Tanya Biondi was born in London but she grew up in Italy. From her Italian father Tanya inherited the love for the arts and from her English mother the love for literature, the love for Duran Duran music. She has been blessed with the gift of creative imagination and the ability to express it through words, music and painting. Tanya Biondi has self-published several poetry books and recently her first novel called “Blustardusk”.
Who exactly is Tanya Biondi?
“I was born in 1968, I’m half Italian half English and I work as a secretary. Since very young I was fascinated by tales and literature and started writing poems and lyrics for songs very early. I believe I have always been an artist and always new it, although life has taken me elsewhere.”
How did you decide to pursue a writing career?
“As I said, I have always been aware of my inclination towards creativity and since I was young dreamt of conducting the life of an artist, but things didn’t work that way. In fact I never decided to pursue a writing career, I wrote, because it is a sort of necessity for me, just as I compose my own songs or do any other creative work. I don’t do it with the purpose of a career, although it would be wonderful to be able to spend my time just doing that for a living!”
Was getting published hard?
“Well, it was not, since I’m not published, I self-publish my books online. I have made this choice after a few bad experiences with small publishing companies. Initially I only wrote poetry and I was very eager to publish my collections. Big publishing companies in Italy don’t bother with poetry by unknown writers, so I accepted a couple of contracts with two different small publishers whom I had to pay. Now, the problem is not that I had to pay, I understand and accept that it is a highly risky investment to publish an unknown poet, still, I believe there must be a difference between someone calling themselves publishers and a merely printing company. The difference is the effort the company makes to promote your work, and these people got a lot of money and gave no promotion. With this novel I decided to try sending the manuscript to many publishers, bigger and smaller ones (always in Italy), the only replies I had, were from companies asking me to pay; fortunately in these days the internet offers a wide range of services for self-publishing, so I chose that if I had to spend money I would spend it to promote myself and not to fill people’s pockets without getting much in return. So I pursued this path and did the same for the English version of the novel, without even wasting time trying to find a publisher.”
Are your characters based on people you know?
“Not at all, they were born from my fantasy, and frankly, it might sound funny, but I quite like the idea to have given them life in some way.”
What genre are your books?
“As I said, until now I had only written poetry, eight collections to be precise. This is my first novel, as for its genre, I’m not perfectly sure if it is more a romantic fantasy or fantasy with a vein of romance. In any case it is set in space, there is love, adventure and certainly a fantasy atmosphere.”
Do you have a specific writing routine?
“No, I don’t, I work in an office and live with family, so I’m not free to organise my day around writing, I would say rather the contrary, as soon as I get some free time I get down to work, and even so, I’m not always inspired. When it is possible I prefer to write in the open air, especially in the pinewood near home, where I find peace and quiet and beauty. When I start writing I can go on for hours on end, sometimes I have to force myself to stop, it depends also on what you are writing, some passages require more thinking and it might take hours just to write a couple of pages.”
What are your current projects?
“I am writing my second novel, I would say I’m half way through the raw version, then there is all the editing to do which can take quite a long time. The topic is a little more delicate so the work grows slowly. A part from that, I’m also preparing for a new song album and for the audiobooks of some of my poetry collections, I would also like to translate a number of chosen poems into English.”
What’s next for you?
“Difficult to say, I hope my work gets some appreciation, a part from that, I’m never short of ideas!”
“Blustardusk” on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SELOYY0
Author’s Amazon Page
A book and a cup of coffee 