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Interview with Sylvain Reynard – Part III

June 5, 2012

Dear Everyone,

Thank you for your continued support of me and my writing. I’m pleased to say that Heather Huffman and I are in talks about co-authoring a romantic comedy whose royalties would be donated to charity. More details will be forthcoming. If you haven’t read Heather’s novel, “Throwaway,” please do. Not only is it a compelling and redemptive read, Heather donates a portion of her royalties to combat human trafficking. I’m honoured to be able to work with her on a project that will continue to support those efforts.

What follows is the third instalment of my interview with Serendipitous, a long time reader. Her words are in bold:

There are many references to art, literature and music throughout “Gabriel’s Inferno.” Did these works inspire the scenes you wrote? Or did the writing come first, to be complemented by art?

In some cases, the artistic elements were part of my original idea. The works of Botticelli and Holiday’s painting of Dante and Beatrice were part of my outline. As the story progressed, pieces of music and literature were added in order to illustrate a point or to signal something to the reader.

You created your characters with a very sure eye. Their mistakes, their failures, and their victories are perfectly in line with what we come to know about them. How much character development was done before you began writing? Was it challenging to adjust when they took an abrupt turn from what you’d planned?

When I began the story, I outlined the arc of the narrative from beginning to end. But the way in which the characters interacted and the things they said emerged through successive drafts. The character of Professor Singer, for example, wasn’t in my original outline. But when I envisioned Professor Emerson’s public lecture, I saw her sitting in the audience and I knew they would have a history.

I can’t imagine the story without her. She’s vile, but she plays a certain role in the progression of Julia and Gabriel’s relationship. Gabriel is rather vague when Julia questions him on what happened with Professor Singer. Did you prefer leaving it to the reader’s imagination?

Yes. The reader can decide for his or herself what happened between Gabriel and Singer. For Gabriel, those encounters were self-destructive and desperate and that wasn’t a place I wanted to go within the context of the narrative.

Paul treats Julia with kindness from the start, and he makes it clear he’d like to be more than a friend. But Julia’s heart knows only one direction, and it leads to Gabriel: someone who acts remote, cold, and even cruel to her on occasion. Do nice guys finish last, even if they’re Virgil?

I don’t think nice guys ever finish last, including Virgil. If someone is good, he is rewarded by being good. No amount of failed relationships or unrequited love can ever diminish that. Certainly, the historical Virgil didn’t finish last. He spends eternity in the Vestibule with Homer and Ovid. (Parenthetically it should be noted that readers shouldn’t give up on Paul so quickly. There is much more in store for him in the sequel)

It’s good to hear that, because Paul deserves happiness and someone who truly appreciates everything he has to offer. Thanks for the little glimpse into the next book!

I’ll be posting more from our interview soon.

All the best and thanks for reading,

www.sylvainreynard.com

Interview with Sylvain Reynard – Part II

June 1, 2012

Dear Everyone,

What follows is part II of my interview with Serendipitous, a long-time reader. Her words are in bold.

There is a lot of humor in “Gabriel’s Inferno:” professors possibly collecting shrunken heads of graduate students; Gabriel wishing he had a camera to record Julia so he could twitch in private; Gabriel coining the term “Angelfucker.” It lightens up what is often an emotional, dark story. How important is humor to you and your writing?

Humour is very important to me and, I think, also to my readers. The story could have been very dark without the use of the narrator and his snarky asides, or the quirkiness of several characters. The humour is also meant to communicate to the reader that the Professor takes himself too seriously.

Gabriel and his Beatrice started out in their own dark woods at a time when he’d “lost the path that does not stray.” What is it about Dante and his works that inspired you to tie Gabriel and Julia’s story to them?

In La Vita Nuova Dante makes it clear that he admires Beatrice from afar, apart from few brief encounters. I’d always wondered what it would be like if the story was reversed – if Beatrice admired Dante from afar. Worse still, I wondered what it would be like if Dante was oblivious to her existence.

I’ve wanted to ask you about Chapter 14 of “Gabriel’s Inferno” for a very long time. So much of the subsequent story hinges on its events because of what is revealed. But what affected me the most is how Julia finds her voice with Gabriel. Everything she held inside herself for six years breaks wide open. It was enormously satisfying to read it. How did it feel to write it?

I enjoyed writing it immensely. Julia is not a doormat. She chooses her battles very, very carefully, and in this case, she decided to tell him what she thought of him. It was very satisfying to write it.

In general, is it easy or difficult for you to write anger? Do you have a “favorite” emotion to write?

Anger is enjoyable to write because it provides opportunity to let the character’s inner musings fly. It also provides an opportunity for humour.

I’ll be posting more of my interview with Serendipitous next week. Thank you, Serendipitous, for the opportunity to speak with you about my writing. And thank you for reading.

If you haven’t discovered the website Goodreads yet, you might want to look at it. It’s a great resource for finding new and interesting books and for interacting with authors and other readers.

All the best,

www.sylvainreynard.com

Interview with Sylvain Reynard

May 29, 2012

Dear Everyone,

Recently, I had the pleasure of exchanging emails with Serendipitious, a long-time reader. She asked if she could interview me and we agreed that we’d post our exchange in a series here on my website. What follows are Serendipitous’s questions in bold and my answers in italics.

