Kathryn Occhipinti: The IAN Interview

Kathryn Occhipinti

Dr. Kathryn Occhipinti is a radiologist of Italian-American descent who has been leading Italian language groups in the Peoria and Chicago areas for about 10 years. During that time, she founded Stella Lucente, LLC, a publishing company focused on instructional language books designed to make learning a second language easy and enjoyable for the adult audience.

Using her experiences as a teacher and frequent traveler to Italy, she wrote the Conversational Italian for Travelers series of books, which follow the character Caterina on her travels through Italy, while at the same time introducing the fundamentals of the Italian language.

The Conversational Italian for Travelers series of books includes the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook, along with the reference books “Just the Grammar,” “Just the Verbs” and “Just the Important Phrases.” Audio for the story about Caterina that begins each chapter of the books is available free on the websites www.Learntravelitalian.com and www.Stellalucente.com.

IAN: Please tell us about your latest book.

Kathryn Occhipinti: I teamed up with native French speaker and translator Nada Sneige Fuleihan to create Conversational French for Travelers, “Just the Important Phrases,” which was released in August of 2019. This small, light-weight book was created for the traveler to France, slips easily into a pocket or purse, and contains “all the phrases you need to know to enjoy your trip to France.”

Along with phrases organized under chapters for transportation, making reservations, and meeting people at a gathering, Conversational French for Travelers provides a method for the traveler to create their own phrases to get around France easily and comfortably. The pocket French book is easy-to-read, with some pronunciation help in the first chapter.

And of course, Conversational French for Travelers includes a special section on reading those French menus — organized by how the real menus are laid out in a French restaurant. Also included in this compact, light-weight book are insights into French food!

IAN: Is your books published in print, e-book or both?

Kathryn Occhipinti: All Conversational Italian for Travelers books and the Conversational French for Travelers “Just the Important Phrases” book are available as print books on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. The print books and the right to download these books to 2 electronic devices in PDF format can also be purchased on the websites www.Learntravelitalian.com and www.Stellalucente.com.

IAN: What inspired you to write the books.

Kathryn Occhipinti: Being a physician by trade, people always ask me why I have dedicated so much time and energy to writing books that help others to learn Italian. My fascination with the Italian language started in my childhood. I grew up as a third generation Italian-American in a suburb of New York. Both my parents grew up speaking both Italian and English. But for me, Italian was like a “secret language” spoken by the adults in my family and I really wanted to understand what they were saying!

Although my parents kept the Italian Sunday dinner tradition and celebrated all the holidays as an Italian family would (lasagna for special occasions, even on Thanksgiving with the turkey) they wanted us children to be “American,” and so spoke to me and my sister only in English. They Italian phrases they reserved for my grandparents, aunts and uncles at family get-togethers always seemed to me as a child so much more expressive than English.

Later in life, when I tried to learn Italian myself in earnest, I met other adults who were also trying to learn Italian in the Italian-American Society of Peoria. I realized that an entire generation had been discouraged from speaking Italian at home and now had to find their own way to learn Italian as adults.

With the emphasis Americans today place on “finding one’s roots” and going back to their country of origin, so many adults my age have the need to go back to the language of their family as well. Of course, learning a language is a much more difficult task as an adult than as a child. I wrote my books as an adult who was learning Italian herself, after only rudimentary lessons in school, thinking that if I could share the experience of what I had to go through to learn Italian it would be valuable to others too.

IAN: Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?

Kathryn Occhipinti: I did not write an outline for the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook. I did write the outline for the story of an Italian-American girl who traveled to Italy and I used this as a framework for each chapter. I then set the structure for each chapter, knowing that I would have to cover the vocabulary for the story and the Italian verbs in a certain order. Each chapter starts with a dialogue, then a list of vocabulary needed to understand the dialogue, a cultural note of interest, important colloquial or idiomatic phrases, grammar, verbs, and numbers sections. Each section progresses as the story line progresses, with the dialogues becoming more and more complex.

IAN: How long did it take you to write the books?

Kathryn Occhipinti: I wrote Conversational Italian for Travelers and then modified the book over 4 ½ years. This book is unique as a language textbook in that I wrote the book as I was learning the language myself. Also, as I finished each chapter, I taught from the book informally with a group from the Italian-American Society of Peoria. In this way, I was able to modify the book to fit the needs of the adult audience.

Then, realizing that most adults would be daunted by a 400+ page textbook to teach Italian, I broke up the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook into smaller reference books in order to make the material more accessible to a general audience. The layout and publishing of these additional books took another two years.

IAN: Do you have a specific writing style?

