by Alvin Ramirez May 9, 2013
In this week’s Book Journeys interview recap, Dr. Lauria interviews mime artist, yoga practitioner, and author, Janet Carafa, who wrote the book Yoga of MIME: Touching the Invisible, It’s a topic that’s new for Angela.
The interview started off with Janet explaining what mime was all about, how it differed from dance, and how it connected with yoga. She explained how translating the idea of mime into words written in a book was a challenge for her since mime was an art that uses silence and movement instead of words.
Angela volunteered her own interpretation of what Janet was trying to explain about the fusion of experiences which led to Yoga of MIME. Janet brought in one word, “joyful” into the discussion, which essentially summed up her work. Angela agreed to how Janet’s passion for the art took her own interest and curiosity about mime to a higher level. She said this was something that authors should be able to do in writing a book that matters.
Janet went on to read from a section of her book and went on to how her experiences came together in her writing. Janet admitted she had a level of uncertainty in writing the book. It was something that was a little scary because it was new to her and she had to deal with a lot of questions and doubts in her mind concerning people’s acceptance and expectations when it came to translating what was intangible and invisible to something really physical, like a book. In spite of her hesitations, she believed she should bring the word out about mime to people who can share in the experience.
Janet mentioned her work on another book called Silent Fortune which began as a screenplay. She wrote a big part of the story for the late Marcel Marceau, who was her mentor. Her motivation for that work was the fact that there are hardly any movies that called for a mime artist. She did not know how to have it produced, so she decided to self-publish the material as a book, instead.
Angela asked how that led to her non-fiction book, but (it seemed) Janet thought the question was still about her work on Silent Fortune, so at that point, it’s not clear whether she’s talking about her non-fiction book, Yoga of MIME, or her fiction book, Silent Fortune.
Janet recounted how it took her a year to complete one book. She had help from a young writer just out of college who helped out in translating her ideas into words that her readers would understand. She had worked proactively on getting feedback so that what went into the book was relatable and appreciated by readers.
“It’s really nice to have something tangible in my hand to hand and to give people and to have them understand…” Janet said.
Listen to the Janet Carafa Interview on Book Journeys Radio
DOWNLOAD Book Journeys Author Interview-Janet Carafa-May 9 2013
Watch out for Angela’s interview with another exciting author.