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Have you ever dreamt of writing a book, writing poems, seeing your name on the cover of a

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book?

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Well, my next guest, author Claudio D'Andrea, did it at 60.

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Welcome Claudio.

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Thank you, Tracy.

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And in case this is your first time tuning into us, my name is Tracy Martens and this

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is YQG in Bloom podcast, everything local in Windsor, Essex County area.

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So tell me, what made you decide to write a book at 60?

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Not that it's old.

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No, no.

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I just, I've always wanted to write a book.

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It's the dream of any writer, I think, is to publish a book.

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But it didn't really set out to do that.

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I think around 10 years ago, I started writing, creative writing, creative short fiction,

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poetry, a few other pieces like that.

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And decided at some point over that span of time that, you know, maybe I can compile these

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and put them together in a book and a theme emerged and it just seemed to work out that

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way.

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So here I am.

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And then as you say, I near the my 60th birthday, my 60th birthday year, I decided I think now

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is the time to do it.

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So I did.

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That's wonderful.

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I love that.

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I say, you know, you followed your dream, it may have taken a kudos to you for starting

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this venture at 60.

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Well, you started it before, but to follow through, because I mean, I'm 54 and it's something

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that I've always wanted to do and it's very daunting task.

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It is.

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And writing and publishing isn't new.

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I've been doing that all my life in journalism and magazines, newspapers, online, digital

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publications.

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So this is this is not my first rodeo when it comes to publishing.

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But to put out a published print book was something different.

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So what type of journalism did you do?

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All kinds, really.

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I started in community newspapers in the area started.

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I worked in Tilbury and Bell River.

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And then I moved out west for a couple of years, Greater Vancouver area in the early

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90s.

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Worked at some of the community newspapers there, came back to Ontario and then started

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at the Windsor Star in 95.

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And been there ever since.

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So and I'm still there.

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You're still there.

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Yeah.

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You've been a journalist for many years.

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Is there a big difference between journalistic writing and writing, say, poem, short stories,

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books?

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Yeah, there is quite a difference.

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When you're writing journalism, you have to hear the facts, right?

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You have to make sure you're balancing different opinions.

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If that's the case, you're doing your research, it has to be true in that sense.

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When you're writing, when you're doing creative writing, it's a lot more free flowing.

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But I also tell people that there's truth in fiction, too.

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And some people might not understand that or might not believe it.

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But sometimes I think fiction is more true than nonfiction.

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I always say that there always is an element of truth in fiction because you have to start

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somewhere.

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You have to have an idea.

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And it's usually something that you already know or has happened to you or somebody you

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know.

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Yeah.

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So tell us about your book.

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And it is called Stories in the Key of Song.

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Yes it is.

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Yeah.

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I like that name.

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Thank you.

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It's inspired by Stevie Wonder, whose seminal album, Songs in the Key of Life, is a classic

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LP and there's so many great songs in it.

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So I'm kind of riffing off the title of that album.

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Yeah.

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And just as Stevie Wonder's album was really about life and how music inspires so many

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things and informs him in so many ways as far as his life, I thought, well, here are

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stories where in some way, shape or form, each story has a musical element in it.

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In some ways it can be a major element where the characters are musicians and there's a

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lot of music in them.

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And other ways it could be just the opening quote could be from a musician and that's

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it.

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And then everything in between.

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So I thought, well, the theme for my book is music, really, and how music informs each

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story.

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So that's what I went with.

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And you obviously love music.

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I do.

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I do.

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Yeah.

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I mean, all my life I've loved listening to it.

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I played the drums.

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So I played in a band back in the 80s.

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A few years ago, my loving family bought me a little electronic drum kit, surprised me

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with it at Christmas.

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So now I can, you know, bang away on them to my heart's content and the neighbors don't

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complain.

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It's quiet except in my headphones.

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In the headphones.

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Oh, they're smart.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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But that was nice.

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Yeah.

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So music's just, it's always been very important to me.

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I've always loved it.

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And I think it's something that a lot of people can connect with in all kinds of ways.

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Oh, for sure.

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And I mean, songs are just short stories as well, which are, I love songs.

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I love listening to the words of the songs.

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Now your book is short stories.

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When did that, is it released already?

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It is.

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Yeah.

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It was released already a few weeks ago in September and now it's out there in public.

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It's in a couple of bookstores.

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It's on blackmosspress.com and there's Bookfest.

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And then I'm doing some promotional talks and things like that around the book.

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So one of them is going to be Bookfest Windsor, which is coming up.

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So there'll be more of that as well.