Kathryn Occhipinti: For Conversational Italian for Travelers I tried to adopt a “chatty” and “friendly” writing style. I didn’t want to write a dry textbook. I wanted the reader to take an interest in the material and to feel as if I were in the room with them talking them through any difficulties they might come across trying to learn the language. This is the same way that I write my blogs.

IAN: How is your book different from others in your genre?

Kathryn Occhipinti: My Conversational Italian for Travelers books are truly different from other Italian language books because the focus is on Conversational Italian -- all the Italian you really need to know to feel comfortable in Italy! The books work in conjunction with the website www.Learntravelitalian.com and include my unique travel and culture insights gained from real-life experiences visiting Italy. Also, I developed my materials while teaching, so they are very practical and include material not found in other books.

Most importantly, my books are friendly and combine travel tips and humorous anecdotes that truly make learning the Italian language come alive!

IAN: Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.

Kathryn Occhipinti: I received a great deal of support from all those in the Italian-American Society while writing my books. I truly enjoyed the Sunday afternoon get-togethers we had at my house as we tried to learn Italian together — always with a break for coffee and dessert! The wonderful friends that I’ve made through learning and now teaching the Italian language have made writing the book a truly engaging and rewarding part of my life.

IAN: Do you have to travel much concerning your books?

Kathryn Occhipinti: One of my favorite things about being an author of language books is the opportunity this presents to travel and explore other countries. I have actually used drafts of the pocket phrase books myself in Italy and France prior to publication to ensure that the phrases are helpful and easy to find. I’ve modified the books based on phrases that I’ve found I have personally needed to remember and even reorganized the phrases in each chapter as needed to make the books user-friendly. Also, I have taken most of the photographs for the Italian books myself during my many trips all over Italy, and I love to take street scenes to inspire others to travel.

IAN: Who designed the covers?

Kathryn Occhipinti: The cover of the pocket phrase book has particular meaning for me. I took the cover image of St. Mark’s Square myself from the deck of a water taxi in Venice, on my first return trip to Italy after my divorce, with the intent of finally publishing the book I had been working on for so many years. The font for the cover was originally from the fonts chosen in the book, but has since been modified so the word “Italian” is easier to see.

I designed the covers for my reference books and the textbook as well. For these larger books, I made the photograph of St. Mark’s Square in Venice into a postcard image, which I included in various ways as the focal point for each cover, in order to link the covers of the books together visually. All Conversational Italian for Travelers books are also unified as a set with the color of the Italian flag on the right hand side.

For the French phrase book, I took a photographer along in order to shoot the cover, and we had fun competing for the best shots in Paris and the south of France. Then I put each of our top choices for the cover on social media for a vote during a book give-away. In the end, of course, being the professional, he won the competition and I chose his photo of the Eiffel Tower as the cover for my phrase book.

IAN: What book are you reading now?

Kathryn Occhipinti: Right now, I am continuing to read the series of novels by Gianrico Carofiglio a novelist and former antiMafia judge in the city of Bari, Italy. I admire his straight-forward writing style and his engaging and true-to-life stories of Italian life. I also find that his books spark my own realizations about the Italian language that often become topics for my blogs. I would also like to mention (as I always do when someone asks me what I do to learn Italian myself) the Detective Montalbano series by the world-renown author of Sicily, Andrea Camilleri. Although I most often watch the series on T.V. rather than read the novels, which are written in mixed Italian and Sicilian dialect, this series has truly helped me to learn and remember the “important phrases” spoken by Italians today.

IAN: Tell us about your next book or a work in progress.

Kathryn Occhipinti: Over the last four years, I have been an avid blogger about the Italian subjunctive mood, which I feel is the key to becoming fluid in the Italian language. This series of blogs will be compiled in a handbook that will take the mystery out of how to use the subjunctive mood. Written in my clear, conversational style and laid out for visual learners, this book should be useful for both adult self-study and as a supplement to formal Italian language courses. Look for this book in late 2020 or 2021.

I have written two Audio Dialogue Practice books for the Conversational Italian for Travelers series, which are already available on my websites, 

www.Learntravelitalian.com and www.Stellalucente.com. The Audio Dialogue books consist of phrases that build from short to more complex sentences and put verb conjugation to work in useful, everyday phrases. The vocabulary in each chapter of the Audio Dialogue books corresponds to each chapter of the textbook. The Audio Dialogue books can be used by teachers in a classroom situation, where the teacher pronounces phrases and the students listen and repeat. The phrases for Volume 1 of the Audio books have been recorded by native Italian speakers and should be made available as a jump drive or downloadable content for students to listen to and practice with sometime in 2020.

The “Just the Important Phrases” pocket travel book will be continued with translations planned next for Portuguese and Spanish.

