We are back with another Author Spotlight – you can read all the past interviews HERE.
Today we have Anthony Guiffreda answering our questions. Over to Anthony…
My name is Anthony Guiffreda but people who know me call me Tony. I was born and raised in Western New York and have lived there most of my life. I also lived in Louisiana and Maryland briefly. I met my wife in 2013 and we live there with our dog Juneau and our twins Robert and Bridget who are almost 7 months old now. We waited two years for our children to come into our lives and we consider ourselves so blessed and fortunate their birth mother chose us to be their adoptive parents. We got a call on a Sunday and they were born on a Thursday, and we have been a family ever since. The coolest part about all that is that on the day we got the call I had to cancel our dinner reservations because we were going to celebrate my wife’s birthday. Now, the three most important people in my life all share the same birthday!
I have one published work titled Ayla’s War, which is available on most online bookstores including Amazon and Barnes and Nobles. Ayla’s War is a fictional story that takes place in the United States following a brutal Civil War that ravaged the nation. There are so many twists and turns that I don’t really like to give away too much more! Currently, I am writing the prequel to Ayla’s War, which focuses on Ayla’s childhood/young adult hood and the events that lead to the Civil War. It is hard to find the time and energy between a full time job and taking care of twins so it’s been a slow process so far!
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Although my dream is to become a full time author someday, I haven’t always had that dream. I really took an interest in writing towards the end of my college career. I didn’t really write anything for a while after that…long story short my father was ill and sadly past away, which kind of put me in a little funk. I was unemployed and spent my days job hunting. I always enjoyed writing in school and my professors all thought I was good at it so I decided to just start writing when I was bored of job hunting. I just went for it and the story kind of just manifested itself in my head as I went along.
How do you come up with the ideas for your book(s)?
The best way to explain my process is that Ayla’s War played in my head like a movie and I described the scenes on paper. My form of writers block is not being able to imagine an entertaining scene in my head! If that ever happened to me, I would take a week or two off and just think about the different scenarios that could come next.
How many hours a day do you write?
In an ideal setting I like to write one or two hours a night although that hasn’t happened in a while!
How do you select the names of your characters?
I don’t really have a defined process of choosing names for characters. Funny Story though, I did change almost every name in Ayla’s War about half way through….besides Ayla’s of course. I basically read my story out loud and thought the names sounded silly so I played around until they seemed like more realistic names. For example Miles Lang was originally Alan Westerman. That really didn’t roll off the tongue nicely.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
I started writing Ayla’s War in 2013! That was with very long stretches of inactivity. I bet if this was my full time career, I’d have no problem writing a novel in 6 months. But I’m really just guessing since I have never had the opportunity to give it my full attention.
What advice would you give to new writers?
When it comes to advice for new authors, I am going to steal some advice I read from an interview with Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games. She said to just word vomit. Just keep writing until it’s finished. You can go back and work out the details and editing later. Keep the initial focus on writing and creating the story! I have done that ever since and it really does help you keep your focus on the writing and creating.
On average, how many books do you read in a month?
I wish I had time to read books as well as write them. Between being a dad and working my day job it can be hard to find the time to sit down! My wife has gotten me into audio books. We like to play Harry Potter around the house a lot and I am currently listening to The Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes.
If I could tell my younger writing self it would be to start writing earlier and don’t any extended breaks from writing!
Thanks for taking the time to read about me and my writing journey! I hope you get a chance to read Ayla’s War and I hope you have fun doing so!
Instagram: @authortonyg
Twitter: @AylaV716
https://olympiapublishers.com/book/aylas-war
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/aylas-war-anthony-guiffreda/1143078662?ean=9781800745728
Thanks so much to Anthony for this.
You can see our other author spotlights below