ellen - You are the second writing team I have 'met' - the others are also Canadians, authors of The Sidewalk Artist, Janice Kirk and Gina Buonagurro - Tell us how you came into this writing partnership.

Rai and Tavius - We went to college together, and studied together for many years. We did some projects together in school, always had fun working together, and we were always very successful in all of our joint endeavors. Once we were in the workforce, we both came to a point where we thought 'is this all there is to life?' We talked off and on for about a year about how we would like to do something more with our lives. Books and movies that have an epic story to them were of great interest to us, and since we are both avid readers and love writing, we talked about creating an epic story of our own. Then we found the catalyst and started writing very soon after.

ellen - Do you brainstorm an idea and form a plot? Who does what when you are creating a book plot?

Rai and Tavius - Yes, we had the above-mentioned catalyst and a general sense of the type of story we wanted to write. We brainstormed the larger idea, and worked down to the details from there. Once we were clear on what we were going to do, we jumped in and began writing scenes right away. From that, many of the characters and details came to life. We would continually share what we were writing, fine-tune the ideas, edit, and add to what each other had done.

As to who does what, we both share all aspects of the writing. We each create characters, scenes, plot elements; we edit what each other has written and we always come to an agreement on each and every scene and character. However, the battle scenes are definitely Tav's strong suit, so he does those, I might add a little bit to them, and the interpersonal details and romance elements are Rai's domain.

ellen - Then you have things ironed out - do you take turns writing?

Rai and Tavius - We did in the beginning, before we had laptops, but now we can each write at the same time. We will just let each other know what we prefer to work on at a given point in time. We then will edit/comment on what the other has done.

ellen - Is Secret of the Sands your first collaborative effort?

Rai and Tavius - It is our first novel together, but as I mentioned we worked on many post-secondary projects together.

ellen - Tell us about Secret of the Sands.

Rai and Tavius - Secret of the Sands is an epic adventure story about ancient Egypt, something the two of us have been fascinated by our whole lives. It has a bit of an Indiana Jones feel, because we both love the movies, the humor, the adventure, and the escapism of it. The ancient storyline of Secret of the Sands was inspired by the movie 'The Mummy'. Rai was intensely fascinated and interested in the early ancient parts of that movie, and wanted to know more. Secret of the Sands is also inspired in its heart and spirit, by Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, in the sense of good vs. evil, the struggle against overwhelming odds, and how it comes down to the decisions of an individual that can change the course of many lives for the better...or not.

ellen - Why have the Sphinx as almost one of the characters?

Rai and Tavius - For two reasons, first the specific idea for the story Secret of the Sands came from a program on The Discovery Channel where they were showing different opinions on age and origin of the Great Sphinx. We thought that would be the perfect idea for a mystery/sci-fi story. Secondly, since we have both had a lifelong interest in ancient Egypt, it was the perfect thing to capture our imaginations for a novel. Rai has also long held certain beliefs about the Sphinx's possible form and function.

ellen - Ever been to Egypt or an archaeological dig?

Rai and Tavius - Only in our dreams, but both are something we would love to do.

ellen - What do you want the reader to know about Secret of the Sands they may not know?

Rai and Tavius - There is a double storyline, and both enhance and shed light on the other. The dual storyline mirrors each other, and towards the end of the story, the reader understands how the two storylines are connected. We took great effort to make each part of the story stand out and be distinct. For example, there are no contractions in any of the speech of the ancient times, they have a much more formal way of speaking.

There are also some metaphysics at play, and of course messages laced throughout the story. There are also many actual historical references in the story. It is meant to be entertaining and a fun adventure, but you will learn more things and hopefully get a deeper meaning out of the story.

ellen - Been approached by anyone sniffing about movie rights?

Rai and Tavius - Yes, a couple of times, and we will see where these things lead.

ellen - Are you going to continue the actions from Secret of the Sands? More than one sequel?

Rai and Tavius - Definitely. The first sequel, Destiny of the Sands will be finished by the end of the year. It's going to be a great story. We have also brainstormed the ideas for a third installment of what will be a trilogy. When we wrote Secret of the Sands, we had so much material, twice as much as made it into the final version. Plus we have tons of very cool ideas for where the story goes from here. The stakes get higher, the story grows more intense and much darker, and the characters have quite a journey ahead of them.

ellen - Can you tell us your thoughts on self-publishing and main-stream publishing - how hard is it to break through in the writing world?

Rai and Tavius - It is hard to break in, but we are learning all the time. We have always felt, and still feel that we have a winner on our hands. Mainstream publishing takes time, the nice thing about self-publishing is its autonomy, we can put out the story we want, when we want, how we want. The benefits of mainstream publishing is its wide-distribution network.

ellen - How hard is it as an independent marketing your book?

Rai and Tavius  It is time-consuming, that's for sure. But I (Rai) love it. It's exciting to see the results, to get the personal feedback, which has been overwhelmingly positive. Because it is a labor of love, and something I believe in with all my heart and soul, it's not really like work, but I could work on it 24/7 and still not get it all done.

ellen - What responsibility do you have to the reader, if any?

Rai and Tavius - Our responsibility as authors is to provide a quality read, something to be proud of, and something that we ourselves would love. We put a ton of work into it, years, to craft what we hope is an interesting, engaging and memorable story. As avid readers who have great reverence for the novels we read, we would never do a half-hearted job of our story. We assess its quality at every turn, in every facet, from our experience, preferences and favorite stories.

ellen - What thoughts do you have for a person who has a story in them and wants to write?

Rai and Tavius - Just do it. Seriously, if it's in you, you must write it down. Just sit down and start to type. You can figure things out as you go, but the heart of the story is in you, and hat's all you need to begin.

ellen - Where can your fans contact you?

Rai and Tavius -

rai-tavius.secretofthesands.com

ellen - What are your future writing plans?

Rai and Tavius - We are going to write the next two sequels back-to-back, to keep the momentum going and the ideas flowing. Also, Rai has three other, separate novels in the works.

ellen - Where do you see yourselves 5 years down the line?

Rai and Tavius - For me (Rai), I see myself as a full-time professional writer. I have never loved anything so much, I want to do it for the rest of my life. I enjoy meeting and interacting with fans and potential readers, meeting other authors, reading their books. I want my life to revolve around novels. For Tav, I would like to be a successful full-time writer. I would like to see our novels turn into successful movies.

Many thanks to these two talented writers. My review for Secret of the Sands is on this site.

Rai Aren and Tavius E Interview, questions by ellen george