Journeys in Life & On the Page with Lauca

Intro: 0:36

Welcome to Story and Horse, a podcast where we hear stories from creative lives. Meet new people, hear about their challenges and triumphs, and get inspired to move forward with your creativity. Now, here's your host, Hilary Adams.

Hilary Adams: 0:50

Hello, thanks for joining me here on the Story and Horse Podcast. I'm your host, Hilary Adams. I'm a coach, theater director and founder of Story and Horse. And I work with people to help get their creativity out into the world. Here in the podcast, we meet people living creative lives, hear their stories and gather inspiration for our own creativeness. Today, we're joined by Lauca. Lauca is a European writer and author of micro stories and has a historical novel. Welcome, Lauca.

Lauca: 1:26

Thank you for having me, Hilary. It's a great evening to be together.

Hilary Adams: 1:30

It's wonderful. And where are you joining us from?

Lauca: 1:34

I'm joining from Berlin from Germany, Europe.

Hilary Adams: 1:38

So let's start off with you introducing yourself, where you are and what you're up to. And also telling us about your book, which I'm very excited about. Congratulations.

Lauca: 1:48

Thank you very much. Okay, so I my name is Lauca as Hilary said. And I am from Italy, actually living in Germany. So I'm a real child of the European Union. So lots of different experiences here around Europe. And I am different things in the morning. One of them is I'm a writer, I started writing micro stories and publish them on my website. And this was the in May 2020. It's almost two years. And actually, I'm preparing a collection of micro stories to be published. And so I can, you know, people can grab them all together. Anyway, I started writing micro stories, because I wanted to build a writing practice I have, you know, I used to write letters, you know, pen poll friends, and this kind of stuff. But my working experience didn't have anything to do with writing. And one day, I attended a couple of writing courses and really enjoy it. And I thought, Well, I think I would like to try my hand at writing, and was planning a novel, I decided to start writing this micro stories, which are basically stories between 400 and 600 words could be less than that actually. To help me, you know, let my my creativity flowing, and get also the habit of of working regularly on writing. And this is how I started then a certain point, I think it was September 2018, I started writing a novel. And the novel finally became a reality in February 2022, I published my historical novel, which is called returning is. And yeah, since I started, actually, this, this journey has been really fascinating. And bringing me lots of joy as well.

Hilary Adams: 3:54

Are you writing in English?

Lauca: 3:56

I am writing in English. Yes, indeed. I think I chose English, first of all, because it allows me to have more space, I think I think I took a couple of decisions to allow me to get some space between my writing and my own experience. And that will tell you why. But one of them was indeed to use English instead of using Italian which is my mother tongue. And then also I chose to write from the point of view of a man instead from a woman. And this is because the story it's, as I said, is some historical novel which takes place in Hong Kong and China. And I have a very deep connection with China. I lived there for six years, between 96 and 2007, you know, in different periods. And I did I even though of course, I do draw inspiration from my experiences there but did not want to put my story. You know, my personal story into Boca and this is why I thought well, writing in English is good. And of course, writing in English allows you to reach much more people. I mean, I am in Germany I have a lot of friends here that eventually speak English but they do not speak Italian and vice versa. You know, I have Italians that could only speak Italian and yeah, I don't I yeah, I can reach them actually. But anyway, I think English is it's a good language for me to write

Hilary Adams: 5:29

Ah, yeah. If you don't mind sharing, why did you wish to put the space between you and the story?

Lauca: 5:39

I didn't want to write an autobiographical story, I wanted to write a fiction, I wanted to really put a fantasy story there, I didn't want to put my my own life. Even though of course, there is always a connection, because they realize that the book is about a journey, both in physical sense, because my protagonist is French. And he travels from France and going by ship, and goes to Hong Kong. And it's also indebted to China, but it's also an internal journey. And I did the same, you know, I, when I was I think, 23, I left Italy, and I flew, instead of taking, you know, larger liner. But I still had a journey there. And I still, you know, found myself there, I discovered myself there. So there are similarities, but there are not precise things about my life there. I found more. Yeah, I think it was nicer. I didn't want to put myself and my story there.

Hilary Adams: 6:45

When you were making the transition from the micro stories, and deciding to create a novel, where did the inspiration come from, for the story,

Lauca: 6:57

the micro stories come, the inspiration comes from everyday life, basically. So when I go around, and I'm, you know, I look around me, things that happens to me or things that I observed. And this is where my stories come from. So there are some there are more deeply connected with my life. For example, my my father passed away in 2020. And there, you know, there are some micro stories that are pretty focused on that period about, you know, loss and grief. But sometimes they're just, you know, silly stories. I have cats, you know, talking in my stories, actually, because I have cats, I love taking them as protagonists. And it's also very good exercise, you know, writing from a different point of view.

