The following interview appeared on Dr. Mehmet Yildiz’s Medium page.

I am reprinting it here.

Thanks for reading.

Interview with Claudio D’Andrea

A journalist and an accomplished writer

Dear readers and writers, welcome to my new interview story, which introduces another influential writer. I enjoy interacting with people from diverse cultures, countries, and professional backgrounds. I have been interviewing professionals for a long time.

On this platform, I specifically enjoy interviewing writers. Each writer’s interview is special to me as each person is unique. My goal is to introduce them to my audience so that they can meet another interesting/relatable person on this planet and explore their work. I discussed the Importance and Remarkable Benefits of Interviews in My Professional and Personal Life.

In this interview, I will introduce Claudio D’Andrea who is a relatively new writer on Medium but not new to writing. Claudio has been working as a journalist for three decades. As he contributes to my publications, I noticed the value of his stories, so I decided to interview him to give you a glimpse of his interesting life.

Hi Claudio, welcome. Tell us a bit about your background.

I’ve been an ink-stained wretch for more than 40 years, working in newspapers, magazines and increasingly the digital realm including video. I am the child of Italian immigrants, born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada where I have lived and worked my whole life except for a couple of years when I was living near Vancouver, British Columbia. I completed my degrees in Communication Studies and English from the University of Windsor in Canada. I have been working as a journalist for a long time. For the past 10 years, I resumed a passion that I had for creative writing going back to high school and starting writing short fiction and poetry, as well as non-fiction pieces like book, concert and film reviews and essays. My first book, Stories in the Key of Song, is publishing in September.

What are your hobbies, or what excites or entertains you?

Music is a constant in my life. I love listening to it and playing my little electronic drum set. It’s an Alesis Nitro Mesh Kit which my loving family purchased for me as a Christmas gift in 2018. It’s quiet (to outsiders, not so much in my headphones) with lots of electronic bells and whistles. Not as gratifying as an acoustic kit but, hey, it’s a lot of fun and the neighbours don’t complain!

I love to dance. My wife Loredana and I enjoy tripping the proverbial light which is fantastic with ballroom and Latin dances, especially the waltz and rumba. To this day I have no idea how she can follow my steps and anticipate what I do. Except the times that I screw up, of course, and step on her toes or twirl her the wrong way.

We both enjoy gardening too, something that was instilled in us by my friend Bill Higgins who died too young in 2011. It does get harder on the body though as the years go by but I can’t help but admire the result (which I owe mostly to Loredana’s vision).

I’m not sure this qualifies as a ‘hobby’, but it’s certainly a pastime — or passatempo, as they say in the old country — and it is at the top of the list. That’s spending time with my family: Loredana, my son Anthony, and daughter Dina, and her husband Steven. I dedicate my book to them as “my sacred circle of trust.” In a world with so much anger and bullshit, so many false friends and family, I count my blessings that I can rely on their truth.

What are the top three books that affected your life?

Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus is probably first. It boggles the mind to think that Mary Shelley was only 18 when she wrote such a powerful, philosophical work and a forerunner of science fiction.

Coming up with the next two is trickier, but I’ll cheat and start with Complete Works: William Shakespeare. He was the greatest writer who ever lived. Need I say more?

Third perhaps is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig. It is astonishing on so many levels: as philosophy, a personal memoir of a father and son, a self-healing work, a road trip and guide to life.

Why do you write on Medium?

It’s a way to express myself in my writing and I like to read so many great authors — essayists, poets and fiction writers — and discover so many wonderful publications. As a platform, it also doesn’t fall into the traps of so many social media giants that do so many damaging things to your mental health and relationships like Facebook and Twitter (er, sorry, X). Things that Jaron Lanier persuasively pointed out in his book Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Medium’s founder Evan Williams sums it up best: “Together, we’re building a different kind of place on the internet: one designed for you, not for advertisers. A place where the best ideas rise to the top, not the ones that simply get the most clicks.”

Do you write on other platforms like Substack? If so, how do you find them?

I don’t — at least not yet — but I am exploring. This old dog still has a few tricks in him! I do like the concept of Substack though and enjoy following some of my favourite publications and writers like Illumination’s Content Strategy, Development & Marketing Insights and authors like Margaret Atwood, Cole Haddon, Susan Cain, Bev Potter and George Saunders. I am still trying to sift through various newsletter platforms; for instance, Substack vs. Beehiiv which you and Mike Broadly compared recently. (What’s with the fancy, shmancy new spellings for tech startups anyway? I mean, really, Beehiiv!)

What are your values as a writer?

Honesty, first. To paraphrase my mentor Neil Peart of the rock band Rush who famously wrote, “I can’t pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend,” I can’t pretend to write for long-awaited friends. If the work has any value, it will find a reader.

Rationality. In a world of so-called ‘fake news’ and demagogues spreading lies and hoodwinking millions of people, I think it’s important to use reason in an argument when you’re trying to convey truth and I trust most people still value — to use Pirsig’s famous term — quality, not QUanon.

Curiosity. It’s probably the most important value, or trait, that led me to a career in journalism and other writing and creative works. I love observing people and places and things around me.

Imagination. In my fiction and poetry especially, it’s my happy place. Truth. In my non-fiction work and days as a journalist, this was fundamental. But even in creative ventures like a short story or film, I think it’s important to convey what’s true about the human condition.