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And you said that's going to be online?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's going to be online.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I'm definitely going to have to look that up, look up by their Instagram, their website

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so that we can get an idea of it because I had no idea we had a Bookfest.

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I would have been the first one there because I love reading.

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How many short stories are in your book?

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There are 10.

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But the opening piece, there's an introduction, but the opening piece is a nonfiction piece.

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And it's about my name.

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And it's something that I wrote years ago.

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It's something where I discovered what my name means, literally.

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Claudius is my namesake, the famous emperor, and is a librarian that told me what it means.

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And I started researching it.

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And then I discovered that it means lame, crippled, because that's what he was.

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And I thought, well, that's kind of a bummer.

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I've always had a real love-hate relationship with my name.

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I'm OK with it now.

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But growing up, it was just not my thing.

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Why couldn't it be Bob?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, yeah, I took on a pen name years ago in some of my freelance work.

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And it was Paul Rigi.

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Rigi is my mom's maiden name.

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And Paul is my confirmed name.

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So I've always liked Paul.

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But I'm OK with Claudio now.

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I mean, you make it your own.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So out of the 10 short stories in your book, do you have a favorite?

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I was asked that before.

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And I think I did answer it.

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But then I thought, that's like asking a mom.

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Oh, do you have a favorite kid?

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You have 10 children.

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And who's your favorite?

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I just, you know.

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OK, then I'll put it this way.

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Which one resonates closest to you?

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Because I know, like you said, there are fiction, but is there one that is a lot like you?

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I don't know about a lot like me, but there's a couple.

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But one in particular kind of really is close to the heart.

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It's Carol's Last Christmas.

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And I got a lot of strong reaction to that story.

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People felt that the characters, the theme, it really hit them.

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It seemed to have a lot of emotional impact.

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So.

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Well, the name itself.

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Yeah.

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I mean, that would be a tearjerker, I'm assuming.

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Yeah, it's a bit sad.

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Yeah, it is.

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Now are any of these nonfiction or are they all fiction?

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Well, the piece about my name is nonfiction.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So that one's called I, Lame, which I'm playing off of I, Claudius, of course.

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So that piece is nonfiction, but the rest are all fiction.

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Yeah.

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OK.

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Now, do you have something that you can read for us today?

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I do.

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There's one story in this one I'm pretty proud of.

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It's called Julie Andrews versus Alice Cooper.

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Oh.

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And I'll just read you one short piece from it.

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So the characters are in the main characters are, in fact, Julie Andrews and Alice Cooper.

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So I decided to try to get into their heads and try to pretend what they would be like

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and how they would talk and how they would interact with other people.

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So in this scene, Alice Cooper and the setup here is there's a song of Alice Cooper's called

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Halo of Flies.

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And one day when I was listening to it, I started hearing Julie Andrews, My Favorite

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Things.

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And it fit like the lyrics in that song matched it perfectly.

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And so I thought, that's kind of strange.

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So the premise of this story is where Julie Andrews' publicist sue Alice Cooper for plagiarism,

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stealing My Favorite Things lines.

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And then he seeks some revenge from his lawsuit.

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So in this scene, Alice Cooper is talking to Bob Ezrin, who was his real life producer.

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He's Canadian producer, produced a lot of his albums.

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He's produced Pink Floyd, phenomenal musical producer.

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So here's Alice Cooper at Bob Ezrin's home.

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My Favorite Sick Things, An Evening with Alice Cooper.

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Bob Ezrin read the words out loud that Alice scrawled in black ink in a white napkin.

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There should be a you in favorite.

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Alice ignored the Canadian record producer's comment.

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He was excited about his latest musical concept and eager to work on another project with

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Ezrin, his favorite musical collaborator.

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What do you think?

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I think it's, well, very Alice, he said.

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The devil, as you know, will be in the musical details.

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Alice smiled.

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Outside the chill winds of late October and Halloween, which was another one of his favorites,

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his favorite time of year swirled leaves into a whirlwind against Ezrin's Tony Toronto home.

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His arms moving through the air like an orchestra conductor, Alice tried to paint a picture

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of the stage show that was in his mind.

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At this point, he only had scraps of musical ideas that he hoped Ezrin would help turn

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into a polished finished product, like he did with so many albums, including his twin

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Nightmare Enterprise.

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First he wanted Ezrin to see what it would look like on stage.

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It was Alice's latest theater of the macabre.

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Always a champion of the villain in rock and roll, Alice saw this show as the ultimate

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good versus evil production.

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Julie Andrews versus Alice Cooper.

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Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes versus guys in black leather with silvery

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cod pieces.

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Snowflakes versus spider's webs.

