Ask the Author: Leo Vardiashvili
Answered Questions (18)
Leo Vardiashvili
Thank you, that's a huge compliment. All my favourite books are ones I re-read from time to time.
As for the question, I don't know what to tell you. I'm a very curious person. Curious about everything. I suppose this means I'm always collecting observations, interesting words, unusual ways to look at or describe things. I promise I make far more obtuse observations than acute ones. The observations I personally like, often worm their way into my writing.
As for the question, I don't know what to tell you. I'm a very curious person. Curious about everything. I suppose this means I'm always collecting observations, interesting words, unusual ways to look at or describe things. I promise I make far more obtuse observations than acute ones. The observations I personally like, often worm their way into my writing.
Leo Vardiashvili
The most surprising discovery was just how much I remembered from my childhood in Georgia. Rumours, stories, jokes, people, places... Some of which have found their way into Hard by a Great Forest 😉
Leo Vardiashvili
I was too young to write anything of merit while I was in Georgia. Though I was trying even back then.
I continued writing, albeit in English, once I was in the UK. Writing has always felt like a form of therapy for me. Even without any readers, I would still write. I don't know what I would do without it.
I continued writing, albeit in English, once I was in the UK. Writing has always felt like a form of therapy for me. Even without any readers, I would still write. I don't know what I would do without it.
Leo Vardiashvili
No, my family was lucky enough not to lose any members directly to the civil war, or the war in South Ossetia (Samachablo), or the war in Abkhazia. But there are many, many Georgians who cannot say the same...
I feel for them, and sympathise with their pain.
Nodar as a character is unusual in the conclusion he has come to - he is obsessed with finding his daughter and as a result he realises that assigning blame brings him no closer to finding her.
That's why he doesn't care who is to blame.
There are many Georgians who do not have that luxury. They wish to assign responsibility for their very real, and often very recent loss. Closure is important, in whatever way they personally come to it.
I feel for them, and sympathise with their pain.
Nodar as a character is unusual in the conclusion he has come to - he is obsessed with finding his daughter and as a result he realises that assigning blame brings him no closer to finding her.
That's why he doesn't care who is to blame.
There are many Georgians who do not have that luxury. They wish to assign responsibility for their very real, and often very recent loss. Closure is important, in whatever way they personally come to it.
Leo Vardiashvili
I feel like I know Ken Kesey's brilliant cast of characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on a personal level.
I miss them from time to time, and end up reading the novel again, just to spend some time in their company.
I miss them from time to time, and end up reading the novel again, just to spend some time in their company.
Leo Vardiashvili
Thank - there does come a point where I need a character to say something for plot reasons etc., and then realise that particular character would never say such a thing...
As for the voices, no, they really never troubled me. I wrote the novel around a demanding day job, therefore by the time I'd finished writing, I was exhausted and the voices had no chance to interrupt my sleep.
They did creep into my daily life - but only in the sense of me keeping an ear open for interesting ways people, especially Georgian people, might phrase something or an interesting saying, proverb, rumour etc.
As for the voices, no, they really never troubled me. I wrote the novel around a demanding day job, therefore by the time I'd finished writing, I was exhausted and the voices had no chance to interrupt my sleep.
They did creep into my daily life - but only in the sense of me keeping an ear open for interesting ways people, especially Georgian people, might phrase something or an interesting saying, proverb, rumour etc.
Leo Vardiashvili
I planned everything but the characters. I had a name for them all and a vague idea of their character, but a strange thing happened as I wrote more about them. While at first, it was like pushing a boulder up a hill, there came a point at the crest, where the characters took over. At that point the boulder starts rolling down the hill and I was just trying to keep up with these people I'd created.
This isn't unique by any means, I've heard many a writer say that characters take on a life of their own - not always in agreement with the writer's intentions either! It may be cliche, but nonetheless it is a very eerie, yet somehow satisfying experience.
I hope that answers the question!
This isn't unique by any means, I've heard many a writer say that characters take on a life of their own - not always in agreement with the writer's intentions either! It may be cliche, but nonetheless it is a very eerie, yet somehow satisfying experience.
I hope that answers the question!
Leo Vardiashvili
My homecoming was 17 years after my departure. So it was quite an intense experience - a lot like what Saba experiences (minus missing family members, escaped zoo animals, police attention, etc.).
What was cathartic was starting to put those feeling on the page - the novel started partly as a form of self-therapy to get my head around that first visit back to Georgia.
What was cathartic was starting to put those feeling on the page - the novel started partly as a form of self-therapy to get my head around that first visit back to Georgia.
Leo Vardiashvili
I edit constantly, obsessively and daily. Trust me, the words I lose, you don't want to read... :)
Leo Vardiashvili
You work on your draft on your new novel for a day and press 'save'. Your computer crashes and erases the day's work.
Leo Vardiashvili
Yes and no.
No one is a directly based on anyone I know. Yet, a lot of anecdotes, quirks, ways of speaking, ways of swearing, are based on dozens and dozens of real Georgians I've met.
I really did take a taxi from the airport into Tbilisi with a taxi driver who just WOULD NOT stop smoking for the 40 minute drive. Most of the cigarettes he didn't even actually smoke, they just hung there raining ash all over him - which is a detail that has ended up in the novel.
