J. Cafesin is a writer that makes you feel the heartbreak and the darkness of the book from every page so much so that the you fear at times to turn the page. She is the kind of writer that can change you just from reading her words. The love and beauty in the book is felt just as strongly and I felt myself cheering for James, hoping that in the end he would get everything he hoped for and everything he deserved after all his suffering.
Living in a house full of musicians this book really spoke to me. My husband was in a band when we married and all our kids (all 4 of them) are musical and artists. My oldest son reminded me so me so much of James, he spends hours in his room playing his instruments and being a teen never wants to come out....LOL....I hope one day he is successful in his musical career but never as obsessive as James was. They say to love anything to much is never a good thing.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what made you delve into the world of fiction?
I never really fit into the real world. I'm not sparkly but not too bright as all women should be, according to my father, the authority on appropriate female behaviour. I'm not upbeat. I'm a devout Atheist, which puts me outside looking in on the 80% of the people on this planet that are religious. Writing fiction was/is a way to carve a place for myself, even if it isn't real.
Q: Can you please tell us a little about your book Reverb and what inspired you write it?
Artists, musicians, writers like me need to go inside our head and live there to construct the worlds we create. Though it's often perceived as cool or trendy to be a creative, it's really very isolating. James Whren, the protagonist in Reverb is a brilliant musician, beautiful and rich, everything most people look at from the outside and admire.
My mother told me, “Fall in love with the art, never the artist.” And she's right. Reverb isn't about James the musician, but James the man, and the lives he touched, and those left wanting in his wake because while he's inside his head creating music, he left most people he knew lonely. Reverb is the story of his awakening, of James learning how to step outside his creativity and discover how to really love.
Q: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?
Both. I've been an artist/writer my entire life, and I fight with myself virtually daily to be there for my husband and kids more than in my head with my characters. Creativity is a bitch of a mistress, demanding attention, recognition, affection, but so do the people in my life. James Whren is my alter ego, so is that real life or my imagination? You tell me.
Q: When you are not writing what is it you do to unwind? Any Hobbies?
Hang with my DH and kids, and bratty, but cute pound hound! Go to the beach, bike ride, road trip...just be there, present with my family is on the top of my list of hobbies. When I have time I like to build furniture, too.
Q: How did you come up with the name Reverb?
Reverb is the feedback effect from an amp. James Whren gave little of himself to the people he knew so when he needed them they weren't there for him, at first. When he learns how to give, really care and show it, he finds Elisabeth and even her one and a half yr old son, Cameron, caring for him. We get what we give, like feedback from the amp.
Q: Who was your favourite character and why?
Elisabeth. She's what I aspire to be.
Q: Which part of this story was your favourite and least favourite to write?
There are extreme torture scenes in this book, and though they are few and only a page or two, they were hard to write. And the sex scenes were hard to write, too, like I was looking in on intimate moments I shouldn't be privy to.
Q: What kind of tips would you pass on to make the journey easier for other writers?
Don't quit your day job. When I started writing to publish I thought I'd write a book or two and be able to stop copywriting, but that hasn't been the case. It's not the case for most every writer I know, bestseller or not. Most writers don't make enough on their fiction to live. Write because you love to, not because you think it's going to make you rich, or even supply you with a living.
Q: What are you working on at the moment / next?
Disconnected comes out this spring, about falling for someone you know you shouldn't, and life in L.A. during the early 1990s when everyone was doing drugs and having sex, AIDS was just discovered, and the Rodney King riots took place. It runs the line between memior and fiction, but I'm calling it literary women's fiction so Oprah doesn't come down my throat!
Q: Thank you so much for the interview, J. Cafesin. Would you like to tell my readers where they can find you on the web?
Reverb Website: http://reverbnovel.com
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/J-Cafesin/114983079001
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3400294.J_Cafesin
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