Interview with Gabriel Constans, Author of A Woman Like Maria

 

Gabriel's latest works of fiction are A WOMAN LIKE MARIA and THE LAST CONCEPTION, which is also a film being shown worldwide. Previous fiction includes BUDDHA'S WIFE, SAINT CATHERINE'S BABY, THE SKIN OF LIONS, and JUST A HEARTBEAT AWAY.

He has written for numerous magazines, newspapers and journals throughout North America, Europe, Africa and Asia; has 15 books published in the U.S. and continues to write fiction, non-fiction and screenplays. His latest work of nonfiction is GRIEF, YOUR WAY.

Dr. Constans has worked as a trauma counselor in a variety of situations and environments, most notably with local and international non-profit organizations such as hospice, the coroner's office, hospitals, state prisons, the Center for Street Children and the Ihangane Project (both in Rwanda).

Website: http://www.gogabriel.com

Twitter: @GabrielConstans

When did you begin writing?

When I was 16 and edited an alternative high school newspaper, which the principal tried to have me arrested for. 

Do you write during the day, at night or whenever you can sneak a few moments?

I usually write in the afternoon, when everything else for the day is done.

What is this book about?

Sophia grows up in small German village in the 1970s in a tight knit farming family. When she turns 18 she is accepted into a Catholic nursing school in Berlin. While there she meets a smooth-talking American who promises her everything. Turns out he’s been lying to her about a lot of things. Then, she meets his sister, Maria, and everything is turned upside down. After that, her life is pulled in many directions and she finally moves to America. Will she and Maria ever reunite? A Woman Like Maria feels like an unbelievably real romance story, with a happy ending.

What inspired you to write it?

I used to work with a nurse from another country who told me about a similar experience she had in her life and it sounded like it would make a great story.

Where can readers purchase A Woman Like Maria?

Here’s a global link to various distributors. https://books2read.com/u/4Xl6YL  

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with aspiring authors everywhere?

Keep reading and learning and be consistent.

What is up next for you?

Presently working on getting a film made, which I wrote. It’s called The Sunday Morning Rowing Club, and is based (loosely) on a number of women who have been meeting for over 40 years to go rowing in the ocean together every Sunday. We have some well-known actresses staring in the roles and are waiting for the final financing.

Interview with Gabriel Constans, Author of The Last Conception

Gabriel Constans previous novel, Buddha’s Wife, was highly acclaimed by writers and reviewers, such as Bell Hooks, Chitra Divakaruni and Robert Blake. It is presently being adapted for the screen, as is The Last Conception. Other works of fiction by the author include St. Catherine’s Baby, The Skin of Lions: Rwandan Folk Tales, and Zem Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba: The Illustrious and Delusional Abbess of Satire.

Visit Gabriel online at www.gogabriel.com or his blog at http://gabrielconstans.wordpress.com/

Where did you grow up?

Redding, California, which was mostly logging industry and summer tourism for the lakes and mountains close by. I’ve been living in Santa Cruz, California for about 40 years now.

When did you begin writing?

I began writing in high school, where I started an alternative newspaper. It wasn’t until reaching my late twenties that I began writing again seriously (or humerously).

Do you write during the day, at night or whenever you can sneak a few moments?

When I’m writing something, I start in the morning and write all day and evening, for as many days as it takes.

What is this book about?

Passionate embryologist, Savarna Sikand, is in a complicated relationship, with two different women, when she is told that she MUST have a baby. Her conservative East Indian American parents are desperate for her to conceive, in spite of her "not being married". They insist that she is the last in line of a great spiritual lineage. In the process of choosing her lover and having doubts about her ability, or desire to conceive, Savarna begins to question the necessity of biology and lineage within her parents' beliefs and becomes forever fascinated with the process of conception and the definition of family. Threads of Dan Brown (DaVinci Code), Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Sister of My Heart) and the film The Kids Are All Right, are tied together in this colorful tale of awakening, romance and mystery.

What inspired you to write it?

There are a number of questions I was thinking about. One of those questions involved the thought that perhaps a different religious leader actually had children (contrary to historical belief) and that a woman in present day society was the last in line (unbeknown to her) of that famous teacher. I wondered what that would be like for her to find out. I also have one daughter who is married to a woman and they had children and another who is married to a man and went through IVF to have their children. I wanted to share a little of what those experiences are like and have it be an intricate part of the story.

Who is your favorite character from the book?

Charlemagne (Charley), because she is clear with what she wants and makes it happen.

Was the road to publication smooth sailing or a bumpy ride?

Once I found the right publisher, it has been very smooth and a wonderful process to bring this story to life.

Where can readers purchase a copy of your book?

Melange Books at http://www.melange-books.com/authors/gabrielconstans/lastconception.html or Amazon

What is the best investment you have made in promoting your book?

I’ve invested in time. It took a lot of time to find the right media markets for this specific work and to contact them all, which I’m still doing daily. Keeping a daily presence on social networks over the last several years is also a wonderful way to connect with people in general and specifically about the book.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with aspiring authors everywhere?

It’s a complicated affair. Not everyone is a good writer and not everyone is able to write well. At the same time, if you practice writing daily, have others critique your work (and edit it) and keep at it, you may turn horrible work into something decent or some decent writing into something great. The other advice, that is always suggested, but is also true, is keep reading. Read. Read. And read some more.

What is up next for you?

