The following interview was conducted by Bookpleasures with Cole Kivlin, author of Corsino.

Thank you Cole for consenting to be interviewed by Bookpleasures.

To read the review click HERE

INTERVIEW

Norm-Why did you want to publish a story about yourself and your lost family?

Cole-Actually, it wasn’t entirely my idea. After I returned from the initial trip to find my family, my wife and one of my daughters kept prodding me to write my story. The daughter even threatened to write it for me. Then a little over a year or so ago, I happened to make contact, over the Internet with Norman Specht who was a teenage friend mentioned in the book. We hadn’t communicated in about 50 years, but he had told his wife a little about me. When she found out who I was, she kept e-mailing me asking all kinds of questions about my life. Eventually, she said that I ought to write a book. Since, in answering all her questions, I had a lot of information already down on paper, I decided to give it a try.

Norm-Why do you believe that some people are very interested in tracking down their roots, while others want to forget about their family?

Cole-That’s a difficult question to answer. I suppose it’s something in their character.

Norm-Do you believe in luck or do we sometimes have opportunities that we do not take advantage of?

Cole-Of course, everybody has opportunities that they don’t take advantage of. Sometimes we don’t even recognize it as an opportunity at the time. I believe in luck to some extent. Luck is when events fall in just the right order and at the right time. Sometimes those events happen due to something we do, but at times they happen without us doing anything.

Norm-Pertaining to your life in the USA, if you had the opportunity to change any decision you may have made, what would that be?

Cole-The main decision that I could second- guess was about leaving college. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed in school. But that doesn’t mean that I would change the decision.

Norm-Are you sorry you did not complete your college education?

Cole-I wouldn’t say I am sorry I didn’t complete college. At the time it seemed like the right decision. I’m not sure that I was in the right college for me. The college was, and is, a great engineering college, but I’m not sure that my strengths were in the right field. Anyway, there’s no way to tell if my life would have been happier or not.

Norm-Are you a bitter person as a result of your many unhappy experiences?

Cole-More than one person has asked me that question. The answer is NO. I believe that a person just has to do the best they can under all circumstances. I never really expected much from other people, and if they did something good for me, I considered it a bonus.

Norm-Why do you believe people would be interested to hear your story?

Cole- Some people like to read true stories that are different than most.

Norm-How long did it take you to write the book and did anyone help you with the editing etc?

Cole-It took longer than I first anticipated. Initially, I had a bunch of e-mails that I wrote answering questions. I’m a very slow typist and I had to retype everything in MS Works, organize it, and expand on it. After about six months I had enough material to call it a manuscript. I explored the possibility of getting it professionally edited, but eventually decided to bypass it to try to save some money. Happily, during the publishing process another teenage friend (Marilyn Specht, also mentioned in the book) found out about my project. She was experienced in proofreading and volunteered to proofread my book. Of course, while proofreading she made some editing comments.

Norm-Could you describe your initial experiences as soon as you landed in Spain? What did you feel?

Cole-I think I was in a trance. Everything seemed unreal. Of course, during the drive from Madrid to Asturias I was very eager to get there but also wondered what I would find once I got there.

Norm-How do your children and wife feel about your experiences and how do they relate to your family?

Cole-My wife has always been very supportive about everything. She has made several subsequent trips with me and is fascinated by my Spanish family although she can’t speak a word of Spanish. One of my daughters went with us on one of the trips too. I think the rest of the children would like to go too, but unfortunately haven’t been able due to time or financial constraints.

Thanks Cole and best of luck with your book.