No one is a directly based on anyone I know. Yet, a lot of anecdotes, quirks, ways of speaking, ways of swearing, are based on dozens and dozens of real Georgians I've met.
I really did take a taxi from the airport into Tbilisi with a taxi driver who just WOULD NOT stop smoking for the 40 minute drive. Most of the cigarettes he didn't even actually smoke, they just hung there raining ash all over him - which is a detail that has ended up in the novel.
Leo Vardiashvili
Ratty car!? How dare you! Shameless slander! Nodar would have a conniption over that comment :)
The Volga is the king of cars, as he says.
Joking aside, I can categorically say I don't re-read my novel for two reasons.
One, I've already read it (especially certain parts of it) probably close to a hundred times in the process of drafting, re-drafting, and of course editing it incessantly. I've had enough. No mas, please. Having said that, the characters are still vivid in my head. Can't get rid of them...
Two, I can't re-read it because when I tried, I immediately found things that I want to improve, polish and edit. And of course that's not an option - that ship has well and truly sailed. So re-reading would be a form of torture. But again, the characters and what they might say in a given situation are very much still with me.
I've rambled, but I hope I answered the question somewhere in there.
Thank you for the kind words by the way - it genuinely means a lot to me. In what way did it feel like music? I've not heard that before...
The Volga is the king of cars, as he says.
Joking aside, I can categorically say I don't re-read my novel for two reasons.
One, I've already read it (especially certain parts of it) probably close to a hundred times in the process of drafting, re-drafting, and of course editing it incessantly. I've had enough. No mas, please. Having said that, the characters are still vivid in my head. Can't get rid of them...
Two, I can't re-read it because when I tried, I immediately found things that I want to improve, polish and edit. And of course that's not an option - that ship has well and truly sailed. So re-reading would be a form of torture. But again, the characters and what they might say in a given situation are very much still with me.
I've rambled, but I hope I answered the question somewhere in there.
Thank you for the kind words by the way - it genuinely means a lot to me. In what way did it feel like music? I've not heard that before...
Leo Vardiashvili
In short, yes. I'm working on the next novel. Very much front of mind. Without checking, I can tell you it's 37,750 words in. Which is about halfway - that is if I stop losing hundreds of words on some days... :)
Thank you for the praise. Credit to Georgia for the scenery - it really is as I've tried to describe it!
Thank you for the praise. Credit to Georgia for the scenery - it really is as I've tried to describe it!
Leo Vardiashvili
Thank you Angela, Luke Thompson did a stellar job with the novel. Especially considering the complexity it presented - multiple voices of varying ages, alive and dead, etc. etc. I am very, very happy with the audiobook and it's getting a lot of compliments. Unsurprising really, considering how talented Luke is.
To answer your question, I don't know what the 'typical' scenario. But, in my case, I was presented with a shortlist of actors and in tandem with my publisher, we chose the actor we wanted to work on the audiobook.
As an aside detail, for this novel specifically, what followed was quite a bit work clarifying the pronounciation of Gerogian place names, character names and so on. Which were then passed onto Luke - again, he did an amazing job with words that are usually hard to pronounce for anyone who isn't Georgian...!
To answer your question, I don't know what the 'typical' scenario. But, in my case, I was presented with a shortlist of actors and in tandem with my publisher, we chose the actor we wanted to work on the audiobook.
As an aside detail, for this novel specifically, what followed was quite a bit work clarifying the pronounciation of Gerogian place names, character names and so on. Which were then passed onto Luke - again, he did an amazing job with words that are usually hard to pronounce for anyone who isn't Georgian...!
Leo Vardiashvili
I'd go to the Discworld and hang out with Rincewind. I might not survive his (mis)adventures, but it'd be worth it.
Leo Vardiashvili
Come and Get It - Kiley Reid
The Instrumentalist - Harriet Constable
Spoilt Creatures - Amy Twigg
The Instrumentalist - Harriet Constable
Spoilt Creatures - Amy Twigg
Leo Vardiashvili
Finding the person who fast-forwards all my weekend. There will be blood.
Leo Vardiashvili
Hi Tracy,
I'm glad you enjoyed the novel and thank you for the praise - but that's far too kind of you!
Your question promted a closer look at the Goodreads tags - I had no idea I wrote Science Fiction.
I suppose there are some surreal, magic realism elements to the novel. There are mentions of portals, adjacent worlds intersecting with ours, and fairytale elements tugging at the edges of reality.
Maybe this is why it got tagged as Sci-Fi? From the feedback so far, the novel seems to be one of those annoying ones that doesn't neatly fit into a genre.
I hope that (sort of) answers your question!
Cheers,
Leo
I'm glad you enjoyed the novel and thank you for the praise - but that's far too kind of you!
Your question promted a closer look at the Goodreads tags - I had no idea I wrote Science Fiction.
I suppose there are some surreal, magic realism elements to the novel. There are mentions of portals, adjacent worlds intersecting with ours, and fairytale elements tugging at the edges of reality.
Maybe this is why it got tagged as Sci-Fi? From the feedback so far, the novel seems to be one of those annoying ones that doesn't neatly fit into a genre.
I hope that (sort of) answers your question!
Cheers,
Leo
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