BRIGHTER THAN BRIGHT - INTERVIEW OF LINDA SIMONI-WASTILA

Four years ago, I enrolled in a WOW (WritersOnlineWorkshop) webinar whose goal was to teach aspiring novelists the magic spell that would enable them to write a perfect Query Letter. It lasted a month or two. I was very fortunate for taking that class, not because I learnt how to write the perfect QL - I didn’t and I don’t think any of my fellow students did either - but because I discovered two exceptionally gifted writers - Chrys Buckley and Linda Simoni-Wastila. Living in Geneva, not knowing a single English-speaking person, I desperately needed someone to read my manuscript. Thus, a few months after the course ended and I’d sent the ineffective QL all over the US, I sent Chrys and Linda emails suggesting we help each other with our respective manuscripts. Linda and Chrys were already critiquing each other’s novels. I never managed to persuade Chrys; unfortunately for both of us, I’m sure. Not overly enthused, Linda agreed to send me the fourth chapter of her novel Brighter than Bright (BTB). I studied and painstakingly analyzed her text, but after sweating over Linda’s absolute mastery of the English syntax, I decided to analyze the content. I sent Linda some ‘suggestions’, mild criticism at most. This seemed to please Linda, for she sent me more. I became bolder. After some weeks, she asked me to send her a chapter of my manuscript, The Dark Side of the Soul - Bingo! From then on and for over a year, as Jekyll turned into Hyde, Linda became Xena the Warrior Princess and I, Conan the Barbarian. While Conan slashed and sliced BTB, Xenia ripped TDSOTS apart. We both gave free rein to Xena and Conan in their pitiless dance. Whenever Conan struck too fiercely, Linda retreated and would stop sending me emails - criticism is cruelest when directed at what one cherishes most. And Linda loves Ben and Phoebe as her own children just as I love the characters in my novel. In our work together, Linda and I have branded each other for life; we will remain in each other’s heart forever. That is our story. This is my interview:




Are there any autobiographical elements in BTB?
Certainly there are elements that draw on my life, my experiences. Phoebe is a medical student whose passion is working in clay, also one of my passions. And Ben writes, mostly poetry. My story takes place in Cambridge, MA, a city I know well. But autobiographical? I don’t think so.


Why did you, at 43 years of age, suddenly decide to write your first novel, BTB?
I didn’t decide to write BTB – it decided to use me as a vehicle, a medium. I started writing BTB on January 2, 2006. Believe me, writing a novel – writing anything – was not on my 2006 to-do list. But about a year earlier, I woke and said out loud, “Who’s Benjamin Michael Taylor and why’s he in trouble?” I went straight to my computer, ripped off a paragraph about this character Ben, saved the document, and went to work. I’ve never done that before, write down thoughts like that. Ten months later, I was cleaning out my word files, stumbled across one called BENMICH, opened it, and a story tumbled out. I resisted writing, for some reason it scared me, but I kept thinking about the story, imagining it, then finally committed the first words after the New Year. Four months and 183,000 words later, I had my first draft.


What genre is BTB?
God, how I struggle with this question. In my pitches I call it ‘mainstream with literary leanings’, a story that will appeal to ‘new adults’ (i.e., young adult/adult cross-over).


Describe your main character.
Physically, Ben is 5’ 10’’, lean, has a runner’s physique. Blue-black hair from his Italian ancestry, which he wears long and shaggy. Malachite eyes, intelligent eyes, a mouth that twitches into a smile. Long, sensitive fingers, bitten nails. Impatient, edgy, intense, always moving. He now has a tattoo below his left shoulder blade to cover the scar where the bullet exited – Explore transformation throughout (Rilke). When his lithium goes too high, his hands shake. Mentally, he constantly juggles the right side of his mind with his left. He has streaks of genius, but often lacks the attention span to see the thought through to its end, one reason he needs medication. His thoughts go a mile a minute. He thinks in poetry, dissects logic in nanoseconds. Emotionally, Ben is a guy who feels too much. He tends to the blue side of the bipolar continuum. When stressed, he feels tremendous anxiety and insecurity. More than anything, he wants family, wants love. But when love comes close, he overcompensates and scares his intended away. He often feels alone.


Have you met a person like Ben before writing your novel?
No. But I’ve met pieces of him in others.


If not in “real life”, have you met him in your day-dreams?
Ben and I know each other very well. Truth be told, for me to write my characters, and not just Ben, I have to assume their characters. I have to get ‘into role’ to write them well. So there have been nights where I lay in bed and drift into Ben – in the hospital, confronting his father, worrying about school. The next morning, I feel Ben, and I write the scene. I do this with all my characters. If I don’t or can’t, then they fall flat.


Would you like to meet Ben?
There are times when I wander the city, run my errands, and my heart stops – there, is that Ben? Someone who has some characteristic of him makes me pause, and wonder.


Which circumstances helped you write BTB?
I think my ‘day job’ as an academic has given me a lot of fodder and authority to write BTB. I write about science and mental illness and substance abuse, and these are the things I do and research.


Which personal traits helped you?
I’m not a quitter. I finish what I start.


Which conditions hindered you?
It’s very difficult to strike a balance of work, family, and writing. I make it a practice to get up early every morning before everyone else, and write. If I don’t get that bit in, it’s a crappy day.


Which personal traits hindered you?
I am a perfectionist, so sometimes I’d be paralyzed, unable to make progress. I also am a word hoarder – it’s hard for me to slice and dice in the first and second drafts.

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