Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to A.R. Farina. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, A.R. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?

I tried and tried to get an agent and that was a whole adventure and there is no promise of publication even if one gets an agent. Folks spend years trying to get one, and then they can wait years more waiting for the agent to sell something. Ultimately, I started to send my work out to publishers and had two offers for the same book that way. Agents are great, but not everyone is going to publish at a big house and while it can be a grind doing it on your own, direct to publishers, the rewards are greater.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Below is taken from my website. I feel that it best represents my whole self and how I got here. It is also in my voice and style that my novels have. If you would prefer something else, please let me know.

It may be apocryphal, but I’ve been told that I started reading when I was three. I know, it sounds absurd, but according to family legend, it’s true. I do know that at age five when I started Kindergarten, I skipped out on learning my letters and sounding out words to go read alone in the library or to join the third graders to do their reading lessons.

I have images of reciting entire books on the laps of adults who were either totally impressed or bored to tears. It was magic when words were strung together to tell stories that transported me from a grandmother’s lap to Whoville or Narnia.

I was a fidgety, noisy, kid who interrupted everything my parents did. They figured out that if I had a book in my hand, I could sit still and be quiet. I could be left alone for hours in front of the stereo, with huge, adult-sized over-the-ear headphones playing the Beach Boys’ albums on repeat while I painted fences with Tom or fenced the baddies alongside D’Artagnan.

We now know that I have ADHD and my hyper-focus is reading. In the 1970s, I was just a pain in the ass whose parents got creative to keep him happy.

I became a person who understood the whole world from my little room in a small, country town full of people who looked just like me. In the books I read, I went places I could never go. I met people I’d never get to meet in real life. I learned that people are just people regardless of their race or gender. I learned that you could have mental health issues, and still be a whole person. I learned that love is love and it is good, and war is war, and it is bad. Books gave me the world. They got into my heart and soul and gave me lifelong friends.

I went into 7th grade having already read all of the required reading for the year and instead of making me read it all again, my teacher encouraged me to write some fiction. I wrote a play, created comic books, and wrote some short stories. It was all bad, but the bug bit me and at age 12, I became a writer.

Now, nearly 40 years later, I am still a writer. My teacher saw a kid who found himself in stories and she hoped that one day, people would pick up something I wrote and would find themselves. I write because I want to be that person for other noisy, dream-filled, pain in the asses out there. Maybe, dear reader, you are one of them.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Libraries and reviews are the key to everything. If we like something by a writer, musician, filmmaker, we must get them in libraries and we must offer reviews.

They seem like different things but they are not. There are 4000 public libraries in the United States alone. If everyone of them buys a book, CD, movie, comic, whatever, the person becomes a best seller. Sometimes libraries will order physical books and digital books. Double the sales. Double the exposure. Of course we can buy books and directly support artists. We can fund Kickstarters and become Patrons on Patreon and if we can afford that, we should. However, getting art in libraries is a sure fire way to get sales AND an audience.

The other thing we can do in this digital age is leave reviews. The more reviews a book, album, comic, podcast, or whatever has, the more eyes get on it. Humans don’t always decide what pops up first when people browse. Reviews are like the “staff’s choice” section at the library, bookstore, or record store. This takes just a few minutes, but every review helps the creative noticed, which makes them more money, which allows them to make more things we love.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I used to say that I just wanted one person I didn’t know to read something I read and be moved by it. I’ve had that happen and it feels amazing. I want my art to inspire other people to make and consume art. I feel that being part of the whole art ecosystem is special. Art constantly pays it forward every day. I hear a song and am inspired to write a story and someone reads that story and is inspired to make a movie and so on and so on.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.arfarina.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.r.farina/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAR.Farina/
• Other: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/30441472.A_R_Farina