By KATIANNA MANAKIS
“I didn’t force it, like squeezing a rectangle into a circle,” said local author Lisa de Nikolits of her new book Everything You Dream is Real and of her quest to write.
Released on Oct. 18, the book is the second instalment of her sci-fi series which began with The Rage Room.
In a recent interview with Beach Metro Community News, de Nikolits said she started writing the bones for Everything You Dream is Real back in 2016.
“I wrote an ill-fated, extremely bizarre novel, Boomerang Beach, and elements of it turned out to be perfectly handy for Everything You Dream is Real,” said de Nikolits. “Heaven knows I’ve trashed a dozen novels in their entirety, but sometimes you can take the materials from a bad sculpture and fashion it into something half decent.”
She said she takes inspiration from everyday life for her stories.
“The anger we see in every day, in real life and online. People, lashing out at each other and at themselves. Fractured familial relationships, scarred marriages, broken friendships. I saw sad evidence at every turn,” said de Nikolits. “And, despite hardy souls like Greta Thunberg, the Earth is being smothered by plastic and choked by intrusive advertising and the trending idiocies of social media.”
The author of 11 novels, she said always knew she had stories inside her to write and tell. But knowing your destiny and executing your path are not always one in the same, said de Nikolits.
The three main ingredients to achieve the destiny that you believe you deserve are insane amounts of determination, a “Marvel-like” ability to take and dodge the hurl of criticisms from the industry, and just “good old, trusty” luck, she said.
“You can’t control the third,” said de Nikolits. “But the effort you put into the first two will tip the odds in your favour when it comes to luck.”
By the time that de Nikolits had moved to Canada from South Africa, she had almost given up on being a published writer. That was until she realized that she had a whole new set of fresh eyes to read her stories.
“I recognized the vastness of the Canadian literary landscape and it seemed like there was room for me to pitch a tent, which was the true start of the hardest work of all.”
She said she loves to write and it’s why she fought so hard to be an author in the first place. Her favourite part about writing is being able to flesh out the stories in her head, before putting the words to a page.
Her writing is a way to bring the fantastical characters that are in her stories to life, she said.
“At night, just as I’m about to fall asleep, faces appear to me, faces I know I’ve never seen before, not even in passing. Their features are as distinct and detailed as if they’re sitting next to me on the subway. Perhaps they are coming to me with their stories?” said de Nikolits.
For more information on author Lisa de Nikolits and her books, please go to https://www.lisawriter.com/
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