I am delighted to introduce you today to R.D. Stevens whose novel, The Journal, was published in February 2018, by Troubador.
Welcome to Books, Life and Everything.
Would you like to start by telling us a little about
yourself and how you started as a writer?
First of all, thank you so much for giving me the chance to
tell you a little about myself and my recently published book The Journal.
I grew up in an unremarkable village in Kent in the 1980s
and, after finishing school and studying for a Philosophy degree, I escaped and
travelled/worked my way around the world for two years. After returning to the
UK, I worked in the charity sector briefly before training as a teacher and
completing my MA in Religious Education. I currently live in South East London
with my wife, young son and dog, and work as a Head of Philosophy, Religion and
Ethics at a nearby secondary school.
I have been writing on and off for about ten years now and
thoroughly enjoy the process. I write mainly in the time that I try to find
during my evenings and weekends. What began as writing songs for a number of
decidedly mediocre bands, turned into something more substantial when I signed
up for a series of creative writing classes. During the classes, I really
enjoyed setting aside the time to write and free up my mind to think about
something completely different. Now, when I sit down at the laptop and stare at
the pixelated page, I enjoy the feeling of escape and the freedom of retreating
into the world of my imagination for a few hours.
What are you interests apart from writing?
I love to listen to and play music. I play a few different
instruments and have been a member of some highly unsuccessful bands. I take
headphones with me wherever I go and find that any music that is what I would
describe as ‘honest’ can be a source of inspiration for my writing. I have a
passion for philosophy and must say that I enjoy teaching it; the experience of
discussing philosophical and ethical questions with enquiring, critical minds
is something in which I find great value. However, one of my greatest loves is
to travel, and I used certain places that I have visited as the inspiration for
the setting in The Journal.
Tell us about your
latest book without giving the plot away.
The Journal poses the question: What do you do when you lose
the only thing that you truly care for? It is a coming of age story about Ethan
Willis, a young man on the cusp of adulthood, who is compelled to discover what
happened to his sister, Charlotte, a wild adventurer who was last heard from in
the depths of Southeast Asia. Ethan sets out to follow in her footsteps and
embarks on a journey without a clear goal in sight, unaware that his life is
about to change rapidly and irrevocably. The closer he gets to discovering the
truth about his sister, the more he begins to understand himself, as well as
his place in the world.
The Journal draws on my experience of teaching philosophy
and there is plenty of existential musing and blue-sky dreaming in the book.
The naïve protagonist is led to address many of his questions about meaning,
truth and beauty as his journey progresses. The Journal is aimed at readers who
enjoy thoughtful, poignant reads that examine the nature of the relationships
between family, and the philosophical questions that we all face about truth
and finding our place in the universe.
How do you go about researching detail and ensuring your
books are realistic?
Whilst travelling abroad I keep journals and try to use
those first-hand experiences of beautiful, complex or stark settings as part of
the research for my next book. In beginning The Journal, I instinctively felt
that South East Asia would be the perfect setting for the story I had in mind.
There is such a rich depth of variety, colours, tastes, sounds and experiences
in South East Asia that I felt it would be the ideal place to throw my
protagonist, Ethan, in at the deep end. On my travels, I spent over six months
in South East Asia and visited Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Malaysia
and The Philippines. I wanted Ethan’s journey, and introduction to the
backpacking world, to begin in a busy, bustling capital city and then take him
out to some of the beautiful countryside and stunning beaches that are on
offer.
I decided that Phnom Penh in Cambodia would be the place to
start, with the horrors of the Killing Fields and S-21 prison camp offering a
stark contrast to the party lifestyle of the backpacker scene in the old
Lakeside area of Boeung Kak (which I believe has since sadly been landfilled by
property developers). I knew his time in South East Asia, as he traced his
sister’s footsteps, would be brief and decided that the climax of the story
would fit the excitement and anticipation of a Full Moon Party on Ko Pha Ngan.
Opting for Ethan’s journey to begin in Cambodia, and end in Thailand, I wanted
him to experience Laos as a counterpoint in between. These places can offer
visceral experiences in which the beauty, awe and corruption of the world are
never too far away, but they are also very culturally different, and I wanted
to ensure that came through in the narrative.
I set The Journal almost entirely in places that I had
personally visited in order to be able to authentically represent their feel
and character as best as I could.
Do you have any guilty pleasures which stop/ help you write?
I find that I cannot successfully make myself write if I am
not in the correct frame of mind. I am envious of those who can set aside a
particular time each day and guarantee some kind of end product. I try to build
the time into my evenings, and putting on some good music with a glass of wine
or a cold beer often helps me to relax and get into the right mindset to try
and be creative.
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
I really enjoy writing and would continue to write even if
nobody ever read anything I wrote down (which is always a possibility!). The
process often energizes me and I find that if I can get into the right groove
then the time passes very quickly. Holding on to that passage of time when
everything is going well is one of the most challenging aspects of writing for
me because, given that I lack the luxury of writing full-time, there is always
something else to consider and real life inevitably returns.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what
would it be?
Avoid adverbs and saying anything is ‘like’ something else
wherever possible. Keep dialogue and any action scenes clean and uncomplicated.
Consider whether the words that you use in any context are absolutely
necessary. If there is any chance that the sentence would still work without a
particular word, then leave it out. Basically, I would tell myself to leave out
any non-essential language, which when I first started writing composed much of
what I had written. I would also tell myself that just because you’ve written
something that you think is clever, does not mean that it is…
Do you believe in writer’s block? What do you do to break
its spell?
I don’t believe in writer’s block per se. There are
undeniably moments when it is easier to write than others, but I’m not sure I
would describe this so much as a ‘block’, rather as an ‘obstacle’. ‘Block’
implies immovability, obstacles can be overcome. If I have an obstacle, then I
find either going away from the writing and coming back to it in a different
setting or putting on a different piece of music can help to shift the pattern
of my thinking.
Can you give any hints about any upcoming books you have
planned?
I am currently in the process of writing my second novel.
This story is very different from the first and is set in a world that is
similar to ours but with one or two crucial differences. The inspiration for
this came from Sidney Shoemaker’s thought experiment concerning the possibility
of a world in which there is time without change. The style is very different
to The Journal, but there are some familiar themes present concerning
existentialism and the quest for meaning. I am excited about finishing the
story, however there is still a lot of writing to be done!
That sounds fascinating! For those who would like to know more about The Journal, here's a little about the book:
What do you do when you lose the only thing that you truly
care for?
Ethan Willis is a confused 18 year old who struggles with
the uncertainties of life and has just embarked on a quest to find his elder
sister, Charlotte, who disappeared whilst travelling in South East Asia. Ethan
admires and idolises his sister for her spontaneity, individualism and worldly
understanding. His quest to locate her throws him into the backpacking world
and, following what could be his sister’s ghost, he is taken on a journey
through the countryside of Cambodia, into the remotest parts of Laos and
finally to the party islands of Thailand.
When Ethan finds his sister’s journal by chance, he traces
her footsteps. The travel journal, along with flashbacks to their childhood,
reveals Charlotte’s nature and her relationship with Ethan, taking the young
man on an existential journey as he is led to address many of his questions
about meaning, truth and beauty.
With the help of a Elodie, a fragile and complex girl with
whom he has developed a meaningful relationship, and his own growing sense of
self-esteem, Ethan begins to question his relationship with his sister and why
she disappeared. When he finally learns of a place in which he might be able to
locate his sister, will he be ready to find her?
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