Author Interview: John Addiego and *The Islands of Divine Music*

I’m so pleased to have John Addiego as my guest on “She is Too Fond of Books” today.  John is the author of The Islands of Divine Music, published by Unbridled Books in October 2008 and reviewed here.  Read on to learn more about John and his writing, the foundations of The Islands of Divine Music, and his writing closet!  (photo of John is from his website)

John, welcome to “She is Too Fond of Books,” I was taken by the construct of The Islands of Divine Music and the characters that were woven through the years in the stories.  Can you tell us a little about the genesis of this book?

I made a lot of false starts with this basic material when I was young, coming largely from personal and family experience, usually with young men of my age figuring prominently. I’m grateful some early coming-of-age attempts never got published. At some point I got a better sense of personae and was able to step out of my personal plight a little, I think. I felt like I had some characters, entirely fictional people, even if they sounded at times a bit like people from my life, who I could put in hard situations. I wanted each of them to have some experience that brought them in touch with the divine.

I understand that some of the chapters were previously published as independent short stories; when did you know that Rosari’s flight to America would be the beginning of this larger work and that she would be the backbone of the family?

Six of the chapters were published as stories, some in slightly different form, in literary magazines. I wrote the story about Giuseppe and the Immaculate Conception first. The Rosari character was foundational in my sense of the family, and I had ideas for ending with her as a matriarchal old woman; however, somewhere along the process I realized that I wanted to start with her as a little girl in the Old Country. In part this is because I have spent a good deal of time raising a daughter as a single parent, and I have some sense of the courage of little girls. It was the image of that little girl who inspired the novel as a whole more than any other character.

Your character sketches are wonderful, and each chapter has the feeling of family lore or a tale passed through the generations.  Have you researched you own family history and come across any rumors or tales-half-told that you’d like to finish in a creative way?

Thank you very much! I am not a good family historian-my brother and sister are much better-but we have a shared a fascination for our family background on both sides of our lineage. The shoeshine boy in the earthquake and the disappearing mother come from some family stories. I’ve taken enormous poetic license.

Where will you go after The Islands of Divine Music, what are you working on now?

I have a manuscript called The Magic Beans that I think is just about ready to try for publication. It’s a kind of modern Jack and the Beanstalk and Don Quixote quest story that takes place in California in the fall of 2003. It depicts another Italian-American family involved with gambling, war crimes, neo-Nazi skinheads, fairy tales and a near death experience. I have several other manuscripts, some of them in the mystery genre, that are in varying stages of completion or revision.

Would you share some about your writing process?  Where do you write?  What inspires you there?  Do you have genealogical charts, maps, photos, other prompts?

I write every morning before I go to work as well as one night per week and much longer periods on vacation breaks. My space is a tall walk-in closet with an old computer, desk, lots of books and notes and clutter, some pictures of loved-ones, some maps on a wall. I journal in public coffee shops and sometimes write fiction there, but mostly I find it productive to write in my closet, away from all distractions.

If you could describe yourself without referring to your work as a writer, how would you do it?

I try to pay attention to what comes my way, with my loved-ones, the kids I teach, the things I read and see and hear. I’ve had some reminders of the brevity of life, and I want to keep my mind open to what delights it has in store for me.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about yourself or your work?

Greg Michalson at Unbridled Books is a dream editor, and I’m very lucky that he saw what I was trying to do with The Islands of Divine Music.

Thank you, John, for sharing this insight into yourself and your writing.  I’ll look forward to reading The Magic Beans and wish you the best of success with your other writing projects.

Come back tomorrow, we’ll have the first Spotlight on Bookstores of the new year, written by John.  Click here to order The Islands of Divine Music from Amazon.com.