Glenn Stevens: The IAN Interview

Glenn Stevens

I grew up in Chicago glued to my TV watching Dark Shadows every summer afternoon. The vampire character known as Barnabas Collins is credited with first igniting my interest and passion for vampires and vampire stories. Later, the more romantic and erotic vampire stories like Dracula and the many films by Hammer set that passion ablaze.

I enjoy writing about vampires that are unusual creatures with unusual tastes trying to find love in a hostile world. It’s a slightly different take on a familiar tale. A take where I try to bring the undead to life and make the unbelievable – believable. 

I’m married to a wonderful woman for over 30 years who BTW has no interest in vampires.

IAN: Please tell us about your latest book.

Glenn Stevens: My latest book is titled Blood Relations – A New World. At its

core, it’s a story about survival, love, and lifetime friendships. The main character, Eros, is forced to flee his home planet to save his and his family’s lives from an alien invader known as the Scorpious, the true vampires of the universe. These beasts chase Eros across the galaxy to his new home and shoot him down causing his ship to crash into the earth. Eros manages to get off one last shot before crashing that causes the alien ship to crash as well. The crash costs Eros everything including his family and memory. This final event sets him up on a new journey of survival and discoveries.

The story follows Eros as he discovers himself and his strange appetite for certain types of blood. Over the course of book one, Eros becomes a sad multi-billionaire by building a mega resort that doubles as the largest blood donor site in the world. He creates a kind of Miracle Blood that heals all illnesses and extends lives. He’s sad because while he lives forever, all his friends and loved ones can’t. He sets out to discover the secrets of human life with the goal to extend their lives forever.

IAN: Is Blood Relations – A New World published in print, e-book or both?

Glenn Stevens: Available in print and eBook formats and soon audiobook.

eBook and Print at Amazon.com

Print at Barnes&Noble.com

Currently working with a narrator to offer an audiobook at Amazon.

IAN: What inspired you to write Blood Relations – A New World?

Glenn Stevens: A drive to portray vampires more humane and realistic. Showing a vampire bite scene with a deeper love and passion on both sides. I wanted to immerse readers into an incredibly wonderful world where they can escape, where anything is possible, where happiness rules and for good reason. Thanks to Blood Relations, such a world exists. The book has been known to increase even the reader’s own levels of Oxytocin – the hormone Eros is most after. So, keep a light on while reading!

IAN: Did you use an outline, or do you just wing the first draft?

Glenn Stevens: I winged it and discovered the story just like my readers.

IAN: How long did it take to write Blood Relations – A New World?

Glenn Stevens: 15 years. During the process two and a half books were written.

IAN: What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?

Glenn Stevens: First, a greater appreciation of life, of love and of friendships. The main hope is for readers to walk away with a smile, a little extra happiness in their hearts and a place they can come visit when they are feeling down. Blood Relations is part paranormal romance, part science fiction and part fantasy.

IAN: How much of the Blood Relations – A New World is realistic?

Glenn Stevens: A lot. Real vampires exist in the insect world so why not exist in other worlds? Look to spiders, ticks and mosquitoes for such examples. Mind control happens with parasites. People who die and come back talk about seeing the white light and tunnel and past loved ones. Even where the story goes into healing illnesses, such experiments are happening in labs across the world where scientists use viruses to change and repair DNA. My vampire aims for the jugular in his victim’s neck so life-saving venom can reach their heart first but before he can bite, he needs that jugular hard, so it doesn’t collapse. Hence why he gets his victims to lower their heads upside down off a table, couch or bed, to increase the pressure on that vein. It’s like what they do when donating blood. We don’t know if life exists out among the stars, but we can dream and speculate what that life might be. The possibilities are endless. If there can be a Darth Vader, there certainly can be a vampire like Eros.

IAN: How is your Blood Relations – A New World different from others in your genre?

Glenn Stevens: I tried to keep it fun and not gory. Some areas the story brings readers into sexy, passionate necking scenes where a bite is about to happen far deeper than most other stories and for good reason. I tried to make every scene and chapter worth a reader’s time and keep it as realistic as possible. There are vampire stories and then there are vampire stories! I also infused knowledge and humor into the story so readers walk away appreciating new things they might not have known before and hopefully feeling better.

IAN: Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members

Glenn Stevens: The Fan Story writer’s group with its large membership helped turn me into a better writer through peer reviewed edits, suggestions, feedback, encouragement and friendships. If not for the support of Fan Story I don’t know where I’d be. Fan Story also encouraged me to read more, review more and edit fellow writers and serve on select review panels.

IAN: Do you see writing as a career?

