12/15/05, interview
YAW: Thanks for taking the time to interview with YAW. First off, who is your favorite young author?
RC: That’s a tough one. I’d have to say Christopher Paolini.
He is an amazing author. His books are wonderful, he seems very dedicated and at the book signing I attended for his books, he took his time and spoke with each person, even though he had been there hours and the crowd easily consisted into the thousands.
YAW: [You got to meet him recently. That must have been great! But moving on…] What is your favorite dessert?
YAW: [I’m so going to make one of those over break.] When did you start writing novels?
RC: Whole novels when I was turning thirteen. Before that it was short stories and poetry.
YAW: When and why did you start trying to get published?
RC: I started trying to get published when I was twelve years old, nearly thirteen, and trying to get my poetry published. My novels were when I was just barely thirteen. I had so many stories in my head- so many characters, so many worlds… it felt like a shame not to write about them.
My first novel, Lost, my twin sister and I worked on for two years until it was killed by my computer before its completion. It was literally lost…
My second story, Silently Screaming, suffered from lack of knowledge. I knew what I wanted to write, but didn’t have the knowledge yet in that area.
Finally, Predator Turned Prey. The story was first titled Two Tails because the title was funny to me. Tail/tale. Then it changed to The Desire for Freedom, and after a few others, stopped at Predator Turned Prey when a friend of mine stated that name kind of summed up the whole beginning of the book. Hunter is a Bengal. He is a predator, but the human strangers who caught him sentenced him to Forced Service, and he became a ‘servant’ the word used since the word slave sounded too harsh and incriminating for the masters.
The story was full of my thoughts, beliefs, feelings… I wrote it for a purpose and it turned out better than anything before it.
I wanted to become published first because I wanted to prove I was worthy of life, as pathetic as that sounds, there are many long stories as to why I didn’t feel worthy, but none are important right now. In the end, my views changed and I wanted to be published to spread the story around, to raise awareness of modern day slavery, and to help battle it. Also, because my 10th grade English teacher told me to and you’re supposed to listen to your teachers, right? ^_^
YAW: [I had no idea you had a twin!] What type of novel do you prefer to write or publish?
RC: Young Adult fiction, fantasy genre. Everyone should have the imagination of a fantasy story. Walking talking animals and whole new lands… you cannot beat that. Not with a stick… there isn’t much interest in books about stick. There is too much reality in life; we all need to take a break from the chaos every now and then.
YAW: [Heh.] What has been the best thing to happen to you since publishing that you feel you wouldn’t have been able to have happen if you weren’t published?
RC: My fans! They are my friends, closer friends then I ever had before. I’m usually a shy girl, off-line. I’m quiet, reserved; I was always the outcast in school, always stayed back. When I wrote Predator Turned Prey, I posted it online at the advice of another poet at my school. It was online that I met Luki Dimension, http://www.oocities.org/guardian_luki/LukiDimension.html. She prodded me to continue the story and she advertised it. I met a bunch of other people, and was amazed. I remember I sped to my computer every day to check reviews for Predator Turned Prey.
It was at that time I met two of the most amazing people in the world. Robin Wraight and Joshua Kittrell. Joshy (nickname he permits very few people to call him) was the jester. I sent him jester hats. He always could make me laugh and smile. Robin was my night in shinning armour. He never let me cry for long, he still won’t. He called me from England during my lunch beak at school so I would have someone to talk with. Those two boys were always there for me, and still are. They gave me a deep friendship I’d never experienced before and they never asked for anything in return. Their strength got me through so much, and without the book I would never have met them. Robin called me his diamond (which I state in the acknowledgement… that’s what rhymes with almond) because I was rare and worth more than I knew. I can go on and on about him and what he’s done for me. Then I met Alaina Granter, an extremely dedicated fan and good friend. I met a lot of great people who became friends…
So, I could have summed this all up by saying: I got friends. Yet, to sum up my friends is something I cannot do. They are far too important.
YAW: If you could have three wishes, and they wouldn’t backfire at you, what would they be?
RC: 40 Billion dollars. $_$. I could donate at least a million to just about every charity organization that I’ve been wishing I could. Save animals, build that wild cat preserve I’ve been dying to build, start an anti-slavery organization and get a whole lot of work done. I’d set of people free and safe money wise, at least until they could get on their feet… And I’d never have to worry about not having enough money to survive, which has been my mothers biggest wish for me and something she has had to fight hard for. I could do so much with that money it would seem like a shame not to ask for it.
I’d also ask for my friends to never be hurt again.
And… hm… OH! I’d want the extinct tigers to reappear.
