Author Interview – Brian Francis Heffron @BrianHeffronnet

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? Winnie The Pooh was my first realization that writing could take away pain. As I gobbled up the sweet and serene adventures of the characters in Pooh Corner I knew that from then on reading would be my first and last refuge. I also knew that the creation of these dreams between book covers was what I wanted to use my life to create. Books have always been my closest and dearest friends, as loyal as a dog, as kind as a good friend, and as helpful as time passing without pain.

When and why did you begin writing? I began writing poetry in sixth grade and never stopped. I have published poems and prose in magazines, websites, books and anywhere else I could find that wanted to hear my thoughts. I am compelled to write to heal. I won’t tell you what I am healing from, but please know it is a deep wound and that reading has helped more than anything else to bind up that wound.

Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it? It taught me that I could start and finish a large task. It taught me that I could organize a story and get it down on paper. It taught me that a tale begins and end in the same place. It taught me that PTSD is a problem that can be healed. It taught me that LOVE is the oonly answer.

Do you intend to make writing a career? I am now an established Poet and Novelist and I intend to be so for the rest of my born days.

What is your greatest strength as a writer? I can describe things so that you are able to see them in your own mind’s eye. Description is my forte. Whether it be a landscape or a person I feel that I can bring a person or place to life through my prose.

How did you come up with the title? A Mandala is Sanskrit for “magic circle” and is used to meditate on to raise one’s concioisness, or it can represent a person who is fully actualized and complete in their development. Colorado Mandala was the place where all three of my main characters became themselves, some after a very long and difficult effort.

How much of the book is realistic? All of Colorado Mandala is based on real places and real people. But I invented all else. I took the characters I knew and put them into a place I knew best and let them just live their lives there. It seems to have worked.