Glenn Stevens: If Eros could grant me just one wish, this would be it. Writing sequels and new vampire stories is a dream job for me. I applaud those who have succeeded to make writing their career and hope to join them, but I also know such a career is hard to get into. I sure will keep trying though! I need to sell more books first and that means write books people want to read and listen to on audiobooks.

IAN: What was the hardest part of writing Blood Relations – A New World?

Glenn Stevens: Writing “The End”. My characters don’t die or ride off into the sunset. They continue to live every day with every day in paradise being another adventure!

IAN: Do you have any advice for other writers?

Glenn Stevens: Yes, and I’m sure they have all heard it before - that is to keep writing and reading! Stay positive! Don’t be too critical of yourself and remember everyone is different, everyone has something different to write about and not everyone sees the same things you see. Be persistent and you’ll never let yourself down. Most of all, good luck!

IAN: Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Glenn Stevens: If you like vampire stories, please look at some of mine. Most are short and available in all formats including audiobook.  A lot of my early reviewers said they didn’t like vampire stories but loved my take on them. My vampire stories also make the perfect Halloween treat! Thank you for your interest.

IAN: Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand-alone?

Glenn Stevens: I’m writing a sequel to Blood Relations. The first book brings Eros from his former home to earth and it’s why the book is subtitled “The New World”. The sequel takes readers deeper into the story explaining more of Eros’s past, forcing Eros to confront repressed fears of the Scorpious, developing his new love interests with Lori, bringing back the Scorpious and defending earth from them, introducing a ghost and an incredible surprising ending that leads to another sequel among other things.

Sonja Mongar: The IAN Interview

Sonja Mongar

Sonja Mongar teaches creative non-fiction, journalism and professional writing part-time in the Western Connecticut State Low Residency MFA program. She is a journalist, photographer, indie songwriter and blues harmonica player. Former incarnations include retired tenured professor of English from the University of Puerto Rico. She currently divides her time between the Pacific Northwest and South Florida. Her first novel, Two Spoons of Bitter, was published under her indie imprint – Paradise Alley Publishing in Spokane, WA on her mothers 81^ST birthday, June 3, 2018.

IAN: Please tell us about your latest book.

Sonja Mongar: Where do you run to escape your past?

Art therapist Ella Donovan says good-bye for good to the alcoholic grandmother who raised her and the cold, Podunk Minnesota town she grew up in. She arrives in a charming, antebellum city of colorful bridges and gleaming
beaches for a dream job working with teen addicts. But not all is as it seems in a place where the Confederate flag still flies over the downtown courthouse. Nearly unhinged by a boss who wants her to fail, Southern gentleman who aren’t so gentlemanly and a corrupt social service system complicated by an escalating AIDS crisis, Ella struggles to find her footing. Just when she thinks she’s mastered it all, family secrets threaten to uproot the very foundation of her identity. Two Spoons of Bitter explores the legacy of generations of betrayal and unfinished business. Ella must excavate her deepest wounds in order to redeem the past and heal her own life.

IAN: Is Two Spoons of Bitter published in print, e-book or both?

Sonja Mongar: Both

IAN: Where can we go to buy Two Spoons of Bitter?

Sonjamongar.com  Kobo.com  Indiebound.org  

Amazon.com  BarnesandNoble.com

IAN: What inspired you to write Two Spoons of Bitter?

Sonja Mongar: A diary I kept when I managed services for People Living With AIDS who were also recovering addicts inspired two Spoons of Bitter. I worked at a government rehab at the height of the 90s AIDS crisis in a small, coastal Southern city – the “buckle” of the Bible belt. I came into it a bit naïve – idealistic and was soon shocked by the level of agency corruption steeped in homophobia and antebellum-style racism among other abuses. My team and I confronted it publically but this was long before the current level of social consciousness and outrage. Things became very difficult for us. In solidarity, we resigned. I was also a freelance journalist at the time writing about music and the arts and really wanted to write something big exposing the corruption as well as the horrors of AIDS and its tragic human stories - to give the victims a voice.

Of course this manuscript has had many incarnations. Though it retains aspects of its roots - it’s a completely different story.

IAN: What is the process you went through to write and publish?

Sonja Mongar: I used the rough diary manuscript, entitled Myths From the Underbelly, as a portfolio to enroll in a grad program in creative non-fiction to polish my writing skills. But the program directed me more towards writing autobiographical stories. After I earned my MA, still feeling like I hadn’t yet found myself as a writer, I enrolled in an MFA program and finally worked through a creative non-fiction version of the original story entitled, It Works Like That. But it was a “hard story” and writing programs at the time were not dealing well with trauma on the page. The common consensus was to turn hard stories into fiction. But I wasn’t a fiction writer and I felt like fictionalizing it was a betrayal to the real people and events. After I graduated, I turned to a tenured position teaching creative writing and composition at the University of Puerto Rico. But it was all I could do to keep my head above water with the pressures of academia. It Works Like That sat in a box under siege by tropical termites and mold for more than a decade.  

