10 QUESTIONS FOR…Barbara Bonfigli, author of “Cafe Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island”

photo by Ellen Warner

Author interview with Barbara Bonfigli

About Barbara:

I was born in California and thriving there until I discovered that my high school gave full college credit for Driver’s Education. I lobbied my parents to switch me to a prep school back East that leaned more toward philosophy, literature, fractions and theater. 

I later studied music in Paris with Nadia Boulanger,  meditation in India with Siddha gurus  and currently practice yoga in New Mexico with Tias Little and the teachers at Yoga Source. 

My early careers in Manhattan included editor, literary agent, lyricist and Wall St. coffee vendor. Working with composer Catherine MacDonald, I  wrote lyrics for several shows on and off Broadway.

While living in London in the 1980s and 90s, I co-founded ShowPeople Ltd, specializing in producing small scale musicals. Both Blues in the Night and Barbara Cook:Wait ‘Til You See Her received Olivier nominations (the UK’s Tony award) for Best Musical.

I hitchhiked to Greece in my first nomadic summer and discovered my native land. I’ve been exploring it ever since — hiking in the Pelion, kayaking in the Dodecanese, sailing the Aegean. I wore out five passports and four continents before settling down on a mythical Greek island to uncork my memories, my imagination and a bottle or two of retsina. The result is my first novel, Café Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island.  

I now live on a small Greek island and the islands of Manhattan and Santa Fe.  www.barbarabonfigli.com.  

 

1. Tell us about your latest book.

When Sarah, a thirty-something American writer and theatrical producer, is asked to direct the locals in their summer play, she picks Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  What follows is a hilarious adventure in casting, rehearsing, and consuming. Her neighbors are excited about acting but delirious about eating. Their rehearsals in a deconsecrated church become a feast in four acts.

 

Armed with a sizzling wit, a dangerously limited Greek vocabulary, and a pitch-perfect ear for drama, Sarah navigates the major egos and minor storms of a cab driver Caliban, a postmaster Prospero, and a host of fishermen dukes and knaves.

 

When she falls in love, there are even trickier seas to navigate. Her own offstage romance provides an exhilarating, unpredictable counterpoint to Shakespeare’s story of magic, intrigue, and the power of love.

 

2. How did you get started as a writer? 

Someone gave me a box of crayons when I was two. My eighth grade teacher read my stuff and declared me a writer. I believed her. I’ve been thanking Miss Wilson ever since.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

 I’ve taken a vow of confidentiality about my private life. Questions about writing are welcome.

4. Describe your workspace. 

I have a very large desk, windows, fresh air, lots of light, silence.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers) Early favorites: James Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”; “Eloise” “Pippi Longstocking,” all the Colonel S.P. Meek animal novels. My favorite authors are the Russians Tolstoy, Dostoievsky, Nabakov, Shakespeare, Georges Perec, Theodore Zeldin, William Faulkner, Mary Oliver, Marguerite Yourcenar, Jeanette Winterton, Jeanette Walls,  Rumi, Hafiz, Bob Dylan.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

My feet are really fins; they seek water; so I always try to live within sight of a body of water.

No one died regretting that they had loved too much. I’m trying to be sure I love full time despite having an acute aversion to noise, willful ignorance, and food left on the face or in the beard.

While I’m reading the house could burn down around me. While I’m writing I need stillness, inside and out.

7. Favorite quote:

 God dwells within you as you. Swami Muktananda

8. Best and worst part of being a writer.

 best part: it’s pure delight. i love tuning in to my imagination, watching characters and situations unfold on the page. worst part: navigating all the daily invasions.

9. Advice for other writers.

 Everyone says “write what you know.” I say, start there but take chances. Writing is an exploration of the internal unknown, brought to light and carefully expressed.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

  I think that was me writing dispatches from inside the Trojan horse. I have an inexplicable (except for reincarnation) attachment to Greek culture.

Where can people buy your book? 

Find me at www.cafetempest.com, lots of reviews, a good synopsis of my novel, and a way to purchase the book online. It won’t be in bookstores for a few more weeks.

Twitter/barbarabonfigli       Facebook barbarabonfigli

To learn about Barbara Bonfigli and Café Tempest, feel free to visit any of these sites.

Barbara Bonfigli’s website – www.cafetempest.com

Order Café Tempest directly from the publisher - http://www.tellmepress.com/pub_ct.php or from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Café-Tempest-Adventures-Small-Island/dp/0981645313

To see the complete tour schedule visit http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/05/cafe-tempest-by-barbara-bonfigli-summer.html

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