Gabriel’s short stories and some of his
poetry continue to appear in literary journals and online magazines. Ronan
Bennett short-listed Gabriel for the 2010 Fish Prize. Gabriel won first prize
in ZOUCH Magazine’s inaugural Lit
Bits Contest. Winter Goose Publishing publishes his Roma Series: Roma, Underground (February 2012), Wasp’s Nest (November 2012) and Threading the Needle (October 2013).
Gabriel lives in New England.
Twitter: GValjan
Purchase THREADING THE NEEDLE on Amazon / B&N
Q:
What’s inside the mind of a mystery/suspense author?
A: Curiosity and a perverse sense of
observation. We live in interesting times. There’s Wikileaks and the World Wide
Web. Big Brother might be watching your cache or collecting your cookies.
Financial scandals ripple like aftershocks across several national economies.
Social media reminds us that we are connected 24/7 and yet we are existentially
disconnected or redefining public and private space. All of these topics hint
of conspiracy, deception, and secrecy. Truth is stranger than fiction? Mystery/suspense
fiction is practically writing itself.
Q:
Why do you write?
A: Because I have a story to tell and I
happen to have a lot of fun writing. I feel alive when I write. Write
because you love to write. No matter how great you think the writing is, please
have someone edit it for you. Respect your reader and try to understand that
not everyone will like you; that criticism, while an opinion, is an opportunity
for improvement. Just keep writing, whatever your reason.
Q:
How picky are you with language?
A: Very. Here is the thing: diction and
style are ethical decisions. It might seem philosophical or abstract, but all
literature, all storytelling is a con job, so the foundation of the creative
act is predicated on fraud. Each story has to have its own tone and idiom. In
the Roma Series I established a strong female protagonist, Bianca, and readers
would know immediately if I were to have her do or say something out of
character. Her actions and speech contribute to her authenticity and my
credibility. If I were to suddenly go noir the reader would know it is wholly
inappropriate. Why? One half of that is the reader’s own literary diet and the
other half of the answer is that the author has broken the contract.
Q:
Do you get the feeling you’re playing God when you write fiction?
A: Yes and No. I say ‘Yes’ because I killed
a character. It was calculated, premeditated as it gets, and quite honestly: it
felt good. I say ‘No’ because I don’t feel that I am creating character so much
as I am conveying observations that I have made of other people over the years.
My characters are a mishmash of people I have known, either well or in passing.
I’d go so far as to say that many of the characters have elements of me in
them. God or Creator? No. Creative? Yes.
Q:
When you write, do you sometimes feel as though you were being manipulated from
afar?
A: If I understand the question
properly, I believe that the question is asking if I’ve ever felt swept up in
writing such as that time passed and in reading what I wrote I say, “Did I
write that?” The answer is ‘Yes.’ I have had moments where I’ve surprised
myself either with a turn of phrase, or I have a character say or do something
shocking but consonant with his or her personality and temperament. In the
second book of The Good Man Series, my character, Walker, confronts an underaged
girl who tries to seduce him. He knows her and he knows why she is acting
inappropriately, but he also knows it is morally wrong. For a second he is
tempted but he stops and he rejects her. She is upset and leaves. He is mad at
himself for always doing the right thing. He throws an object at a wall and
utters a profanity. It is the only time a reader hears Walker curse and it is
the only instance of profanity in the three volumes of the noir story, which
makes it all the more powerful. When I wrote it, the scene wrote itself.
Q:
What is your worst time as a writer?
A: Rejection. It happens. The form
letters suck, but they are understandable since journals are inundated with
submissions. I dislike the fact that it takes a very, very long time to get a
response. I appreciate the rare constructive criticism, but the worst is when
you get a nasty email from an editor. It happens and I wonder whether they
don’t realize it discredits them.
Q:
Your best?
A: I took a chance and submitted a
sequence of poems. First, I thought it had zero chance for publication because
the sequence was too long, but I gave it a go, attached it and pressed Send. A
month later I saw the email and I mumbled and prepared myself for the
rejection. The editor not only accepted the piece, which shocked me, but he
wrote a lengthy email in which he explained why
he and the editorial staff liked the poem. It was clear that time and effort had
been put into the communication. I was moved.