YAW: [That’d be kind of funny. Tigers just pop back into Asia and look at people like what are you doing here?] Well, a lot of writers are friends with other writers, like Tolkien was friends with CS Lewis. Are you friends with other writers of any age and if so, how does having other writers in your life influence your own writing?
RC: Oh yes! I am a member of the Arizona Authors Association (http://www.azauthors.com) and we all join in on a yahoo group to keep in contact apart from our usual meetings and award ceremonies. I am also friends with a lot of writers who are not published yet. Tiffanie Vian is one, Alaina Granter is another, Chelsea Greenberg, Luki… and a whole lot of others who might be mad at me for not listing them right now, but it would literally fill pages! I have a general rule about writers who are friends: Honesty.
Tiff and I have a pact, if she reads a story idea of mine and hates something about it, she tells me honestly! She has me read her work a lot and we trust each other to be honest about it. There always will be disappointments in this publishing game of destiny, but at least if you have your friends supporting you, you know you’re not alone.
The Arizona Authors group is great. I am young, but they always look out for me, and have never made me feel unwelcome. It’s great to know that if I am lost, they’ll guide me.
YAW: A lot of people think that young writers don’t have enough life experience to write well. They think that young writers are a gimmick. What is your response to those people?
RC: I wonder if they remembered being a teenager. My life has been far too full of experiences and dedications, and even if it hadn’t been, so what? I think young writers are better writers. As you get older you just learn bigger words, and if you’re writing for teenagers, who might not understand those words, how does it help? As you age, most people’s imagination dies. Young adult authors are talented enough to focus their abilities, at least the ones I have read, they are not bringing anything down a level. I believe you should judge someone by what they do, not who they are, or how long they have been alive. We’re all people and we’re all different.
YAW: Young writers look up to young published writers, because you represent the hope that adults will take young writers seriously. What is one piece of advice that you would give to young writers?
RC: Write!
YAW: Have you ever had someone walk up to you randomly and knew who you were, when you weren’t at an event? If so, what did you do?
RC: I have! And I just grinned like a lunatic, made a fool of myself, and then apologized to her. She replied by saying, “Your tag board was right, you’re a bit insane.” I told her she had no idea how deep the insanity went. She said she did, cackled, and skipped away... it was cool.
YAW: What is one thing you wish you hadn’t done as far as your publishing life goes?
RC: Hmmm, well… I actually turned down a few offers from Agents because, at first, I didn’t think the book was going anywhere, same with a few publishers. Kind of regret that.
YAW: What do you feel are some of the reasons your novels resonate with your readers the way they do?
RC: Everyone has a bit of Hunter inside of them. He’s the voice you hear when you’re in trouble and don’t know what to do. Hunter has been trapped physically and represents the mental hold society has around so many of us. Hunter is not perfect, he doesn’t try to be, but sometimes he wishes he was… as a great number of us do. He’s not normal, and cannot help but fall for the traps people set to make him feel wrong for not being normal. I try to write my main characters to reflect a part of ourselves we may try not to show.
YAW: What has it been like being a young adult while also being a published author? How have things changed, or not, with your friends, family, and co-workers?
RC: My friends love me for me! My family, well… my stepfather’s family has been very supportive and have helped out in every possible way. I love being a young adult author, it has been the best experience I’ve ever had.
YAW: You’ve said that Ravyn Falisha Crescent isn’t a pen name. Why did your parents name you that? What has it been like having such a unique name growing up? It’s almost like you were destined to be a writer!
RC: Perhaps Ravyn Crescent was just destined to be me. I guess a ‘normal’ name just never fit me. Plus, my mom is full blooded Inuit Indian, her father was the shaman and she was next in line. The shaman, I’m told, was pretty much royalty, for anyone wondering, held in great respect. Mom’s family died when she was a baby, but she still carries the heritage and, now, so do I. If we moved back where mom was from, my name would fit more, ^_^ but I’d freeze to death.
RC: So many reasons, so many ways. I think it was easy for me to believe the truths about modern day slavery, called Human Trafficking.
I had a rough childhood, at times (but hey, No Pressure, No Diamonds), so the idea that there were still people in a captive situation was not at all strange to me. As I got older, nearly fourteen, I got out of the bad situation and realized that there were so many people who couldn’t escape. Mine was family, theirs most likely was not, but shouldn’t they get to be free, too? When people spoke about slavery and when it ‘ended’ I always shook my head, couldn’t believe something like that could just end.
