Interview with Tina Amiri
Why don’t you
begin by sharing a little about yourself.
Luckily, since I’m inclined to write and edit, for fun I enjoy quiet
time, nice views, good coffee, like any real writer ought to. I also love my
cats, and I’m a passionate supporter of animal rights and environmental causes,
but I’m also extremely “ying-yang”. For almost every trait I possess, there
seems to be a balance to that quality. I like my hair long and always wear a
dress but everyone laughs when they see the person behind the art (that I
create). My favourite activity for years was watching, reading and practicing
martial arts. When people first meet me, they don’t expect me to be the one to
shake up the room, but I do tend to either amuse or offend. Being a “green personality”,
I also analyze everything I see and hear, so opinions expressed
by me may not always be well received by those around me. And yet, despite all
that, I am nice. Immediately after a
driver incites the deepest road-rage to come out of me and I disparage all
humanity, I will still let the next guy in on a by street; I will be the person
in the movie theatre who cares about whether the person behind me has a good
view of the film.
How
long have you been writing?
I
started writing before I learned how to spell--probably at five-years-old. I
would sound out the words and write them however seemed logical to me. I
started with these one-line-per-page stories called "Donkey &
Teddy"--basically stories about my stuffed donkey and my sister's stuffed
teddy bear--in which Donkey always won the day. They should have been called
"Donkey vs Teddy". LOL These "books" consisted of two pages
stapled together in the middle and each page had pictures too!
I wrote a single-spaced notebook-length book at age 8. I
wrote my first 200 page, typed novel when I was 10 and spent a few years
re-writing it. I started writing novels, which i never finished all through
high school but I always abandoned these stories when I made a jump on the
writing learning curve because I knew I could do better.
Could you tell us
a bit about your latest book?
Whatever The
Impulse is a
psychological thriller about a young man, named Night, who spent his first
nineteen years forced, by his father, to play the role of a deaf-mute in order
to isolate himself from others—all, apparently, for a good reason. Finally,
Night learns the truth and is immediately thrust into a completely opposite
life where he is always in the public eye, but in a world he does not
understand, without a totally intact moral compass.
Why did you decide to write in the psychological thriller genre?
I think the hardest part of writing a psychological thriller—and
probably any form of fiction—is to come up with a story that doesn’t sound
familiar. Nowadays, there are countless TV shows that are based entirely on
abnormal human psychology. Of course the writers of these shows are all trying
to come up with a new twist every week, so it makes the author’s job that much
harder…trying to surprise a reader and keep them hooked for 300+ pages. I’ve
always been fascinated by the human condition. The genre also interests me
because of the tragic murder of my mother and her date at the hands of an old
boyfriend who was believed to have a borderline dissociative identity disorder.
He killed himself at the scene and I think that the subconscious effects of
discovering all of them in our home when I was 18 certainly have played a role
in my interest in this genre.
Did anything
surprise you about the process of writing your book?
Sure, one thing that surprised me was how I could not plan my
plot-points and stick to the plan. My characters and the story itself acquired
a life of its own and guided me to the end…although there were several rewrites
that resulted in major changes every time.
Who is your intended readership?
This
book was geared for older young adults- 16+ but it’s finding a home with older
adults (40-70) as well as those in the gay community because of a few scenes
and homo-erotic undertones throughout the book. I’m getting incredibly positive
feedback from both male and female and that could be because of the attractive
sympathetic main character.
Can you tell us about your writing process? Where do your
ideas originate? Do you have a certain writing routine?
Ideas
just come to me. Sometimes I think I've come up with a great idea but then I
get stumped on how to flesh out an entire novel based on my idea. My writing
routine is: write whenever you aren't at your day job, you're okay to not be at
the gym or go for a run, and nobody else asked you to do something with them. I
do enjoy inspiring settings for writing, like charming urban Inns, hotels etc
or when in nature. A room with a view really helps. I am not unique when it
comes to this!
How do you research your book?
While
some content is just from imagination, much is a combination of inspiration and
research. I bought books, I took books out from libraries, and I looked stuff
up on the internet. I even reached out, by e-mail, to someone in the
countermeasures industry once. I did not know who I was e-mailing and
eventually that person, after screening me in a number of ways, divulged their
interesting history involved in covert government operations. I did get the
information I was looking for. This came about when I ran into obstacles trying
to find out about spy equipment in the early 80's. Yes, just a line in the book
might have taken me days of research and then years of editing to come out as
it did. A lot of the details I initially put into the book where edited out
over time. For example, I took out three giant books on guns, from a local
library, and did i ever get some strange looks in the line-up at check-out!
What is your greatest challenge as a writer?
Greatest
challenge is finding time in such a hectic world. Writing inherently removes
contact with others, so it is difficult to find time when the only time you can
"spend time with friends or family" is when you’re not at work and
running around managing other everyday business.
What do you like to do when you're not writing? Any hobbies?
I
like to do distance running, gardening, going to see live theatre (I'm a
Stratford Festival member). I also am a huge supporter of animal causes,
environmental causes and naturopathic medicine. To contrast that, I also have a
weakness for dresses and aesthetic services!
For more on the author and her writing check out her website, and Facebook page
You can find Whatever The Impulse on
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