CBC: The Sessions (a.k.a. The Review Book)

Interview with Ligia Nunes

(Author) Name: Ligia Nunes, a pleasure to meet you!

Wattpad username: @Doctreez

Favourite quote: I have several really interesting, poetic, serious quotes - but my favorite is actually a bit of Mom Wisdom!

"Only YOU know how much your callus hurt your feet." - My Mom

:P And that's basically how she taught me that I should always try to understand instead of judge. That always helped me a lot...

Currently writing: "'My Sharona' your ass!" (around 45% completed), "Andhara - Whispers of Power" (almost completed in Portuguese, with just a few chapters in English).

Currently reading (non-WP): "Managing Successful Projects With Prince 2" yaaay :P and also a book about Body Language.

Currently eating/drinking a lot of: Drinking tons of tea; eating lots of WORDS <3 (and lamb, and cheese and strawberry laces and-).

Favourite non-literary hobby: I have loads! I like art, so I paint (digital), I sing (but badly), I play acoustic guitar and games (a lot). And finally, what I do the most: I hear music. To HEAR music is possibly what I do the most in life.

I love to talk about music, to share music, I spend hours creating thematic playlists for my characters, for my stories, for specific moods... I shower hearing music, I write hearing music, I sleep hearing music, I TALK hearing music, I HEAR MUSIC WHILE HEARING MUS- no, this last one was a joke. ;)

And that takes me to another hobby: trying to make people laugh. Now - THAT'S something I love!

Authors who you love (any genre):

Mary Shelley. Some others, mixing some brazilian authors: Dean Koontz is my eternal hero and my deepest love. André Vianco is my inspiration. Kizzy Isatis and Gerald Brom are my goal. Anne Rice whispers in my dreams; finally, Isaac Asimov and Neil Gaiman are probably the reason why I feel so strange sometimes! Also, wouldn't be me if I didn't mention Sophie Kinsella, author of the Shopaholic series. It was the first book I read in English and also the reason why I started to cut my hair on my own to save money :P

Tell us about how you started writing:

I wrote my first "short story" when I was 10. The title was "My dream Holiday" and it was pretty much a Sakura Card Captors fanfiction. I was Sakura, hahaha! My teacher loved it (but she probably enjoyed a lot more the unicorn I drew after my 20-something lines) :P haha.

Seriously though, I started with 13. My older brother used to play RPG ('Role Playing Game', that thing with dices, character sheets in paper and all those nerdy things I love), but he - 7 years older than me -, would never let me join his RPG group. One day my sister (12 years older), saw me crying because of it. She hugged me and showed me her fake profile on Orkut ("Orkut"!), created specifically for role-play.

She was Lexssara, the cyborg, who used to "fight" the bad guys, always defending "The Good Mood" in a community called "The Underground Fighters", where writers would focus on fight descriptions and where you'd be able to see No Heart fighting Chuck Norris (LOADS of fun). She created a profile for me and I became "Limanusa", a greek druid with healing powers - after that, I never stopped writing! =)

Would you like to write for a living? If so, why/not?

For a Living? I want to make a good money with my stories eventually, but I also want to have my own business and at the time I'm still trying to find where my heart really lies...

But I see the publishing process as a bunch of marketing strategies that I WANT to be part of - and that just means that if I ever get published, I'll certainly have some marketing initiatives in my sleeve and a nice budget proposal to increase the copies sold, lol! And it may be only be something in my head, but I guess that classifies as "a perfect junction of interests" (in a way), so - why not?

Why did you pick this story to be featured?

Even if I had all my stories published in wattpad, I'd still choose this one. I spent the most intense two months with these characters, to the point I'm dreaming about them and imagining myself in interviews to understand them better. When I went to London last month, I almost expected to see Sharona and her 'gang' walking down the street or seated in a pub. That was ALMOST like an out-of-body experience or something. It was just so intense that I felt like visiting the filming set for a movie that only exists in my head... And I want people to see it; to experience what I have inside it.

What inspired you to write this story?

A walk in the park, a dirty (but really interesting) thought, The song "My Sharona" and a nice article about how this song alone was the 'beginning of the end' for The Knack.

Both the song's story, the lyrics, an interview with the REAL Sharona and my current mood at the time; all this was in the cauldron! Apart from that, I was trying to fight a really intense feeling of usefulness mixed with defeat, what probably molded everything.

What is your favourite relationship in this story?

I could say 'all' and play nice, but that'd be a lie. As much as I love pretty much every single one of the relationships there (including the dynamic of the main group), my answer is undoubtedly The Kid (Jim Stewart) and Sharona. The age difference is there, but is not a problem, there's still a friendship between them, a honest one. They care for each other, they look out of each other, they're each other's safe heavens and they learn so much together!
I also love Sharona-Doug-Patti for reasons I can't quite explain without giving a lot of spoilers :X

What do you think makes this story stand out?

Now, that's a good question - I'll have to say 'why, nothing, or everything'', because there's no way I can precisely point it. I could Say Sharona herself and her fake strength, I could say her relationship with her friends, I could simply say "Chess" and I could say it's all the bloody bad things happening in her company and how much every single one of these points help to sink 'My Sharona' to a point where... well. Where we all got stuck at some moment... A point where the only person who can actually make the first move to help us is ourselves.

...But the main reason is probably because the first chapters are a bit funny. Haha :P

What do you hope readers take away from this story?

Some laughs, hopefully! And maybe the feeling that they too can start taking things on their hands and fighting for what they want... That working hard is always rewarded and that better times will always come if you don't give up the fight.