Guest Post & Interview with author of Ancient Canada, Clinton Festa!

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Book Blurb:

In this epic tale, two sisters are exiled from their native land. The mythological world of Ancient Canada may be unlike anything you’ve read in a thousand years.

Uninspired

 Guest blog post by Clinton Festa, author of Ancient Canada

Writing can be a battle.  What do you do when you’re uninspired?

Many Renaissance artists would pray extensively prior to painting.  Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, would go to strip clubs to think out difficult problems.  What could they possibly have in common?

Wisdom and inspiration come from within when the spirit is at peace.  Whether you believe it’s a visit from the Holy Spirit or just a function of neuroscience, you can find something inside when you put yourself in the right setting.

I’ve heard once that “Wisdom comes to us when we listen.”  I agree.  And I learned this when someone told it to me.  But it’s in a different category: wisdom and inspiration that we attain externally.  That can come to us at any time, whether it’s seeking it out in a library or overhearing a conversation on the subway.  As long as we’ve got our eyes and ears open, we can absorb some ideas, inspiration, creativity, etc.

There’s nothing wrong with this, and it often leads to very original ideas, or original takes on old ideas.  But if everything we do is “inspired by _____,” then the reader may just decide to read _____.

The reader is often the one listening.  Writers who have found readers willing to listen are very fortunate.  These readers choose, then read their books because they are seeking to enjoy the creativity and inspiration of the author.  They know when it’s lacking, and usually the writer knows, too.

Personally, I have five main settings that have produced most of my best ideas from within.  Strong or weak, they’re my best, so I use them.  For me it’s driving, praying, sitting in church, running, and showering.  (Note that really none of these, except maybe prayer, are convenient times to write down an idea on a piece of paper).  I don’t have any “eureka” moments in heavy traffic, and usually running produces more good inspiration when I’m on a trail rather than a treadmill.  But in all cases, there is peacefulness present.

For anybody that’s done his or her share of pencil-tapping, I’d humbly suggest to do some exploring.  Try to find your peaceful settings, but leave the computer behind.  Don’t go there to write or stare at a screen upset with yourself.  Even if it produces nothing right away, it’s more enjoyable than tapping your pencil, and just as productive.

That’s it from me.  Thanks for listening!

Interview:

Where are you from?  Tell us a little about yourself!

Originally Rockland County, NY.  I didn’t write much until college, and started with humor.  I was on the Cornell Lunatic, our campus humor magazine.  I started as a cartoonist, but didn’t know anybody.  So they weren’t too comfortable asking me to draw out their ideas, and I didn’t have much material in my first two issues.  I realized I needed to write (and draw) it myself if I wanted to get anything published.  By junior and senior year, my fellow Lunatics knew me pretty well, and I was back doing plenty of art.  But that’s how I originally got started writing.  Ancient Canada is my first novel, and has its humorous moments, but is not a comedy.  It’s fantasy fiction, specifically mythology.

Tell us about your book!  How did it get started?

The idea came to me walking around New York City alone looking for lunch in 2006.  I walked by restaurant after restaurant of countries whose food I had already tried… Korean, Lebanese, Peruvian… I thought somebody needed to make up a fake country and invent an entire kitchen of cooking for it.  Then, open up a restaurant that serves “Authentic Festonian Food.”  That, however, requires a bank loan application.  So the idea for a restaurant morphed into mythology.  I didn’t invent Canada, but the alternate Canada in my story worked best geographically for what I wanted to do.

How do you create your characters?

For Ancient Canada, I wanted to cover a lot of psychological stuff.  This is because there is so much psychology in mythology, like Jungian archetypes, characters like Narcissus, Oedipus, etc.  I wanted the side characters to show commonalities in their minds and let the differences come from their specific problems.  As for the main characters, Lavender and Marigold, I figured I needed to know them a little better.  I made them sisters who get along but don’t have much in common.  I based them on opposing sides of my own brain, like giving Lavender technical attributes and Marigold the more creative ones.

What inspires you and what got you started in writing?

St. Francis of Assisi has been the biggest source of inspiration for this book, helping provide many of the environmental and spiritual themes needed.  As for getting started in writing, it was an attempt to reverse my trend of consumption and finally produce something.

Where do you write?  Is there something you need to get started?  (Music, drinks?)

Usually late at night on Fridays or Saturdays at home.  I’ve got a job outside of writing, so I can’t do much during the week.  As for getting started, that’s usually pretty easy.  Because I don’t get to write during the week, that’s of course when all my ideas hit me… at very inconvenient times, typically, like in the shower or mowing the lawn.  I write them down, and usually have my material for the weekend ready to go.  It’s good that way I think, or at least pretty efficient.  But it hurts until you can get those ideas on paper.

How do you get your ideas for writing?

Running, praying, sitting in church, showering, and driving, mostly.  Whenever my mind is free from the tyranny of petty concerns.  So… not while I’m paying the credit card bill.

What do you like to read?

Most of my reading these days is children’s books, to my kids.  Having two little ones has dramatically reduced my reading time.  I’ve had The Odyssey on my nightstand for about three months and I’m on page eight.  Of the foreward.

What would your advice be for authors (or aspiring) in regards to writing?

Do research before you start your first book.  1) Look into ‘word count.’  It depends a little on the genre, but usually 80-100K is the range you want to be in.  2) If you think writing is hard, finding a publisher is worse.  If you think finding a publisher is hard, marketing makes it all look easy.  So do a little market research before you start anything else.  3) Most publishers will make a lot of decisions based on the first three chapters, so don’t wait until the fourth chapter to get rolling.  They do this because often a reader will continue or abandon a story after that amount of reading.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Please check out ancientcanada.com.  And thank you so much for reading!