Chances are rare, change is valuable.
Barry Wilker spent forty-three years working as an interior designer for a myriad of clients across the United States. Retirement has provided him time to assemble all the fragments of his wild imagination into this, his first novel. He lived for a number of years in the Los Angeles area and currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
INTERVIEW:
Mayra Calvani: Please tell us about “The Lapone Sisters” and what compelled you to write it.
Author: I hatched the idea of The Lapone Sisters over a period of almost forty years. Being an interior designer for forty-three years was at times a tedious and sometimes a stressful profession. During downtimes in my business, ideas for the story sprang like seedlings that over time grew and multiplied into pieces I knew someday would be a fully realized story. During those free times, I wrote thoughts about these imaginary sisters on pieces of paper and put them into a folder or squirreled them away in the back of my mind. I am really not sure how or why this novel finally came to fruition. Possibly because of Covid and retirement I suddenly had the time to concentrate on the entirety of the story. I pulled out my folder and separated the scraps of ideas into piles in my home office. As I already mentioned, bits and pieces of the story had incubated for more years. I had stacks of unrelated ideas sitting on my desk. For nine months I began to sew together a story and imagine events that propelled my characters into the story they became. It was a fun, tedious, and stressful time.
M.C.: What is your book about?
Author: The Lapone Sisters is a smart and seamless coming-of-age novel centered on the lives of three sisters–and a thoughtful and thought-provoking tale that unfolds against a backdrop of a simpler time and place. The Lapone Sisters introduces the reader to three dazzling and decidedly different sisters: Schmellda, Sorina and Esmerelda. They are wildly disparate, wholly entertaining, and mesmerizingly comical individuals. The three sisters are swept up into a whirlwind of adventure when each begins to chart a course toward discovering purpose, meaning and direction for their lives.
In the summer of 1976, the three sisters launch a journey like no other when each begins the task of uncovering her individual course in the world. Schmellda, the eldest daughter, is a frumpy, self-appointed mother hen cautiously setting out on her own for the first time in her life. Middle sister Sorina is a stunning-and-stuttering beauty tentatively venturing out in search of her dreams. Esmerelda is the youngest and boldest of the three who is outspoken, sharp-tongued and an unfiltered fireball ready to catapult from the nest.
Born to loving parents who provided a safe and nurturing environment, Schmellda, Sorina and Esmerelda could not be more different. When the sisters are swept up in an unimaginable spiral of events that change their lives forever, they discover more about themselves and each other than they had ever dreamed.
The girls compete and commiserate. They take road trips and chances. They get makeovers and they make waves. They grow and bloom and blossom. Even though they change, they remain true to their core selves. Most of all, they follow their hearts. They even fall in love. Over the months of a fateful and blissful summer, the sisters cross paths, cross wits and come across a menagerie of misfits, loners, losers and dreamers making for an adventure like no other. For these three sisters, life will never be the same.
The Lapone Sisters is a beautifully rendered tale that celebrates taking chances, embracing individuality, innocence, and the unmistakeable power of love. Resplendent with charm, peppered with wry humor, sometimes seasoned with satire, and replete with a richly drawn cast of characters, their story is destined to stay with readers long after the last page is turned
M.C.: What themes do you explore in “The Lapone Sisters?”
Author: Individuality. Innocence. The power of love, acceptance, and coming of age. Stuttering and the power of language. The capability of change. The importance of knowing we are all part of and have contributions to make to a community much bigger than just ourselves.
M.C.: Why do you write?
Author: I write now because I have the time. Being retired, I feel able to do anything. I don’t write for income. I write because I want to write. I wrote this novel because I wanted to show life in an absurdly creative way. I wanted to create a lightness on the surface that opens the reader’s mind to what I consider the truly important themes I mentioned above.
M.C.: When do you feel the most creative?
Author: Since I am not creating beautiful homes for a living any longer and constantly thinking about them 24/7, my imagination is still at full speed. I feel creative all the time.
M.C.: How picky are you with language?
Author: I am very conscientious about language. I consider my writing to how I performed as an interior designer. I was meticulous with my jobs. It was my goal to execute a beautiful and liveable environment for my clients using the best materials and craftsmen available. Words are now my floor plans, fabrics, art and furniture. I want language to be perfect.
M.C.: When you write, do you sometimes feel as though you were being manipulated from afar?
Author: No. Not in the least.
M.C.: What is your worst time as a writer?
Author: When I am a loss for an idea. When I am at a loss for the correct word. When I wake up in the middle of the night and realize that I missed something in a time line. When I am somewhere and I have a great idea and have no way to write it down.
M.C.: Your best?
Author: The opposite of all of the above . . . the times when thoughts, ideas and the rest flow seamlessly.
M.C.: Is there anything that would stop you from writing?
Author: I suppose if my debut novel does not work out for Joe Public. I would not stop writing. I would stop publishing.
M.C.: What’s the happiest moment you’ve lived as an author?
Author: When the three editors and I came to the “Aha!” moment that set my manuscript free to go to print.
M.C.: Is writing an obsession to you?
Author: It certainly was an obsession while I was writing The Lapone Sisters. Long ago in school I loved to write poetry. At the moment, writing isn’t quite the obsession it was. I’ve told my primary story. Now I have other loves. I paint, sculpt, read. I am 69 and retired. Now is mostly play time.
M.C.: Are the stories you create connected with you in some way?
Author: The only part of The Lapone Sisters that connects me to my novel is I was once a stutterer. I still am at times. I really wanted to raise awareness of how stuttering as an adolescent affects a person.
M.C.: Ray Bradbury once said, “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” Thoughts?
Author: I don’t agree. I wrote this novel as a contrast to the chaos, hate and negativity in today’s society. I wanted to write a happy and meaningful book that was filled with positive and humorous distractions.
M.C.: Do you have a website or blog where readers can find out more about you and your work?
Author: www.TheLaponeSisters.com. But really, after anyone reads this blog they know more about me than what is on my website. I would like to thank you for reading this and hope that you will read my novel The Lapone Sisters. I also want to emphasize to readers that I have two footnotes in my novel on pages 199 and 300 that reference songs I sincerely hope they will listen to before turning the page. And again, thank you!
Barry’s book, The Lapone Sisters, is available from:
www.ArchwayPublishing.com, www.Amazon.com, www.BarnesandNoble.com, www.Target.com, www.Walmart.com, www.Booklife.com, www.Bookshop.org and your favorite bookstore.
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