STONES and ILLUSIONS: Poetry Collections by Charles Ghigna Part II: Author Interview & Giveaway

If you missed last week's blog, please take a minute to read some of the poems I enjoyed in Charles Ghigna's new collections, STONES and ILLUSIONS. In this follow-up post, Charles answers questions I sent him via email.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

CAROL: First of all, why poetry? What is it about poetry that you love and couldn’t do without? What made you start writing poetry in the first place? Have you written poetry since you were a kid? (confession: I have!)

CHARLES: Poetry provides the perfect little package of words for sharing thoughts and emotions. It lifts the heart and sends the spirit soaring. I started keeping a daily journal as a kid. Within a few weeks the writing bug bit and I couldn't stop. Soon I found myself putting those random thoughts into rambling little poems, some with rhymes, some not. Most of my early poems were silly nonsense -- until I was smitten by a girl in high school. I started pouring my heart out in verse -- writing lots of bad, self-conscious drivel, keeping it to myself and throwing most of it away. I also had an English teacher who inspired us with his readings of poetry -- Frost, Millay, Sandburg, Teasdale and others. By then I was hooked. I started reading and writing poetry most every day. It's like breathing. I couldn't stop now if I wanted to.    

CAROL: Where do your ideas come from? You talk about nature, the circus, relationships, imagination, yourself as a child…on and on. Do you get entranced with a subject and write a series (like with the circus) or do they come out in bits at different times and then you realize, “oh, I’ve just written my fifth poem about the circus”? What is your favorite thing to write about?

CHARLES: I'm inspired by little things, quiet moments. I like to listen and observe. I like to celebrate life. I practice gratitude. I take long walks. My inspiration and ideas come from Nature, children, pets, animals, family, friends, and from the real and imagined visions I see along my daily two-mile hike. Much of my inspiration for my books and poetry for children comes from my beloved grandchildren, Charlotte Rose and Christopher. Their names are proudly displayed on the dedication pages of my latest books. My wife inspires all my love poems these days. My son's art inspires me too. Our first book together, ILLUSIONS, was just released. You can see samples of his paintings at ChipGhigna.com

CAROL: You seem to like/use both rhyme and free verse equally. Am I correct? How do you decide which you’ll use, or does the poem decide for you? 😁

CHARLES: Yes. I like to write in rhyme and free verse. Most of my poems for children are written in rhyme. Most of my poems for teens and adults are written in free verse. Sometimes it's fun to sneak in a rhyme or two within the lines of my free verse to lift the language -- and to see if anyone's paying attention. 

CAROL: Ha ha! You seem to like to play with words a lot. How do you know when your poem is done? (speaking from someone who recently changed a short poem several times). Can you comment on your process? Do you work on several poems at a time? Get inspired, write it down, and then move on? Do you “try” to write poetry? Or does it just happen? 

CHARLES: My poems usually come fast and furiously. I write them down as though I'm taking dictation. After I get it all out in a rough first draft, I usually let it sit a day or two. I then return with fresh eyes to polish and revise. When it all sounds about right and feels about right, I stop. Your great question, "How do you know when your poem is done?" makes me think of Paul Valery's comment, "A poem is never finished, only abandoned." Also, Robert Frost's famous anecdote comes to mind. When asked, "What does your poem mean?" Frost replied, What do you want me to do, say it over again in worser English?"

CAROL: At one point you said that ILLUSIONS was more for a YA audience. Just curious why you said that. It seems as if both collections would appeal to both YA and adult readers.

CHARLES: Thank you for that. I agree. I always hate to limit the age of the potential audience for poetry. I'd like to think that my poems in ILLUSIONS: Poetry & Art for the Young at Heart is for all ages -- middle graders, teens, YA -- and EVERYONE who is young at heart!

CAROL: Did you and Chip collaborate on the illustrations? I’d like to hear a little about that process if you can. 

CHARLES: This project was great fun -- and a great surprise to us! We really didn't sit down to write a book together. It just happened. I was writing a few poems to go with some of his paintings -- and he was painting images to go with some of my poems. We posted some of them on social media and people seemed to like them. We kept the fun going and before long we realized we were creating an entire collection of poetry and art that maybe others might enjoy too. 

