Today I’m happy to be featuring author, Angela Guidolin on my blog. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Angela, when did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Only a few years ago, although in 2000 a tarot reader told me I would write a book. I didn’t know what to make of it. I’ve always been a bookworm, but never thought of becoming a writer. Moreover, for the previous two years I’d been struggling with a crippling pain in the upper part of my body, especially in my wrists. My GP had sent me to yoga classes and to a few practitioners, then told me that I was suffering from repetitive strain injury and there was nothing she could do for me. It could only get worse. Would I really be able to write a book? And what would I write about, exactly?
As you can imagine, my first priority was to heal. As I couldn’t count on my GP, I started the journey to recovery on my own. At 30, I couldn’t accept her diagnosis!
I tried many alternative and complementary therapies. Each one helped me a little. One healer, though, gave me the key to go back to health by lending me a book by Louise Hay, “You can heal your life.” It blew my mind because it connected diseases with thought patterns. Muscles problems, for example, are linked to resistance to new experiences, and my resistance derived from an idea of success imposed to me by society.
Holding an Italian first degree in Business Economics, I was expected to be in a glamorous job and climb the social ladder. Being and immigrant in London, reality was different. Nobody was interested in my degree because I had no experience, so the only jobs offered to me were jobs I considered menial and felt frustrated after a while.
If I wanted to be happy and healthy, though, I had to ditch the conviction that success equals high social status and choose success equals what makes me happy. I had to focus on my internal expectations and not the ones society had inculcated in me. Problem was, I didn’t know what I wanted to do!
So I just went with the flow. I agreed to follow my husband to France and run a coffee shop with him. When our daughter was born we moved to Italy to stay near to my parents, because we feared she would be all alone in a foreign country if something happened to both of us.
In Italy I worked in the family business using my degree, at last. On the one hand, I was happy to be in a job that challenged me, on the other hand I soon realised that it wasn’t for me. My soul longed for something more meaningful, in line with my core values. I wanted to help people somehow. Although I had trained as a Spiritual Healer back in London, I couldn’t see myself working as a healer, so the search for my calling was still on.
In those four years in Italy (between 2007 and 2011) I was working and looking after our daughter with some help from my mum. I was in pain most of the time and I felt lonely, because my husband soon relocated to the South of England and opened a new coffee shop with a partner.
It was 2008 when I felt it was the right time to start writing the book the tarot reader had told me I would write. Among the genres, I chose science fiction. I consider it as applied philosophy and sociology, played out in a safe environment, and it was fun.
The process of writing was slow going, as I had little time to dedicate to this project and so much to learn. After settling down in the South of England I attended Creative Writing courses, my health improved, and my passion for writing blossomed. I started to believe that I could make it as a writer and I felt that I had found my calling at last.
Once you begin the process, how long does it take you to write a book?
It depends on the research I need to do for it and on how I feel, but I can say that it took me a year to write and edit Across Spacetime, which is around 20,000 words long. Its sequel, which will be almost double this length, will take me two years to complete and I hope to submit it to my publisher by the end of 2017. I know, I’m slow. I put it down to the fact that I’ve got to take care of the household too.
What is your day-to-day schedule like when you’re writing?
I start at 9 am after the school rush and stop around 3pm, when it’s school rush again. I take a few breaks for snacks and lunch in between. Sometimes I go back to writing in the late afternoon, depending on my daughter’s activity schedule.
Do you have any writing quirks that you’d like to share?
I like to be as accurate as possible, so I tend to spend ages researching a subject online, even if it’s just a kind of chair!
How much research goes into the creation and/or writing of a book?
Roughly one third of the time I need to write a book.
When you’re not writing; what do you like to do for enjoyment?
As I live on the English Riviera, walking along the seafront and enjoying the view is something I cherish and do as often as I can. The scenery gives me a sense of freedom and connects me to the Creator in a very powerful way.
I also love reading and going to the theatre or to the cinema with my daughter. Knitting is one hobby I’ve recently taken up knitting and I find it relaxing.
Lastly, were there any surprising things you learned during your book’s creation process?
Many things, from what the weather is like on Titan (the largest of Saturn’s moons) to how vital honest feedback is to hone my craft.
Wow. This was certainly an interesting interview. Thank you for joining me and sharing all that you have.
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Additional about the Author:
Born in Italy in 1968, Angela is married and has a child. She is a SF author and lives in Folkestone (UK). She has published two stories: A New Beginning in the Folkestone 2014 Anthology, and Homecoming in the American SF magazine Nebula Rift in 2014. Her novella Across Spacetime will be released on 31st March 2017 by Fountain Blue Publishing, with presale starting on 3rd February 2017.
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