I took early retirement after thirteen years because of an illness and moved to Spokane, WA. For the next four years, I tapped away at the story on my computer - sometimes doing nothing for months – sometimes going without sleep and writing non-stop for days. I was also coping with a debilitating autoimmune disorder, along with the loss of my job, which included a loss of status, income and stability. Julia Cameron, who suffered all her life with a bipolar disorder kept me sane with The Artist’s Way. “Morning pages” cleared the emotional fog and the “artist’s date,” which was mostly many long walks under gray skies along the Spokane River gorge kept blood flowing to the brain.

When I finished the book, I sent it out to a few agents who, in turn, didn’t even have the courtesy to send me a rejection letter. Publishing had become so much more inaccessible than I had remembered. Did I really want to spend several years in this dance? Did I want this story published or not? Having facilitated dozens of indie publishing projects including an arts and literary magazine; having worked as an indie musician as well as an arts-music-poetry producer over two decades, I knew I could do it myself. Twenty-three years after I first penned my diary – I found a local designer and printer (because I wanted to keep the dollars in my community) and published my novel. Holding my book in my hand for the first time was what I imagined it must feel like to be pregnant and not know until suddenly presented with a squalling baby.

IAN: What were the challenges? Writing Real Life as Fiction…

Sonja Mongar: IMAGINATION: Though my field, Creative Non-fiction, incorporates fiction craft, fiction felt dangerous without the facts to guide it. I rode some harrowing emotional rollercoasters - stared into the abyss each time the story took unexpected twists and turns and stubborn characters grew minds of their own.

CHARACTERIZATION & DIALOGUE: This was especially true with two very unlikeable minor characters, which weren’t even in the original story. Ty Riley - a racist, womanizing, ex-football player and Arlin McKnight – a destructive, black Vietnam veteran crack addict. Arlin actually has the most profound transformation and even becomes heroic in his own way. Interestingly, readers mention Ty as a sequel. Perhaps signs of the times? They seem to want some sort of resolution to his toxic masculinity.

Ella’s wise-cracking – truth Tourette’s colleague, Jo Gaetano, was by far my favorite character to write but maintaining her character consistently all the way through the book required a lot of attention to every act and everything that came out of her mouth. This was true of all the characters, further complicated by the three distinct English dialects: Midwest, Southern white and Southern black; as well as Spanish and Italian language and lots of 90s and Southern slang and idioms. Admittedly, the first drafts were overwritten. It was an insightful colleague who luckily became my mentor, who helped me see that merely reminding the reader every so often of Midwest colloquialisms in dialogue for instance - was enough.

I think Ella was all about the “what ifs.” What if you were faced with all those overwhelming events and actually learned from them and changed and grew and figured out your own heart and how to live your life consciously when you were 21 instead of 51? Ella is a lot smarter than I was at her age. A nod to the younger generation coming up behind us. They have so much more wisdom and so many more tools and resources. They have names for the shame - the things our mothers and grandmothers kept secret when we were their age.

TRUTH: Being a journalist, I believe truth comes from facts. But so much time had passed. My original diary was cryptic at best. All the people I knew had moved on. One of the things I learned when studying, teaching and writing Creative Non-fiction is that even in non-fiction and to some extent in journalism - truth is a construct. For instance, when I wrote my Creative Non-fiction thesis – about growing up with my mother, four siblings, and a violent, mentally ill father - family members accused me of making things up. Indeed, five children growing up in the same home had five different memories of the same events; five different points of view. Memory is predictably unreliable. It exists in our minds like dreams – more symbolic than factual. All dialogue is a lie, for instance. The heart of a story – the truth of a story – the meaning of a story - according to writer, Patricia Hampl, is not what we remember but why we remember it that way. 

PROTAGONIST: Another challenge was letting go of “Sonja” as the protagonist. I was literally in the way with all my baggage – biases – agendas –needs - desires. I failed terribly at being unflinchingly honest under the scrutiny of the pen. First rule of any character – no one is all-good – no one is all-bad. I shifted from first-person to third-person limited point of view. I also changed the protagonist’s name to Ella (because of its many ambiguous meanings,) and made her an idealistic, naïve, twenty-one year old woman who has to overcome her past.

GENRE: I did not want to write genre fiction and especially not romance or young/new adult. But with such a young protagonist, it was a battle especially when I introduced Ty Riley into her life. I wrote adult literary contemporary fiction with strong socio-political themes. I really had to work to not let them slide into romantic mundanity. The story moves slower that genre fiction – takes time to develop. There was moment I worried that readers had changed so much they wouldn’t bother to stick with it. But I was wrong.

