Q: Please tell us about your current release.
A: I will use the back cover copy as it works pretty well on its
own.
John Catenacci is enthralled from the
start by the beauty, radiance, and mystery of the much younger woman he meets
at a party. Dianna “is in Technicolor and everyone else is in black and white.”
Expecting to be the teacher, not the student, John is humbled by the gradual
discovery that the opposite is true, in their marriage and in life. The author
is profoundly awed by Dianna’s courage, determination, and lightness of being
that remains entirely undiminished in the face of what becomes a seventeen-year
battle with an aggressive form of breast cancer. John accompanies Dianna each
step of the way, and is increasingly amazed by the undeniable healing affect
she has on others. Theirs is a shared spiritual journey into the nature of love
and transformation. Even after her passing, their relationship pierces the
illusion veiling this reality.
Q: Can you tell us about the journey that led you to write your
book?
A: At some point in our life together, I began to notice Dianna was
living her life in a genuinely powerful, almost mysterious (to me) way and
suggested to her that I write her story. She was as delighted as any child
running down the stairs on Christmas morning. But, as her health deteriorated,
I became focused on care giving and put the writing aside. After she died, I
was engulfed in grief and for a couple of years I just couldn’t climb out of
it. One day, I happened upon a book by Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way,
which I credit with guiding me back into the game.
The book is in five parts. The first
four recount our life together with the fifth devoted to my personal spiritual
journey of coming to terms with her leaving, my long view of who she was and
what I learned from her. The first four parts flowed like water once I began to
write but I struggled mightily with the last part. Yet it is this last part
that weaves together the whole of her life, her message, in a way very
satisfying to me.
Q: Can you
tell us about the story behind your book cover?
Well, originally the cover was going
to be centered on the photo of Dianna that is now on the back cover. I love
this photo of her – it is quintessential Dianna in an image.
However, my editor, Marly Cornell,
convinced me this was going to be an ineffective cover and, after accidentally
seeing the photo of Dianna and me from the rear taken by a dear
friend/professional photographer, Giovanni Sanitate, she instantly said, “This
is the one. Use this one.” Well, it has taken most of my life but I have finally
learned to listen and follow advice when the advice comes from someone I
respect. So, now, everyone gets to see my bald head instead of Dianna. More
mystery, more intriguing, Marly said. Probably because anyone looking at it
would wonder what this young woman is doing with this old man.
Anyway, unwilling to let it go
completely, I pushed Dianna’s photo to the back cover because I wanted it to be
seen and seen in color.
Q: What book on
the market does yours compare to? How is your book different?
A: Everyone is unique. No one could have written this book but me
and no one else has existed nor ever will exist who is like Dianna. So her
story and how I have written it is like no other book anyone has ever read. Of
course, this does not make it a good book but simply a unique one. I have read
quite a few memoirs, many involving illness, care giving – and some of them
were really good. What I think makes this book special is what made Dianna
special, what made our relationship special – so much laughter, optimism, ways
of constantly making lemonade when we needed it, and, finally, the deeply
spiritual orientation to the book’s message – good or bad, there is nothing
fluffy about where Dianna goes in her life nor in the way I have chosen to
examine her life …. and the very meaning of life itself.
Q: What would
you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
I like to write in sentence fragments
and the entire book is a sort of a mosaic – there are chapters that are
conventionally chronological because they had to be but other parts of the book
are like bursts of light shining on an amazing woman so the reader can enjoy
her in the way I – and all who knew her – enjoyed and were inspired by
her. I am so happy with how the entire tapestry came together into a
whole. I think Dianna is too.
Of course I could go into grammar and
punctuation, which I thought I knew. And my love of ellipses and my aversion to
the word “that” and my unconscious tendency to start sentences with “So.”
So, my early readers and editor ripped me to pieces on those
“quirks.”
Q: Open your
book to a random page and tell us what’s happening.
A: In my reality, nothing in life is random — or accidental. When I
was about to write this response, I happened to look out the window and saw
three – three – hummingbirds dancing around a honeysuckle – have never seen
this before – like Dianna saying “talk about the hummingbird chapter.”
While I was writing the book, it
occurred to me to use a hummingbird as one metaphor for how Dianna lived her
life – flitting from person to person, embracing their love whole heartedly
while impregnating each one with a simple grace, unflagging humor and ineffable
love in return, all in one magical spontaneous exchange.
The look of triumph on her face, her
excitement and joy, when the first hummingbird showed up in our yard was
unforgettable. She had worked so hard for several years, planting for them, and
finally there it was, this little Ruby Throated blur. In that moment I saw,
once again, her determination, patience, faith, appreciation and gratitude all
in one tiny vignette during one day of our lives.
Q: Do you plan
any subsequent books?
An already almost fully formed book
is in my mind now. Better writers than I have said don’t talk about a book idea
or the energy for writing it will bleed away, leaving it stillborn.
Q: Tell us what you’re reading at the moment and what you think of
it.
A: The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die by John Izzo and The Five Regrets of the Dying by
Bronnie Ware because I am old enough now where I should pay attention to these
things — probably before tomorrow — and A Broken Sausage Grinder by Hank
Thomas, a friend of mine and The Almost Archer Sisters by Lisa
Gabriele, a relative and friend of mine. I often read several books at a time,
switching back and forth depending on my mood. All are interesting in different
ways and for different reasons.
There is so very much talent in the world isn’t there?
