Charity Lynn @ Keep on Booking
Random Magic, by Sasha Soren
Sasha Soren, SashaSoren.com
1. What is your favorite comment that you have received about any of your works?
There are lots of favorite comments. I'm grateful to everyone who ever took the time to spend time reading something I've written, and then actually felt strongly enough to write to me to tell me how enjoyable the read was, or wrote something really nice about me elsewhere, where I accidentally stumble over it like an unexpected birthday gift.
So, don't really have a favorite comment, because they're all so wonderful that it's impossible to choose just one.
But, did hear a totally offhand but quite memorable comment, fairly recently.
Someone said that the scenes in the Floating City made them cry, but that it was a good kind of crying.
Then they tried to explain to me about those scenes, and got all choked up. And that touched me, because the reaction was so obviously sincere, but also because I understood what they meant by a “good†kind of cry.
You can cry because you're in some kind of pain, as a reaction to something that happens to you or someone you love.
You cry when bad things happen, when unjust things happen, because some part of your life has been diminished, and some part of whatever that collective light of humanity is, also flickers a little lower.
But you can also cry because something just really moves you. It's something you can identify with, on a profound level, as if you're just…known. Someone sees exactly who you are, and understands, and doesn't even have to say it out loud.
Sometimes it's like receiving an answer to a question you didn't know you'd asked. Sometimes it's just that the immortal and mortal collide, and you experience a moment outside of time, where you imagine that, if the stars sang, this is what it would sound like.
Or you read some thought, written by someone hundreds of years ago, and it's like they bled out from your own heart.
Some poignant piece of music, or a fragment of poetry where the words are just absolutely right and make your heart hum, it's a different kind of crying.
Instead of diminishing, destroying that little light you have inside you, it pours all its beauty into you and makes you feel your humanity -- but the beauty of it, the nobility of the human being, not the smallness of being human.
Mankind is capable of a lot of things. Unfortunately, a lot of the things mankind is capable of are just little blips we see on the evening news. We're almost numb to suffering, or injustice, or degradation, because it's so common.
But every once in a while, you experience something in an unexpected way, and for some reason, this particular thing, this thing that you're experiencing -- it could be a song, or a book, or a film, or stoic courage under tragedy, or some small gesture of thoughtless kindness when it was most needed -- is somehow bowing to the light within you, and acknowledging it, and saying, without words, that this is what we're meant to be.
I think that sometimes you just cry, not because you're sad or in pain, but because something beautiful exists in the world, that wasn't there before.
And you're crying because it exists. It's not sadness, it's a strange kind of hope.
So, yes. That's why.
Should also note that, it wasn't because I thought I could take any of the credit for that. The reason the compliment was so nice was not because I have a swollen head and think, gee, how fantastic I am.
No, it was more that, through the medium of reading, someone connected with their soul and knew for certain that they're not wrong to dream of beauty. That moved me very much.
You know, if someone can dream about these things, then it does exist in the world. It might not be part of our everyday experiences, but if one person can dream it, then it does exist.
And if one person can dream it, so can another. And another. And another. And so, in some mysterious way, we pass the light from one to another, like a torch. And that's why, in the end, the light overcomes the darkness of this mortal life.
It's often a brutal, dark world, this life. But if there's even a spark of light in the darkness, well…it doesn't need to be a blinding sun. All we need is a little spark to know that life isn't all darkness. It's like a candle burning in a window, to show you where your true home is.
So, that comment was memorable for many reasons, but, yes, primarily, because I knew what was meant by a "good" kind of crying.
Interestingly, the message of the Floating City arrived out of nowhere, it just showed up in a very vivid daydream.
There are physical details about the city that are very reminiscent of Venice, Italy, and, in fact, that's where some of the inspiration for the basic physical details came from, like the canals and pale green water.
But the non-physical details of the city (the spiritual details) just came to me out of the blue, actually wrote all of those scenes in a few hours, with maybe a day or two doing some minor editing.
That doesn't usually happen! Usually you work quite hard on something, and slowly but surely, the story comes to life.
Writing a fully realized three or four chapters in one sitting is unheard of, and have no idea where they came from, but couldn't stop writing them, forgot to eat and sleep and what have you, because it was like suddenly something (or someone -- one of the Muses, perhaps) had turned on a flood of dream-like images and didn't want to miss anything.
I think it was just a story that wanted to be told, because it all happened in a few very short hours, was just writing like one possessed. Maybe I was possessed. Who can say?
2. Do you have any "lucky charms" or items that "must" be with you when you write?
Not really, but one really essential thing is having peace and quiet. Silence is best, it lets you hear your thoughts more clearly.
It's really difficult -- actually, it's impossible, to hear the stories in your own head when they're drowned out by exterior noise.
The reason for that is simple: Stories don't normally come along and land in your lap. You have to build them, detail by painstaking detail.
What's worse is that some days you feel like you're putting together a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing.
Eventually it all makes sense, but it takes time to sort out who's really who, what their real story is, what happens before or after some particular moment in time and how that alters the story, and so on.
You can create something from nothing. But the initial tiny flash of insight or awareness or curiosity, whatever it was that started you off following a thought to somewhere -- that's where you begin.
It's like -- let's say you have a ball of yarn. That's your story. That's also why there's a ball of yarn featured in Random Magic, actually, it's metaphorical.
Well, and it's also an idiomatic expression, following the thread of the tale. That's what you do. You start at the very beginning and just follow the story until the end.
But you can't just start from nowhere. You might know the ending of a story, or the middle of the story, or the beginning of the story, but there's always some signpost that opens onto that path and tells you where it is.
