Paul J. Joseph
Fayetteville, North Carolina
USA
Good morning, Paul, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for art and authors and those who love them. Can you tell us a little about what you've written?
My body of work consists of two series. The first, “Through the Fold” is the story of Sally Buds and her pilot Ian Merryfield. The series starts with the discovery of special “folds” which exist in our star system, creating accidental shortcuts to other parts of the universe. Sally and Ian are the first to travel through a fold and return to tell about it. What’s on the other side of that fold turns out to be more terrifying than it appears on the surface. Each story documents a new mission that does not go according to plan. Sally and Ian don’t always agree on everything, but they make a great team. They end up facing challenges from their own bureaucracies back home as well as their accumulating list of rivals.
I am currently editing the seventh book in the Turing Files and preparing to release the original six as a boxed set.
What is your favorite genre to write?
Science fiction. More specifically, hard science fiction. I do occasionally entertain ideas not completely drenched in technology, but you won’t find elves or magic in my work, no offense to those who like such things.
Favorite food.
I like a good Ribye Steak, medium rare! Sorry, Vegans, but there it is.
Tea or coffee?
It took me a while to like coffee, but when I did, I did. Not much of a tea drinker now.
Pizza or ice cream?
I suppose I’d have to pick pizza, but I’ve noticed that in the different places I’ve lived, pizza can come in many forms. New England pizza is what I’m thinking of. That’s normal for me. You can actually see the peperonis and they are round. Nebraska Pizza is . . . Well, it’s like you took New England Pizza, put it in a blender and re-cast it as a soupy mass on the bread and took out half the flavor. Pizza in The Netherlands is like a giant Ritz Cracker with tomato sauce on it. When I had it in Switzerland, all I remember is that I paid $50.00 for a pizza and it was supposed to be a deal.
Wine or beer or soda or what?
My wife is the wine guru. Neither of us like beer, and I won’t give up my Pepsi. Ever!
Where would you like to visit?I’d start with the Grand Canyon and Yellow Stone and go from there. I like taking pictures, and lately I create 360 environments of places I go. I am interested in beautiful and impressive works of God and man. Any beach would be the former, great works of architecture would be the latter. I don’t like cruises or tours or anything that involves moving with a crowd of people and not having the freedom to explore. I’ve driven on the left side of the road in England and read my mileage in km in mainland Europe. My hope is that, when I truly get to see something interesting, that I can have enough time to truly explore it.
Favorite musical artist.
Rush
Do you listen to music when you write?
I could listen to music, but I don’t. What I have been able to do,
however, is ignore just about anything going on in the background
if I have to. That said, I prefer to write in silence, but I don’t always
have that luxury.
What makes you laugh?
I’m partial to British comedy. My favorite example is Only Fools and Horses. I also admit to liking IT Crowd. I like sophisticated humor, not raunchy or disrespectful stuff. I must admit that I have a huge collection of political memes that are not always politically correct. In fact, I keep some of them in a folder that is simply labeled “no.” Those I don’t show to just anyone, but some of them leave me in stitches.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
Though most might not consider this a sculpture, I was always fascinated by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I’ve been there twice and I still find it amazing. I like to see great feats of engineering on a large scale and the fact that they would do this at all makes it incredible. It was like they did it to prove it was possible. They built each side independently and met in the middle. Had they been off by even a few inches it wouldn’t have worked. A simple shape, but it says a lot.
How old were you when you started writing?
Now there is the irony. I was writing when I was in high school, which was a long time ago. I had always wanted to write and publish novels, but life kept getting in the way. Believe it or not, I actually started my career as a college professor simply because I thought it would be more conducive to writing novels. It was.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I try to avoid those sorts of things whenever possible. I consider writing a process of discovery. I want to be just as surprised as the reader is at every new plot development. It is an instinct that I try to develop. It can be a painful process in that it’s easy to lose faith if it doesn’t flow right or not fast enough, but I don’t want to work from a formula of any kind, and I haven’t needed an outline yet. When I start a new book all I really have to know is what happens first, and sometimes what happens last. The stuff in the middle works itself out.
Describe your perfect evening.
Well, I suppose a perfect evening would be spent in a cabin in the woods or a cottage on the Outer Banks. I like the sound of wind and waves, and I like the air to have a coolness to it. Perhaps a nice dinner with the family, a game, and a generally relaxed atmosphere. When it gets dark I want to see the stars in their fullness, so we’d drive away from the village far enough that no lights would interfere with them. That’s when you can see the rim of the galaxy. Tell me that isn’t God’s majesty.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Anywhere. Some of my best ideas just “appear” and I have no idea where they come from. I keep my eyes open and I listen to what’s happening around me. If I travel through a place, I might see an interesting setting for a project I’m working on, or I might see somebody I can base a character on. Usually it has to do with a mystery or puzzle. I once wondered, for example, if you could have a planet orbiting a black star just inside its event horizon. Such a place would have a very strange relationship with time, if it could exist at all. That wound up in a story.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
Honestly, I rarely get writer’s block. Writer’s block is blamed for many a night not spent writing. Usually it’s life, distractions, or, dare I say, laziness that causes writers not to write. I can only speak for myself, of course, but I will say that there are going to be times when the writing is not there. It’s still cooking in the back. Sometimes you can jump start it by writing a few lines that you know should be there and see if others follow. Sometimes I’ve written entire chapters when I thought I had nothing. Other times I just don’t know what happens next. That’s when maybe it’s a good idea to give it a break and come back to it later. When it shows up, it shows up, and it usually works out that something critical in the story was not known at the time, and it was required in order to write that part.
Who is your favorite author?
It’s hard to pin down a specific author as a favorite, but obviously there are going to be some whose writing style I most enjoy. Some classic authors I’ve come to like include Arthur C. Clark, Robert Heinlein, and, of course Azimov, but I think you will see that I designed my robots differently than he does. I’ve also had the opportunity to explore more independent authors lately and found some interesting gems among them. I read Jonas Saul, for example, and I actually got to strike up a friendship with him.
Best book you ever read.
Again, hard to pin down. As a Christian, I would have to place the Bible in that slot, but for fiction books, it would have to be Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I know that is literally as far away from science fiction as you can get, but the book did arguably change the course of history. As well as being an incredibly intense story, it was a marvelous piece of journalism.
Last book you read.
Some book on marketing my books, go figure.
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I think I’d be a college professor. Which is cool because I already am.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
That would have to be my wife, Tyreese. This is because marriage is all about influence. There was a me before I was married and there is the current me. Together we learned some beautiful truths and some hard lessons. I’ve learned to be stronger and less selfish. Most of this could not have been done any other way.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
I think I’d like to talk to my father again. I lost him a while back and I don’t think I ever adequately thanked him for all he did for me. Also, I’m surprised at how he’s been proven right in just about all the things we used to argue about. I guess I’m getting old.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Know what you’re getting into and have realistic expectations. Don’t write for money, there might not be any for a long time. Same with fame. Don’t let anyone tell you how to write your own story, however. Your story is yours. Not everyone is going to like it, and that’s okay. But it has to be good enough for you. That said, it can always be better, and that’s your job to make it so with each revision.
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
https://www.amazon.com/Paul-J-Joseph/e/B00DPRIR4Q/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/paul-j-joseph
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