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Mary Poppins versus no more Mr. Nice Guy.

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I like that.

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Thank you.

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Oh, I want to hear more.

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Alice Cooper, I could see where, you know, he could very well have used some of Julie

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Andrews songs because he has a lot of really deep, meaningful love songs.

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He does.

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He's not as hard as whatever way he may look at.

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He's misunderstood.

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I think he's brilliant.

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And he's funny, funny as anything, which was, which maybe a lot of people don't realize,

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but there's some of his song lyrics.

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I saw him performing at Caesar's Windsor years ago.

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And the only thing he did, right at the very end, he played a shortened version of Sick

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Things, one of his songs.

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And the only thing he said at the end, at the end of the show was he goes, ah, you're

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all sick things.

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And then he walked off his thing.

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In fact, I have met Bob Asrin.

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I met him once in Windsor.

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He was here visiting somebody else.

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I happened to go into the store that the person owned and he was there.

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And I'm like, ooh, because I love Alice Cooper's slow songs.

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And in fact, Alice Cooper goes to hell.

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I mean, that's just a classic.

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And then I found out later that I could have gone to a concert in Detroit, but the person's

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like, oh, she wouldn't like him.

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Like, seriously, I actually really like him there.

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Nobody knew I liked Alice Cooper, but he was a very nice guy.

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He was very nice.

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That was, we're talking about 15, 15 years ago.

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So yes.

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Yeah.

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But you said all of the songs have a musical notation of some form.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Um, in some way, shape or form.

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I mean, one of the songs, one of the stories is called Switch Sides and, uh, it just opens

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with two lyrics from Leonard Cohen and the other was David Gilmore, former Pink Floyd

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guitarist.

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So, and that's it.

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That's the only real musical connection to that story.

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But as I write in the introduction, music, I try, I strive to find some music in the

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wording too, in the writing as well.

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So there's, there's like a musicality in the writing and hopefully readers pick up on that

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as well.

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Okay.

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So what bookstores in our area, our audience find it at?

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Yeah.

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Well, it's at Bibli Oasis.

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Okay.

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That's one of them.

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River Books in Amersberg.

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I believe Juniper Books as well.

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Oh, good.

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Yeah.

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I understand that.

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A local bookstore.

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Yeah, exactly.

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And then the independent bookstores.

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I'm, you know, I just love them.

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So, big promoter of those.

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So they seem to be doing well.

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So a lot of people seem to support them.

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I think the only time I go into the larger chain bookstores is if I'm a trying to kill

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time or B, I'll check out their clearance section.

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I usually get cookbooks for like $5 or something.

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So why not?

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Sure.

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Sure.

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Now, do you have any other books on the horizon or something else you're writing?

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I do.

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I actually have one that's pretty much done.

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And it's like a companion piece to this book, because it's also musically themed and it's

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a book of poetry.

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So same sort of concept, but instead of short fiction, they're poems.

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And there's musical elements in all the poems.

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So it's pretty much done.

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I just have to go through it and have to, I have to weed out a few poems that don't

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quite fit and still working on cover elements.

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I do a lot of my own design work for the books.

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Like this cover was largely my design.

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Let me see this, because this is the first time I'm getting to see this.

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That is really nice.

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00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:51,920
And you designed that?

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Well, yeah, the photo is something that I found, but then I designed it with the little

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typewriter swirl in it.

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And that's essentially that was it.

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And then the CD?

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And then that's sort of my signature.

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But the rest of it was one of the Chris Andrew Chuck.

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He's the designer.

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He came up with the type setting and all that good stuff, as well as inside the book.

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It's really nice.

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Thank you.

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Well, I really appreciate you being here today, Claudio.

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This is wonderful.

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00:17:26,120 --> 00:17:31,080
I'm so excited for you and I hope it becomes a bestseller.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:39,160
And again, this is Claudio D'Andrea and it's stories in the key of song.

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And you can find it at Black Moss Press.

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We're the publishers.

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We can find it in local bookstores, River Bookstore, Bibliasis, Juniper.

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00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:54,680
And I'm sure if you look online, we'll be able to find it on there as well.

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00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:55,680
Yeah.

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00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:56,680
Yeah.

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Do you have a website?

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I do.

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I was just going to mention that.

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You can look me up.

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It's ClaudioD'Andrea.ca.

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Okay.

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And we have links to that as well.

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And the website will be in the description as well.

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And again, my name is Tracy Martins and I want to thank you so much for joining me for

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another episode of YQ Jam Bloom.

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Make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast so we can keep the podcast going and keep

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it free.

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You guys have a great night.