Dear Everyone,
What follows is part II of my interview with Serendipitous, a long-time reader. Her words are in bold.
There is a lot of humor in “Gabriel’s Inferno:” professors possibly collecting shrunken heads of graduate students; Gabriel wishing he had a camera to record Julia so he could twitch in private; Gabriel coining the term “Angelfucker.” It lightens up what is often an emotional, dark story. How important is humor to you and your writing?
Humour is very important to me and, I think, also to my readers. The story could have been very dark without the use of the narrator and his snarky asides, or the quirkiness of several characters. The humour is also meant to communicate to the reader that the Professor takes himself too seriously.
Gabriel and his Beatrice started out in their own dark woods at a time when he’d “lost the path that does not stray.” What is it about Dante and his works that inspired you to tie Gabriel and Julia’s story to them?
In La Vita Nuova Dante makes it clear that he admires Beatrice from afar, apart from few brief encounters. I’d always wondered what it would be like if the story was reversed – if Beatrice admired Dante from afar. Worse still, I wondered what it would be like if Dante was oblivious to her existence.
I’ve wanted to ask you about Chapter 14 of “Gabriel’s Inferno” for a very long time. So much of the subsequent story hinges on its events because of what is revealed. But what affected me the most is how Julia finds her voice with Gabriel. Everything she held inside herself for six years breaks wide open. It was enormously satisfying to read it. How did it feel to write it?
I enjoyed writing it immensely. Julia is not a doormat. She chooses her battles very, very carefully, and in this case, she decided to tell him what she thought of him. It was very satisfying to write it.
In general, is it easy or difficult for you to write anger? Do you have a “favorite” emotion to write?
Anger is enjoyable to write because it provides opportunity to let the character’s inner musings fly. It also provides an opportunity for humour.
I’ll be posting more of my interview with Serendipitous next week. Thank you, Serendipitous, for the opportunity to speak with you about my writing. And thank you for reading.
If you haven’t discovered the website Goodreads yet, you might want to look at it. It’s a great resource for finding new and interesting books and for interacting with authors and other readers.
All the best,
SR
I am honoured to have had all three of my novels appear on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists. I was a Semifinalist for Best Author in the 2011 and 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. {