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

Christina, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Writing has always been something I’ve done, pretty much from the time I first learned to shape my letters. And writing a book was an item on my list of life goals for a very long time. But learning HOW to write a book? Oddly enough, I didn’t have that anywhere in my life plan. The WHY of that is for another day, but it’s an important topic to address. I didn’t major in English or creative writing; I don’t have an MFA. So how did I learn to write?

First, by reading. As Stephen King likes to say, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” Reading a lot has never been an issue: I love books of all kinds, and I enjoy escaping into a story, especially fiction. Those worlds I inhabited over the years—they drew me in, made me want to craft my own. Which meant I had to do the “write a lot” part. I knew that so much of what I might write would be considered drivel, but I also knew that the more I wrote, the better I’d get at it. So I journaled and blogged and wrote short stories and novel chapters. I took induvial writing classes and got feedback on my writing. Then, I joined a writing group whose sole purpose was to give and receive feedback so that everyone’s writing would be stronger. In time, novel drafts filled my shelves (and computer folders), and much later, my stories found a home. I’m now the proud author of three works of contemporary fiction published via small presses and three romances I published myself.

Because I decided to take on learning how to write a novel while my four children were relatively young, I don’t think I could have sped up the process. Being an attentive parent is important to me, and I had to balance parenting with writing and working outside the home part-time. That balancing act took time, energy, and patience, but both parenting and teaching allowed me the opportunity to observe all sorts of human behavior, and my characters have benefited from those observations. To date, I think observation skills are essential to writing authentic characters and crafting a believable narrative.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

On my website, I have a short biography that reads: “Warm cups of coffee, good books, and long runs outside. If I had my way, our days would be filled with nothing but joy. But life usually throws us a few things we’re not quite expecting. And then? It’s how we react that makes the difference . . .” I love that bio because it captures who I am, but like all people I’m so much more.

So who am I? I’m a mother, teacher, sister, life coach, wife, advocate, aunt, friend, dreamer, runner, reader, writer, author, editor, scientist. I have degrees in French and physiology because I love both those subjects, and my current professions—teacher, author, and freelance editor—also bring me joy. Teaching is something I tried to back away from, only to be drawn in again and again, and the feeling I get from educating a pupil is the same feeling I get when a reader says they understand my reason for writing one of my books and the same feeling I get when I edit the errors or make suggestions in someone’s writing. But you know what? I didn’t go to school to become a teacher, a writer, or an editor. I went to school to be a scientist!

Do I offer any scientific services? I do not, but every day—when I’m teaching or writing or editing—I use what I learned in graduate school. How to craft a question. How to find an answer. How to critically think. How to communicate effectively. How to displace bias. How to view something from multiple perspectives. And that’s what I offer my clients or my readers or my students: an opportunity to learn what I’ve learned. Of course, with the books I’ve written, I also offer people (what I hope is) an entertaining read!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media and I have a love-hate relationship. It doesn’t make me feel good about myself, and I don’t enjoy making posts or talking about myself or my work. However, I recognize that in this day and age, social media is so useful for building a brand and finding and reaching readers, clients, and students. So, I play the game a little bit at a time, but my following isn’t so large that I find it unwieldy.

How did I build that audience? By being me and my authentic self. Someone who scratches at her neck because she can’t stop. Someone who suffers from anticipatory anxiety (and always has). Someone who parents neurodivergent children. Someone who is neurodivergent herself. Someone who would likely be called a wallflower and is happy to be that way. Someone who will eagerly lift someone else up.

That last modifier is the one that helps the most with respect to social media. By sharing other people’s news, by interviewing folks and writing their stories, by encouraging others to do their best, by being myself—that’s how my presence increased.

So my advice to those just starting out? Be yourself.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The answer might be obvious already, but my goal is simple: to be authentic. Write an authentic story with authentic characters. Edit someone’s work authentically. I’d even go so far as to say that I bring that same goal to teaching. The profession, while not the most creative of endeavors at times, often requires a bit of creative thinking. If I aim to be authentic in that creative thinking, I reach more students.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christinaconsolino.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmconsolino/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorChristinaConsolino/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-consolino/
• Other: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3859078.Christina_Consolino
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