SEX SCENES: I didn’t want sex scenes to read as gratuitous. Of the two sex scenes - one borders on violence but I didn’t want to distract from the story. Ella focuses on exterior things – the crackle of the car radio playing a country western song, the tick of the clock, the headlights passing outside forming shadowy images on the headliner.

POINT OF VIEW: The whole prologue is written in second person “you” to heighten the emotional impact. Other key moments as well. The challenge was to be effectively consistent as well as identify parallel moments in the plot where it worked.

COPYRIGHTS: Use of music lyrics are limited by copyright laws. I had the designer find compatible musical note fonts and placed them with a few key words from a lyric – not enough to be construed as violating the law but enough to give the sound and sense of the song and music.

LEGAL ISSUES: I studied the laws regarding defamation and invasion of privacy, etc. Just changing someone’s name was not enough. I was also worried about offending people I once knew who might recognize parts of the story, which made me push the story harder.

FIELD RESEARCH: Just before I put the finishing touches to the novel, I drove down to Rosalia, WA – a little railroad town I had once lived in back when it was a busy railroad hub. It was a cold windy day and the street was deserted – the only sound was the snapping of the American flag on the flagpole. I shot photographs – and made notes and went home and rewrote the chapter of Ella’s return to LaRouge, MN and her dying grandmother. I had also taken a “field research” trip on the train from Spokane to Chicago a couple years earlier. It passes right along the Upper Mississippi River and past a string of Podunk railroad towns, which inspired La Rouge. I took photographs then too but was especially interested in catching snippets of Midwest dialect and sensibility. I call this method writing and teach this in my courses. Like method acting it’s a way to get into the character and the moment by putting myself there physically.

WWW RESEARCH: Culture, dialect, languages, food, music, regional idioms, and geography among others. It did help that I had lived in the South almost twenty years and I was a native Midwesterner from Montana.

LOGISTICAL: At about 100 pages, MS Word was a nightmare. I switched to Scrivener, which allowed me to build the story a scene at a time and move easily through the manuscript. I could also add all my photos, Internet links and field notes for easy reference.

IAN: How did you come up with the title?

Sonja Mongar: The story had three titles. The first, Myths from the Underbelly, was inspired by Eric Begosian’s Notes from the Underground – a diary structured fictional tale of an urban introvert with first world problems of his own making –which I was reading at the time. Juxtaposed to what I was seeing everyday – vulnerable people being treated cruelly by caregivers and others dying horrible deaths from AIDS posed too much of a paradox. This was real life - the real life that happens in the shadows, well hidden from self-absorbed society. Later, I learned Begosian was troping Dostoevsky’s novel of the same title.

It Works Like That was the second title – a nod to RUN D.M.C.’s song – It’s Like That. It’s sort of a fatalistic theme reflected in the fatalism connected to addiction.

Two Spoons of Bitter evolved from some of my own family backstory, which I drew upon to create Ella and her family. It got me thinking about how destructive paradigms are passed from generation to generation. We live by these invisible rules and never question them. Like when my grandpa used to say – “two teaspoons of bitter for every tea spoon of sweet.” He had a hard life so he came to expect to lose every good thing – to be always tainted by the bitter – a fatalistic point of view that played out in much of my family – don’t try too hard – don’t want too much - don’t think too much of yourself. I thought it would be a good title because Ella will not survive unless she names and rejects this family legacy of failure.

IAN: How much of Two Spoons of Bitter is realistic?

Sonja Mongar: Two Spoons of Bitter is a work of fiction. It draws on my own fragments of memory and imagination and talent for invention. Fiction  - but  - completely realistic.

Blanchard is a made-up antebellum coastal city where the confederate flag still flies over the courthouse and La Rouge is a made-up dying railroad town in Minnesota – but I’ve lived in both of them. The Majestic really existed – back in the 40s in a little Podunk railroad town called Three Forks, Montana where my mother grew up. Grand Ma – Ella’s grandmother is sort of a composite of my grandmothers – two of whom were waitresses. It really intrigued me that my third great grandmother, who was also a Methodist abolitionist and suffragette before the Civil War signed her letters “Grand Ma.” I found that intriguing. Grandmothers hold the world together by sheer will and the sinew of their bones – they are also the keepers of the secrets, which is why I dedicated the book: “for our grandmothers.”

IAN: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Sonja Mongar: James Michener. I read all his books when I was a housewife/mother – while I folded towels and changed diapers. This was long before I ever went back to school and I imagined myself a writer. He mesmerized me by the level of detail in his settings, the history, the geography, the cultural details. I was a diligent researcher too. I wanted to give it the best level of realism possible.