Q:
Is there anything that would stop you from writing?
A: No. I hope that I remain in good
health and nothing physically prevents me from writing.
Q:
What’s the happiest moment you’ve lived as an author?
A: In Threading the Needle, a very difficult period of Italian history is
part of the plot. The ‘Years of Lead,’ was a period from the late sixties to
the early eighties in which all of Italy lived under the threat of daily acts
of terrorism. A friend who is a native speaker, who came of age during that
time, and who has acted as my editor on cultural matters throughout the Roma
Series, wrote me that Threading not
only disturbed him as a literary work, but that it had left him amazed that
someone from outside of his culture could capture the mood and tension so well.
The ‘Years of Lead’ was for many years a taboo topic in Italy. His compliment
and judgment meant a lot to me.
Q:
Is writing an obsession to you?
A: Only when I’ve started a project. I
am disciplined and driven. I know what I want to accomplish and nothing stops
me. Discipline plays a major role from inception to completion of a working draft.
I consulted my notes. I began Threading
the Needle on January 20, 2012 and completed it February 13, 2012. The
novel is shy of 90,000 words. The math works out to 25 days of writing, on
average of 3,600 words per day and, with standard formatting of one-inch
margins all around, double-spaced with Times New Roman 12-point font, that is
approximately 250 words per page, about 14 pages a day. While this is all
matter-of-fact computation, the reality is that some days I wrote more and
other days, less. The point is I sat down every day and I wrote, committed to
the story inside my head. Pure persistence. The hard work of editing and
revising came later.
Q:
Are the stories you create connected with you in some way?
A: Yes. I think it is clear to readers
of the Roma Series that I adore Italy, its culture, food, and literature. In July, 1992, when I was in
Milan, I saw a poster of two men in friendly consultation. The slogan beneath
the portrait said: “Non li avete uccisi, le loro idee camminano sulle nostre gambe!”
“You did not kill them: their ideas walk on our legs.” Those two men were
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who had been assassinated months apart
for their work against organized crime. These two men were iconic figures in
Italy for their creative legislation and clever prosecutorial strategies. That
poster and its poetic and angry slogan had inspired me.
The Roma Series is personal in the sense that I
have invested each character with some aspect of my character and personality.
Like Bianca, I can be analytical and difficult to know. I’ve been known to have
a bad temper like Farrugia. I am moody and somewhat cynical at times like
Gennaro and Clemente. Alessandro is a younger version of me. The boss
characters and bureaucrats in the Series are drawn from life. The character
Silvio is an exception, for he is my homage to Catarella, the bumbling, walking
malapropism that Andrea Camilleri created in the Inspector Montalbano series.
Readers will discover Camilleri shows up now and then as a dog, a cane corso.
Q:
Ray Bradbury once said, “You must stay drunk on
writing so reality cannot destroy you.” Do you agree?
A: I disagree.
The reason I disagree is that Mr. Bradbury’s statement implies that the
creative act is an escape from life. The statement also bothers me because it
suggests we substitute one addiction for another. Writing or any other creative
effort is a process of self-discovery that I think enables an individual to
better understand him or herself and engage the world and live Life
constructively. Writing may require the choice of time away from others, but it
shouldn’t be a way of avoiding others. Writing is also constructing Reality. Reality
does not destroy the individual. People destroy People. Time is the Great
Destroyer of us all. Many things can destroy you, including yourself. An
economy can destroy you, a government can destroy you, but those entities still
require the cooperation of individuals. Reality is too busy being Reality just like
the sky is busy being blue.
Gabriel Valjan’s Author Page at Winter
Goose Publishing: http://wintergoosepublishing.com/authors/gabriel-valjan/
Pinterest for Threading the Needle:
http://pinterest.com/gvaljan/threading-the-needle/
Rachel Anderson of RMA Publicity
represents Gabriel Valjan. Rachel can be reached at rachel@rmapublicity.com
