September 1, 2020
Joe English interview with David Alan Binder
His Website: https://sites.google.com/view/somebodyelsestroubles/home
About Joe (abbreviated): Joe English has a B. A. cum laude from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and an M. A. from Rice University in Houston, Texas. English is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. English was featured in a 60 Minutes broadcast as a first hand witness to neighborhood re-segregation in Chicago. He was a professor at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, for sixteen years. English’s writings have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader and Co-Existence, the literary journal which featured the works of Henry Miller. His most recent publication, the short story Mrs. Padgett's Pearls, was selected by Zimbell House Publishing for the anthology After Effects.
1. Where are you currently living?
I spend the days I have left in two soulful places: the westside Chicago neighborhood, Austin, where I have lived for 50 years, and the North Coast town, Sosua, in the Dominican Republic, where I have had a place for the past twelve years. Austin is considered by those afar a “ghetto,” as, for the past 49 years 95+% of its residents are of African descent. I am of Eastern European descent. When 99% of my neighbors fled in panic in a period of 18 months in 1971-72, I decided to “cast down my bucket where I was.” My Austin experiences are translated into a good chunk of SOMEBODY ELSE’S TROUBLES. Sosua too is a place of grace and grit; it was abandoned banana plantations until the late 1930’s when Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler’s tyranny were welcomed by the Dominican people, who greeted them with bottles of wine and loaves of bread when their ships arrived; the Dominican Republic was the only country at an international conference in Evian, France, set up by Franklin Roosevelt and other world leaders to actually do something other than talk.
2. What is the most important thing that you have learned in your writing experience, so far?
Embrace rejection.
3. What would you say is your most interesting writing, publishing, editing or illustrating quirk?
Well, of course, truth be told, I have SO many! To pick just one: finding the precise combination of words to express what’s going on but doing so in an unconventional fashion.
4. Tell us your insights on self-publish or use a publisher?
In today’s environment, I don’t think it makes much difference. An unknown writer has to develop, and develop quickly, a sense of fatalism.
a. Who is the name of your publisher and in what city are they located?
Zimbell House Publishing, Union Lake, Michigan, USA
5. Do you have any secret tips for writers on getting a book published?
Persevere, persevere, persevere. I had in excess of one thousand rejections over a twenty-five year span before linking with the wonderful folk at Zimbell House. The upside was that SOMEBODY ELSE’S TROUBLES underwent many, many, many rewrites and is a much better work than it was when first “completed.” I put “completed” in quotation marks because, as every writer knows, a work is never done, but, finally, has to come to a stop.
6. How did you or would you suggest acquire an agent? Any tips for new writers on getting one?
If lying down with dogs is your thing, by all means, secure an agent—if you can. Good luck in linking up with one who has at least a wee bit of ethics.
7. Do you have any suggestions or helps for new writers (please be so specific that this most likely will not have been seen elsewhere)?
Of course, it goes without saying, that you know in your bones that every word, nay, every syllable, you have written is golden. Rely on others. Find strangers to read what you have written. Do they read to the end? What kept me going is that so many people read TROUBLES to the last word; clearly its story and characters resonated. Whenever I heard of anyone who READS (careful here: no one wants to admit they do not!), I’d foist TROUBLES on them. Over the years of rejection from agents and publishers, out of the 200+ readers who started TROUBLES, only six did not finish it. No more needs be said.
8. What was one of the most surprising things you learned with your creative process with your books, editing, publishing or illustrating?
That the characters take over the ship. “We’re in charge, not you!”
9. How many books have you written?
One and one too many.
10. Do you have any tricks or tips to help others become a better writer (please be so specific that this most likely will not have been seen elsewhere)?
Write. Stare at the empty page. Caress every word. Think! Keep doing so until you hit the nail on the head. Do not settle for “good enough.”
11. Do you have any suggestions for providing twists in a good story?
The characters will decide. Twists that are organic are fine; twists for the sake of cleverness are not.
12. What makes your or any book stand out from the crowd?
My life experiences, mine and mine alone, which are its foundation. The weaving of various stories of disparate people from different worlds into a tapestry. The fact that TROUBLES has something unique to say.
13. What is the one thing you would do differently now (concerning writing or editing or publishing or illustrating) and why?
Probably not have started in the first place. The writing process is torture enough. The abuse one endures in trying to see to it that “Attention must be paid!” is beyond understanding.
14. What saying or mantra do you live by?
Cribbed from Lily Tomlin: “No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.”
15. Anything else you would like to say?
Yes. Thank you.
WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/view/somebodyelsestroubles/home