IAN: Do you see writing as a career?

Sonja Mongar: No. Maybe once I thought it could be but there was a lot of selling my soul involved and very little money. Writing is my art. My passion. Something carefully sketched, painted, sculpted, shaped and rendered – taking as much time as needed to create the masterpiece. I’ve always said – especially when I teach the creative process – the art is in the making - it’s about the process not the product. I actually get annoyed when I see entities advertising some shake and bake version of writing and publishing. Or pushing directives to write for your audience, or just to please publishers or agents. Fortunately, the indie publishing industry is shaking all that up. That’s why I coined the phrase for my publishing company – Indie publishing IS resistance!

IAN: Who designed the cover?

Sonja Mongar: I gave two friends who were illustrators - copies of the book to read. I was interested in their experience of the story and how they might translate it into an image. It didn’t work out. 

I cut up some magazines and made some montages as well as tried to buy some images online and do some digital mock ups. Failures. Finally, I scrolled through my thousands of photographs and found one of the Williston, ND train yard. I was laid over there on the Amtrak because of flooding. I had originally shot the photo out of the rain-spattered window. I turned it sepia. With Preview (Apple) I added text in a typewriter font and took it to my book designer. He set it up. I gave him another one of my photographs of a palm tree and he blended it into the design for the back creating a subtle sense of the two worlds Ella lives between.

The wonderful thing about working with a designer and printer in my community – I was total in control of the entire layout and design. His first draft – almost 95,000 words – was barely two hundred pages long, which was so crowded it gave me a headache to look at. Of course, the first concern a printer has is paper. But saving print costs was destroying rhythm, the beats of the story. It’s as much about the words as it is about the pauses. The spaces. The silences. After changing the template to a more spacey layout  – the book ended up a pleasing, readable 350 pages which increased the cost of the book about one dollar.

IAN: Do you have any advice for other writers?

Sonja Mongar: Advice is a guide – not absolute. Trust yourself.

IAN: Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Sonja Mongar: Two Spoons of Bitter has something for everyone because it’s about what we mean to each other without all the barriers and social constructs. It’s about the resiliency of the human spirit. Where do you find hope and redemption and healing? It’s always right here within us, bound in the great capacities of the human heart. The true key to survival of humankind in these difficult times will ultimately be about love and compassion above all.

IAN: Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand-alone?

Sonja Mongar: Riders of the Dust (working title) is a stand-alone novel – a 1920s Montana Western featuring a female protagonist.

Effie Kammenou: The IAN Interview

Effie Kammenou

Effie Kammenou is a believer that it is never too late to chase your dreams, follow your heart or change your career. She is proof of that. At one time, long ago, she'd thought that, by her age, she would have had an Oscar in her hand after a successful career as an actor. Instead, she worked in the optical field for 40 years and is the proud mother of two accomplished young women.

Her debut novel, Evanthia’s Gift, is a women’s fiction multigenerational love story and family saga, influenced by her Greek heritage, and the many real-life accounts that have been passed down. She continues to pick her father’s brain for stories of his family’s life in Lesvos, Greece, and their journey to America. Her interview with him was published in a nationally circulated magazine.

Evanthia’s Gift: Book One in The Gift Saga was a 2016 award finalist in the Readers Favorite Awards in the Women’s Fiction category.  Waiting for Aegina is Book Two in The Gift Saga and Chasing Petalouthes is Kammenou’s latest release, completing the series.

Effie Kammenou is a first generation Greek-American who lives on Long Island with her husband and two daughters. When she’s not writing, or posting recipes on her food blog, cheffieskitchen.wordpress.com, you can find her entertaining family and friends or traveling for ‘research.’

As an avid cook and baker, a skill she learned from watching her Athenian mother, she incorporated traditional Greek family recipes throughout the books.

IAN: Please tell us about your latest book.

Effie Kammenou: Chasing Petalouthes is the conclusion of The Gift Saga Trilogy,

a generational family saga and contemporary romance. This last book focuses on the current youth of today in this Greek-American family. As with the other two books, the story flashes back in time to the youthful days of the older generation, going back as far as the 1920s in Kefalonia, Greece. Although this book can be read as a standalone, I recommend reading the first two books for a richer experience.

IAN: Is Chasing Petalouthes published in print, e-book or both?

Effie Kammenou: Chasing Petalouthes is available in print, Kindle and on Audible. The entire trilogy is available in all of these formats.

IAN: Where can we purchase a copy of Chasing Petalouthes?

