gravity

1. How did you feel when you knew you were announced as a finalist, and then the first place winner? Describe it to us :)

I was super excited, surprised and very very thankful to the judge. I'm not that confident about my English writing since I'm not native, so the fact that my TNSTG got first place means a lot to me--it's payback for my hard work and also a boost for my self-confidence.

2. What is the best writing piece of writing advice you have ever received?

I've received so many, thanks to the Rebel book club. I guess my favorites are "show, don't tell", "avoid filtering words" and "add sensory descriptions". Keeping these three simple rules in mind I could bring my writing on a different level. Also, I have two wonderful betas Jagermeanshunterand Sarah_Maclean, and they've given me plenty of wonderful pieces of advice and specific suggestions, I can never thank them enough.

3. What was the proudest moment in your writing journey thus far?

Well, I have published two books in Italy and self-published a short novel and novel on Amazon too, but my proudest moments are when I read a positive review or an enthusiastic comment on TNSTG, which is the book I'm translating right now (and my first attempt at writing in English). The Wattpad community is wonderful and it's such a pleasure to read direct feedbacks on my writing!

4. Where do you see yourself in a few year's time?

No idea, I try not to speculate about the future or indulge in the past. I'm living in the moment, but I hope I'll manage to publish TNSTG soon enough.

5. Where or from whom do you get your writing inspiration from?

It just comes, like I have the characters in my head and they just move according to their personalities--sometimes I get influenced by anime though and some things might slip through. There are plenty of writers I admire, but I can't seem to be able to write like them so I'm having my own style.

6. Who is your favorite Wattpad author and your favorite author outside of Wattpad?

There are many talented writers on Wattpad so I can't say I have a favorite one without feeling I'm excluding somebody who's equally worthy, same it goes for outside of Wattpad. For example, last year I was into Flewelling and Sakavic, I like Neil Gaiman's style and my forever love is Jane Austen, but I can go on and on, and they are all so different that they can't really be compared.

7. How and when did you find Wattpad and begin your writing journey on this platform?

I think it was suggested by somebody, although I don't remember who and how. I started with Italian, but then switched to English and I'm happy I did!

8. Who is your most favorite and least favorite character to write and why?

My most favorite character to write is Sybil Vain because his vision of the world is very similar to mine and I could say he's my alter ego, however, he's also my least because all the philosophical and spiritual concepts are so difficult to translate! I have a lot of fun writing Set too since he's an oddball and sometimes I find myself laughing at his behavior.

9. If you could exchange lives with one book character from your book, and one character from another author's, who would it be and why?

Obviously, Sybil Vain, because we are already very similar in personality, but he has beautiful white hair, he's Japanese, he can see the future and he's fricking rich. As a character from another book, I guess I'd go with Alec from the Nightrunners series because he's not aging and he's dating Seregil, which is one of the best I've ever read about and had a very exciting life.

10. Which character in your book do you relate the most with?

Should I really say it? I'm becoming redundant, right? Well, it's Sybil Vain. However, I can say that I share quite something with Maria as well in the way she reacts to some things. Also, I believe that all my character are developed from different sides of my own personality.

11. How do you get rid of writer's block, if or when you get it?

Well, I usually just wait, using my characters to make up unrelated stories or scenes. Like, I try to imagine them at the supermarket or facing a door-to-door seller and see what happens. It helps me develop their personalities, having extra material to insert in the book at some point and generally bring me back into the story.

12. Do you think this work encapsulates who you are as a writer now, or have you grown a lot since then?

It's my first work in English so I guess it's the best I've got now, but I'm getting better by the day, thanks to all the pieces of advice I receive.

13. When did you realize that writing was your passion?

Well, I actually wanted to draw, but I couldn't so I ended up writing to express the ideas I had and it just naturally developed.

14. When did you first start writing?

I guess I started around 16 or 17.

15. What advice would you like to give to all the struggling yet aspiring writers out there?

Keep writing and keep reading. Reading is the best way to learn writing and writing many things is the best way to get to a good one.

16. What inspired you to write this particular book?

First and foremost, my characters.

A friend, more than fifteen years ago, asked me to make a manga together, we wanted to have about eight characters and we decided to split evenly the character design along with some background for each of them. That's when I created Sakuya and Marcus (along with others that are not appearing in TNSTG, not yet at least). The manga project was dropped soon, but I found myself with plenty of drawings of Sakuya and Marcus, the place they came from, some of their interaction and their background. I had their story in my head and I loved them dearly.

Sometime after, I was sitting at night at the same friend's doorstep. Just chattering around with her I came up with the name Sybil Vain and she responded with a certain Set Voland. I was drawing a lot back then, so I drew them as they came to my mind.

I was so in love with their appearance that I made a set of drawing and start adding some quotes around them. Years after, I used their character design to play in a rpg game (Vampire Requiem) and fell further in love with them. When the game was over, I started writing their story, for my own pleasure.

17. What was the writing process like?

Every now and then, years passing, I would add up something--something would be lost too, in computer changes and deleted files.

I didn't have the idea of writing a book about my boys until a couple of years ago when I found myself with the material for half a book already there. i read it all over and I thought these are the characters I love the most and I want to read about. As hard as it could be, I was the only one who could write their story.

18. When did you start writing this winning book?

In English, last summer. I can proudly say that it's even better than the Italian one.

19. Are you planning on professionally publishing your book? If so, when?

Sure I do. As soon as I finish translating it.

20. Does every comment, every follow and every vote for your work still surprise you?

Yes, and every single one of them is a treasure to me. There's no bigger joy for a writer than to have his work appreciated.

Random, fun & personal questions:

21. Your favorite thing to eat at breakfast?

... Coffee.

22. Would you consider yourself to be a day or night person and why?

I'm a night person, writing in the night is more relaxing and there's a different atmosphere (I'm most fascinated by it), but for my health's sake, I wake up in the morning, exercise, walk and write during the day-- sometimes I fail though, like now.

23. If you could pick one historical period to transport yourself to, which time period would it be?

Now, I'm fine.

24. What is something you obsessively collect?

I got rid of my obsessions, nothing to collect now.

25. Any guilty pleasures (writing or otherwise)?

I like bl, shounen ai and even a bit of (straight) mature romance, be it books or anime. Coffee. Coke. Smoke. Pizza. Young, beautiful boys and girls.