August 2001 Interview with Carol Gino by Deb Nyberg

Carol, I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to grant me this interview for the women in business at Field of Dreams.  You and I have known each other now for around 7 years.  In that time, I have spent hours speaking with you as a friend, a mentor, and as a spiritual influence in my life.  However, today, I'd like to ask you some questions about you as a woman in business.

Q.  As with every woman who has ever considered breaking out of a "career mold" and jumping into entrepreneurship, there is a story to tell.  Your experiences as a Nurse became the Best Seller "The Nurse's Story."   Was it easy to recognize yourself as a successful author or did you still feel as though nursing was your career?

A.   I wrote “The Nurse’s Story” as a tribute to my patients… and to share with my readers the stories of the heroes I’d met as a nurse.  Not false heroes, as shown in the movies, but real heroes who were fighting the biggest dragons of death and disease with courage and grace.  I wanted them to see humanity as I did, not as we see it on the nightly news.  So Deb, I guess the answer is that I never did stop being a nurse. With knowledge comes responsibility.   The truth was that it was in the corridors of hospital and in private homes while my patients were sick and dying that they taught me much of what I’ve learned about living.

Q.  You spent 20 years with Mario Puzo (best known as the author of "The Godfather") as his companion.  Both you and Mario were on the Best Seller list at the same time.  One of you for fiction, and the other for non-fiction.  How could two very successful writers maintain their individual styles in writing while sharing lives with each other?

A.  Each of us has a unique voice and perception of life.  And a writer’s story comes from his or her soul and that view and is told in his or her own voice.  Both Mario and I were determined to respect each other’s view of life, to try to hear each other’s voice and understand.   We didn’t always agree with each other, but we always respected each others’ right to feel the way we did.  So there really was no way for us not to maintain our individuality.  In fact each of us chose to honor the other’s uniqueness, which wasn’t always easy but it certainly stretched us both.

Q.  In 1999, Mario died and you were in the process of writing several books at the time.  Mario had just completed Omerta and The Family was almost complete.  When you were asked to finish "The Family" for publication, where did you find the strength, in your grief of his loss, to begin where Mario left off?

A.  Mario and I spent 20 years sharing stories and making myth.  The truth was that working on finishing "The Family" helped me in my grief.   It brought me back to the places that Mario and I used to work and play together.  I did it as a tribute to him because even more than a lover and a mentor, he was also my dearest friend.

Q.  Now that "The Family" is finished and you have helped to tie up loose ends for Mario, you must be able to go forward as Carol Gino, Author.  Do you have any specific plan in mind to continue with your dreams?

A.  Mario always told me to trust myself, to be true to myself and to use my own voice because that’s what I should put into my books and out into the world.  He also told me that I was more a fiction than a non-fiction writer and so I think my next book will be fiction.  In some funny way, Mario’s death brought me a new life.  Now I think I’ve become more the writer than the nurse.  And I have a lot of unfinished manuscripts to finish.

Q.  What advice would you give to a woman who wishes to become an author?

A.  Well, it’s really hard work, it’s often lonely and there’s no instant gratification.  But if it’s a dream then she has to give it a shot.  Picasso would never have known he could paint if he didn’t pick up a brush, and Tolstoy would not have known he could write if he never picked up a pen.  Each of us has a destiny as well as a dream and each of us must follow it.  The tricky part is she’ll never know her destiny unless she follows her dream…

Q.  Can you tell us how we can start living our dream, if our dream is to become a writer?

A.  Take a deep breath, say a prayer, and start writing what you know.  Pick up a few books on the craft of writing, open your heart and spill out your gut.  Don’t edit until you’ve finished writing.  You’ll learn a lot about yourself!   Natalie Goldberg’s book “Writing Down the Bones” and the book “The Artist’s Way” are great books to use for inspiration. But know that if you plan to write and put yourself on paper, you have to face the truth about yourself.  You have to be willing to share yourself and be truthful, because anything untrue written on paper sounds like such bullshit, you can’t miss it.  It’s better than therapy for learning what you really feel.

Q.  Can you give us some insight into the next step in your career?  What are you plans for continuing your writing.  Do you have a focus in mind?  I'm trying to get a handle on where you are going since you are finished with your responsibility to "The Family," what is it that Carol has put off for so long...that is her burning desire to accomplish next?

A.  Once I've finished a book, especially a big book like "The Family" it takes me a while to separate from those characters.  I mean I've spent years with Pope Alexander, am still charmed by his wisdom, humor and charisma and yes, even his treachery.  I still worry about Cesare, his woundings, his battles, his suffering over love.  Lucrezia's growing up, falling in love etc. became very real to me and my emotions are invested in these people.  They came alive for me. 

The process of putting a book out into the world is very much like the process of sending kids out into the world.  There's an adjustment period, a grief over the ending of the relationship, the change in it, as well as the relief and freedom that comes as a result of "letting go."  Crazy as it sounds, the world of books is very real to me while I'm involved in them, and it takes me a while to readjust, to even want to think about journeying into the next. 

Deb, I have twenty two unfinished manuscripts!  They're all like half grown kids and at different times different ones have been my favorites.  I have to read them all over again, see which ones still hold my interest, are still willing to be told by me.  Then I'll wait and see if something new inspires me.  The only thing I know for sure is that now I believe in myself enough to know that another story will write itself through me.  A story will come to me in dream or in a moment of meditation and almost ask to be written.  And that story will have energy around it that will force me to begin to type again.  Creativity is a mystery, a process, and I don't exactly know how it works but I do know that any creative thought I've ever had has been given to me by the Creator.  So, now I dream and wait to hear the story so I can begin to write it.

Carol, thank you so much for taking the time to grant this interview.  It has been one of my most treasured experiences to share our close friendship,  with our women in business community.  Recently, you were threatened with a life endangering illness.  I personally saw how your inner strength and trust enabled you to conquer that battle.  It is through your strength that I am empowered.  You recently said you thanked God for me, and I appreciated your words.   They say you can't judge a book by it's cover, and I agree!  I also thank God for Carol Gino who constantly opens new chapters about EMPOWERMENT!

Deb Nyberg, Webmistress