If your attention is elsewhere, you'll totally miss the entry guidepost and risk losing what's potentially something quite interesting.
If you want to put it a different way, silence lets you hear the music. Words have their own particular rhythms and patterns, just like musical notes.
Sometimes you just know that a particular sentence is "wrong" although you're not actually flouting any particular grammatical convention.
It just feels wrong, and that's all you can say about it. Maybe this is why writers don't do all that much talking about a work in progress.
How do you explain, rationally, that “the music of the words, don't know, it's just off-key until I change this one little…aha!â€
You don't, that's what. You just get on with it. But to hear these things, then to see them in your mind's eye, you need quiet, otherwise you'll miss something vital.
So, there aren't any particular physical objects I really need to write. There's no particular lucky charm or special item that's really effective in that way. Not for me, although I do understand what you mean.
All that's required are long stretches of totally uninterrupted time to write and a bit of hush.
It could be noted, however, that burning candles do sometimes help you focus, by creating a more subdued environment.
It's almost like meditation. Actually, writing is very similar to meditation, since you're shifting your focus from the outside world to the inner worlds that only exist in your imagination.
In both disciplines, you need silence to see.
3. The concept for Random Magic is very unique. How did you come up with the concept to "misplace" Alice from Alice in Wonderland?
I just always thought it would be great to go visit a particular book. When you open a book, it's like walking into another world.
Let's say some particular book makes you laugh. Or makes you cry.
Well, why are you weeping? Nothing's happened to you. These people don't really exist.
But in their way, they do, because your mind is immersed in the story. In a way, you're really there.
So, wouldn't it be interesting if you could actually visit there physically, as well?
There are only so many places you can actually travel to on this big blue planet. But the world of books – there are so many other places to see.
Not only could you travel geographically, but you could travel in time. You could experience so many different things in the span of the same lifetime that you'd never be able to experience otherwise, given the problems of time and travel logistics.
What if you didn't have to get on a plane? What if you weren't limited to the current day? What if you wanted to experience the world in 1891 -- or 2091, for that matter.
What if? Would you do it?
Yes, well, I would. So, was thinking about it one day, not really even thinking about it with any seriousness, but just kind of idly pondering just where I would go, first, if it were possible to jump into a book and explore that world.
Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, he was just a bit unhinged. Unhinged in an entertaining way.
Unhinged in a nonsensically logical and slightly askew way. Why, yes: Alice. Of course. That would be the first trip.
Then mulled it over and thought, well, what would happen if I were in Alice's Wonderland? It didn't seem like it would be that much fun to just mimic Carroll, and write about a world already constructed.
Then thought, well, what if she were accidentally misplaced in our world?
In Victorian London, maybe. That might be interesting. Lewis, meet Alice. Hmmm…
Then decided I really just didn't feel up to all these massive amounts of research that would have to be done to get the little details of the book exactly right, to be historically accurate -- you know, like what were the shoelaces made out of in the 1850s? Did they even have shoelaces? What sorts of boot leather were used and which company made them? Who cares?
Briefly pondered having Alice accidentally end up in the modern world and trying to survive in this sort of New Wonderland, but it just ended up sounding like a movie sequel: Coming soon: Alice in New Wonderland!
No. Interesting, but not quite right.
Finally thought, all right, let's say she's misplaced by a character in our world, but he loses her in another book?
And let's say that all the editions of all of Lewis Carroll's Alice books started going blank because there was no Alice to have adventures, so there was no Alice's Adventures In Wonderland?
And what if chaos theory kicked in, and started to have serious repercussions in our world?
And what if someone had to go find her? And what if that someone had absolutely no idea how to survive in that world?
Then what would happen? By this point, even I wanted to know, so that's when I actually got down to getting the story worked out.
But, yes, just as we were discussing a little earlier, was sort of tranced out, in active meditation, not really thinking about it at all, and suddenly there was this tiny spark of curiosity.
What if?
And when you start actively answering that question, that's when you really start writing the story, whether you'd intended to, or not.
I think nearly all stories start with that particular question, actually. It's one of those questions that every human being who's ever lived has asked themselves at one point in their lives.
That, and "Why?" It's just that sometimes you get the answers, and sometimes you don't. C'est la vie (That's life).
4. If you had to describe yourself and your writing with just three words, what would they be?
What happens next?
Or, in three separate words, maybe: Good-natured, peculiar and wise. Although I'm not really sure about the wise part. Time will tell. It always does.
Actually, upon reflection, not even sure about the good-natured part. There are folks who've tried having a civil word before noon who'd get into veritable fisticuffs for the privilege of totally disagreeing with that. But I do try.
The peculiar part, well, yes. If you've already read the book, you're probably cackling to yourself at the keyboard right now. Because…quite.
In three words linked to human or mythical archetypes -- actually, only one word actually fits. I'm a seeker.
When I find what I'm actually looking for, will tell you what I found. Although, to be fair, I might be some time, so don't put the kettle on, or anything.
5. What do you have coming up next for your readers?
Not working on anything new right now, since it's taking up such a huge amount of time just sharing the info with the world that there's this quite lovely book out, maybe you've heard of it? Random Magic? No? Well, would you like to hear about it? Really, it's that late?
Promo is the most uncomfortable part of writing because it's so unnatural for me to blather on about myself. I'd rather curl up in my lair and write.
So, no, nothing new to tell you about, but there'll always be something new coming up, because interesting, odd thoughts pop into my head all the time.
There's no way to shut them off, really. Might be standing on a street corner, just going about my day, and suddenly think, Well, isn't that curious? Hmmmm right before I trip over the curb.
And so it begins. Again.
Thank you so much Sasha for answering my questions for this interview! :)
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