Well, well, well friends and fans. Ya’ll have been showing us the ultimate praise and loyalty. We are not exactly at press yet and the requests for the newest volume of An Honest Lie are pouring in. We truly appreciate your passion for what we do. You are the reason we do it in the first place. We want to bring you the best fiction at the most affordable prices. We truly appreciate your support.

In return we are hoping to bring you closer to our authors as we build relationships with them. We want to remind you all that this anthology is a competition for a book deal with Open Heart Publishing. You can vote for your favorite author here. If you can’t stand the wait you can preorder your copy here. Remember, preorders end on October 21st 2010.

This week we are talking to Claire Ibarra. Claire blessed us with a gem of a short called Heat Stress. It’s a tale of fleeing, from or maybe finding ourselves. Claire had a lot to say about her passion and her life. It was a pleasure for me to read this interview and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Without further adieu… I bring you, Claire Ibarra.

Open Heart Publishing: What do you feel is a delusion of insignificance?

Claire Ibarra: Actually, I think all of us, as human beings, need to be somewhat delusional to get through life. Delusions are a more creative form of denial. People live with delusions about everything from where their food comes from, to where their garbage goes, to how they feel about their jobs and even their own family members. Facing reality can be too gruesome. I much prefer harmless delusions to make life a bit rosier. Delusions become a problem when they gain enough power to steer the direction of our lives. When people act on their delusions, often they’re frowned upon.

OHP: What is An Honest Lie?

C.I.: This is a common notion to fiction, the ability to reveal truth about human nature through made-up stories. I often ask myself why this is important for various reasons. One is to be a better writer, but also I want to believe that this lonely, somewhat obscure endeavor is necessary. I know my stories are necessary to me, but I’d like to think they could be necessary to others, too. We see ourselves differently and know ourselves better through stories–they are an entertaining method of therapy.

OHP: Why do you feel the need to write?

C.I.: I feel as though I have an entire world inside my head, and sometimes it gets crowded in there. The only way to empty it and make more space is to write stories down. Some people are great oral storytellers, but writing is the easiest way for me to express myself. It must be the wiring in my brain. It makes me wonder though…how is it that I feel so comfortable inventing greatly troubled characters in such great detail. It’s an odd pastime when I really think about it.

OHP: Have you ever contemplated becoming involved in a revolution?

C.I.: When I was younger, I was very passionate about changing the world. When you’re young you actually believe it’s possible! I also grew up in Northern California, which is a great place to be a rebel. Now I regret that I’ve become so complacent. There’s a lot to be angry about, so much we should be fighting for and against, it just seems overwhelming. As I get older, I tend to focus on what I can do to make a difference in the world day-to-day. Things like recycling and being kind to people. I am also a Montessori elementary teacher, so I like to think of my classroom as a small subversive environment, where kids are free to speak their minds with confidence and where they learn how to grow a garden. Not exactly revolutionary, but it’s a good start.

OHP: Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Considering the state of the public education system Montessori is truly revolutionary. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

C.I.: I draw inspiration from my life experiences. My travels have provided me with a lot of imagery. Places like Greece, The Himalayas and Andes, The Caribbean islands—they have all made their way into my stories in one way or another. I am inspired when observing people; noticing someone’s reaction or behavior in a situation will often trigger an idea. Most often I am inspired by places, by nature, and by solitude. Melancholy is my most inspirational emotion.

OHP: Why did you decide to submit your work to An Honest Lie?

C.I.: I came upon An Honest Lie by chance and by luck through Duotrope. But the more I investigated, reading the Junior Editor’s Blog and exploring the extensive Web site, the more I felt a kinship with the values of An Honest Lie. An Honest Lie does some really great work in the community! And I enjoy the humor I find there.

OHP: Well thank you very much, we work hard to create the best image and products we can and we plan on working closely with our writers. Besides writing, what other sorts of deviant behavior do you happen to enjoy?

C.I.: I like to blast old rock and roll and dance around on chairs, playing air guitar. Many of my dinner parties end with friends dancing on chairs. I used to do that when I was thirteen, and it’s still a lot of fun! Other than that, I’m not very exciting. I practice yoga and a breathing technique from India, which my kids say looks a little weird.

OHP: Besides short stories what other writing endeavors are you currently engaged in?

C.I.: I’ve been working on a novel set in Peru. It is about an eccentric family and spans five generations. The novel is based on my husband’s Peruvian family and my experiences living there. We own a hostel in a remote Indian village in the Andes. I have also written several children’s stories, which I would love to see published one day.

OHP: Are there any authors, besides yourself, that you enjoy reading?

C.I.: I would not be able to list them all! I suppose my favorites are the Latin American magic realists. I admire Isabel Allende for her writing and also for being so prolific. There are some authors who have written one or two novels that are among my favorites. White Oleander by Janet Finch and The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri come to mind. I took a fiction workshop with Connie May Fowler and she was amazing, so I would mention her too. I have an eclectic taste for literature.

OHP: Who would you say is your writing mentor/ hero?

C.I.: Connie May Fowler was incredibly generous to all the writers in her workshop. I learned a lot about the craft from her insights. I have a few close friends who are writers, and we mentor each other. They are my heroes in the writing trenches. On a more abstract level, I would say Isabel Allende was the writer I most tried to emulate in the beginning stages. I gradually discovered my own voice, but she definitely influenced me as a writer.