Indigio by Chip Ghigna 

CELEBRATE POETRY MONTH with this GIVEAWAY!

I'm giving away my copy of STONES and Charles is giving away a copy of ILLUSIONS--autographed by both himself and his son Chip. Please leave me a comment, along with your email address if you are new to my blog.  A winner will be drawn the evening of April 10. If you share either this post or the last one on social media, I'll enter your name twice; just make sure you tell me what you did.

P.S. 

If these posts whet your appetite for more poetry, here are a few more titles that Charles is proud of Dear Poet: Notes to a Young Writer came out at the end of last year. A beautiful new picture book, Once Upon Another Time, is coming out this fall and is co-written with Matt Forrest Esenwine and illustrated by Andres Landazabal. 

Jenn Bower: Process Makes Perfect-- "Authorstrator" Part II

In last week's blog, I promised a glimpse into Jenn Bower's artistic process. True to my word, Jenn takes us inside her uber-creative brain.

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CAROL: Once you have an idea, what's your next step? How many sketches do you do before you know if an idea is working or not? Do you do the sketches digitally? Do you write the text first or draw the images first?

JENN: My process is still evolving.  99% percent of the time I’ve no clue what I am doing.  I simply have this urge to do something!  It’s unbearable if I don’t.  I generate many of my ideas through Tara Lazar’s November PiBoIdMo, as I mentioned last week.  I also like using Scholastic’s Story Starter’s website. 

When I am extremely lucky I’ll have a light bulb moment, typically while walking the dog.  Sometimes an idea will spring forth from a sketch especially if I find myself sketching the same character.  The biggest key to a successful idea is making sure it’s a person, place, thing, idea that you love.  I love nature, I love horses, dogs, cats, cows, frogs and birds, I love quirky and slightly subversive kids, I love little towns, barn, and farms.  When you love deeply you know intimately and I believe that translates to the words you write and the pictures you draw.  I will likely never write about monsters, clowns, snakes or life in the big, big city.  I’ve no desire to have a long-term relationship with those characters.

Much of my process depends on my mood and energy level.  As a single parent working ‘normal’ 8-5 hours, some days I may only have 20 minutes to an hour to work on my craft.    I am a very linear thinker and process most of my information internally before I ever commit to anything on paper.  It drives most people I know crazy.  I know an idea is worth developing if I clearly see the characters and images in my head and I can sense the story arc. My personality needs clear direction in order to move forward.  The book out on submission right now with my agent, Danielle Smith – Red Fox Literary, was that way.  It started with a PiBoIdMo 2012 idea. Then a single sketch.  It percolated in my synapses for another year before I grabbed a legal pad and began writing the story out long hand.

Once I have the bones of the story I then move to my laptop and begin the arduous revision journey.  Namely, cutting down the word count.  Then it goes to my agent for her thumbs-up before I move to thumbnail sketches.  During this part of the process I will pretty quickly pick up any flaws in the pacing or story-arc, so the manuscript keeps evolving.  All my sketches are analog – pencil to paper.  The number of sketches I do often depends on how well formed the images are in my mind.  Some pages I see clearly.  Others are literally blanks so I will do a lot of loose, sloppy copy, gesture drawing to shake out the image.  

I also employ an old Interior Design tactic: tracing paper.

This allows me to layer elements on a sketch and move things around.  I love this phase.  The story really comes to life with the pictures.  I know the image is right when there is magic on the page and I feel this tremendous sense of gratitude. I am pretty spiritual so if I find myself saying, “YES! Thank you God.” then I know I’ve gotten it right.  I also check for action, reaction, and interaction occurring on the page.

CAROL How do you know when to take an idea all the way to a book?

JENN Once I’ve completed all the sketches and firmed up the manuscript I scan everything into Photoshop and lay in the text.  Hopefully I’ve allotted room for the words in my images and allowed for white space and some quiet pages.  All sketches are then shared with Danielle for her review, comments, edit requests and approval.  She typically shares with me which sketches she’d like to see in color comps for the Picture Book Dummy.  Then I begin the painting phase.  For my current submission we went through about five rounds of color edits before she said we were ready to submit.

Join us next week when Jenn discusses and demonstrates the digital tools she uses to paint these wonderful drawings!