Ask the Author: Denis Rossano
Answered Questions (7)
Denis Rossano
Le mieux c'est par email - mon adresse est drossano@aol.com. Je serais ravi d'échanger avec vous :)
Denis Rossano
My passion for movies met my passion for literature, with my latest novel. It is about the life of the great director from the golden age of Hollywood Douglas Sirk - whom I've been fascinated by since I'm a teenager - and especially about the tragic story surrounding his only son. It's also a story about Germany, and especially Germany under Nazi rule: being half-German myself, this aspect was of great interest to me. I wanted to explore a part of movie history (German cinema in the third Reich) that is not very well-known. That the director of some of the most famous melodramas ever filmed in Hollywood led a life that was even more melodramatic than his movies stunned me, and and moved me tremendously. It's also a story about childhood, about loss, and about not forgetting. Those themes tend to obsess me.
Denis Rossano
I do a lot of research, listen to a lot of music to get into the right mood, watch many, many movies, read as many books as possible... And then I let my imagination (fed by all that I have learned) & my instinct guide me as sentences form in my head - words and images seem to mix in my mind, and inspiration comes... It's a strange, hard do describe, process...
Denis Rossano
I'm correcting a manuscript that I finished years ago, but that I haven't shown to any publisher yet, and I'm brainstorming about my next novel. I haven't decided yet what it'll be, but have some ideas.
Denis Rossano
Never stop writing. Never give up, if you feel it's part of who you are, if it's helping you be yourself, if it's a need. Read a lot: it's the best school to learn how to write (and to find out what you don't want to write). Don't think about what is popular right now and how to write a best-seller: write what is truly coming up from you, deep down, even if you think nobody will be interested. You'll be surprised. Rejections can be hard to face, but don't loose your will to write. Listen to advices, though, and accept constructive reviews of your work, even if they seem painful at first. All writers need at some point to listen to what some trusted readers tell them. But don't let anyone tell you what you should write or that you cannot write.
Denis Rossano
How to answer that? There are so many amazing things about being a writer. It's hard to explain and summarize. Creating characters, or bringing back to life people that may have existed, is an incredible feast. Creating a world, a story, that help you to touch upon fleeting emotions and that allow you to put them on paper: that feels like an especially powerful achievement. The immense satisfaction of seeing on the page the result of hours and hours of hard (but exciting) work is unlike anything else. The inner freedom it gives you, and the strength it builds within you to face whatever demons may haunt you: that is one of the greatest gifts of writing. Literature - when you read or write - can save you.
Denis Rossano
I don't know how to deal with it. It's extremely frustrating. I guess patience (and not giving up, but accepting to wait, pause, and think of the story or the characters in a different way) is paramount. It can be hurtful, but sometimes it's a necessary step to actually access the truth and the emotions that you feel you need to write about.
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