Please join me in welcoming T. Anthony Bland, author of In The Apartments Next To Mine
Teaser:
How well do you know your neighbor? Do you know the shoes they wear..? Their struggles, strength...their story?
In The Apartments Next To Mine: The College Collection, is a collection of short stories about families and individuals, living with Schizophrenia, Autism,
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Bio:
T.Anthony Bland was born and raised in the Bronx N.Y. He graduated from the College of New Rochelle in 2012 with a masters in Communication Studies. Before entering college at mid-life, he worked many jobs that took him all around New York City and upstate N.Y. He was a messenger, janitor, construction worker, carpenter, bus driver, Sunday school teacher, camp counselor and a teacher to children with Autism and varies disabilities such Spina Bifida and Cerebral Parsley. He's traveled to San Francisco, Oregon, Boston, New Hampshire, New Orleans,Pennsylvania, Florida, Jamaica...and Ohio, by mistake. It's this life, that helps him craft the stories like those in his book In The Apartments Next Mine...
Interview:
1. When
did you decide to be a writer and what books influenced you growing
up?
I
have probably always been a writer, well, at least a storyteller but
I just didn’t write anything down. I decided to write for a living
mid-life after graduating from grad school. As an undergrad, I was a
literature major so my final projects most often were short stories.
My professors were the ones to encourage to Write.
After
2 years of writing academic research papers and a year of job
hunting, I decided it was time…actually my wife helped. We agreed
to just write, write and write for a year and see what happens.
Books
that influenced me…? I didn’t read books growing up. I watched a
lot of TV and read a few magazines, whatever my sister or mother
bought. I had trouble reading as a kid so books weren’t my thing.
Now movies! That’s a different story, I loved musicals and westerns
and Star Trek. In fact, I’d say it was Star Trek the Next
Generation that influenced me most. I was fascinated by the story
telling that was created with all the restrictions of television
networks. They tapped into a wide variety of subjects over the years.
When I write, I don’t see words, I see moving pictures…cinema.
2.
Tell us about the inspiration behind the first story you ever wrote?
My
first full length story is Going
Home but
technically the very first is Chamber
of Horrors. My
assignment was to write a descriptive essay, I thought I went over
the top with the picture I painted but I got an “A” and my
professor loved it. It was birth out of writer’s block! I carried
pen and paper for days…nothing. Then we were taking our 2 year old
to her first dental appointment, while we waited I started looking
around the clinic. It was horrible, I just starting writing what I
saw. The word poured out like water. I even missed my daughter going
in…I include that in the story.
3.
Are you currently writing? Tell us what you are working on now.
Yes,
I’m in the middle of two projects. I’m writing 2 new stories for
“In The Apartments Next To Mine” I plan to re-release the book
this July hopefully. One story is about a family that has a child
with Autism and the struggle of their morning route. You see it from
the family’s point of view and the caregiver’s point of view.
I’m
also in the middle of a follow-up novel to my short story Going Home.
I was doing fine then got stuck so I put the book aside about 2
months ago. Then Spectrum, one of the new stories, came pouring out
of me. The novel was titled The Book of James, as it was going to
following up on what happened to Caleb James and his brother
Jedidiah…however, it includes the whole James. Each member’s
faith will be tested, the book spans a number of years. It opens 2
years after Caleb walks away from a successful career and his brother
turns down the NFL. The story that features the sister is many years
later. We find her in high school preparing for college. That story
also introduces us a new character, a serial killer. He will have his
own book…my wife has been waiting 3 years for me to write that one.
Lol.
4.
Tell us about your publishing experience. Did you try to find an
agent or publisher first or did you always want to self-publish?
I
did not try very hard to get an agent though really wish I had one.
It would help with all the leg work. My former professor suggested
that I get one.
I
did reach out to publishing companies I was told I needed “a
following first” or “we’re not accepting manuscripts right
now”. If I were 20 years old, perhaps I would have stay around for
years of rejections, but I’m not. My thinking was… If it came
down to it, I would publish just so that my children and
grandchildren would have a record of my achievement on their
bookshelf. Self-publishing is a perfect fit for us right now, low
over-head cost and not a huge financial investment to start. When we
have more money we can put in more.
5.
My son has cerebral palsy and there are a few teachers he had growing
up that he truly loved. Tell us about teaching kids with
disabilities.
Wow.
Stressful, painful, fun, exciting and tear-jerking! But I loved it. I
worked with kids and adults in a wide range of disabilities. Cerebral
Palsy (CP), Down syndrome, MR, Blind/visibly impaired and of course
Autism and a few others.
The
stress is in, communicating to them as well as learning their
communicating language and style. I worked with a guy with CP whose
speech was so bad that he was frustrated; I took over for my
counselor and apologized if I need him to repeat to me…he was fine
with that. It took a couple of days but we got. We chatted a lot,
while I was showering him! Lol. I had a girl that wouldn’t sit
still and work she would fight the teachers, call them names and
throw things. We worked well together though. I would start by
letting her play for 5 mins, then do reading for 5. Her tough subject
was math so I made sure that her favorite snack or thing to do was
the reward for math. After a mouth her behavior changed. She looked
forward to working with me more than other teaches. Let me tell you
this kids that a wicked sense of humor. The tears flow as you
joyfully sit back and watch someone learn a new skill or even do
something that they hadn’t done before. They’re learning. The
ones that people thought couldn’t learn.
6.
For those reading this what would you say to them to convince them to
give your book a read?
Here
is a link to an excerpt
http://tanthonybland.com/2015/02/11/in-the-apartments-next-to-mine-book-excerpt-1/
from my website. There are 3 in total…look pass all your
misgivings and think of the first time you tried something for the
first time, how you fell in love with it and how you still use it,
have it around, purchasing it etc. These are short stories of
ordinary people with extraordinary
stories that you will relate to, cry with, giggle at and fall in love
with or at least with the writer. Lol
You can follow T. Anthony Bland at the following places:
