Book: The Old Men Who Row Boats And Other Stories
Q1. Hello Sir, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
Thank you so much for having me here. I feel privileged, and look forward to sharing a bit about myself, my book, and the writing process for your readers. My name is David Joseph, and I am the author of The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories. I am married, have two children and have lived in California and Spain over the past twenty-five years. What seems like a lifetime ago (it nearly is now!), I was a student of English Literature. I went on to complete a graduate program in writing at USC and then teach at the college level. However, I left teaching to move into the nonprofit sector, where I co-founded LA SCORES, an organization that uses writing to help inspire children in Los Angeles. That was my passion for many years, and I only returned to my own writing in earnest four years ago. Since then, I have been writing and publishing full-time and have completed four collections of fiction, the first of which is The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories. I’ve also been able to invest more time into the true loves my life, my wife Karen and our two sons Jackson and Cassius.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing ‘The Old Men Who Row Boats And Other Stories’ book?
That’s a great question. I think the biggest challenge I faced while writing this collection was that I hadn’t written a short story in nearly two decades! That’s quite a long time, and it likely dates me as well. I’d continued to write poetry, essays, and Op-Ed pieces, but fiction was a medium I hadn’t worked with in a long time. I think writing is similar to many other crafts, in that it’s important to work on it constantly in order to remain sharp. I’d like to think I have done that over the years by continuing to write, but I still had to shake off some of the Rust when it came to writing fiction. At the same time, I was also much younger back then. This passage of time can serve as a challenge, but it also has the capacity to be beneficial. I have had so many experiences in my own life since I last wrote fiction, and those experiences have helped me evolve as a person, but also as a writer. They’ve given me a new perspective, and it’s from this vantage point that I have worked to craft fresh narratives, and I hope that is evident in these stories.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
There are so many different fiction writers that have influenced me over the years, with Raymond Carver and Ernest Hemingway’s short stories at the top of the list. I also love “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin’s, and more recently, I’ve been reading the fiction of Mario Vargas Llosa and Arturo Perez Reverte. I’ve also been inspired by Flannery O’Connor, Chekhov, and I love Carson McCullers story The Jockey.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
I love Joshua Tree National Park. I’ve heard some people say there’s “nothing there” but that’s exactly what makes it so special. It’s what I imagine it might be like on the moon. It’s just the feeling of being in another universe. The desert landscapes stretch out for miles. The wind tunnels through the stone corridors and the sky goes on forever. It’s almost impossible to conceive that it’s only two hours from the urban jungle of Los Angele, but it is. And it’s a wonderfully desolate, vast paradise. There is an almost spiritual quality to it, and I can always think a bit more clearly when I am there, when I am removed from everything that moves quickly and immersed in the desert stillness.
Q5. Is there lots to do before you drive in and start writing a book?
I imagine there is, but that’s not how this project began. It started with some casual verse that turned into prose and stretched out into a single story. The second story came quicker than I expected, and only then did I begin to think of the possibility of a book and begin to conceptualize where I might be able to head with the collection. I’d like to be able to tell you that there was a lot of preparation, but I really just began writing and then new ideas for new stories started to take shape organically.
Q6. How long did it take you to write ‘The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories’ book?
I wrote the first story in the spring of 2017 and the final story was completed in 2019, just over two years after I had begun. Since that time, I’ve spent my time working on the editing, cover, design, and trying to develop a plan to market and sell the book effectively. These aren’t my strong suits, so it’s been a learning experience. Fortunately, I have an incredible team of people that have helped bring the book to fruition, beginning with my editor Emma Moylan, Cover Designer Katarina, and Layout Specialist Walt. Without their guidance and expertise, putting the finishing touches on the collection would have been hard to imagine.
Q7. On what all platforms readers can find ‘The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories’ book to buy?
The book is available for pre-order on Amazon.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories’?
As far as the title was concerned, that is the title of one of the stories in the collection. The story, in particular, wrestled with time and place and the manner in which time moves along, which are themes that are found throughout many of the stories in the collection. The cover was a completely different process altogether. As I said, this is not where my personal expertise falls, and I am so lucky to have found such a talented designer, Katarina, from Die Welle Design. She took the time to become familiar with the stories and then create a cover that she believed embodied them. I am so pleased with it, from the colors palette to the image to the design, and I couldn’t be more proud to have this beautiful cover house the stories in this collection.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
This is another great question. This is, of course, so important for writers if their work is going to resonate with readers. For me, I just try to make sure that everything I write feels like it’s coming from an authentic place, that it’s being written with my heart as well as my head, and that I am not forcing something onto the page that I don’t feel completely, wholly convinced about. This doesn’t have to be something significant. It could be describing two people sitting at a table at a restaurant. Or it could be someone gazing at a sunset or two people contemplating their future together. But if I am not passionate about what I am putting down on paper, it’s hard to expect the reader to be. I suppose whether I’ve accomplished this or not remains to be seen, but I hope that this approach has created some moments and that will resonate with readers.
Q10. Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
Are there any secrets? I’m not sure. Perhaps I am not clever enough to have any secrets! But these stories don’t really fall into categories of mystery or fantasy where there are continual twists and turns and elaborate plots. So, it’s not a case of having something that I can leak or share or unveil. If I was going to reveal a secret, and I am not even sure I’d call it a secret, I’d reveal that the characters in this book are ultimately defined, like us, both by what they do and by what they don’t do, what they say and don’t say. And I guess it’s up to the reader to determine how they feel about them and the stories they inhabit. But I am excited to put this first collection forward and hope readers will enjoy it.
Author’s Profile
Book Is Available On Amazon
The Old Men Who Row Boats And Other Stories
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