OHP: Do you have a writing nemesis?

C.I.: Because I consider myself a literary writer, I tend to get annoyed with the commercial success of some genre authors. Perhaps I’m just envious. We should celebrate authors with such success, and not belittle them for it. Literary writers can be snobby that way, thinking all writers should wallow in poverty in the name of their high art. Achieving success as a writer is difficult enough without harboring negative feelings, like envy or rivalry.

OHP: I can relate to that. What do you feel about the following quote “Imagination is more important than knowledge?”

C.I.: I have that quote and a picture of Einstein hanging up in my classroom, for my young students to ponder. I tell my students that Einstein did horrible in school. I believe he was even expelled, and they always get a kick out of that. Knowledge grows out of our imagination—out of curiosity and the need to create, we seek to know more and understand the world. We should all strive for that. As writers, I think we do.

OHP: Where do you believe humanity is headed as a whole?

C.I.: I think we are evolving into higher beings with extraordinary empathy, wisdom and spiritual knowledge! Maybe that’s just my delusion of insignificance. It’s better than the alternative–locking myself in a stockpiled shelter in the year 2012. Our fears feed on themselves, and I am very saddened by the way the future is portrayed in entertainment. Throughout history there’s always been those proclaiming doomsday, but in reality life is always getting better. Advancements in medicine, over the centuries, are one good example. The movement toward green technology makes me feel more optimistic. We are evolving creatures, so why not toward a higher consciousness.

OHP: That is the most optimistic answer so far. Tell us about your family.

My husband and I met in Peru, where I studied for a period. Like many Peruvians, he is very spontaneous and lives fully in the moment, which is what I love most about him; that and his sense of humor. We own a hostel in a remote Indian village in the Andes, which provides adventure in our lives. We have two daughters, who have grown into amazing young women! Being their mother is my greatest accomplishment in life. I was an only child, but I was blessed with a large extended family—I am very close with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I think being an only child helped me become a writer. The solitude gave me time to observe my surroundings and watch adults, which was a great way to gather material.

OHP: In your opinion, which is the more important discovery of humankind… plumbing or the written word?

C.I.: Plumbing improves sanitary conditions and cuts down on diseases, which has saved lives. But the written word elevates human beings and passes on knowledge through the ages. Personally, I could survive without plumbing as long as I had some bushes and a natural source of water. Not to sound overdramatic, but I couldn’t live without literature. I suppose I could survive, but I couldn’t really live fully. If I were sent to a deserted island, I would choose to take books not a toilet.

OHP: Agreed. Now a few more questions. According to Anatole France “To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture,” in your opinion what do you believe is worth dying for? What do you believe is worth living for?

C.I.: I think I would sacrifice my life to protect my family. I hope that if I were in a position to have to fight to the death for a higher ideal, like freedom or justice, I would be brave enough. My life circumstances haven’t forced me to make that decision. Living rather than dying for something seems like a better option. Life is worth living for every single experience we encounter. Experiencing the world through our senses, feeling joy and even pain, being loved and loving, it’s all worth the journey.

OHP: Mark Twain once said that “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” What do you believe he meant by that?

C.I.: I think it means that we experience the world through the lens of our imagination, and that’s what gives each of us our own unique perspective. We can’t separate perception and imagination; they work together to form our understanding of the world. On a very practical level, we use our imaginations to make sense and give context to what we see with our eyes. In Mark Twain’s day there was an entire nation living ‘out of focus’ with slavery. I’m not sure you can feel empathy without imagination.

OHP: Most people have two stories for doing anything… a plausible excuse and the real reason, why do you really write?

C.I.: I honestly don’t know. If it were for recognition, fame, money, or anything ego driven I would have stopped a long time ago—especially during those years when my work wasn’t getting published. Now it is somewhat more gratifying. I’ve asked myself many times why I choose to do something that offers so little reward for the amount of time invested, even something in which the word ‘rejection’ is standard industry lingo. The truth is I have to write!

OHP: Man, don’t I know it.

Claire Ibarra had the soul of writer long before she figured out she could actually become a writer. As the only child of artistic bohemian parents, her fate was pretty much sealed early on. She preferred the company of adults, engaged in deep conversation or wickedly fun gossip, to dawdling with children her own age. Her peers thought of her as peculiar, which was a tremendous boost to her writer’s persona. Claire’s first published story was in her high school newspaper.

After traveling the world and studying in Peru, Claire dutifully and joyfully put in her 10,000 hours of practice (she’s done the math on this) and is now seeing her work come to fruition. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in The MacGuffin, Natural Bridge, Boston Literary Magazine, Moondance Magazine, Quiet Mountain Essays, Amoskeag and Midway, among others.

Claire and her husband own a hostel in a remote village in the Andes of Peru, which is a setting for her historical novel in progress. She is a Montessori elementary teacher, which is a constant source of inspiration and headaches, and is also the proud mother of two amazing young girls. Claire rarely achieved anything in life by taking the direct path, much preferring the roundabout, scenic route instead. She currently resides in Miami, Florida. To find out more, visit www.claireibarra.com.