Interview and Review of Nina

Here's a short excerpt of an interview I did with Leigh Dragoon ldragoon from The Byzarium webzine.


Q - First off, I have to ask - how did you come up with the idea for Nina?! It's such a wonderful concept, which immediately snagged my attention.
It started by reading about Vincent Van Gogh’s life. I’ve always been fascinated by him and his art. Some people believe that he was schizophrenic and I agree. But the more I read about him the more I wondered…or daydreamed, what if he wasn’t crazy? What if his paintings were talking to him?
Then I got into a whole different set of questions. What is life about? Is it worth living? If so why? What makes us real?
Then I started wondering how I would react if a painting started talking to me. What if I could tell the story of what this painting was seeing? Being moved from place to place, from person to person. What if she wanted to be real? What if she had a year to live life and decide whether or not she wanted to live? Would she choose life? Or seclusion inside a canvas for all eternity?
Q - I've seen you mention that Nina was originally intended to be a short story. At what point did the dawning horror of the realization: "Oh my gawdess, it wants to be NOVEL!" strike you?
At first I was terrified of the idea of turning Nina into a novel, because when I wrote the first twenty-something pages I had no idea where to go from there. The story was supposed to end with the artist committing suicide. But characters have a certain way of talking to you while you’re sleeping. So Nina ‘talked’ to me a lot in my dreams. That’s why in some parts of the book it feels almost as though you’ve stepped into a hazy dream. And that’s basically how Nina turned into a novel.
Read the rest here http://byzarium.com/interview_liz_dejesus


A Moving Story
Liz DeJesus NINA (Blu Phier Publishing, 2007)176 pages,
fiction, $ 12.99 U.S.
To say NINA is a “moving” story is something of an understatement—it will pull you in and, if you’re lucky, spit you out when it’s done. The story is at times mystical, at other times gritty and dramatic and still keeps you turning the page until you get to the end. And if you’re like me, you’ll find you still want to know what happens next.
I enjoyed reading NINA; I found it entertaining as well as containing elements of life with which I could identify. There is a certain realism some of us can relate to about how the character Andrea relates to her parents. And I enjoyed not being able to predict what happens next—Liz DeJesus seems to have a knack for keeping her readers on their toes. I appreciate that in a novel. Then there’s the title character, Nina, and how she learns and grows and relates to the world around her. What I found particularly enjoyable was her introduction to desserts and chocolate. Made me want to run out and grab a brownie.
NINA takes a wonderful look into how we relate to one another and how a person, plucked and placed into life essentially grown, might relate to the people she meets as she struggles to find her place. It’s definitely a worthwhile read.
Review By Cheri L. Chesley www.myspace.com/weaversofwords