Ask the Author: Claudio Silvano
Answered Questions (9)
Claudio Silvano
I would go to the Land, track down Thomas Covenant, and tell him to accept the dream as real. After all, it was infinitely better than the 'reality' he had left behind.
Claudio Silvano
“It’s all right, my love,” she said, as she slid the blade between my ribs.
Her tender smile was for the knife, not for me.
Her tender smile was for the knife, not for me.
Claudio Silvano
I'm revisiting Robin Hobb's Farseer series. Hobb is one of my all-time favourite fantasy authors.
I've also been reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.
A good dose of meta-fiction, like the good doctor ordered.
I've also been reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.
A good dose of meta-fiction, like the good doctor ordered.
Claudio Silvano
My most recent completed work is Home of the Wind, an autobiographical novella subtitled Diary of an Outcast — about my decade of exile in Italy during the 1960s. It began as an attempt to understand a formative period of displacement and became something more personal than I expected.
Before that came The Tree at World's End, a fantasy anthology gathering stories that had been living in my drawer for years.
My current work is A Hundred Days in Surmur — a novel of grief and creation, finally approaching completion after several years in the making.
My next novel, A Hundred Days in Surmur, came from a different kind of question: what happens to a writer who escapes into his own unfinished world — and cannot find his way back? Grief was the door. Creation was the trap. Alder walked in and the world refused to let him go.
Before that came The Tree at World's End, a fantasy anthology gathering stories that had been living in my drawer for years.
My current work is A Hundred Days in Surmur — a novel of grief and creation, finally approaching completion after several years in the making.
My next novel, A Hundred Days in Surmur, came from a different kind of question: what happens to a writer who escapes into his own unfinished world — and cannot find his way back? Grief was the door. Creation was the trap. Alder walked in and the world refused to let him go.
Claudio Silvano
Being in the zone.
When the muse or inspiration or whatever-you-want-to-call-it comes, the rush of energy and excitement is a quickening the likes of which I have not experienced, not even in my younger drug-partaking days.
And it is perfectly natural - free of side-effects or paranoia.
When the muse or inspiration or whatever-you-want-to-call-it comes, the rush of energy and excitement is a quickening the likes of which I have not experienced, not even in my younger drug-partaking days.
And it is perfectly natural - free of side-effects or paranoia.
Claudio Silvano
My focus for the last several years has been on a work of literary fantasy. "A Hundred Days in Surmur" is finally approaching completion. As soon as the current draft is complete I will be sending out to a select group of beta-readers. After that I'll be looking for an agent - time to try something other than self-publishing.
Claudio Silvano
All you need do to become a writer is write, as regularly as you can. And read. Reading is where you discover what you do and don't like. Both will serve you.
Write every day. Don't wait for inspiration to write. When inspiration does come, be at your desk/laptop/journal ready to pounce on her before she gets away.
Be careful who you show your work to - family and friends love you, but are usually not qualified to give you helpful feedback.
Learn quickly that your first draft is going to need revision - sometimes lots of it. Be prepared to do the work.
Also write what makes your heart quicken. You are the first person you must please.
Godspeed.
Write every day. Don't wait for inspiration to write. When inspiration does come, be at your desk/laptop/journal ready to pounce on her before she gets away.
Be careful who you show your work to - family and friends love you, but are usually not qualified to give you helpful feedback.
Learn quickly that your first draft is going to need revision - sometimes lots of it. Be prepared to do the work.
Also write what makes your heart quicken. You are the first person you must please.
Godspeed.
Claudio Silvano
I don't wait for it. Whether I feel inspired or not, my job is to sit in front of the computer and write. Even if I'm writing garbage. At some point inspiration will come simply because I'm there, on the job, doing it.
I also use music. I have a huge playlist of writing music that covers pretty much every mood in the spectrum. My current favourite is Loscil. Extraordinary musician. You can listen to him on YouTube.
I also use music. I have a huge playlist of writing music that covers pretty much every mood in the spectrum. My current favourite is Loscil. Extraordinary musician. You can listen to him on YouTube.
Claudio Silvano
I don't worry about it. If I can't move forward with a piece of writing I'm happy to let it go fallow for a time, and focus on something else.
I'm not sure that writer's block is even a thing. When I'm feeling blocked it's usually because I'm either trying to fit a round peg in a square hole or because I'm attached to a piece of writing and am resisting the need to cull it. In either case the solution is self-evident.
I'm not sure that writer's block is even a thing. When I'm feeling blocked it's usually because I'm either trying to fit a round peg in a square hole or because I'm attached to a piece of writing and am resisting the need to cull it. In either case the solution is self-evident.
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