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Lisa Costantino
Lisa Costantino’s novel Maiden’s Veil, winner of the Chanticleer Reviews’ Best Indie Historical Fiction for 2012 award is today’s interview guest. Her book, which receives constantly rave reviews, is not only available in digital form, but also in print.
Lisa, thanks for this interview and congratulations for your award! How would you describe your book to someone who has not yet read it?
The alternating timelines of Maiden’s Veil entwine the lives of two women coping with love and risk. In 1733, tapestry weaver Clarinda Asher was the last Maiden to perform the Veil before the ancient fertility ritual was banished, and she along with it, for the ensuing cataclysm that nearly destroyed her remote English village. When present-day weaver Jess Barlow unearths evidence of the ritual during the village’s May Day celebrations, she and Owen Calder reenact the rite, resurrecting the ritual’s power. Although she too is banished and Owen ostracized, Jess is determined not to suffer the same fate as Clarinda.
Is there a message in your book that you want your readers to grasp?
If there’s any message, it’s about forgiveness. Each of the four main characters — Clarinda, Benjamin, Owen, and Jess — is tormented by the blame they have placed on themselves for disastrous events both within and outside of their control. Whether they find forgiveness determines their future.
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Chanticlee Book Reviews
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What inspired you to start writing?
I spent many months during my childhood bedridden from a number of surgeries. When you’re stuck in bed, you read. If you read enough, you want to write.
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How did you get the idea for the novel?
Originally I planned to write a guidebook to Europe’s oldest continuing celebrations and traditions. Finances put that project on hold, but I was inspired to create a fictional story around the events I did attend, ones believed to have pre-Christian origins. So I created Maidenvale’s May Day celebrations out of a conflation of these festivities, and the Maiden’s Veil from historical and anthropological sources.
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Does your book have any underlying theme, message, or moral?
If the reader has read Arthurian literature, she or he may recognize an underlying framework based on the Lady of Shalott: the lady Elaine, who is cursed to remain in her tower and weave in isolation for the crime of falling in love with Lancelot.
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Novel Maiden’s Veil
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Who is your favorite character and why?
My favorite character is the most problematic one: Owen, the male lead in the contemporary story line. He’s in love with one woman while unhappily married to another, and it’s tearing him up. To me he epitomizes the emotional struggle between duty and heart. He genuinely wants to do the right thing, but he’s also desperate for some happiness. I feel for the guy.
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Are your plots based on your real-life experiences?
Only to the extent that most writers use moments from their own lives to add authenticity to their stories; in this case, details about England’s May Day festivities gleaned from my own observations and from conversations in the local pubs.
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Give us an excerpted quote from your favorite review of this book:
“…like her main female characters, both of whom are artists of the loom, Ms. Costantino has done some expert weaving here herself. The two stories ultimately support and reinforce one another, and all the threads come together in an ending that I found very poignant yet satisfying. With lush evocative descriptions, rich textures, great character development, and some surprising twists and turns, the overall result is a piece of art rather like one of her character’s fine tapestries.”
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What would/could a reader or reviewer say about this book that shows they “get” you as an author? Another of my favorite reviews got it: “The author weaves stories that are full of tension that resist standard story lines. Rather than common characters and situations, she introduces real-life dilemmas that seem true and honest.” This was especially welcome insight after another reader had bemoaned the lack of heroes. Heroes are for romance. I don’t write romance.
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Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you have learned as a writer from then to now?
Always keep going. Don’t let any sticking points render you stuck. Put unresolved issues in the back of your mind and work on what you know. Resolutions to most of my issues arose during long walks with my dog Lucy.
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Considering a book from the first word you write to the moment you see it on a bookstore shelf, what’s your favorite part of the process? What’s your least favorite?
My favorite part is when the story is solid and I can take my time massaging the language until it flows seamlessly. Least favorite? Marketing, I’m afraid to say. I’m a very private person, not at all comfortable with blowing my own horn in the Twittersphere. But you do what you gotta do.
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What scene or bit of dialogue in the book are you most proud of, and why?
The Midsummer’s Eve bonfire scenes, because they were the hardest to write. The scenes appear twice, from Clarinda’s viewpoint in one chapter, and from Benjamin’s in another. I wanted them to echo but not reproduce the same imagery and action, nor the same responses from the two characters.
