Interview: Katya de Becerra, Author of 'Oasis'

Article contributed by Annie McCann

Katya de Becerra was born in Russia, studied in California, lived in Peru, and then stayed in Australia long enough to become a local. She was going to be an Egyptologist when she grew up, but instead she earned a PhD in Anthropology and now works as a university lecturer and a researcher. The Woods Keep was released in 2018, and her second novel Oasis is forthcoming in 2020. In addition to writing novels, Katya has authored and co-authored academic articles, book chapters, blog guest posts and opinion pieces.

We had the pleasure of chatting to Katya about her new YA supernatural thriller novel, Oasis, which publishes in January 2020!

I loved Oasis the setting truly reminded me of the Arabian desert, how you described Dubai is was true to its landscape, why did you choose UAE as the setting of your book and did you spend time there to capture the scenery for your words?

Thank you so much. I’m a huge archaeology geek! I have been reading about and following a number of active excavation sites around the world for years. Dubai is one of those place. It also happens to be a major hub for many Australian international flights, so whenever I travel to Europe I always look forward to arriving to Dubai and resting for a few days before hopping on a plane again. When I’m there, I enjoy visiting Souk Al Bahar, and I absolutely loved the experience of seeing the expanse of the city and its vast surrounds from the top of Burj Khalifa. I was so impressed with Dubai after my first visit that it must’ve been fate that it became a setting for Oasis. In fact, Dubai inspired this book.

**Was writing Oasis more challenging than writing your debut novel What the Woods Keep? (Also a favourite)**

Yes and no. It’s been a while since I’ve written both these books and there was a break of almost two years between having written and sold Oasis to a publisher and then having to revise this book and get it ready for publication. At the same time, because I knew from the start what I wanted Oasis to be and what I wanted it to say, it was easier to write than What The Woods Keep which demanded so much of me, in terms of both time and mental energy. I also have to note that Oasis first started as a NaNoWriMo project and I must credit that initiative for giving me the much needed push to turn my tentative ideas into a real thing which eventually became a real book.

**How did you develop your characters and the friendships they have in Oasis? Who are they inspired by?**

It’s one of those times when a book “practically wrote itself”. I knew from the start that Alif was going to be the narrator and that we were going to experience the events of Oasis through her eyes. The rest of the cast formed organically around Alif. I wanted her friends to be very different from her and from one another, and I wanted them to have complicated relationships and dynamics which would then magnify and implode as the book progressed. I don’t think these characters are really based on or inspired by anyone specific, but rather like many book characters are an amalgamation of qualities and behaviors we writers pick up via social osmosis.

Your work is still going through an editing process however I am curious to know whether much of the story had changed from when you first decided to write this story to the ARC stages?

At this stage, I’m done with all the major revisions to this book, and aside from whatever my editorial team picks up during the final read-through, I don’t anticipate any changes to happen. Comparing the early version of this book to the one that got approved for publication, it was the last quarter of the manuscript that changed the most. I worked a lot with my editor on the logic and sequencing of events as well as pacing in the lead up the grand finale of the ending which I’m quite proud of.

Do you have a passion for science? I noticed the connection with science in both of your books, your first having that connection to chemistry and biology and your upcoming book having a connection to archaeology.

I grew up surrounded by science and scientists. Most notably, my father is a mathematician, specialising in graph theory and its diverse applications. I’ve always been fascinated by different aspects of human knowledge systems, but when it was time to choose what I was going to be, I realised I was most interested in learning about our behaviors as a people, how we make decisions, how societies function, what is culture and what it means to us and how we enact it. Cultural anthropology seemed like a perfect fit for me and that’s what I became in the professional sense. Though, archaeology for me is “the one that got away”, and I’ll always a place for it in my heart.

When you are not writing, what would you be doing?

I’m a university researcher and lecturer by day, so I’d probably be on campus, either writing up data I’ve collected into articles or assuaging student anxieties about assessments and exams. But I also read a lot and constantly work on publicity for my books, such as events, signings and online coverage, among many other things. I also mentor for 1^st5Pages which is a free online critique workshop for emerging writers. I find ways to keep myself busy!

So you have written 2 books, one set in the deep of the woods and another in the desert, if you get to write a third, what’s your ideal setting? What would you like to tap into?

What I hope would be my third novel is set in an isolated boarding school. A forest features heavily in it, though it is not its primary setting. I also have a project that’s set on an island in the Arctic Ocean and another that takes place in the far future and focuses on the biological consequences of climate change amidst planetary decline. I love trying different things in my books and try to change it up completely with each new project. Though, I do find I always gravitate toward settings that are very much present and have their own character and perhaps eve sentience.

As an author, what was the best piece of advice you were ever given?

To read a lot and read widely. As an emerging writer, I’ve learned so much from reading all kinds of books and analysing plot, character development, and pacing of those which resonated with me (or those which didn’t). Writing is a fascinating, challenging and ever-changing process. My worst fear as an author is to become static, to stop growing.