Today we talk about The Toreador’s Dream, a book by Van Ris, published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Van Ris, to get to know him better, what are the crucial themes of his book The Toreador’s Dream, as well as how he would define his writing style.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- What are the crucial themes of this novel?
The crucial themes of this novel are: Friendship, Loyalty, Courage and Family. The story revolves around the main character – a troubled boy Danny and his adventures in Mexico. The story is filled with action and deep emotional and psychological scenes and more than a few readers of the manuscript admitted that they couldn’t hold back their tears in a few places. Although Danny is the main character, the real heroes and the theme representatives of the story are Danny’s uncle Perez and the genius Mexican boy Manu. Perez sacrifices his life for his family and Manu stays a loyal friend to Danny, who is in prison accused for murder while he fights for Danny’s freedom. The story is pure fiction intended to entertain but it also touches a very serious issue which plagues teenagers and young adults of today. Without clear vision about their future, many of them can’t decide what to do with their lives and so they turn to alcohol, drugs or suicide. Danny and his friend Alvin are such examples, while in contrast to them, Manu at such a young age, not only has a vision and has already decided about his future, but he has also taken practical steps to ensure it.
- What do you want to communicate to readers with this work?
We live in a horrible world at present. Most if not all the old virtues and values have been forgotten. Now, everything is valued through money. People bow to one God only and that is – Money. I overheard a young man once asking another: ”Why would I accept you as a friend if I don’t have any benefits from you?”. In my opinion that’s not friendship. Another young man, told me once that he has a lot of friends and he and his friends have a mutual understanding. He said – ”If I am busy, don’t ask me for help, ask somebody else. When I have free time, I will come to you and ask if you need help with anything.” That’s not friendship either. Friendship is when you are there for one another and whenever one of you needs some help. Friendship is not about money. Friendship is about trust and faith that if you ever need help, your friend will be there for you and you for him. Dear readers, build and nurture real friendships because they are precious, rare and can’t be bought with money.
- How would you define your writing style?
Maybe as a combination of narrative and descriptive styles but I don’t think this categorization defines the writing style properly. Writing style is more like a voice of a singer, it’s unique. A singer can sing different songs but you will always recognize their voice or “the tone of their voice. It is not enough to say that their voice is a baritone or a tenor. It is the same with a writer and their writing style. Some writers devote more attention to the description of the environment where the story is taking place, others focus on the characters etc. Some rare writers create completely new worlds even, but in each case, once you know their voice, you are able to recognize the Author. One of my favourite writers writes under two different names, one as Michelle West and also as Michelle Sagara. But whichever book I’ve read under her name, it’s always been the same person and the same style. I would say that the writer’s style is unique, more like a fingerprint.
- How did it feel to see your book published?
It’s a mixture of feelings which don’t occur all at once. In order to explain it, I would need to make a comparison. Writing a book is like a walk in the park, while publishing the first book is like running a marathon for the first time. Labouring through the track, several times you come close to quitting, thinking “I am done, I can’t do this”, but every time you find some motive and you stubbornly keep going, until you pass the finish line. Then while gasping for air, there is only one thought that crosses your mind “I did it!” and that is the feeling of self-fulfilment. It’s only later, when you get your breath back and your brain starts working properly, you get to relax and the rest of the feelings start flooding you. Those are the feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, pride, happiness and wonder. It is the same when you are a new writer. And then, you feel disbelief and time and again you open the same email or web page to double check that you aren’t mistaken. You are so full of happiness that you must share it. You inform the family and friends who congratulate you and you’ve already started thinking about your next project, even before getting the first copy of your book.
- Are you already working on a new project?
Yes, we are and we are looking for a literary agent. You might ask why look for an agent when the book is already published. It’s because while waiting to publish our first book, we managed to finish our second book. It’s a novel of 95000 words under the working title “The Power of The Ascendant” and it’s ready for submission. When we were writing “The Toreador’s Dream”, we had constraints on our imagination, because we intended it to be a base for a screenplay, which at a later time could eventually be made into a film. With the second book we didn’t have any constrictions and our imaginations were able to run free. The theme of the book is power and beside the entertainment, the main goal is to inspire. At this point I can’t reveal anything more about the book but I can share an informal comment of the editor from an international proofreading company who did the proof reading of the book – ”I truly had such a wonderful time reading it. Your book has inspired me to explore the possibility of developing my own’ spark of creative energy as a child of God and to reflect on the concepts of Purgatory, the vortex, the Well of Life, and Paradise and Hell that you mentioned. I guess just getting your readers to start thinking about those things will already be quite an achievement.” Lastly, if you liked ‘The Toreador’s Dream”, then you will love “The Power of the Ascendant”.
Europe Books thanks the author Van Ris once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book The Toreador’s Dream. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, I wish that this book helps you to reflect on the importance of friendship, the existence of which is fundamental in today’s relationships where everything is based on money, speed and lack of attention to each other. If you can consider yourself lucky enough to have precious friends, my advice is not to let them escape and to cultivate your relationship day after day and keep it alive forever!
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy this very pleasant reading!
Your editor!