I’ve written a screenplay of The Last Conception and have several producers reading it. Looking for others who may be interested, in case those now pass on the story.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I always think my latest story or book is the best and this is no exception. The Last Conception is a wonderful tale about love, romance and family. It is both personal and universal.

Guest Blogger: The Most Intimate Moments of Our Lives by Gabriel Constans, Author of Buddha’s Wife

Today's special guest is Gabriel Constans, author of Buddha's Wife.

Buddha’s Wife is a novel about compassion, inspiration and forgiveness. Thousands of books, texts and stories have followed Siddhartha’s teachings and his path to becoming The Buddha, but little has been written about his wife Yasodhara, their child Rahula or their relatives, until now.

Yasodhara was the first woman in Siddhartha’s life, but not the last to follow in his footsteps. Why did he call his son “a hindrance” and believe women were a trap of desire and attachment “not fit to follow or understand my teachings”? How did Yasodhara and the nuns fight for equal treatment and rights? How could The Buddha have such compassion for others, yet be so scared of intimacy, emotion and love? What happened to sixteen-year-old Yasodhara and her two-day old son, Rahula, after her husband (Siddhartha) left her sleeping in the middle of the night to seek enlightenment?

As Yasodhara lies close to death and shares her experiences as a young girl, a wife, a parent and then a nun, her son Rahula, who has been in self-imposed exile in Sri Lanka, attempts a perilous journey, with his wife and child, to reach his mother before she dies and release the secrets about his father that he’s kept buried inside. Will Rahula and Yasodhara’s dharma sister, reach Yasodhara in time to ask for forgiveness? Can anyone ever forgive the unforgivable?

The Most Intimate Moments of Our Lives by Gabriel Constans


Until I read bell hooks books on feminism and love -Communion: The female search for love and All About Love - I would have sworn that I supported women (and men’s) liberation in every aspect of my life. But after the first few chapters I became painfully aware of the fact that I haven’t applied the same understanding and equality I try to faithfully practice at work, with friends, raising children and doing household chores to my intimate romantic life.

In Communion Ms. hooks says, “Some men cared enough to consent to feminist thinking and to change, but only a very, very few loved us - loved us all the way. And that meant respecting our sexual rights.”

I always think of my partners pleasure and satisfaction during sex and am turned on by her joy as much or more than my own sensations, but I also saw how I used to use coercion, control, emotional distancing and blame to get what I wanted. I continually gave her the message (unconsciously and nonverbal) that she was never “good enough”. I always wanted her to be more sexual, more often with greater variety and be different than she was or is, in order to fulfill my desires, perceived needs and fantasies. The underlying implications were “if you don’t change or be more like I want you to be, I’ll have to leave and find someone else.” It created a sense of fear and rejection.

Seeing this reality shattered my self-image of always being a loving, caring man and helped me acknowledge how often I and the continually reinforced messages from society, have caused such intense and long lasting loneliness for those women seeking loving, shared partnerships with men. Hooks states, “Feminist silence about love reflects a collective sorrow about our powerlessness to free all men from the hold patriarchy has on their minds and hearts. Our heartache came from facing the reality that if men were not willing to holistically embrace feminist revolution, then they would not be in an emotional place where they could offer us love.”

I began to realize that it is love and connection that I desired most, not sex. I no longer need sex to reassure me that I am loved or wanted. In the past, having someone desire and want me sexually meant that they loved me. If they didn’t have sex as often as I wanted, I reacted out of fear and sadness believing it meant they didn’t love me completely. Out of this sadness I would react with frustration and anger by trying to get them to “prove” there love for me with sex or by emotionally distancing myself and not talking, in order to “protect” myself from having expectations or “being hurt”.

These reactions and I believe that of most heterosexual men, are not realities I have totally ignored, but until reading hooks words I hadn’t really taken them to heart and honestly confronted my own patriarchal fears and thinking in the matter of love and relationships. It felt like bell had me in her sights when she said, “Feminist women stopped talking 
about love because we found that love was harder to get than power. Men, and patriarchal females, were more willing to give us jobs, power, or money than they were to give us love. Women who learn to love represent the greatest threat to the patriarchal status quo.”

While reading Communion some kind of switch went on in my head. At first it opened the floodgates of grief over my part in perpetuating such profound alienation and pain. Then a kind of peace engulfed me – a newfound love and acceptance of my self and my partner. I am less stressed and anxious about the future and don’t try to make people be different than who they are. Is it any surprise that my partner has also experienced more peace with herself and in bed? She no longer has to worry or wonder if she will ever “be enough” or meet my suffocating patriarchal images of how she “should” be.

As I learn to love, without depending on her to fulfill or “make” that love, she to is finding that our mutual appreciation and respect for what is present, rather than what is absent, has deepened every aspect of our lives. Neither of us need the other person’s “approval” to love or be loved.

Ms. hooks insightfully reminds her readers that, “Knowing that both women and men are socialized to accept patriarchal thinking should make it clear to everyone that men are not the problem. The problem is patriarchy.” The problem is our refusal to acknowledge our own behavior in the most intimate moments of our lives and the fear of real connection and closeness that keeps us perpetuating the myths and lies about the minor differences of genes, gender and genetics.

Gabriel Constans’ latest books include the novel, Buddha’s Wife, and a short story collection, Saint Catherine’s Baby. He has worked in East Africa at the ROP Center for Street Children in Rwanda, and has edited a collection of children’s stories, Rwandan Folk Tales.

You can read more about the author and his work at http://www.gogabriel.com/