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If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything about your book?
I’d probably make Sharon Calder a bit more sympathetic. But I try not to dwell on it!
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What genre have you not yet written but really want to try?
Science fiction, for sure. I love the idea of creating an imagined future, but one within the realm of possibility. I’m fascinated by the sciences and would likely have made a career in one discipline or another, had I any aptitude for math. And I’m a Trekkie at heart.
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If your book would be made into a movie, who should play the main character?
Rachel Weisz would be great as Clarinda or Jess. Clive Owen would make an awesome Owen or Benjamin, and I can easily see Brendan Coyle as the farmer Daniel. (Who wouldn’t want a Downton Abbey tie-in?)
How did you get published? Please share your own personal journey.
Impatience, more than anything, led me to self-publish. I went through several cycles of querying agents, and each time I received compliments and positive feedback but no takers. I figured I could continue that game until someone bit, or I could just jump into the self-publishing pool and not wait for representation, a sale, and production, the sum of which would likely take several years.
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Lisa Costantino Facebook
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What general advice do you have for other writers?
Always, always, use an editor or a proofreader before submitting or self-publishing. I can’t bear to read self-pubbed authors who say they don’t care about a few typos. That’s lazy thinking, because plenty of their own readers will care. Poor grammar, incorrect punctuation, bad formatting—all this shows not only a lack of skill in your trade but a disregard for your readers.
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What do you find is the best part of being an author?
Having both the motivation and the justification to sit for hours doodling out ideas and doing research.
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What is ONE thing that you have done that brought you more readers?
Winning an award for best indie women’s fiction from Chanticleer Book Reviews & Media.
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What’s one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you?
I’m intensely jealous of scholarly authors who can bang out cogent and insightful non-fiction on politics, the environment, and world affairs. I wish I was that smart!
Where can people learn more about your writing? On my website: www.lisacostantino.com
Read also:
From Corporate Editor to Indie-published Historical Women’s Fiction Author
http://editordevil.blogspot.ca/2013/04/from-corporate-editor-to-indie.html
Follow Lisa Costantino here too:
FB: http://www.facebook.com/#!/LisaCostantinoAuthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lisa_costantino
Google+: http://bit.ly/11nCUk5
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lisacostantino/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=44988916&trk=tab_pro
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Savvy Writers & e-Books online 
Ever Applied for a Writers Grant? Try These:
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Dreaming of writing full time, but just don’t have the money to make the writer’s life a reality? Grants for aspiring writers might offer the aid to supplement your income until you will get established. Many organizations offer grants for writers to help them to complete their projects or help even during emergencies.
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Stephen King’s “The Haven Foundation”
He writes: “I was struck by a careless driver and nearly killed while taking my daily walk. It was ten months before I was able to work productively again. My friend Frank Muller, suffered terrible head injuries as a result of a motorcycle accident. My response to this has been the creation of The Haven Foundation.”
Applications and all supporting documentation for the current round of grants must be received no later than November 23rd, 2012. All applications received after that date will be held for the next round of grants.
http://www.thehavenfdn.org/
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California Writers Award
The California Writers Exchange contest introduces emerging writers from California to the New York literary community and provides them a network for professional advancement. Every third year, writers in California are invited to submit manuscripts. Judges review the entries and select a winning poet and fiction writer. Winners are flown to New York City for an all-expenses-paid, weeklong trip to meet with literary agents, editors, publishers, and writers, and to give a public reading. Includes $500 stipend.
Deadline August 31, 2012
http://www.pw.org/about-us/california_writers_exchange_award
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Louisiana Cultural Grants
The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation Economic Opportunity Fund (EOF) is designed to increase the entrepreneurial capacity and economic health of cultural economy producers. These funds are targeted to unique opportunities to earn income that are not a part of the applicant’s regular work or programming. Louisiana’s cultural economy is defined as the people, enterprises, and communities that transform cultural skills, knowledge, and ideas into economically productive goods, services, and places. It includes: visual arts and crafts, performing arts, film, digital media, music, culinary arts, design, traditional culture bearers, entertainment, LITERARY ARTS and humanities, architecture and historic preservation.