‘Masters’, the slave owners, prowl runaway centers, taking anyone who leaves the safety of the shelter. Promises of fast money, drugs, a new life, and more, but the truth becomes apparent soon. Then you are no longer a person, you are an object. Hidden in plain sight, maybe they make you a prostitute and you are forced to walk the streets and hope you make the quota they gave you. Or a private sex slave, rented out like a movie, then returned, used and forgotten. Perhaps you manage to escape from that fate and they use you for housework, yard work, landscaping, a number of things. You have to meet their quota or you’ll pay the price. If you have younger siblings, they may use them as hostages to make you obey. They may have your entire family captive, under watch, or they may not but tell you they do. How are you to know? If you have no one, then they find other ways to make sure you obey. It’s not just runaways, sometimes hey just take you. If these ‘masters’ want you, they’ll get you and you won’t even see it coming. No one is safe; it’s foolish to believe you are.
Even if you’re wealthy, living at home, life is fine, good, great, whatever. You’re walking home from school one day, a van stops in front of you or behind, or perhaps you don’t even see a van. Next thing you know you’re surrounded. You fight, thrash, everything you’ve been taught to do incase of this situation, the things you’ve been planning just in case.
It won’t work. They outnumber you and they are not afraid to hurt you or even kill you. You scream, they will make you stop. You may not know, since you’ve never experienced, but one well placed hit from a full grown man will take you out. It’ll be over in seconds and you won’t know what happened. Now you’re a slave. So you went with a group of friends, stranger danger and all that… nope, won’t help ya. You are bettering your odds at making it home safe, but the guarantee just isn’t there. Take a bus, they’ll wait at the bus stops, get a ride, they wait to see if you’re home alone. So you live in America, so what? Around the world it is much, much worse, all the examples I give are what’s happening here, in America.
I couldn’t let myself sit back and do nothing when I knew this… I couldn’t. The organizations here in Arizona are fairly new, and most people don’t understand them. Not even the police, you can point to a slavery poster and ask what it means, most of them won’t know.
ALERT (Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking), the organization I am a part of, said in a meeting that we needed a way to better spread the word about slavery… I had it. Predator Turned Prey… which started off as a school project written in 12 minutes and expanded throughout the years to become a strong anti-slavery statement written in fantasy. I sell merchandise, and a lot of the people who buy it may think they are just helping me and getting a cool t-shirt or something. They’re actually helping end slavery by spreading the word about my book, which encourages more people to read my book, and I hope, love it. This, in turn, heightens the awareness of modern day slavery.
I could have written a book full of facts like my idol Kevin Bales, who I acknowledge in the Authors Note in the back of Predator Turned Prey, but there were some written far better than I could… No, I wanted kids my age to see a story they liked, and then get the message behind it. So far, it’s worked like a charm. People underestimate teenagers, well they shouldn’t! We’re smarter than they think and dedicated, too! I believe the youth culture are the greatest warriors against modern day issues.
YAW: [I have mentioned before but I’ll say it again that you really are an inspiration for teens everywhere. You are living proof that teens can make a difference if they just set out to do it. But on a lighter note...] If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you take with you and what three people?
RC: Haha, I wrote a poem about this once! I would take Anthony, because he rocks at laser tag and is very athletic, Kerry because he’s going to be a famous movie star and thus somehow seems perfect for a survival mission, aaaaand probably Andrea because we’re all from Arizona, we all know each other, and would not be as tortured from the heat as most of my other friends would be, no offence to them. If I saw snow, I don’t think I’d know what to do with it… but I already live in a desert.
I’d bring a Swiss Army Survivalist Knife, a lighter, and… hm… satellite phone with GPS unit built in.
YAW: You have published Predator Turned Prey with a print-on-demand publisher instead of a traditional publishing house. What do you feel have been the pros and cons of this decision?
RC: I had two offers from traditional publishers. They wanted the characters changed as well as the message. More fantasy, less reality. The purpose of the book was to bring the message of slavery to a younger generation and the traditional publishers I spoke with all wanted to change it to a traditional fantasy story, saying the anti-slavery message would turn some readers away. I have more faith in the younger society then to label them as mindless. Therefore, I declared that I would publish the book my way once and see if I was right. Then I’d go back to the publishers and see what they thought.
YAW: You haven’t been published long, but already you have a great fanbase at your website. What is most rewarding about all of your fan interaction? Do you ever meet people at signings who you know online, and if so, is it strange to finally have faces for names?
RC: The most rewarding thing is having a fanbase! If I need help, I turn to them, and they know they can turn right back to me when they need help. We even have a Homework Help area on the forum that’s been working rather well. I try and get pictures from my fans, when I can, so that I can always have a face with a name. I haven’t done too many singings just yet, but have run into a few people and it felt fantastic!