Hilary Adams: 7:48

So you have stories from the cat's point of view?

Lauca: 7:51

Exactly, yes, I do a little bit like, there is a Japanese writer who wrote a book, which is called I Am a Cat. And he wrote a whole book, a magical book for me, from the point of view of a cat.

Hilary Adams: 8:06

Where did the inspiration come from where your novel?

Lauca: 8:11

The novels started with a poster from a shipping company, a French shipping company, I was browsing the website, and you know, looking for inspiration, you know, when you're there, first time writer, you you're, you stare at a web page, and you say, what the hell? Why am I going to write there? And I started, you know, just thinking, okay, where could my protagonist be from? And? I don't know, and what does it do? And I stumbled upon this website from the massage remedy team is the name of the shipping company. And it was a mine of information, had lots of pictures, it had lots of information, lots of stories of people traveling with the ocean liner. And I found in particularly one that was very interesting to where, as I said, also pictures and said, Oh, maybe bank protagonist that could travel with this ocean liner and where does it go? And then I look at the root of this ocean liner. And it was going to China and Japan. Is that okay, perfect, that I think, have my starting point. And this is how it really started. I did not have a plot at the beginning. That was my first experience. So I said, I sat down, you know, the timescale I scheduled to write and, and just, you know, try to find something for my book every day, or every time I wrote. And amazing that I can tell.

Hilary Adams: 9:45

So you've set aside time, I was curious about the process. So you, you, you set aside writing time in your schedule?

Lauca: 9:54

I did, yes, I have a daily job as internal auditory in a university. In Berlin, and I do need to schedule my writing time because otherwise I will not have the time. I think I wrote the novel in about three months. It was mostly weekends. I don't recall exactly how many words I wanted to hit every week. I think maybe it was like 3000 words is not an extremely long novel. And I had of course, a buffer, you know, do you say yeah, buffer time buffer periods were expected if I don't then keep the 3000 this week, then maybe next week, I somehow managed to get to where I wanted. I think for me, scheduling is crucial. Because if you just wait for the inspiration to come, I think very often you will never come. Because we are still busy with our lives. I mean, if you're able to work full time as a writer, that's nicer. But many people don't many people have this as a side activity. And therefore your your mind is busy with how some things are, and you really need to get the time to write. So I think it's good that you schedule you sit down, even if you do just a few words. It's enough, you know, just take the time to sit down and think about it, it's really a win.

Hilary Adams: 11:20

And it sounds like you didn't use an outline, it sounds like you sort of sat down and let the story carry you is that right?

Lauca: 11:31

Yes, that's correct. I often discussed with my husband, and sometimes it was really funny discussion. So because, you know, maybe he will point out to a pointer to something that was not working, because he didn't make sense. It was also an interesting process to share, you know, within the family.

Hilary Adams: 11:55

When you are writing dialogue, do you hear it in your head?

Lauca: 11:59

Not the actual voice. But more Yes, the, I would say the, the rhythm or sometimes the kind of words that I guess I did might be a little bit challenging for me, because of course, not being mother tongue. I might have a less wider chance, you know, of accents, for example of English. Because, you know, my English is an international English. You know, I might have in mind the English to Chinese people speak. We're Indians, or, you know, French Italians. But that's nothing to do. I don't think I can have a character from the US produce their voice.

Hilary Adams: 12:50

And before we started recording, you mentioned that you have you writing your second book. Now.

Lauca: 12:56

I did, yes. I just started last week, I wrote now, like 1000 words. And I again, do not have a plot. But I do have a character is that. And I have an idea of what their development will be. But I am not sure about the whole story. I have points here and there. So again, I will see where the story will bring me, I must say, time seems to flow a little bit easier. Thanks to the experience I have, you know, I've collected so far. And yeah, it's it's less trauma article inside. And the first thought

Hilary Adams: 13:40

What was the biggest sort of lesson that you learned from your first novel, adventure.

Lauca: 13:46

Um, I think I learned a lot of I mean, there's, there's not just one lesson, especially because I did self publishing, and therefore, I had to learn the really many different things to be able to self publish. I think the most couple of things aware, for example, being more organized with the story, like, you know, when I did, I did few drafts, and then I asked an editor to help me with with the editing process. And she came with a whole Excel sheet with a summary of each scenes and the use of each scene. So I never thought about that, you know, when you write you just write a story and you know, you don't dissected, it's for you is just all there a piece. Well, it was very methodical. And actually it's very useful, of course, especially if you want to write or you want to write, you know, a shorter summary. And this is something that are incorporated now incorporating the new novel, I am trying I write scenes at the same time, you know, after a few pages, I already write a short comment on what the scene is about. And I think it's also useful to have, for example, the name of the characters in the scenes, or the place or special objects you use so that you have, you know, a nice overview of what you're doing and you're consistent. What I did in the first novel, without anybody telling me I have a spreadsheet with the with the names of the tractors and with the age and you know, the year they were born and the basics you know, timeline of the novel when was happening what? And that was very helpful. Definitely. Huh?