Deadline August 31, 2012
http://culturaleconomy.org/
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Sustainable Arts Grant
Our program focuses on awards to individual artists and writers with families. Specifically, the applicant must have at least one child under the age of 18. We welcome applicants from anywhere, but will give some preference to residents of the San Francisco Bay area. Sustainable Arts Foundation Writing Award: $6,000. There will be multiple winners for each award. Additionally, we will be awarding a number of smaller $1,000 Promise Awards to those applicants whose work may not qualify for the main awards, but nonetheless demonstrates both skill and potential. The foundation offers awards in two major categories: visual arts and writing. We encourage writers working in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to apply.
Deadline September 1, 2012
http://www.sustainableartsfoundation.org/apply
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Helen McCloy MWA Scholarship
The Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship for Mystery Writing seeks to nurture talent in mystery writing—in fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting. The scholarship ($500) shall be used to offset tuition and fees for writing workshops, writing seminars, or university/college-level writing programs taking place in the U.S. in summer, fall or winter of 2013 or early spring 2014. Applicants must select a specific writing class/workshop/seminar to which scholarship funds would be applied.
Deadline: February 28, 2013
http://www.mysterywriters.org/?q=AwardsPrograms-McCloy
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Funding for workshops by Poets & Writers
To support as many literary events as possible, we generally grant no more than $1,500 to organizations in New York State and California, and $500 to organizations in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle, Tucson, and Washington, D.C., during the course of our fiscal year (July 1 to June 30). Decisions on maximum grant amounts are based on the availability of funds and are made at the discretion of Poets & Writers. Grants for readings or spoken word performances range from $50 to $350. Grants for workshops range from $100 to $200 per session. We encourage organizations to match our payments to writers, but this requirement may be waived if there are extenuating circumstances.
http://www.pw.org/content/funding_readingsworkshops
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newARTS Wiscounsin
newARTS can act as a fiscal receiver for Brown County-based arts initiatives. Most independent artists and small or new arts organizations lack the important 501(c)(3) tax status that makes public grants and private donations legal and desirable. newARTS welcomes applications from either short-term but impactful projects as well as new initiatives seeking their own non-profit status, as a way to support the creation of new projects, until there are financial and structural plans in place for the initiatives to sustain their own non-profit status.
http://www.newartscouncil.org/FiscalReceivership.html
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National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships
Through Literature Fellowships to published creative writers and translators of exceptional talent in the areas of prose and poetry, the Arts Endowment advances its goal of encouraging and supporting artistic creativity and preserving our diverse cultural heritage. Creative Writing Fellowships enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Grants are for $25,000. Deadline in March.The next awards will be for fiction or creative nonfiction. Translation Projects enable recipients to translate work from other languages into English. Grants are for $12,500 or $25,000, depending upon the artistic excellence and merit of the project. Deadline is January 2013.
http://arts.endow.gov/grants/apply/Lit.html
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The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation
The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation awards yearly grants to playwrights who submit full-length plays, screenplays, musicals or operas. All works submitted must present the gay and lesbian lifestyle in a positive manner and be based on, or inspired by, a historic person, culture, event, or work of art. Writing contests close on November 30th of each year. Grants are $1,000 and are not limited to a single winner. The Foundation also offers grants (usually of $1,000) to production companies to offset expenses in producing gay-positive theatrical works based on history. Submission deadline is November 30, 2012.
http://aabbfoundation.org/
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Library of Virginia
The Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry, founded in 2005, is given each year to a poet with strong connections to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The $10,000 annual prize recognizes significant recent contributions to the art of poetry and is awarded on the basis of a range of achievements in the field of poetry. Also awarded at the Celebration are the Annual People’s Choice Awards for the best works of fiction and nonfiction by a Virginia author and the Whitney and Scott Cardozo Award for Children’s Literature. Voting for this year’s People’s Choice Awards has closed. Finalists for the 2012 Library of Virginia Literary Awards have been announced. The winner in each category will be announced at the Awards Celebration on October 20, 2012. Nominations are now being accepted for the 2013 awards.
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/litawards/nominate.asp
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Posted by ebooksinternational on August 27, 2012 in comment on posts, Grants, post to public, posting, Writing Contests
Tags: California Writers Award, emergency grants, grants for workshops, Helen McCloy MWA Scholarship, Poetry Grants, Stephen King's "The Haven Foundation", Stipend, sustainable arts & cultural grants, Writers Grants