Interview conducted with Author Mitch Waldman

Interview with writer Mitchell Waldman A FACE IN THE MOON molly: I recently read and wrote a review for your marvelous book: A FACE IN THE MOON. Mitchell, can you share with us what it was that inspired you to write 'moon'? Mitchell Waldman: I was inspired to write A FACE IN THE MOON by a relationship I was involved in many years ago. The book is by no means an autobiography, but, as many pieces of fiction, was indelibly marked by my own life experiences. molly: Indeed. I think many of us do draw on life experiences as fodder for our writing. Mitchell please tell us how long have you been writing? Mitchell Waldman: I started writing when I was a kid, always thought that I would be a writer "some day." I was in the second grade and will never forget the experience that went with coming in second place in a grade school fiction competition, having to stand up on the stage before the whole school, my knees knocking together as I stood behind the cover of the podium reading my mimeographed story aloud to the entire school. I was scared to death, but thrilled at the same time. I was not just another kid in the class, but had a unique view of the world, an identity, that's how it felt, and that's what writing was then, and is for me -- a portal to the true expression of the soul. Sounds like very high-falutin b.s., I know, but it is, nonetheless, true . During the rest of my childhood, however, I didn't really write much. I read constantly, everything I could find, but didn't pick up a pen much. I even avoided taking high school creative writing classes, having convinced myself that I had nothing to say and that I couldn't write well enough to compete with the other "creative" writing students. It wasn't until my first year of college, at the University of Illinois, in Champaign-Urbana, when I took a course from a wonderful writer named Mark Costello (author of The Murphy Stories and Middle Murphy) that I realized I was good enough, and that I did have something to say. Since then I've been writing on and off, even completing a really bad novel during a summer break in law school, but from which I learned, at least, that I could finish a novel, even if it was a terribly flawed novel like that one. When this other student in my class, whose work I admired, envied really, asked me what I was going to do after college I said, without hesitation, be a writer. He laughed and said, yeah, but what are you going to do for a living. I was naive, idealistic, unrealistic back then I guess. I really believed that I could just do that, be a writer. I still have that hopeless naive belief, though, that it will happen "some day." It does happen on occasion. molly: Thank you for that insight into your writing experiences! Now, if you will, please tell us a bit about yourself Mitchell Waldman: A little about me? Well, my life has been pretty tame, non-eventful, I guess. The standard living through divorce as a kid, having to deal with that whole ball of wax. My childhood is something that I haven't written much about. So much of it is buried beneath the surface of my consciousness -- the daily warfare that I remember from growing up in a family that was really more like two separate families -- my mother remarried to a man with two kids when I was five -- that never really coalesced completely, at least not in my parents' eyes. It was the typical modern American Jewish guilt and angst-ridden childhood, I guess. Living in suburbia (I grew up in the Chicago area), the middle-class lifestyle, with all the materialism that went with it, the artificiality that went along with it. The perfect patches of lawn, the neatly placed Monopoly houses laid out side by side, the new cars every other year, while all this other real stuff was going on in the world. Poverty, hatred, prejudice, war. Vietnam was always there as a threat – the draft looming years ahead, but still a very real threat, as the war seemed to continue forever. The daily assaults to the eyes every night watching that stuff on the news. There was the fractured family on my father's side. I hardly knew him, hardly know my older brother, who lives in New Zealand, nor do I really know the four half sisters scattered around the world -- a couple of them in Chile, and two in California, who I last saw when they were children, although I have established contact with a couple of them in the past year due to the wonders of the Internet. And there was the first marriage of my own, trying not to repeat the mistakes of my own parents, but inevitably winding up in the same way...divorced. With three kids, all the heartbreak that goes with that, leaving them. The American way. But, that's a story of its own. And, finally, finding the right woman to be with. A wonderful woman. And struggling with daily life, rising early to write, trudging off to work to try to pay the bills, child support, etc. It's not always easy. But it's life, real life. Something I like to read about, like to write about. I have trouble relating to books about the wealthy and all their "weighty" problems while they're living a life of leisure, it relates to so few of us with real lives and issues to deal with. But, then again, that's my own personal prejudice. Writing and reading about real people. People that struggle with everyday life decisions, with just getting by. (I'm a big Raymond Carver fan, by the way). molly: Thank you Mitchell. I wonder if any of us have really known anyone who live the storybook type of life? I didn’t, and certainly no one I know has. Now, let’s shift gears a little, how long did it take for you to get published? Mitchell Waldman As my book A FACE IN THE MOON was published by one of the new generation of publishers -- the print on demand publisher, iUniverse -- this is a somewhat difficult question to answer. As a writer of mainstream, literary type fiction, after some frustration in finding a home for my novel at "traditional" publishers, despite generally positive responses, I turned to iUniverse to publish my story. This new breed of publishers, whose technology has allowed many to more or less "self-publish" their books with little in the way of editorial interference, have added a lot of new opportunities for writers and readers, alike. However, they also carry with them a stigma that has to be overcome due to the nonselective publishing process involved. Some have likened iUniverse to the so-called "vanity presses," and, in fact, given the nature of this type of publisher, and the process involved, many books are published which are not representative of the highest quality of writing. However, there are many serious writers who have been frustrated with the narrowing opportunities offered by the traditional publishers who have, more and more, been bought by larger and larger conglomerates