Interview with Douglas Carlton Abrams, author of The Lost Diary of Don Juan

Douglas Carlton Abrams is a former editor at the University of California Press and HarperSanFrancisco. He is the co-author of a number of books on love, sexuality, and spirituality, including books written with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, and Taoist Master Mantak Chia. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, with his wife and three children. In his life and work, he is interested in cultivating all aspects of our humanity —body, emotions, mind, and spirit. His goal in writing fiction is to create stories that not only entertain, but also attempt to question, enchant, and transform.

Doug´s desire in writing his latest novel, The Lost Diary of Don Juan was not only to resurrect this greatest of historical lovers and to give voice to his true motives; he was also moved to write a book that would explore the tension between lust and love and that would confront the human question of how any man or woman can find lifelong satisfaction in one committed relationship. To find out more about the origins of The Lost Diary and the myth of Don Juan, and to learn about forthcoming novels, please visit www.LostDiaryofDonJuan.com or www.DouglasCarltonAbrams.com.

Thank you for this interview, Douglas. Can you briefly tell us what your book is about?

In a time of discovery and decadence, when the gold that poured endlessly into the port of Sevilla devalued money, marriage, and love itself, young Juan Tenorio was abandoned and raised by nuns. He grew up loving and worshipping all women, but a clandestine affair with one of the sisters forces him to leave the Church—and his plans for the priesthood—forever. Juan becomes a spy, as well as the world´s greatest libertine. But far from the heartless seducer that legend recounts, he seeks liberation and redemption as much as personal pleasure and gratification. He begins to keep a diary of his greatest adventures and the arts of passion he has mastered. The most dangerous adventure of all—the irresistible fall into the madness of love with the only woman who could ever make him forget all others—finally compels him to confess everything.

How did you come up with such a brilliant idea to write about one of the most passionate men in history?

One night I went to bed asking myself a question that I believe every married man or woman asks eventually: how could I stay happily and passionately married for the rest of my life? The next morning I awoke as if I had been shaken. It was then that I first thought of Don Juan, the universal symbol of passion. I wondered what if he had kept a diary. What secrets would it contain? What could we learn from him about the nature of passion? And ultimately, what might cause the world´s greatest seducer to forsake all women for one woman? I left my wife´s warm sleeping body, walked past our three sleeping children, and sat down at the dining room table. It was as if a voice was whispering the story in my ear.

Before you researched into his life, did you have any idea you would come away with what ended up in the book? Did anything surprise you about Don Juan?

As I mentioned earlier, the idea of the book came to me as if Don Juan was whispering in my ear, so I didn´t actually start to research the novel until I´d written the first chapter. Four years and twenty-eight rewrites later, I finally had a book!

Historically, Don Juan has been portrayed as a playboy at best and a truly evil man at worst. I guess I wasn´t really surprised at anything, but as I wrote, I discovered that he wasn´t just an uncaring playboy who eventually falls in love and mends his ways. He was a living, breathing character to me, someone who – just like all of us – has a past that has molded who he became. Ultimately, it was only by letting go of that same past that he could love one woman so thoroughly.

Is it true he had many, many ladies of the night?

The Don Juan that wrote himself through me was not a man for whom sex was something to be paid for (I assume that´s what you mean by "ladies of the night"). Don Juan had empathy for the many women he slept with, most of whom were in very unhappy marriages. Yes, he was running from loving one woman, but he also truly loved all of the women he slept with. You might say he loved and worshiped all women.

I understand you have just sold movie rights to the book. What did you do when you heard the news? Was it quite a surprise?

One producer had heard about my book, and called my agent to see if it had been optioned for a movie yet. That is what started a very exciting part of my Don Juan experience. While that producer ultimately didn´t choose to buy the rights, we had several more producers interested and one, Branded Pictures, did ultimately make that decision. It was quite a surprise, but obviously a very welcome one.

I didn´t really do anything to celebrate, but I did listen to the advice of my literary agent and found a film agent at CAA (Creative Artists´ Agency) to work with on the movie project.

Is this your first book?

This is my first novel, although I have co-authored a number of non-fiction books. I run a literary and media development company which works with visionaries to help them create a wiser, healthier, and more just world. Writing fiction has always been a large part of personal goals and I hope my fiction writing is an outgrowth of my earlier work helping to create books that I believe can create a better world.

What´s next for you?

I am currently finishing the second novel in my two-book contract. Although quite different, all of my novels will attempt to tell dramatic stories that also convey some of the ancient insights about how we can live on this planet with greater joy and wisdom. My next novel is a contemporary diary, an ecological thriller and a mythic fiction about a love that is even more powerful than passionate love. I began with the question: can we survive as a species, and if so, how?

We are now also in the process of finding a director and developing a screenplay to bring Don Juan to the silver screen. If he is lucky enough to end up there, you are all invited to the opening night!

Final question, do you ever feel the spirit of Don Juan overlooking this project? If so, in what way?

Many times while I was researching The Lost Diary, racing down the streets and alleyways of Sevilla, I experienced powerful déjà vu. People ask if I was Don Juan in a past life, and I say that I was more likely his coachman.

Thank you so much for this interview, Douglas. Can you tell us how we can find out more about you and your delicious new book?

You are very welcome. If you would like to read a few chapters of the book, you can read them at www.donjuansample.com. For more on Don Juan, you can visit the Lost Diary website, www.lostdiaryofdonjuan.com, or my blog, http://lostdiary.typepad.com/.