Bookpleasures.comwelcomes as our guest Adriana Gavazzoni author of Hidden Motives: Behind the Door, Lara´s Journal, The Brilliant Game, and her most recent novel, Sketches of Life

.

Adriana is a Brazilian writer, a former professor of law and has been a practicing lawyer for 30 years.  Her first series of self-published novels,  Hidden Motives: Behind the Door, Lara´s Journal and The Brilliant Game,

Her books have won won several writing contests, gathered five gold medals, one bronze medal, five honorable mentions and was finalist of many great contests (B.R.A.G medallion (Gold Medal); Book Excellence Awards (Two Gold medals);  e-lite awards (Gold medal), Golden Book Award (Gold Medal);  IPPY AWARDS (Bronze Medal), Readers Favorite (three honorable mentions); Paris Book Festival (Three honorable mentions); Eric Hoffer Book Award (Finalist); American Fiction Awards (Finalist); Indie Excellence Awards (Finalist); Independent Author Network (Finalist); Indie Excellence (Finalist); The IAN book of the year awards (Finalist); The Kindle-book award (semi-finalist).

 Norm: Good day Adriana and thanks for participating in our interview.

Adriana: Good day, Norm, and thanks for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to take part in this interview.

Norm: What do you consider to be your greatest success (or successes) so far in your careers?

Adriana: As a lawyer, my greatest success is to be able to be independent. As a professor, I consider seeing my students pleading in courts, defending their clients and respecting me and my teachings years after they’ve left my classroom to be my greatest achievements.

As a writer, the ability to tell my stories and have them published is a great success, and of course, the awards my novels received make me very proud of my work.

Norm: What has been your greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome in getting to where you’re at today?

Adriana: I believe the greatest challenge in any profession is to believe in your own work and have the courage to expose it to criticism, knowing you can’t please everybody.

Norm: Although I am bilingual, English and French, I am always amazed how some people can pick up several languages. My wife, who was born in Egypt is multilingual and my daughter-in-law, who is Brazilian, is likewise multilingual.

How did you pick up several languages? As a follow up, has the knowledge of several languages helped you in any way in crafting your novels?

Adriana: My father was a visionary, and when I was little, he decided “English” was the language of the future, so he enrolled me in a course.

After that, my love for communication caused me to study French. Also, I love to travel and to be able to communicate with people. I learned Spanish when I lived and worked in Argentina for some time. I’m still hoping to learn Chinese, but until now, I’ve only been able to learn a few phrases.

Languages helped me a lot in crafting my novels, as I could travel and understand other cultures I use for the settings in my books.

Norm: How does it happen that someone with a degree in law comes to write fiction?

Adriana: Lawyers are writers. We have to write stories, non-fiction stories, to defend our clients. In Brazil, the defense is mostly provided in writing, and I think every lawyer is a potential storyteller.

Norm: What do you think most characterizes your writing?

Adriana: That I’m not attached to one genre, and I always try different ones. I’m faithful to what I love to write.

Norm: Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? As a follow up, how do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use any set formula?

Adriana: I believe it is more by intuition. I let my characters “talk to me”, even if they sound schizophrenic! I start to write, and suddenly, the plot comes to my mind as if my characters were alive. I have no formula to that; I just put my imagination to work.

Norm: What advice can you give aspiring writers that you wished you had received, or that you wished you would have listened to?

Adriana: Write. Perfect your writing. Correct, erase but be faithful to what you would like to read in a book, to the genres you like to read. Don’t try to please the readers, or you are going to be a failure. Try to please yourself—some people are going to like what you write, but never, never expect you can please everybody. Bad reviews are part of the game.

Norm: Any unique ways you'll be marketing your books that is different from how others authors market their books?

Adriana: I use a lot of social media, and I try to talk to my readers. I always answer e-mails.

Norm: What has your experience been like with self publishing? Do you recommend it over traditional publishers?

Adriana: I traditionally published my first book, and things didn’t go very well, so I decided to self-publish. Self-publishing has many advantages, such as having complete control of your books and knowing exactly how many you’re selling. On the other hand, I miss having an agent to manage my career, as I still work hard as a lawyer and don’t have the extra time to promote my novels.

Norm: Please tell us something about your most recent novel, Sketches of Life.

Adriana: Sketches of Life is a historical novel about women who need to be strong to face unpredictable challenges in their lives. It is also a book that talks about dementia, the effects of war on people’s lives, the discovery of love, and the struggle to survive in a world of turmoil. 

Adriana: A character from my second novel, a special grandmother who all kids would like to have. I fell in love with her, and I needed to tell her story.

Norm: What purpose do you believe your story serves and what matters to you about the story? Did you write the story to express something you believe or was it just for entertainment?

Adriana: I love to use my stories to call people’s attention to matters like child abuse and dementia, things that can happen inside our homes and have huge consequences, but which some people ignore.

Norm: Did you have initially a difficult time fleshing out the characters ?

Adriana: No, as I said before, they pop up in my mind and introduce themselves.

Norm: What was your main focus when you created your protagonist?

Adriana: To give them a unique character that makes me love their personalities.

Norm: What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

Adriana: The whole process of writing. Coming up with ideas, researching, the flow of my imagination…even designing the cover! Writing is a pleasure for me, so I loved every bit of the process of writing my novels.

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and your novels?

Adriana: There is plenty information on my WEBSITE 

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

 And my first novel is also available in Portuguese, recently published in Portugal by Chiado Books:

https://www.fnac.pt/Trilogia-Motivos-Ocultos-Livro-1-Atras-da-Porta-A-Gavazzoni/a7713385#omnsearchpos=1

Norm: What is next for Adriana Gavazzoni?

Adriana: I’m working on the sequel to Sketches of Life and a book in Portuguese.

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, what question do you wish that someone would ask about your books, but nobody has?

Adriana: Are you one of your characters?