for whom maximizing profits is the bottom line. Those of us who are serious writers and have chosen to publish in this emerging alternative route thus have to overcome the stigma that exists, to some part for good reason, of books published by such publishers due to the lack of a quality control process, or a sifting of the books published. One way of weeding out quality books is by seeking book reviews both online and in the press of this kind of book and by readers, as well, in such places as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, as well as by word of mouth communication of such books. I’ve attempted to do this, sending my novel out to numerous review sources, including you, and have garnered much enthusiasm and interest in my book from various sources. Reviewers will become more and more important in the emerging technology that widens literary opportunities for both writers and readers, and thus increases the diversity of books available to readers, and to some extent confuses readers. The reviewers, in this new technology, and the readers, will become the new gatekeepers, rather than the select group of editors at publishing companies to decide what books are worth reading and their importance to the reading public will increase dramatically over time. I feel somewhat defensive about having been published by this type of publisher. Therefore, I could say that my stories, poems and essays have been published in numerous "traditional" publishers. But I feel that the writing should be judged on its own, as you, Molly, have done with regard to my book, as have other reviewers and readers who have enjoyed and praised the book. My publishing of A FACE IN THE MOON in this manner is just one way to get attention to my writing and, I guess, "graduate" to a more traditional publisher, though that should not in any way detract from the value of the writing itself. In this regard, I’d invite any readers interested in a story such as mine -- belated coming of age story, a story about a young man and a young woman trying to find their places in the world and their ways to each other -- to read the first few pages of my book, available by the way at my website ( http://mitchwaldman.homestead.com//FACEINMOON.html), and decide for themselves whether they want to see more. molly: You bet. If I am not mistaken Hemingway, Dickens and one of my all time favorites Mark Twain all ‘self published’ so you join quite a company! And I certainly see no reason for you to have to defend yourself or your work at all. Mitchell, now please tell me what rewards do you find from being a writer? What are you working on right now? Mitchell Waldman The rewards of fiction writing are great. Writing affirms one's soul. It’s a way for one to get in touch with how he or she feels or what the writer believes in, even though in fiction one does not come right out and say it. It's a way to communicate, as I hope I did with A FACE IN THE MOON, what people go through on a personal, emotional leveI during certain key times in their lives. I’m currently working on a number of short stories, some new and some old, for a possible collection of stories, tentatively entitled "In the Company of Strangers." The stories tend to focus mainly on relationships of ordinary people. Many of these stories deal with people in family or love relationships who, nonetheless, don’t really seem to know each other. They touch upon the theme of alienation, and are populated by people who are looking for their places in the world or looking for love, generally in all the wrong places. There are stories, also, of people who unexpectedly come across people who they don't wish to come in contact with again, who have hurt them in the past, and then, of course the question becomes, how do I handle this contact that brings me back to the traumatic events of the past. The stories are, I hope, about real people trying to get through their lives the best they can, living from day to day, trying to make sense of it all in a world that is not always so hospitable. There are the strangers among us and whom we meet daily. And there are the strangers whom we live with or who are our neighbors and we never really get to know. I'm trying to mold these stories into some sort of ordered form. Many of them are out to magazines big and small right now and many of them have been published in small and literary magazines. molly: I find all of this very enlightening Mitchell. We really are beginning to understand you as a writer! Now, what advice do you have for aspiring writers? Mitchell Waldman Writing often has a highly idealized image. We read about the glamour of the big name authors, the six and sometimes seven figure deals, the national book tours. The handful of writers who are brand names are what many writers starting out aspire. They see the glamour and glitz in declaring to the world I am a "writer," or better yet, an "author." As a result, sometimes, their writing suffers as they try to formulate their words with these kinds of images (inauthentic) and goals (unrealistic) in mind, rather than trying to serve up "truth." The "truth" is not necessarily the same as factually accurate. This goes more towards writing from the heart, and writing to move people emotionally without tricks or ploys. Writing that goes to the heart and comes from the heart is a difficult thing, but conveying the way the writer or his or her character feels about something is a most satisfying goal. A writer writes and the fix of creating something of quality is perhaps the writer’s greatest satisfaction. Having created something that is a unique piece of oneself is a great feeling. Writers, of course, don’t write in a vacuum, and generally have a basic desire and need to communicate to others, to express themselves, and finding his or her audience is paramount to this communication process. Yet, above all, you must accept constructive criticism and, at the same time, maintain the strong will and self-editing tools so as not to be deterred by criticism or the lack of feedback from other people. It's a difficult balancing act. Hemingway talked about the need, in revising one's own work, to be equipped with a “built in, shock-proof shit detector”. In short, seek out the support of others, and write for yourself, not for others. If you do this, your words will come from the heart. Finally know that a writer writes and you must be very determined. There are many hurdles to face. Writing is a lonely occupation, there may be few to encourage you, at first, but if you believe in yourself and in your words, you’re already a step ahead of the competition. Molly thank you so much for such an interesting interview Mitchell. I look forward to reading and writing a review for your next novel. You can check out A FACE IN THE MOON at the author's website.