An Interview with Author, David Revilla!
Author
Bio
David Revilla wrote his
first book with pencil and paper, a work lost in the innumerable passages of
time…i.e., his basement. Years of procrastination and several short-stories
later, The River Styx is his first
published novel. The only thing harder than writing the book, he admits, was
restraining himself from editing it “just one more time,” because as everyone
knows authors are their own worse critics.
A native son of NYC, he
dreams of one day moving to someplace less sunny.
When did you start writing?
When does
anyone start breathing? Okay, it's not like I was born with a pencil in one
hand and a piece of paper in the other, but creating stories has been a part of
me since as far back as I can remember. The first time I recall putting a story
on paper was around third grade. A lot of kids today don't know what book fairs
are, but my school used to host them. After reading a few great novels I
started to think, "this is something I can be good at" and that's
when it all started. I hand wrote my first novel before I was in fifth
grade--on paper with pencil, erasing and rewriting like they did in olden
times. It was fun, and before I knew it I was typing those stories on my
computer. It seems like only yesterday when I penned my first opening line: "It
was a dark and stormy night..."--------------Real original, right?
Is there a message that you want to communicate
with your writing?
If there is a concept I want to portray, is that
there are no perfect characters. I dislike characters who seem godlike,
all-knowing, unbeatable. It makes them unrealistic and not relatable. Real
people have faults, and it's how they deal with those faults and learn to
overcome them that make those characters so memorable. It doesn't matter
whether you're writing about a demigod or an alien, the reader has to be able
to understand where the character is coming from or else the character is
nothing more than a word on a page, not a person.
Who is
your favorite author, and why?
I have no favorites per say, but if I had to
choose one it would be the man who inspired me to write in the first place:
R.L. Stine. His Goosebumps series
were a collection of children's horror stories that made me lose sleep at
night. I hold him personally responsible for putting me on this path. I'd like
to meet him, to shake his hand someday and say "Thanks." Why do I
like him so much? It was like he wrote his novels for me specifically. As a
child, I felt that most intelligent books were written for adults and that
children's stories were, well, childish. Stine wrote books that challenged his
young audience. He made me appreciate sentence structure, plotline,
foreshadowing, and of course, cliffhangers. When I wrote my first works, it was
his knowledge guiding the pencil. Through years of practice I became better and
better, but it all started with him.
Do you
have any advice for aspiring authors?
A lot of people who are asked this question say
"don't' give up on your dreams." But what many do not understand is
that dreams take a lot of hard work and (more importantly) patience. In fact, I
would say dreams are about one percent hard work and ninety-nine percent
patience. When I began writing The River
Styx it was a completely different story than what it is now. I went
through so many rewrites, spent so many countless hours erasing entire
passages, throwing away paper, changing one paragraph after another until I
just gave up and started from scratch....again, and again, and again. If
someone had told me I'd actually finish the novel back then I'd never have
believed them.
So many young and new authors don't understand
just how hard it is to write a book. From the moment of its conception, The River Styx took seven years to
complete. That's right, SEVEN YEARS. Other books have taken longer. Some series
have decade-long gaps between installments, meaning that an entire generation
of readers can grow up without actually finishing the story. It's the main
reason I decided to make my debut novel a stand-alone book, because I have no
idea when, if ever, I'd get around to writing the next novel.
So my advice is this: be patient. Finish what
you're working on no matter how bad it is. Remember that the next step is to
edit the story. That's actually the fun part because you can hammer out all the
details and make the story better than before. The first step is just to
finish. Everything else comes later.
Tell us
about the main character from The River Styx.
There are actually two main characters, Hope and
Charon. Hope who is a fourteen-year old girl who has just survived a storm and
is floating on the sea. She is rescued by a passing galley (that's an ancient
Greek sailing ship) on its way to the city of Dis Pater, the capital of the
Underworld. Hope has lost much of her memories after the traumatizing incident
and has no idea how she wound up in the realm of the dead. She seems like an
ordinary girl at first, but inside her is a unique gift that connects her to
the gods of Olympus. Despite this special power, it is her humanity that
defines her, and her spirit that inspires the crew on their journey. She is the
only human on the ship and it is her humanity that is her greatest strength.
On the flip side, Charon is an immortal who is
the captain of The River Styx. Cold,
aloof, and apathetic, his only goal is to see his ship and crew to Mt. Olympus
to discover why the gods have fallen silent. He's a tough commander, often
manipulative, but overtime he begins to feel something for his crew. Much of
this is Hope's doing as she's the first human being he's ever gotten to know.
Through their interactions, Charon begins to appreciate what it means to be
mortal and learns that all life is precious. He is willing to risk everything,
even his own immortality, to make sure they are all survive.
Which
actor would you like to play the main character in the movie?
Maisie Williams is the actress who plays Arya
Stark on Game of Thrones. When I told my illustrator to create a few concept
ideas for the character of Hope, I chose Maisie as my template. She has the
look I was going for (the short hair, the eyes, the build) and the attitude.
She's spirited, like Hope, and while not physically-intimidating or
martially-inclined, it is her will that separates her from all other characters
in the show. Hope's strength comes from her willingness to whatever it takes to
protect those she cares about.
For Charon I'd go with Tom Wisdom who plays the
archangel Michael on the SyFy series Dominion. Tall, stoic, cultured in voice,
powerful, these are all traits that Tom displays in his portrayal as Michael
and I believe he'd easily fit the role of Charon. He also carries that aura of
mystery and deep introspection which I believe is crucial to understanding
Charon's character and motives.
What are
you working on next?
I'm working on several projects at once. I have
been developing this dark YA story about two siblings, a brother and sister,
who must save their village from things that live beneath the earth. It's a
work in progress but it's something that would have chilled me to the bones in
my youth. I definitely want to work on my first series. It will probably be
science fiction and geared towards an older audience. My goal right now is to
build up my portfolio and develop a fan base. After writing, editing and
self-publishing, advertising is proving to be the biggest challenge of my
career. The River Styx is my first
voyage into the choppy waters of authorship, and it's a journey I don't plan to
take alone.
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