Hilary Adams: 15:36

Yeah. And a pivot for just a moment because I think you're somebody who's traveled a lot. Is that

Lauca: 15:41

Yes. Yeah.

Hilary Adams: 15:42

So can you maybe share a little bit about, I don't know, like creativity and traveling.

Lauca: 15:51

I think I had once a blog about a trip I did to China, and I had pictures and I was, it was the, it was a trip I took in 2012, after leaving China in 2007. But say that, after having a deep connection with China for 10 years, I had a sort of nervous breakdown, and in for one year, didn't want to hear anything about China's you want to eat Chinese food, that was a very strong rejection. And after a couple of years, I went back, and I recorded that experience. And it was interesting that after a couple of years, I read a blog, and I thought it was extremely negative. You know, and I didn't like that I put it out. I took it out. I didn't want, I didn't want that to be myself anymore, let's say. And this is something interesting, if I think about it, cuz in the last few months, I also asked myself, well, what kind of writer I want to be. And I definitely want to be somebody who can have stories that uplift people, or then inspire people and bring positive energy and feelings, I do not want to be a crime story person. That's, that's not me, I don't want to write about, you know, Morbus stories or horror stories that this is not the kind of writer

Hilary Adams: 17:23

I am struck by the fact that your character and your first novel goes on a journey. And that you've done a lot of traveling on

Lauca: 17:36

The journey is exploration. It's such an enrichment for one's life, and my protagonist like myself, who discovers himself in this journey, and discovers also ways to make peace with his past and realizes what his past was about. And it was more is projection imagination than what actually reality was, like very often happens. And I think sometimes you do need to go to a journey, no matter even if it's just, you know, to the CD, two hours away from where you leave. In order to keep the distance like, again, there is this distancing, you do need the hotter because sometimes when you're to emerge to too deep into your own life, and you don't see it,

Hilary Adams: 18:24

is there a story that has made it creativity that that you'd like to share?

Lauca: 18:31

I can tell you that, because, well, I am a writer, I am also a Qigong teacher. And recently with my husband, we bought a house in Spain, and we want to rent it. So I just finished my third website. And you know, I'm not an IT person at all, but because of necessity, I started creating first or the website for Lauca with WordPress, and then I've made another one for Qigong. And now the third one, and I'm very proud of the third one, which I think very elegant. And I might say that I'm likely to my husband is more specialized in it than me. So when I hit, you know, a hard problem, and I don't know what to do, or you know, the computer shuts down, I can go and get help. Very, I enjoy this, this kind of things. Also, I think it brings also, you know, it brings forward it lets you develop and probably been going to, to have a change in my my louka website and also go more on our whiter team theme, I think, when half time. Yeah. So it's great that actually when you start creating something very often, you end up creating something else that because you need something to feed or to connect connected.

Hilary Adams: 20:02

It's certainly a learning process. And like you that I find, after you do a couple of them, you're like, oh, no, I have to go back because now I know more aside to go back and like redo the first example.

Lauca: 20:15

Yeah, exactly. And I also feel a very strong, strong push actually to do more from you know, the drawing or painting point of view and actually, I would like to create my own logo with my painting, but I am not i Good? Yes. So the logo I have at the moment is created, you know, with, you know, a few lines onward, and that I live when totally get there.

Hilary Adams: 20:46

I know that feeling also that that feeling of like, I know what I want it to be, but I can't quite make it yet. Yeah.

Lauca: 20:55

That after all, only if you keep practicing, you can do something better. And this is something that you've really learned only when you start applying it. You know, of course, everybody says that practice makes mastery. But until you put yourself to the test, and you do that you you don't realize how real that is, and how achievable things are in the end. Because if you just say, Okay, I'm just sitting down, repeating until I do know how to do it. And it's everything is that you grasp, you can you can do everything you want. So you just have to sit down and do it. The end, the first thing is the joy that you have doing something, you know, I think I've never been a perfectionist in my life. So that helps a lot anywhere, that I don't have that. And I always tried several things in my life. And I never really worried whether it was perfect or not. And for example, I do speak lots of languages. And that have been incredibly because you know, I was just going out and speaking it doesn't matter whether I was 100% Correct or not. And it's the same now I'm writing in English, I know I make mistakes, but you know, I pay somebody to edit the book. So that's fine. I don't need to be perfect myself.

