Author Interview: S.R. Devaste

AG003 Recommendation: Moonlight's Shackles By S.R. Devaste

1. What about the New Moon Alternate Universe appealed to you?

The end of New Moon was the moment that the series went down hill for me. I know it’s kind of a cliché where authors write New Moon fiction because they feel like Bella should have been had more biatch-ness and less benevolence, (I am also a fan of alliteration.) but for me it was more than that. New Moon showed the darkside of Bella’s love for Edward, how it could destroy her, and I wanted to explore that.

I also like the inherent mystery of New Moon. At the beginning of the book there is so much we don’t know – why did Edward leave, is he coming back etc. I also think it was the darkest book in the entire series and the perfect setting for the obsessive love story I wanted to create.

2. Where's Jacob? (Gets nervous that he'll come into the story...)

Jacob is gone. He’s never coming in this story, in fact I don’t think I will ever write a story with Jacob in it – although I do love Leah so it MIGHT happen --. I really hated Jacob in New Moon, in fact I just hate him in general. For me he is Twilight’s equivalent of Ron Weasley, and everyone knows that Hermione and Snape should have been together, and that Hermione was much too good for Ron Weasly and his wand-breaking, Lavender-snogging, lack-of-intelligence, self.

It would be a disservice to the fandom for me to write him, because he would end up turning into some sad buffoon and that really isn’t fair to the Jacob fans out there whom I do have great respect for.

So, no Jacob, ever.

3. How do you best elude the ever-nefarious writers block?

You know how in sex ed they said the only way to be 100% sure you won’t get pregnant or STD’s is to not have sex. The only way not to get writers block is to not write. Currently, I am in the metaphorical maternity ward for Moonlight Shackles. Part of it has to do with loosing my beta, and part of it has to do with starting other projects. It will be finished, this I swear.

However, as any poor, review fixated writer I feel obligated to mention that my other fic Pygmalion, has the same style and penchant for copious amounts of plot twists, so read it. It’s a story that examines what would happen to the relationships of the Cullens if their pasts were much darker and filled with loss. It’s also set in a music school, so if you’re a fan of Teacher!ward coupled with obscene amounts of angst. And by obscene I mean OBSCENE, (by the beginning of the story two of the Cullens are already dead, and one more will die before it ends) then please, read onward.

That said, when I’m searching for inspiration I listen to music, but most of the time I just plop myself down on the computer and write. Sometimes I have to write a chapter four or three times before it comes out right.

4. You story has a few OCs (Original Characters). What's the biggest hurdle when making OCs?

People hate OC’s. Hell, even I hate OC’s. They are the most treacherous, horrible, slippery slope of a thing in any fandom. To be quite honest in Twilight there is really no excuse for creating an OC because Meyer gave us such a huge stable of characters to work with. What was Breaking Dawn (besides a baby making fade to black) but an endless go round of new characters?

So the biggest hurdle is getting the reader to trust you. I did this by making two of my OC’s unattractive. The first time we meet Erin

she is described as having hair like a nuclear explosion and eyes like an oil slick, and Damien and in my minds eye kind of looks like an albino rat.

Right off the bat the reader is assured that one, my OC’s aren’t blatant self-insertions, (or I have some serious self-esteem issues) and two I’m not afraid of making these people real, and for that matter unlikable.

5. Give me three David Bowie songs that best describe each of your OCs.

Oh goodness. Secret – I don’t really like David Bowie’s voice, just those pants YUM! I know I am a terrible fan and should be shot. The truth is I’m a singer myself, an opera singer actually going to study music next year, so I have issues with pop singers.

6. You do a lot of FanFiction for The Labryinth. What do Sarah and Bella have in common?

I think Bella and Sarah both represent the everygirl reader/watcher. They are both very smart, and in a way selfish people who want to live inside their fantasies. They both really hate the real world, as shown by Sarah’s hatred of her little brother in the beginning of the movie and Bella’s lack of patience with the other Forks students.

7. Please to be explaining your penname?

Sigh_for_sigh, my twilighted name, is from a great poem/song, called The Last Rose of Summer, my favorite is the Benjamin Britten version, it just breaks my heart, here’s an excerpt:

“'Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
To give sigh for sigh.”

As for my fanfiction name, my biggest fanfiction hero is K.L Morgan, an amazing Labyrinth fanfiction writer. So I wanted a name like her, the same way little girls want Hannah Montana on their towel. Thus S.R Devaste. Sophia is my first name and Rose is my middle name. Devaste just sounded just sounded cool and visceral, like french devastation.

8. What's the funniest or best review you've ever received.

That’s so tough! Although I’ve joked that my fic, Moonlight Shackles, is probably one of the least reviewed fics ever to have the honor of being recced by TLYDF, I seem to get the best reviewers. When I’m reviewing other fics I’ll look at the review pages and see review after review of update soon, or one sentences. I think that for MS and even for Pyg, all of the reviews I get tend be nearer to paragraphs then a single line.

I think the most amusing review and one of my favorites would have had to been from a girl who went on about how much she hated Twilight and Stephanie Meyer, and how she hadn’t even read the books, but how she loved my fics.

9. Why crossover Hannibal and Phantom of the Opera?
Because both Gerald Butler and Anthony Hopkins are sexy devils? Because Christine and Clarice’s names both start with C’s? Because both stories involve hypnotism, serial killers, and opera?

I’m not really a big fan of AH-AU in Twilight, but I love modern day stories in Phantom of the Opera. In Hannibal, I love the idea of a man who can see exactly who you are, and pick you apart, and mixing that with my natural passion, music was only a natural next step.

10. Improv me a haiku on Edward's elbows.

Little known fact, I speak Japanese (badly). So I’m going to give you one in Japanese, old style, and then translation.

いろっぽい　ひじ
きゅうけつき　です
このがほし

here is the pronunciation:
irropoi hiji
kyuuketsuki desu
kono ga hoshi

which means roughly:
Sexy elbow
Is vampire
This I want.