Ask the Author: Cindy Bonner
Answered Questions (12)
Cindy Bonner
Meaning vs purpose. Meaning of life - there is no meaning. The universe exploded and planets whirled up out of the mass of particles, carbon splattered the masses, and some of it, like on Earth became life. Purpose on the other hand, The Purpose of Life is what each of us makes of it. We find our own purpose, either by creating it ourselves or manufacturing it innately. But neither meaning nor purpose are tangible things that can be held in our hands. We find meaning and purpose for our individual lives, to our own satisfactions.
Cindy Bonner
Hi Caitlin - I don't know why I don't already know you. I was born and raised in Corpus Christi myself. I moved away to Florida, then came back for a few years, then moved away again to San Antonio and several other places, then came back. I left for good in 1994 but I only live about 90 miles away from Corpus now, on the other side of Victoria. Anyway, nice to know you, now. Congratulations on your forthcoming novel. I'm going to check out your podcast. Do you enjoy doing that? I have a friend in Austin who does one too. I enjoy listening to them in my car.
Cindy Bonner
I have always been a reader. I also love movies. As a writer, I get to be the director, set decorator, costume designer, sound engineer, dialogue coach, makeup artist, casting director, and everything else. In other words, I really love creating an entire milieu and making it come to life.
Cindy Bonner
My mind doesn't work in the horror genre. However, for me, anything that puts a child in dire danger would be a horror story, regardless of the exact genre.
Cindy Bonner
The new novel, FOR LOVE AND GLORY, arose from a minor incident in the last novel, RIGHT FROM WRONG. At the end of that novel, the main character's 8 year old brother writes a letter to her full of wonder over his first experience with an airplane. I thought, what if that young boy grows up to become a pilot. And with the years it would take to make him old enough to do that, the time period would naturally land right in the midst of World War II. The rest of the story arose naturally from that kernel.
Cindy Bonner
I have a new novel FOR LOVE AND GLORY coming out in a matter of weeks. It is a novel of World War II with some of the characters from my earlier novels.
Cindy Bonner
My great-grandfather was known to all as an Irishman with an Irish brogue. He apparently pleasured in that shroud of Irishness and promoted it. And yet in genealogical research I have done, I find no near-kin to him who came directly to the US from Ireland. He was born in Mississippi. His mother and father were also born in the American South. So why did he have this Irish lilt to his voice. Was it all manufactured? Was he living a life in hiding from something--maybe something terrible?
Cindy Bonner
I always read a classic in the summer. This year I've decided to dive back into Vonnegut. I think maybe I have matured enough as a reader, and as a writer, to "get" him now. I think I'll start with MOTHER NIGHT.
Cindy Bonner
There are many kinds of writer's block. If you mean feeling stuck you must find out what the cause of that feeling is. If you're in the middle of a project, it could be something in that project isn't working, or feels forced, or maybe you don't have a real handle on a character or on the direction the story has taken. When I have that kind of block I have to sit down and write through it, even if it's in "notes to self," but especially when it involves a lot of rewriting. Rewriting is where you find the answer to most of the problems of writer's block.
Cindy Bonner
Read, read, read. And write something every day. Even if it's in a journal or on a blog. You have to keep your writing muscle in shape, and the best way to do that is seat of the pants in the seat of the chair. Every day.
Cindy Bonner
Inspiration is such an ephemeral thing, hard to describe, and it comes sometimes from the most unexpected places. One thing I do know, for me, it has to my own idea. I've had dozens of people ask me to write their story. I always tell them, "That's your story. You write it, because no one knows it better than you do."
Cindy Bonner
This is an easy one for me -- any book that will take to Venice was a city-state. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to take a vacation there and fell in love with the place, the unique history. I could imagine myself in gondolas holding a medieval mask over my face. :)
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