The Sass Awards 2019-Reviews & Interviews Book ✔

Mystery/Thriller Winner-MichaelShivaSurya

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.