Twelve Minutes of Love

Twelve Minutes of Love

For those readers who have not yet bought your book can you tell us what to expect from it?

A tale about one woman's obsession with the Argentine tango and the extremes to which it takes her. It's also a quest for beauty, belonging, and love - all through the world of tango which has now become a global subculture and a way of life for many. 

The book goes into the story of the Tango, so how much research did you have to put into writing it?

Ten years of my life, travel around the world, and of course I read the best history books about tango I could find in English and Spanish. I discovered that there are no other books in English that tell the intimate, secret story of tango, so I feel privileged to be the first.

When did your love for Tango begin?

In 2000, when I walked into a tapas bar in Auckland, New Zealand, and saw a couple embraced on the floor to the sound of Astor Piazzolla, looking like they were in heaven. This moment altered the course of my life.

When did you decide that you wanted to look deeper into the dance?

Two years into my tango obsession, I knew I had to find a way to tell the story of this strange international underworld I was now part of. But the challenge was how to tell the story. I tried writing it as a novel, but it didn't work. Ten years had to pass before I had the emotional maturity and the human and musical knowledge to tackle it again. This time, I  knew exactly how the story would be, and I wrote it in just one year, like in a waking dream.      

What was it about the dance that hooked you so much?

It's a metaphor for love and hope. And the music is divine - it connects you with the whole of the 20th century, and its melancholy is exquisite. I don't know any other music that has such perfect balance of the sad and the playful. Just listen to a simple old tango called 'La melodia del corazon', or anything by Astor Piazzolla, and you'll know what I mean. You also become part of a ritualised international subculture and that gives you access to tango clubs around the world where you can have the dance of your life with a complete stranger, to the world's most romantic music. Tango attracts interesting, complex, often troubled people. The dance itself is very creative and every tango partner you experience is completely different. How can you not get hooked! 

You have danced around the world in places such as Berlin, where is you favourite place to dance the Tango?

Buenos Aires - it is still the capital of tango, even if some people prefer Berlin or San Fansisco. Buenos Aires is still the only place where you can walk into a club and see history and society in motion - all ages, all kinds of faces, every social class and occupation. And these days, every nation too - because tango tourism and tango immigration to Buenos Aires have become a real phenomenon in the last 10 years.

What was the most suprising thing you learned along the journey?

Tango reveals your true self, if you dance it long enough. Especially your dark side. Tango - and perhaps all obsession - is about escape into an alternative world, and if you take the escape too far, as I did, there is a hefty price.   

You have written a lot of tourism books, do you have a preference between this and novel writing?

I like writing - and reading - memoirs, biographies and novels that take me into another world, make me dream, think, feel, and reveal to me something new and mysterious. This is what I hope to do for readers with TWELVE MINUTES OF LOVE and also with my mystery novel VILLA PACIFICA. 

When did your flair for writing arise from?

From reading. I was a passionate reader from childhood. Writing my own books is an extension of that.

What is your advice for those wanting to write books surrounding something that they are really passionate about?

Find a context and a focus for your subject (you can't just write about anorexia, or about motherhood, or about Africa), and go for it.  Be prepared for a long journey, and don't expect quick publication. Prepare to live with your project for a few years. But do go for it - writing, even just for its own sake, is tapping into the source of your deepest self. And it's fun!

Female First Lucy Walton 

by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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