INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY MAULUCCI AUTHOR OF THE DISCOVERY OF LUMINOUS BEING

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Thank you Anthony for accepting to share your thoughts with Bookpleasures' readers:

Norm-Anthony could you tell our readers something about yourself, your education and writing experience?

Anthony

My route to a life of college teaching and fiction writing has been a long and winding one. I believed that I needed to attain the right balance of real-life experience and academic preparation before I considered myself qualified to teach adults and write books. The French believe that no one can write a good book before the age of 50 (I might amend that to 40 in today‘s world). Although there may be exceptions, I definitely agree with that view in principle. It’s proved to be true in my own life.

I grew up in suburban Connecticut and spent my 20’s and 30’s in various metropolitan cities including Boston, New York, and Montreal. My formal academic studies were often put on hold due to financial exigencies or sheer restlessness. I began my professional writing career in Montreal as a freelancer with The Montreal Gazette and went on to become a full-time writer for CBC Radio. I left Montreal at the peak of my career and headed for New York, where I tried writing for magazines. It had long been my dream to be a writer in New York, but I was quickly disillusioned by the cutthroat commercialism of the media. After a few years of this very unstable life, I decided the time had come to pursue my teaching career and went to graduate school at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. I was a college teacher for 15 years before leaving academe to write and teach independently.

Norm

Why did you choose as the title of your book The Discovery of Luminous Being?

Anthony

It captures the essence of the central character’s most profound realization about his young life, but I thought readers would find it intriguing and want to find out what it means.

Norm

Throughout the book you are painting a picture of an angry young man who is trying to find himself. Was this patterned after someone close to you?

Anthony

Writers tend to create composite characters based on a combination of themselves and people they know. I tried to create a living individual with a specific psychological-emotional dynamic, but I also wanted to make his conflict with his father and his search for identity a universal experience. Much of my fiction writing is rooted in myths and archetypes.

Norm

What are the skills you most value in writers you admire, and are there any particular writers who have exerted an influence upon you?

Anthony

Fiction is about human passion, and the skills I value most are the ones that bring characters to life for the reader. I also love philosophical ideas and writers who can blend a good story with important ideas are the ones I admire most . . . Saul Bellow, Italo Calvino, Albert Camus, Dostoevsky, D.H. Lawrence to name a few.

Norm

I noticed you gracefully integrated knowledge pertaining to Montreal, as well as some Jewish traditions. Did you have to research this information?

Anthony

I lived in Montreal for many years and have had very close contact with Jewish culture, so no formal research was necessary. Good fiction writers must develop strong powers of observation and imagination.

Norm

Some writers have said that writing well is an act of discovery. Do you agree with this statement, and if so, why?

Anthony

Yes, absolutely! It is one of the great pleasures of writing. When we express our thoughts and feelings in language we are learning to clarify more exactly what it is we actually think and feel. Writing is truth telling, it’s about being honest with ourselves. Plato said we don’t learn new things, we remember what we already know. Writing enables us to make that journey of remembrance.

Norm

Do you agree that a good novel concerns the struggles of vividly drawn individuals, not issues?

Anthony

Yes. If the characters are not living individuals then the book will fail to capture the reader’s heart. Fresh insights about the human condition are also essential to a good novel, but they must be embodied in the lives of the characters. If there’s no bond between the reader and the people in the book, then the reader will not care about the issues. Stories bring ideas to life while reflecting the mysterious depths of our strange existence. Everyone loves a good story, and its truth resonates in our hearts and minds forever.

Norm

What are you future plans and are there any future novels in the works.

Anthony

I just completed a new novel and am having it represented by a agent. I’m hoping to find an established publisher who believes in my work and will work hard to help me reach more readers. Connecting with readers is what it’s all about, and today, because of new technology, there are a variety of interesting ways to do that. Excerpts from this new novel will soon be posted at my personal web site, www.anthonymaulucci.com, where samples of my published work are available as well.

Thank you once again Anthony and best of luck with all of your future endeavours.