Hilary Adams: 22:15

I just have to ask you really quick about Qigong. So you just tell us a little bit about your Qigong practice or

Lauca: 22:21

Yes. I started to them because I was very stressed. And your thoughts? I was doing in yoga, and I think it did not help me that much. And then I decided from the same teacher started Qigong. And I went from, you know, practicing three days per week to basically practicing every day, I now really also schedule my time to practice judo, or wake up early in the morning and a practice half an hour. It could be, you know, really a chi gong flow is what I do, or it could be a meditation. And I also started teaching this year online. And because I am connected with China, and Qi Gong is also you know, Qigong basically is a branch of Chinese medicine, and it's very connected with traditional Chinese medicine are very interesting to that. And studying myself a little bit, therefore, is exactly the thing that I love doing. And I use it for my own health, as well. And as I said, I started, you know, teaching to others online, at least. Because I think it's the great practice, especially to relieve stress or to relieve anything which is chronic. Anxiety, back pain. And just to connect with yourself to bring awareness in your own body, and this is actually what you need, especially bring positivity in your life, in order to be able to create, because you cannot create if you're just you know, tied into your own cocoon, I think, to start with 10 minutes a day, you don't even have to do it every day. But once you start and you get into routine is just like you say, you know, brushing your teeth. So something similar that you do every day belongs to your day and a half an hour in the end is not that much you think about it that we have 24 hours off an hour is not much. I just practice in the last couple of weeks a practice which is called the six healing sounds. I don't know if you've ever heard about it. But you can do either sitting or standing, and it's a very short flow, it's between 10 minutes to 15 minutes. And actually, it's a great also, if you had COVID or, you know, getting trying to recover from COVID. And they also use it in clinical studies in China. For patients affected with COVID because it is exactly it's very easy to remember this is you know the positive thing also of QiGong comparing to Tai Chi, for example, that Tai Chi has lots of let's say choreography. Lots of movements are sometimes a little bit complicated to remember everything especially for elderly people. But the six healing sounds practice is so easy that you can learn you know in just one hour and you can practice and it's great really for your lungs and your whole body. You work with your organs and I can tell thoroughly recommend to do it and very short, if you're tired, you can do it at seated form, no problem

Hilary Adams: 25:37

that people want to reach you and perhaps connect with Qigong find your book, and, you know, connect with you on social media and so forth, how can they reach you?

Lauca: 25:49

Okay, for the bulk, they can go to my website, which is www.lauca. So L A C U A dot E U. And I'm a very strong European, by the way, I support the European Union. So I always tried to get my websites with the EU at the end. And for QiGong is wwwQiBloom, which is written Q I BLOOM.de. , because for that, that one, I have a D E domain. Yes. And I'm also I also have a YouTube channel, which is for QiGong so same name QIBloom. And for I also have a YouTube channel for Lauca. But at the moment, I do not have much, but I do have ideas. I want to go around this feeding Berlin, a lot of places, nice places, take videos, and then read my micro stories, and have them there. You know, as a short, beautiful, something to see and at the same time have words,

Hilary Adams: 27:08

before we wrap up? Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

Lauca: 27:13

Um, yes, there is one thing I would like to share it and that is, it's really a great help to anybody, if you read a book or to leave a review, because this is such a hardest work. I know that plenty of people actually read my book. Because well, I also, of course, often the book to close friends or, you know, to colleagues, just also as a thank for, for cooperating and so on. And it's the it's really hard to get to review that I'm not complaining, I think it's normal, because I also did not do it before. But now I know what it means that if I read a good vocabulary review, so it will be supportive and helpful, if you read something, and you enjoy it. And then also just connect with a person actually is also very nice to receive messages. And, you know, questions? So writers, also human beings. So they also like to have connections.

Hilary Adams: 28:15

Yeah, so leave reviews, everybody. And your book is called Returning East. And in the meantime, yeah. And all the links will be in the show notes. So definitely leave reviews are very for our writers out there and send them notes about the what you've discovered in the books, favorite passages you're thinking.

Lauca: 28:38

You really don't know because being the author, you don't realize what actually, other people is struggling by. So he's also very curious and very interesting to know, and also helpful for the next book.

Hilary Adams: 28:54

Thank you. It's been a pleasure talking with you. I really appreciate it.

Lauca: 29:00

It's been a pleasure for me, Hilary, thank you very much for inviting me.

Outro: 29:03

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