Gabriel Emerson is a complicated man: brilliant, demanding, tightly controlled, and secretive. I’m curious about the changes we see in him during the course of the story. Was he truly transformed by his journey? Or did it reawaken an essential goodness that had been subsumed by the dark parts of his life?

I think it was a little of both. On the one hand, he wanted something more and better out of his life. On the other, he needed motivation and a goal to help him change. The loss of Grace, although it happens off stage, affects several of the characters. Her death reminds Gabriel of his own mortality.

I think Grace’s memory also moved him to be kinder to Julia, even before he realized who Julia is. Glimpses of Gabriel’s inner qualities – generosity, the desire to share knowledge and inspire students, even tenderness – allow the reader to see he isn’t as corrosive as he appears at first glance. Is Gabriel’s arrogant behavior also a defense mechanism? Perhaps he’s protecting himself from being vulnerable.

Gabriel’s arrogance could be a defense mechanism, but it’s also related to his pride. He’s accomplished a lot in his short life and he’s proud of himself. When he believes he isn’t being given the honour that should be due to him, he lets people know it.

Julia undoes Gabriel at almost every turn, starting with that first day in his seminar. In response, he treats her in a condescending manner and explicitly provokes her. Maybe it’s because he’s unaccustomed to falling in love and he can’t abide the loss of control. I’ve also wondered if he made a choice, in line with his own moral code, to alienate her so he doesn’t corrupt her. Your thoughts?

Gabriel’s deepest flaws are his arrogance and pride. “Gabriel’s Inferno” begins with him asking Julia a question and because she’s so wrapped up in taking notes, she doesn’t hear it. He thinks she’s ignoring him and immediately takes offense. So his first impression of her is that she doesn’t take him seriously, and that pricks his pride. A comedy of errors occurs with the note she left him and of course, he becomes even more enraged. This sets the stage for their future interactions.

It seems that wounded pride would be a big issue for Gabriel – and it would make him rather prickly. Does this keep him from acknowledging his growing affection for Julia? He sends her mixed messages in the earlier chapters.

I think that’s correct – his pride is wounded and he’s also cognizant of his own failures. He doesn’t think he’s deserving of happiness, for example…

I’d like to thank Serendipitous for interviewing me and for agreeing to share our conversation with you. I’ll be posting more questions and answers in the days to come.

All the best and thanks for reading,

www.sylvainreynard.com

Music – “Bésame mucho”

August 23, 2011

Dear Everyone,

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m interested in the way music can help an author set a scene. In two scenes in “Gabriel’s Inferno,” the song Bésame mucho (recorded by Diana Krall), plays an important role. However, the meaning of the song shifts with the narrative.

You can listen to the song on my playlist. Here are the lyrics by Consuelo Velazquez, a Mexican songwriter and pianist who wrote the song at the age of sixteen, before she had been kissed:

“Bésame, bésame mucho

Como si fuera esta noche

La última vez

Bésame, bésame mucho

Que tengo miedo a perderte

Perderte después

Bésame, bésame mucho

Como si fuera esta noche

La última vez

Bésame, bésame mucho

Que tengo miedo a perderte

Perderte después

Quiero tenerte muy cerca

Mirarme en tus ojos

Verte junto a mi

Piensa que tal vez mañana

Yo ya estaré lejos

Muy lejos de ti

Bésame, bésame mucho

Como si fuera esta noche

La última vez

Bésame, bésame mucho

Que tengo miedo a perderte

Perderte después

Bésame, bésame mucho

Que tengo miedo a perderte

Perderte después

Que tengo miedo a perderte

Perderte después.”

Here is the English translation:

“Kiss me a lot

Kiss me, kiss me a lot,

As if tonight was

the last time.

Kiss me, kiss me a lot,

Because I fear to lose you,

To lose you later on.

Kiss me, kiss me a lot,

As if tonight was

the last time.

Kiss me, kiss me a lot,

Because I fear to lose you,

To lose you later on.

I want to have you very close

To see myself in your eyes,

To see you next to me,

Think that perhaps tomorrow

I already will be far,

very far from you.

Kiss me, kiss me a lot,

As if tonight was

the last time.

Kiss me, kiss me a lot,

Because I fear to lose you,

To lose you later on.

Kiss me, kiss me a lot,

Because I fear to lose you,

To lose you again.

Because I fear to lose you,

To lose you later on.”

Although the translation might help, it’s probably unnecessary. The music speaks for itself and that’s exactly the kind of song I was looking for in these scenes.

Thanks for reading (and listening).

All the best,

www.sylvainreynard.com

PS. I mentioned author Heather Huffman and her support of WorldVision in a previous post. She has moved her books to Booktrope.com. You can read “Throwaway” for free on that site. Please consider donating to WorldVision if you read one of her books. I highlight a charity every day on my Twitter account. Today’s charity is WorldVision.

I was fortunate to be interviewed by Miss Tamie of The Book Hookup yesterday. You can read the interview here. In it, I mentioned a book club that has compiled a drinks list for each chapter of “Gabriel’s Inferno.” I’ll be sharing part of that list with you soon.

Thank you to Didimarble for more information on Consuelo!

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