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| Robert Desiderio, photo by Chris Spiro |
Robert Desiderio is the author of the new novel The Occurrence. An actor and screenwriter, he lives in Los Angeles and New York City.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Occurrence?
A: After 9/11 I began to wonder what would need to happen
for the war on terror to end? I wanted to put forth a scenario that in a small
way might open a door to an answer.
The answer I heard was…what if the current leader of ISIS
had a mystical experience that created a crisis of conscience that led to him
realizing his violent jihad was misguided. And what if he realized that he was
called to shift the course of that violence, even if it meant sacrificing his
life?
His answer was to surrender to the FBI. A radical act of
love that made him a traitor to some, a hero to others, and the need for him to
be a liar to those in power. From there the story tumbled out.
Q: Did you need to do much research to write the novel, and
if so, did you learn anything especially surprising?
A: I did do plenty of research—reading books on bin Laden
and others.
Studying the work of Jessica Stern, a Harvard scholar and
U.S. expert on terrorism. Specifically her book Terror in the Name of God: Why
Religious Militants Kill. And also the work of renowned journalist Janine
Di Giovanni, specifically her book Dispatches from Syria: The Morning They Came
for Us. And the life and death of Marie Colvin.
I also enlisted the support of a sensitivity reader. A
young, Muslim, female journalist and author, Ava Homa. She guided me to the
nuances of Muslim life, and appreciated that I presented her faith in an,
ultimately, positive light.
What I learned, or was reminded of, is that we are all one.
And no religious belief system is exempt from darkness.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started
writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I did not know how the novel would end. While working on
this, my first novel, I discovered there are two types of writer: plotters and
pantsers. Plotters plot. Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants, not the most
poetic description of that approach but there it is.
I fall into the latter category. So, I had no idea how the
story would evolve.
The “North Star” for me (as in all my work) is we are more
than we know, and as one of the characters says, “We are One.” I don’t recall
what changes were made along the way, but they weren’t huge. It was more that
the characters’ internal struggles shifted and evolved, and led me to where
they needed to be and go.
Q: As a screenwriter and actor, and now a novelist, how have
the various disciplines coexisted for you?
A: For me, writing is writing. However, there is a
distinction. Scripts are a blueprint for a house. Complex. Poetic.
Multilayered. But a blueprint nonetheless. Novels are all that, and they are
the house.
While each require a team effort. Scripts: Director. Actors.
Scenic and wardrobe designers, etc., to interpret the story, a novel requires a
pair of eyes other than your own to help edit, publish, etc. But, ultimately, a
novelist is the only source of story and how it’s told.
The one aspect of “interpretation” in a novel is when the
reader holds the story in their hands. What they see and feel in the
“house" that’s been built is theirs alone. It may be shared by others, but
is and will always be unique to them.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: During this new life we’re all in right now of COVID19, I
realized I missed the characters from my book, and wondered what their lives
were like a few months after the end of the novel. And, so I have begun The
Occurrence Part II. What will happen? I have no idea. That’s scary and
thrilling.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I love to watch and play tennis. It’s a three-dimension
chess game, and as I like to say, it’s boxing without the body blows. It keeps
me fit, while I spend the majority of life writing.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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