The Forces That Govern Our World: Interview with Yves Averous
From an early age, Yves Avérous was fascinated with the forces that govern our world. As a teenager, he became particularly preoccupied with environmentalism, social equity, and history. As a professional in media and technology, queer studies and activism also inform his outlook on life. Yves loves dystopian science fiction, though he’s always looking for the utopian angle that can help us out of the gloomiest of predictions. From the Club of Rome’s warnings in the 70s and Pierre Boulle’s original “Planet of the Apes,” to Global Warming, the erosion of democracy, and the head-spinning pace of scientific progress, his sources of inspiration are vast and complex. For his first novel, The Bridge, launching this month on WattPad, he took on the challenge of condensing his worries and hopes into one compelling story.
In The Bridge, all hell breaks loose when protagonist David is ready to return to his human body after a half-millennium of service to the Council System. A chaotic quest ensues to stave off the rise of two dark empires set to share the standing pieces of the CS. A ragtag team of heroes springs from different factions and centuries of family ties and rallies to save David and the future of humankind.
Yves lives in San Francisco with his husband, Marc Smolowitz, an independent film producer.
How does it feel to go live with this novel?
It’s exhilarating and terrifying all at once. I used to talk about my writing a lot when I was moving along the draft, discovering the paths it was taking me on. I didn’t fear anyone’s judgment since it was just talking. Between the pandemic and the long time it took me to get to this point, I haven’t talked much about the story with anyone besides you and my husband, Marc. You two always gave me great feedback and support. I didn’t need much more during that process. Now, I’m unveiling the novel two chapters at a time on Wattpad for people I don’t know, who may or may not like it. I’m not sure how I will react to rejection, but I’m looking forward to reading what they will make of my story.
How do you research?
Feedly, Wikipedia, and when I’m lucky, a trip to the locations I wanted in my book. News aggregators have killed the magazine kiosks. As a young adult in Paris, I would almost stop at every kiosk to see if there was a magazine I hadn’t seen in the previous ones, new headlines that may have popped up between the two metro stations that separated the kiosks. Today, I subscribe to feeds including the Guardian, MIT, and gadget blogs. Sometimes, I even go into a map’s street views to imagine how my characters would move from one place to another.
What are you dreaming and reading about?
My imagination is more often triggered by the news and the political and scientific articles I stumble upon in the feeds I subscribe to. I’m an avid information grazer. I like to know the facts, understand the why, and then imagine the what-ifs. Writing a novel was against the grain for me, but it’s also an exercise I really enjoy because it allows me to finally settle my elaborations and give them life through various characters. With them, I can play the arguments that I sometimes run in my head under the shower.
Describe your writing process.
When I started as a journalist, we were writing everything longhand, and a secretary had to type my heavily edited, edge-to-edge copy. I don’t have any nostalgia for editing on paper. I write immediately, so I have to correct myself all the time. A good laptop and monitor, it’s what I prefer. The first draft of The Bridge happened in a San Francisco bookstore and coffee shop, Borderlands, where I had found the closest Shut Up and Write MeetUp. It’s easier for me to write when I have a commitment or a deadline. I do not dread the white page, but I have a hard time sitting in front of it.
I wrote my draft when I was still a freelancer, and this went relatively fast. Then I took a corporate job, and finding time for revisions was more challenging. The idea itself of starting the process all over again was daunting. Then, I found a lot of pleasure in fleshing out the story. Showing, instead of telling requires some effort on my part. So there is a lot of cleaning up and growing back out to do in my story. It’s fascinating, akin to working in the garden, where things take a life of their own you didn’t expect at first.
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Read The Bridge on WattPad.
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