Our October 2019 book of the month was none other than The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco! From the first page it had us sucked in and hanging on for dear life. Rin Chupeco built a world the likes of which we'd never experienced before and we need the second installment in this series YESTERDAY. 

Rin Chupeco is also the brilliant mind behind The Bone Witch series and the Girl From the From the Well. We are in awe of her and her writing style so an interview with this beautiful soul was a must! 

The Philippines is easily one of the locations that will 100% suffer the immediate effects of climate change - a lot of places are likely to be underwater, and possibly in my lifetime, too. It's something people here tend to concern themselves more with than say, people in the US, simply because we know that once it hits, it's gonna hit us hard. While I've read a lot of books that addresses extreme changes in the weather along with how people cope in the face of it, I don't think I've read one that tackles the causes of it directly, and TNTW was born from that wondering. Me being me, I wanted to turn it up to eleven, so I thought: what if the whole planet was already visibly dying? How many people would step up to the plate to help save it, and how many people would simply wait it out and hope they die before everything finally goes to the crapper? What would people do if they think they've already survived the worst? But what if there's even worse to come? I did a lot of research on eyeball planets, which are stationary worlds that are permanently fixed between night and day, where parts of it can still be survivable. I took everything I learned from them, then added magic and goddesses!

I think I'm very partial to most of the characters in THE GIRL FROM THE WELL, simply because that book is my first ever baby (I like to joke that it's my autobiography couched as fiction). That said, Okiku, my ghost girl in that series, and I share similar worldviews, but it's Tark, the boy unfortunate enough to be haunted by every ghost within his reach, that has my personality and ridiculousness, so he tends to be my favorite. For THE BONE WITCH series, Fox and Zoya both have my personality traits as well, but in THE NEVER TILTING WORLD it's Arjun hands down who's my favorite because he's also a lot like me. Arjun is a smartass who mouths off a lot, and will fight if trapped in a corner, but he's loyal to a fault, rarely has crushes but will throw down if he does succumb, and probably acts a lot tougher than he really wants to be, as a defensive mechanism. The things they do or say in the books are absolutely things I would say (or have said) myself.

A huge influence was actually Avatar: The Last Airbender! There were a lot of animals there that are a strange hybrid of two different kinds of fauna, so I adopted that style for Aeon as well. The dolugongs are actually a combination of dolphin and dugong (hence their name). That said, there aren't a lot of animals in the world given most have died off, but a lot have been corrupted instead by the world's breaking, so those I focused on, using a lot of real life mythical counterparts. Aspidochelones are whales who were sometimes mistaken for islands. On the other side of Aeon, they're called devil whales. Each half of the world will have different names for the same kind of creatures, though I tried to make them a bit subtler! And then of course, I can't seem to write a book without adding demons into them. In TNTW they're called galla; underworld creatures with a parasitical bond with Aeon.

I would really love Cree Cocchino to play both twins Haidee and Odessa. She's great in Game Shakers and I feel she can really play both the optimistic, gungho Haidee and also the very vulnerable, wistful Odessa! Madison Hu is my first choice for Lan - I think she can portray her fierceness and also her vulnerability very well. For Arjun, I'm looking into Bollywood and getting the unsmiling, serious-seeming Aryan Khan to play his role. Physically, he's exactly how I envisioned Arjun!

A lot! 

Haidee's song: High Hopes - Panic! At the Disco 

Arjun's song: Time - NF (yeah, he thinks he's a tough guy) 

Lan's song: Someone You Loved - Lewis Capaldi 

Odessa's song: Above You - Sophie Morgan 

Lan and Odessa's song: Sad Song - We the Kings 

Haidee & Arjun's song: Heart to Break - Kim Petras

I've always liked to have been an airbender myself. I think being able to walk on air and manipulate the wind is something I've always liked, given the freedom of movement it offers. Using Aeon's magical system, that means I'd be a Skyrider, like Sonfei!

If an odd little bloke from Manila, Philippines can make it as an author with books published in the US, then so can you! Remember that no one else can write the books you can but you! Also, the main reason I've been successful at this is because of the support (mentally, financially, etc.) from family, friends, and loved ones, so if you are fortunate enough to have a similar support structure, to not be ashamed about asking for help if you need it to write! (And I speak as someone who is extremely stubborn about asking other people for assistance!)