Conversation With Author Venera Di Bella Barles
By Link Kamer-Walker
For THE ISLANDER
Bainbridge Island resident Venera Di Bella Barles is the recipient of the 2005 first place award for short stories from Peninsula Writers Association, for "Vivaldi and the Seasonings." Barles has written three books - a memoir, "Marriage, Kidneys, and Other Dark Organs" (AuthorHouse) and two novels, "Phantom Strings" (yet to be published) and "They Was Holdin' Hands" (ArcheBooks Publishing).
Q: Your memoir is about growing up in a strong New York Italian family. What in your upbringing prepared you for writing?
A: I think because I was raised in a very traumatic and dramatic fashion, that gave me the grist to get it out of me. When I was young, I thought I could unload it all and fix everything but actually writing did the job.
Q: What inspired you to write a multicultural children's novel ("Phantom Strings")?
A: I was raised in a multicultural neighborhood. I was the only Italian child amongst many nationalities. And it was in suburbia;it wasn't in a big city. But I've always been drawn to other cultures; they have great meaning to me. I think it's made all of us stronger; we've learned from other people.
Q: What is your natural strength in writing?
A: Dialogue. I'm strong in dialogue because I am a talker. I think when you hear people talking they reveal more about themselves than they mean to. I visualize my characters both by how they look and how they speak.
Q: How do you describe your writing voice?
A: What's interesting is that when I first started I didn't know what the word "voice" meant. At one point, I thought I needed to start changing my words and began writing in more a elaborate fashion. That isn't the way I talk. I talk in short, choppy sentences. That's my voice. I was with a writers group when people started correcting me and critiquing me, and this gentleman stood up for me and said, "No, that's her voice; leave it alone." And they did, and so did I.
Q: What are you working on?
A: The sequel to "They Was Holdin' Hands." I'm going to use a different twist of humor in this one. My protagonist, Carmela, a writer, is about to find a few things out about herself. That's how it is with writers; we're always telling on ourselves.
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