Quality. (There I go back to Pirsig again!) I think it’s important to carefully craft words — whether prose or poetry — and other forms of art, like music and film and make them the best they can be. Other values: integrity, respect and open-mindedness.

How do you connect with your readers?

One-by-one mostly. I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve seen (some of which I’ve read) that will lay out the “five best ways” to become a bestselling author like Stephen King. I don’t buy it. I just pay attention to my work and then put it out there — on my Medium page, my own website or on social media (yes, even Facebook). I’m probably missing a big part of the market but the responses that I get, in the form of “claps” or comments — are precious and they offer valuable criticism. I am especially honoured when someone tells me they have been moved by something I wrote. To think that one human being can do that for another human is so inspiring and motivating.

Why did you join ILLUMINATION, and how do you find it so far?

Illumination is a wonderful platform. It’s like the octopus of Medium: It’s tentacles reach out to integrated publications under the Illumination banner, it has a large following and its curated content is enriching.

Who are some writers you follow on ILLUMINATION?

There are quite a few. Some of my favourites are Cedric Johnson, PhD (for his level-headed exploration of his own faith), Alexis Busso (for the poise she puts into her poetry), Mike Broadly, DHSc (for his curated content and productivity in retirement). Oh, and yourself— I don’t know how you can manage to be so prolific in your writing and work.

What are the top five stories that you want to share with your audience and why?

In fiction, it would be “Carol’s Last Christmas” which published in Illumination and is included in my book of short fiction Stories in the Key of Song. I received so many responses to this story and people said they were moved by its message and characters.

In poetry, it’s probably “Words / Pictures” which published on the Medium site Literally Literary. I just like how the words weave in and out of the poem and the musical influence of Al Stewart’s masterpiece “Year of the Cat.”

Among my non-fiction tribute works (and I’m cheating again here) it’s a two-parter that I wrote about my mentor Neil Peart of Rush. They were published after his death in 2020 on my Medium site and were my most-read pieces. They are also meaningful to me because their subject was so influential on me.

I’m fond of “Going back to high school” which published in Illumination. It was about my experience of going back to W.D. Lowe high school’s 100th reunion and I explored other writers’ attitudes around the subject. So many people abhor their high school days. I didn’t.

Finally, maybe, there’s “Hey Google, translate this!” This piece of satire was published on my own Medium site and it was just so gratifying to attack two pet peeves: big tech, in the form of Google; and ‘garbage language’. Also, how much fun can you have taking on the pen name Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs?

What are the success factors for you as a writer?

Success means finishing a work that just, well, works! A piece of written work that succeeds as a work of art, whether in its poetry or a character I developed or artistic theme I’m working with or plot or whatever. Or perhaps successfully praising a great novel or film or, conversely, debunking a writer or work that has been universally lauded. (Don’t get me started on Kristen Roupenian who I skewered in “What the Cat People dragged in”.)

Second, success means connecting with readers and attracting new ones. I sign off everything I write with, “Thanks for reading” because I am truly thankful for the time people take to read something I’ve done. I don’t take that for granted. Ever. There are so many distractions and priorities in the world so to think that one person — or 10 or 100 or 1,000 — took the time to read something I wrote is something I appreciate.

Last but certainly not least, it was publishing my first book through Black Moss Press. For more than 50 years, this Windsor-based small company has made a big splash in the publishing world and I find myself humbled and grateful to be included among their roster of authors over the years. People like: publisher and founder Marty Gervais; Andre Narbonne, who was longlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize in 2022; Rosemary Sullivan, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and author of 14 books including a Governor General’s Award winner; the poet John Lee; and the hilarious comedian John Wing. (How can you not laugh at the title Ventroliquism for Dummies: Life as a Comedian?)

What do you recommend to the new writers?

Tune out the so-called experts who try to tell you how to become wildly rich and famous as a writer and just sit down and write. Your work will continue to get better and the reward is the improved quality of your work. As Ray Bradbury once wrote in his advice to writers for a year: “Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” I tried to distil this message in one piece I wrote called, “In the beginning, and end, is the word”.

What are your plans as a writer or as a professional?

First, it’s getting out there and reading, signing and helping to promote Stories in the Key of Song. One of the stories in that book, “Bus Stop, Bus Goes,” I’ve adapted as a short film script and I’m working with some very talented people on that project. I hope it will screen in the new year. In turn, I’ve spun that off as a pilot in a short film series that I’m pitching to a TV company.

I also have a collection of poems that I’m compiling and hope to publish as a kind of companion book to Stories in the Key of Song. They are poems with music as a theme or motif if you will, in the same way that the stories in Stories in the Key of Song are musically themed.

And I have one chapter written in a novel that I have to get back to sometime. I would say I haven’t had time but then as John Lennon put it so well, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”

I just find at this time in my life, I have never felt so productive and energized by my creative juices. I feel like I have to try to embrace it all and put it all out there in a race against time.

Many thanks, Claudio, for giving us a glimpse of his exciting life. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

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The book launch for Stories in the Key of Song will be held on Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Caboto Club in Windsor. Here is a link to the event.

To pre-order books for the launch email julienneblackmosspress@gmail.com.

To order online visit Stories in the Key of Song – Black Moss Press.