Ask the Author: A.I. Alyaseer

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 05 Jul 2017, 15:14

A.I. Alyaseer, one of the authors of the July 2017 Book of the Month, My Trip to Adele, has generously offered to answer our questions. Please use this topic to post your questions.

When posting your question, please try to put the question in bold print. This way when looking through all the posts, the author can easily distinguish between the questions and other commentary.

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Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 05 Jul 2017, 19:30

Thank you!

What made you choose Adele's music?

gali · Post by **gali** » 06 Jul 2017, 00:16

Cool, thank you.

You wrote this book with a co-author. Why did you do decide to collaborate? How does it work? Which pieces were yours? Did you have disagreements? If so, how did you solve it?

aialyaseer · Post by **aialyaseer** » 06 Jul 2017, 01:07

Gravy wrote:Thank you!

What made you choose Adele's music?

We are huge fans of Adele's music. Her voice, the background music and the lyrics are so inspirational. However, we never thought of writing a book based on music, in fact... we never thought to attend a concert in our life. When she released her album 25, we decided to go to her concert in Verona (although it was a very hard decision in so many aspects), four days later after the concert, we had the idea of this book.

-- 06 Jul 2017, 01:12 --

gali wrote:Cool, thank you.

You wrote this book with a co-author. Why did you do decide to collaborate? How does it work? Which pieces were yours? Did you have disagreements? If so, how did you solve it?

Me and my sister Rana always collaborate on writing. This is our third novel but the first released. We wrote a film together and some tv shows.
She is the talented writer who actually do the writing, I structure the story and the plots. We agree on the main arc of the story, the character development, the main plot points and the minor events at each chapter. She then starts writing chapter by chapter, we read it, fix it and she does a re-write. Until we feel satisfied. I wrote some things directly in English after the translation, to get the idea as close as possible to original.
We rarely disagree.

gali · Post by **gali** » 06 Jul 2017, 01:16

aialyaseer wrote:
Gravy wrote:Thank you!

What made you choose Adele's music?
We are huge fans of Adele's music. Her voice, the background music and the lyrics are so inspirational. However, we never thought of writing a book based on music, in fact... we never thought to attend a concert in our life. When she released her album 25, we decided to go to her concert in Verona (although it was a very hard decision in so many aspects), four days later after the concert, we had the idea of this book.

-- 06 Jul 2017, 01:12 --

gali wrote:Cool, thank you.

You wrote this book with a co-author. Why did you do decide to collaborate? How does it work? Which pieces were yours? Did you have disagreements? If so, how did you solve it?
Me and my sister Rana always collaborate on writing. This is our third novel but the first released. We wrote a film together and some tv shows.
She is the talented writer who actually do the writing, I structure the story and the plots. We agree on the main arc of the story, the character development, the main plot points and the minor events at each chapter. She then starts writing chapter by chapter, we read it, fix it and she does a re-write. Until we feel satisfied. I wrote some things directly in English after the translation, to get the idea as close as possible to original.
We rarely disagree.

Interesting! Thank you for your answer.

What are your other books about? Do you plan to publish them as well?

Donnavila Marie01 · Post by **Donnavila Marie01** » 06 Jul 2017, 04:53

I am amazed by the good team that you have as sisters. Not all sisters have that kind of relationship. How do you resolve differences when it comes to your views? Did you have any clashing ideas when you were writing your book on "My Trip to Adele"?.

aialyaseer · Post by **aialyaseer** » 06 Jul 2017, 12:34

gali wrote:
aialyaseer wrote:
Gravy wrote:Thank you!

What made you choose Adele's music?
We are huge fans of Adele's music. Her voice, the background music and the lyrics are so inspirational. However, we never thought of writing a book based on music, in fact... we never thought to attend a concert in our life. When she released her album 25, we decided to go to her concert in Verona (although it was a very hard decision in so many aspects), four days later after the concert, we had the idea of this book.

-- 06 Jul 2017, 01:12 --

gali wrote:Cool, thank you.

You wrote this book with a co-author. Why did you do decide to collaborate? How does it work? Which pieces were yours? Did you have disagreements? If so, how did you solve it?
Me and my sister Rana always collaborate on writing. This is our third novel but the first released. We wrote a film together and some tv shows.
She is the talented writer who actually do the writing, I structure the story and the plots. We agree on the main arc of the story, the character development, the main plot points and the minor events at each chapter. She then starts writing chapter by chapter, we read it, fix it and she does a re-write. Until we feel satisfied. I wrote some things directly in English after the translation, to get the idea as close as possible to original.
We rarely disagree.
Interesting! Thank you for your answer.

What are your other books about? Do you plan to publish them as well?

