Book Tour – “Colorado Mandala” by Brian Heffron
I’m thrilled to be participating in the book tour for Brian Heffron’s new novel, “Colorado Mandala”
Here’s Brian…
After Brian Francis Heffron achieved a bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing from Emerson College, he has navigated across the Atlantic Ocean under sail (and found Gibraltar), was Director of Photography on “The Imported Bridegroom” a tiny Indy film that received a national theatrical release, created a heart-rending poetry blog within the Notes section of his Facebook profile that drew an avid, dedicated, and international audience, and all the while he wrote, produced, and directed hundreds of hours of television programming for KLCS-TV, a PBS Station focused on education.
On Valentine’s Day 2010 he published a handmade poetry chapbook that sold out in three weeks! “Sustain Me with Your Breath” then became, and remains, a promotional e-book sensation.
Heffron followed that up with “Something You Could Touch”, a one hour spoken word poetry CD that broke sales records in its category.
Heffron has also won Emmys, Tellys, Aurora, Videographers and the Davis Award, among others plaudits for both writing and television.
Brian Francis Heffron’s debut novel, Colorado Mandala, mines the complex landscape of 1970s post-Vietnam America to chart the love triangle of a former Green Beret, his lover, and a young wanderer. Colorado Mandala straddles the line between literary and young adult fiction, and distills the author’s poetic sensibility into a deeply lyrical work of art.
You can follow Brian at his website, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Pintrest and his Amazon Author Page.
And here’s his new book…
Colorado Mandala comes from poet Brian Heffron, who departs from his established genre with a novel of the seventies recommended for fans of literary fiction.
—Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Reviews
With refreshing depth, distinct literary merit, and highly original poetic phrasings that spill from the pages like paint, Colorado Mandala is poet Brian Heffron’s debut work of literary fiction that mines the complex landscape of post-Vietnam America to unearth the deep connections that bind individuals together, and also ferociously rip them asunder.
Illustrative, luscious, seductive, and engaging, this rare piece of craftsmanship will stir the senses of any one who thirsts for artistic expression, or who longs for an era in our country now utterly, irretrievably gone. With underlying notes of romance, adventure, historical authenticity, and the poignant passages of coming-of-age, Colorado Mandala both elevates and transcends an era of America to seep into the heart and soul of the reader as flawlessly as a sumptuous poem.
In the heady, hippie backdrop of Pike’s Peak, Colorado, in the tumultuous 1970s, three souls swirl together in an explosive supernova. Michael is the flinty-eyed, volatile former Green Beret, whose tour in Viet Nam has left unbridgeable chasms in his psyche and secrets that can never find light. Sarah is his fair-haired paramour, the ethereal, Earth Mother widow of a fallen soldier and single mother to a ten-year-old son Stuart. Paul is a young wanderer, who soon quickly bears the mantle as both the minister and the scourge of their damaged love. As they are drawn together, and torn apart, each is changed forever. And our hearts race along with them, through the raw and rocky Colorado terrain amidst alcohol-fueled discord and the blood sport of man and beast.
Laying bare the loss and acceptance of a pioneering age, Colorado Mandala shines revelatory light on the crazy, glorious, and romantic notion that each generation conceives anew: that love can be a spiritual gift shared openly among all who feel it, rather than coveted, or hidden, or hoarded. If you wish to go barefoot again and climb an unspoiled Colorado trail, look no further. If you have been longing for something to wake you up in simple, clean language, a shimmering story awaits. Awaken to what you have always known: simple truths show you the way home. With his gripping and unforgettable Colorado Mandala, it is clear that Brian Heffron knows the way. Simply follow his trail.
You can see the video book trailers here, here and here and also read more about the book on Facebook. And you can buy the book at Amazon (Kindle or paperback) and at Barnes and Noble.
I’ve also got an interview with Brian – read on!
Who is your favorite author?
For me, reading the sparse, stark, prose of Ernest Hemingway was a life-changing event. Here was a writer who could paint like Monet with short brushstrokes sentences, and an authentic and deeply seeing sense of how people think, and what they do, and why they do it. He is thought of as a hyper masculine writer, but I find his work androgynous, coming from somewhere between being a man or a woman. This is unique in modern literature and is a part of his work that I think has been overlooked due to his ultra masculine behavior in his real life. I just think his body of work is real and undeniably good. I also like John Steinbeck for essentially the same reasons.
How do you describe your writing style?
Deeply descriptive and romantic: I reach for authenticity and accuracy in descriptions of physical places and people. Then I just let my characters live out their lives in front of the camera of my eyes. I like mixing the point of view, sort of moving the camera around between different types of narration like from omnipresent author to first person singular as I do in the format of Colorado Mandala.
Use no more than two sentences. Why should we read your book?
Because it will taste good and you will feel better at the end. Because it will evoke a time past and the people who lived then and you should know about that.
Have any of your characters been modeled after yourself?
The three main characters of Colorado Mandala could arguably be three parts of myself: Michael = action, Sarah = spirit, Paul = adventure. But they are also based on real people I knew back then and so they are with different in their approaches to life and that makes them very different personalities. I think all writers put themselves in their work, if not, why would anyone else want to read their work?
If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?
I am Paul. I watch life and think about it a lot. He is my narrator and he does much the same thing. He is also very moral and consistent, even stubborn, and that can be a very good quality in a person if they are right enough of the time.
What books have most influenced your life?
For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway because it showed me the height and depth and breath of what could accomplished in terms of story depth, physical recreation of a place, and the potential for portrayal of the complexity of human behavior on that canvas of the art we call the “Novel”.
If you could select one book that you could rewrite and add your own unique twist on, which book would that be and why?
I would have Sherlock Holmes get shot at least once in every story. No, just kidding.
Beatles or Monkees? Why?
The Beatles were the epitome of a new world of spontaneous, sometimes drug influenced life styles, liberation of women and other groups and the much taunted sexual freedom of the sixties… and the Monkees were formed by a record executive. Beatles.
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