YAW: Do you tell new friends about your books right away or wait until you know them better? Do your boyfriends think it’s cool that you’re a published writer or does it not really mean much to them (is it just another part of who you are to them)?
RC: Most of my friends know. I usually don’t tell people unless they ask. I will never forget when I was in drama at Dessert Hills High School, and we had a show, You Can’t Take it With You.
Well, the auditorium was freezing cold, so I wore long sleeves since I wasn’t on stage, I was in the sound booth which… was colder… and I was late because I was trying to find a warm shirt and the only thing I had left was a demo for the shirts we were making to advertise the book. Nothing happened at first, and then people started looking at my shirt. They’d tip their heads one way, then the other. Then the shouting started.
On the front was the over of the book; on the back was the back cover, with my picture of me all dolled up, Though my hair covered most of the back of my shirt.
Important to note that, in school, I was still mostly shy. When they saw the picture they couldn’t believe it was me for a while, it was much flashier than they had ever seen me.
In between acts, and when people had nothing better to do, I had to sit, leaning forward, with my hair pulled up while they read the back of my shirt with the book blurb ^_^ I usually didn’t like much attention on me, but that day, sappy as it sounds, made me feel important. I do like positive attention now.
YAW: [You look so confident on your page!] Well thank you for answering my questions. Now I have a few more from some of your fans who emailed me! So, why do you feel that slavery should be stopped?
RC: Because it still exists. It is barbaric, it is cruel, wrong, unethical, demonic, hurtful, deadly, frightening, infuriating, a plague on the world, has no good purpose, soul condemning, and worst of all… forgotten. More and more recently, human trafficking has become more open. Movies based on it have been on prime time TV. However, even as the newspaper articles appeared, few things have changed. Slavery must end, it must. There is no question to it. Can you go up to a slave and ask them, “Why should you be free? Why do you deserve it?” If you yourself are free? Can you look them in the eye and tell them they are not worthy of what you have? I can’t. I freed myself from a bad situation, and am, sadly, still plagued by it, and by those involved. What I went though was not considered slavery, but I understand, to a degree, what it is like to be trapped and want out, but not know how to escape. I was lucky in that my situation was not nearly as bad as many slaves’ lives are. You could say my battle against it is personal, but it’s more than that. I don’t do this because I hold anger and resentment in me; I fight because I can fight and because I gained something when I left, something I want for everyone. I can’t name what it is, but it is something I think it worth any battle to gain. Guilt is a reason many people ‘do what is right’ but to be truly effective, I believe you have to feel something besides guilt. You should feel anger against those who have done wrong, despair for those who are the victims, and assurance in yourself that you can help even if it is not much.
YAW: Has there been any prejudice against the themes in Predator Turned Prey?
RC: Believe it or not, yes. It has to be expected, I guess. A lot of people do not want to think about the issues the book brings up. Animal abuse, cruelty, slavery, abuses of many kinds, really, as well as cultural separation and, of course, every day segregation! Racism still exists everywhere, and I don’t believe any one ‘group’ is to blame.
A few people decided to vocalize their distaste for my story when it was still rather short and up online, but have not been a major problem since then. Also, a few people who did not understand the story thought I was picking on religion, which I in no way intended. I applaud having beliefs, so long as you are not hurting someone, and the book states that. The soldiers removed religion as much as they could, so the people would have nothing to turn to, which gives the soldiers more control. I do admit that, in the first version, I did not clarify that well enough, so I changed the wording a bit, and the one reader who had first brought the issue up seemed happy after I explained.
YAW: Writer's too often, even with great stories, are doomed to obscurity. So what's it like, to be published with a good chance of fame?
RC: It is a shame that movies get more attention than books. I like a book better, since you can take your time and make it last so much longer than a movie. To rewind, you need only flip back a few pages. The good chance of my book taking off is exciting. I was worried for a long while, and still am, that I’ll be swept away and forgotten. However, I have a lot of support and have had it since before I even decided to publish the book, so I take that as a good sign. My biggest dream is to have a book signing with thousands of people! That would be so perfect! I mean, it would take a while if I want to do it right and let each person get to talk to me about the book or anything at all, but if they’re going to stand in line that long they deserve for it to be worth it once they finally get to me, right? Plus, like I do with all my presentations, I give out gifts! So, I’d have to have a lot of them, but it would be cool to give that many people something just for coming to see me.
YAW: What is the best memory that you have of writing PTP?