One book a fantasy adventure about a different world that we won't plan on publishing
Another one: political drama about a presidential campaign in an Arab country which should be published in Arabic by 2018

aialyaseer · Post by **aialyaseer** » 06 Jul 2017, 12:37

Donnavila Marie01 wrote:I am amazed by the good team that you have as sisters. Not all sisters have that kind of relationship. How do you resolve differences when it comes to your views? Did you have any clashing ideas when you were writing your book on "My Trip to Adele"?.

We are actually siblings, brother and a sister

When we disagree on something, we try to see what really fits the character more, or what would trigger the reader, for example, the story between Malika and Elias, we disagreed a bit on the age gap, but then decided according what would be more shocking yet not so offensive.

gali · Post by **gali** » 06 Jul 2017, 13:11

aialyaseer wrote:
gali wrote:
aialyaseer wrote:
We are huge fans of Adele's music. Her voice, the background music and the lyrics are so inspirational. However, we never thought of writing a book based on music, in fact... we never thought to attend a concert in our life. When she released her album 25, we decided to go to her concert in Verona (although it was a very hard decision in so many aspects), four days later after the concert, we had the idea of this book.

-- 06 Jul 2017, 01:12 --

Me and my sister Rana always collaborate on writing. This is our third novel but the first released. We wrote a film together and some tv shows.
She is the talented writer who actually do the writing, I structure the story and the plots. We agree on the main arc of the story, the character development, the main plot points and the minor events at each chapter. She then starts writing chapter by chapter, we read it, fix it and she does a re-write. Until we feel satisfied. I wrote some things directly in English after the translation, to get the idea as close as possible to original.
We rarely disagree.
Interesting! Thank you for your answer.

What are your other books about? Do you plan to publish them as well?
One book a fantasy adventure about a different world that we won't plan on publishing
Another one: political drama about a presidential campaign in an Arab country which should be published in Arabic by 2018

Good luck!

DennisK · Post by **DennisK** » 06 Jul 2017, 14:34

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, aialyaseer. Sometimes, I fear I become overly analytical with some of the things I read. For me, your story seemed to be about freedom – an expression of abandonment to one's desires, or coming to terms with one's true nature. Did I inject this into you and your sister's story from my own perspective or was this your intent?

Snowflake · Post by **Snowflake** » 06 Jul 2017, 19:14

[*]SPOILER ALERT![/b][*]

I wasn't really sure if Malika was at peace at the end. I had a hard time interpreting her response to the concert and Elias. Was she moving to a place of peace?

gali · Post by **gali** » 06 Jul 2017, 22:54

Thank you for the answers.

Does your family support your writing?

aialyaseer · Post by **aialyaseer** » 07 Jul 2017, 01:14

DennisK wrote:Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, aialyaseer. Sometimes, I fear I become overly analytical with some of the things I read. For me, your story seemed to be about freedom – an expression of abandonment to one's desires, or coming to terms with one's true nature. Did I inject this into you and your sister's story from my own perspective or was this your intent?

Actually freedom is the main theme of the book.
What we tried to show is that all human beings seek freedom but it's impossible to obtain completely. Nadia got a divorce from her husband to be free, however she realized that her freedom is restricted and the law can't allow her to have her full freedom.
Yaser felt to rebel against his God in order to free himself from his wife's prison. He felt free when he was having an affair, he felt the strength he wanted to feel as a man but his wife never gave him, yet at the end, when he decided to leave his house (which is another act of breaking free), he realized that there are restrains that won't allow him to completely be free, he has kids, and thus to grant them happiness he has to compromise his own.
Malika's mission has been always to free herself from the square she lives in, to live a decent job, forget her fathers embarrassing job and to live in a different country other than Morocco. When she fulfilled that, she lost her true self, that's why Elias couldn't fall for her. She is no longer herself.

aialyaseer · Post by **aialyaseer** » 07 Jul 2017, 01:20

Snowflake wrote:[*]SPOILER ALERT![/b][*]

I wasn't really sure if Malika was at peace at the end. I had a hard time interpreting her response to the concert and Elias. Was she moving to a place of peace?

Malika's last hysterical dance was an act of rebelling, it represented all the feelings the other three protagonists went through, if you read the last two pages again, the dance description is about all of them rather than just malika.

But to answer your question, was she at peace?
Well... do you think one could obtain peace

-- 07 Jul 2017, 01:21 --

gali wrote:Thank you for the answers.

Does your family support your writing?

Yes, although my main source of income is not writing, I'm a director / producer

Ssinghal · Post by **Ssinghal** » 07 Jul 2017, 07:09

*Spoiler Alert*

Why did you not choose to finish the story of Elias and Mallika as a successful love story together? Why didn't you end Nadia's story with her happily enjoying Adele's concert with her son? Why did Yasser and Miriam not end up as a couple again at the end?
In short, why did you not end the characters' story on a happily ever after note?