Amazon.com/Print  Amazon.com/Kindle   Audible.com  BarnesandNoble.com  iTunes.apple.com

IAN: What inspired you to write Chasing Petalouthes?

Effie Kammenou: Chasing Petalouthes is the last book in The Gift Saga. Each book in the trilogy deals with a different generation of a Greek American family and their closest friends. The current generation is the focus here, inspired by my own children, their friends and the world in which they live. Each generation has learned from their elders and even from some ancestors they’ve only heard about through family history. The same holds true here, as this book binds all the generations together, showcasing how each life affects the other.

IAN: How long did it take to write Chasing Petalouthes?

Effie Kammenou: Each book takes me a different amount of time to complete. One of the biggest factors is how much research needs to go into the story. Evanthia’s Gift took me almost three years to write. It’s not only the longest of the three books but it also required the most research. Chasing Petalouthes took about a year and a half.

IAN: How do you come up with the titles?

Effie Kammenou: I find titles to be the most challenging part of writing a book. Chasing Petalouthes came to me quickly and I never questioned it. Petalouthes means butterflies in Greek. Essentially, the book is titled, Chasing Butterflies. There are many books with this title. There is no other carrying the name Chasing Petalouthes. It fits the story perfectly as the two main characters discover who they are as they approach adulthood.

IAN: What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?

Effie Kammenou: Since Chasing Petalouthes is part of a three-book saga, I want readers to take more from it than just a simple love story. It’s so much more than that. This book is a tribute to love in all its forms—love of family, culture, friendship and humanity. And of course, romantic love. Readers not acquainted with Greek culture and traditions will become fully immersed in it. Readers with Greek heritage will enjoy the familiarity. I also want younger readers to recognize the importance of the past, family history, and the lessons that can be learned from elder relatives.

IAN: How much of the book is realistic?

Effie Kammenou: As much as I love to read a feel-good romance that is pure fantasy, I wanted this book to be real and relatable. There are many ups and downs in this book, difficult situations and happy resolutions. The first book was inspired by my mother and other relatives, as well as my own personal experience. The emotions are real, though the details, circumstances and situations are different from the real-life events.

IAN: What book are you reading now?

Effie Kammenou: I just Finished The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis. As a New Yorker, I appreciated the peek into the history of Grand Central Station. It was a beautiful story told from the perspectives of two women—one living in present day and the other in the 1920s.

IAN: Are there any new authors that have caught your interest?

Effie Kammenou: I just mentioned Fiona Davis. She was new to me and I plan to read more books by this author. Chanel Cleeton is another author I will read religiously. Her book Last Year in Havana was one of my favorites reads of the year.

IAN: Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.

Effie Kammenou: The writing community has been generous and welcoming to me. When I finished writing my first book, I had no idea what to do next. I received helpful advice and aid whenever I needed it. I soaked up everything more seasoned authors were willing to share with me. In turn, I do the same for less experienced authors trying their hand at publishing and marketing.

IAN: Do you see writing as a career?

Effie Kammenou: That is the goal! I was a theatre major in college. It was always my dream to act professionally. I got married, had children and needed a real job with a steady salary. I worked in the optical industry for forty years. Once my children were grown, I wanted to, once again, fuel my creative energy. I did this through writing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m now in a position to make a career of it, whether or not it earns me a decent salary.

IAN: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

Effie Kammenou: I’ve thought about this a lot. There is one chapter I wish I had written. A chapter from the perspective of one of the male main characters, RJ. There are two love stories in this book and I give Zak, the other male love interest, a chance at his own chapter. I wish I had done the same for RJ.

IAN: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

Effie Kammenou: If we’re speaking of contemporary writers then I would have to say Sylvain Reynard. He is not only a master wordsmith, but he has great knowledge of literature, art, history, music and religion. He brings all of this into his work along with deep messages, while bringing the most sensual and romantic characters to life.

IAN: Do you have to travel much concerning your books?

Effie Kammenou: All three books take place in New York and several different locations in Greece. This last book, Chasing Petalouthes, also has a section of the story set in Paris and Champagne, France. Being of Greek heritage, I’m familiar with Greece, its culture and people. But I had to visit and see it with different eyes to write about it. I did a tremendous amount of research on the Champagne region and the process of champagne making. But in order to really write authentically about this corner of the world and its industry, I had to see it all for myself, speak to vintners and immerse myself in the culture.

IAN: Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand-alone?

Effie Kammenou: Currently, I am working on the first book in a new series, which will also revolve around a Greek American family. The dynamics of this family will be quite different than that of the families in The Gift Saga Trilogy.

In addition, I’m contributing a short story to an anthology titled, Paperback Writer. The proceeds of which will go to the World Literacy Foundation.