RC: Dessert Hills doesn’t have regular school on Fridays. At the time, it was just a day to come and make up time and work you missed, but I loved the school so much I’d often go in even if I had nothing really to do, just to hang out and be somewhere. Well, after Mr. Davis, who had assigned the story, told me to get it published, I went in on Fridays and sat in his classroom to work on it. Sometimes, if it was too noisy in the drama room we used for the English class (no desks… it was fun), I would go into Mr. Millers room and use the outlet in the wall to power my very, very, very cheap $50 eBay laptop. It was great. Laptop eventually broke, but, I had fun going there to write. The teachers were supportive and interested in what I was doing, it was better than any school I’d been to before.
YAW: What is your favorite movie and favorite song?
RC: Currently, The Phantom of the Opera is my favorite movie. Favorite song and movie change quite a bit… I like American Pie by Don McLean, but currently my favorite song is "Learn To Be Lonely" Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyric by Charles Hart.
YAW: How and when did you become interested in wild cats?
RC: I’ve been interested in them for as long as I can remember. I remember, when I was younger, people said I was “just like a little kitten” though I am still not sure why. People now say I have the grace of a cat, but I am not sure. I’m kind of clumsy. I studied them in elementary school getting the books I could. I learned how to distinguish leopards from jaguars by their spot patterns when I was six. I’ve just always loved them. For sixth grade I wore cat print daily, that’s when I started wearing black more and more often, to reflect the black fur jaguars, and leopards were sometimes born with. Panthers. I had also just learned that, on extremely rare occasions, there are black lions. Testosterone makes their mane darker, but it was cool for me to see an all black lion in a big cat book.
YAW: We’ve heard that you’re working on Predator Turned Prey Two. Will any of the characters from the original Predator Turned Prey be returning?
RC: Yes they will! Predator Turned Prey 2 (or II if I decide to go Romanesque) is a sequel. I thought about a prequel, but was talked out of that idea. So far, I have written three versions. One I like, one I think my fans will like, and one that I think helps my anti-slavery message and is a bit more realistic, but no one except myself seems to even tolerate. Matsi, James, and Princess Trinity seem to be the main focuses, though. I might combine all three stories… hard to tell just yet. I want to wait and see how people react to Predator Turned Prey before deciding. I can easily see myself making this a series.
YAW: What is it like to barley be legal in this country and already have accomplished more than most people do in their entire lives?
RC: I think we all accomplish different things, you know? I often feel like I haven’t gone far enough in life because I have yet to obtain the things many people take for granted. I understand the question, though. It feels wonderful to accomplish something you love so much! Every time I get a royalty check I feel excited, and not about the money, I actually have yet to cash a single royalty payment. I just sit and marvel at the check, realize I need to put it in my bank account, yet feel the desire to have it framed… or bronzed if possible.
YAW: Is there any one person in your life that has really pushed you to get published?
RC: One person… wow. Um… actually a tie between three, however, I’d have to reply by saying my mother. She has been there from the beginning, and put up with it all. She read the letters from agents, editors, and publishers. She was actually the one who told me to self publish. She said I was fighting for this message against modern day slavery and should not give it up when I obviously believed in it so much.
YAW: Being a writer, are you able to better perceive and understand human cruelty by researching history, writing a chapter in a specific time era, etc.?
RC: I think I’ve seen it in person. Research on human cruelty is easy to do, you just need to walk around and look. I believe being a writer helps some, as it causes you to write from the different perspectives. Not only from the viewpoint of the victim, but the villain as well.
YAW: Were there any hurtles you faced while becoming an author? If so, what was your greatest challenge?
RC: My greatest challenge was myself. I have always been shy and very social phobic. Being a published author meant I had to go out and speak.
YAW: In your opinion, do writers have the experience of incorporating architecture, history, anthropology, psychology, and other topics in their work?
RC: Oh yeah. To be a writer is to become many things at once. For Predator Turned Prey I had to become an anti-slavery activist in far more detail than I already was! A historian, zoologist, so many others... I had to study big cats (luckily I had been doing that my whole life), I had to familiarize myself with Egyptian mythology, name meanings, old world slavery, new world slavery. I had to study clothing from the 1700’s, and horse racing as well as movement. To create the Riel language I had to listen to animals at the zoo to get sounds the majority of the predators could pronounce… It’s a wonderful learning experience. Sadly, I doubt I know enough to use these new talents for anything professional.
YAW: How has your writing style developed over time, and do you notice a change as you continue to write?
RC: I’ve gotten better, dare I say. I can close my eyes now and see the story unfold in words as well as images. I find myself paying more attention to detail and having more pride in what turns up. I hope this answers everything.
YAW: I think it has! Thank you so much, Ravyn, and happy belated birthday from YAW! It's been an honor and a pleasure as always. I know everyone will be looking forward to getting their hands on Predator Turned Prey this holiday season, and I wish you continued success in your writing career!
-- Interviewed by B.
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