Interview With Author Joseph Costa
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My most recent book is a collection of linked short (literary) fiction, COMETS, released July 2020 by Unsolicited Press. Prior to that, I wrote and published three novels including, The Good, The Bad and The Goalie, Discovering Dynamite (both for 9-11-year-olds), and Eye of the Storm (a thriller). My short stories have appeared in BULL men’s fiction, Rabble Lit, the HCE Review, The Write Launch and in December Magazine as a finalist for the Curt Johnson Prose Awards. In between that, I’ve written half a dozen screenplays and have optioned two for motion pictures.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Part biography, part fiction, and part confession, COMETS was inspired by the cabinet shop my father owned for more than 60 years. In that, this collection is an homage to my dad and to all of the makers, builders, and workers who ply a trade. In many respects, the shop is where I was raised. The stories from that time germinated for many years and the result is Comets — a linked collection of short fiction that follows the struggles of Italian, Cuban, and American cabinetmakers in Ybor City, Tampa’s historic Latin Quarter. The book weaves through a microcosm of blue-collar problems, with implications that go beyond racial, economic, and cultural boundaries, illuminating a greater understanding of the human experiences we all share. The title, COMETS, is symbolic of the recurring cycles we all seem to go through. Making the same mistakes time and again. Loving the wrong people.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure what is considered unusual. When I wrote COMETS, because of the tone and texture of the work, I listened to Miles Davis, Kind of Blue before I started to write. Every time. I recently wrote a Christmas film, and for that, of course, I listen to the Vince Guaralid Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Sometimes, music helps set the mood.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As a writer, if you’re not reading, you will not be able to write. At least, that’s the way it works for me. If I’m writing a collection of short fiction, I will immerse myself in short fiction by writers I love. Richard Ford, Denis Johnson, Flannery O’Connor, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Jhumpa Lahiri, Alice Walker, Ernest Hemingway.
COMETS, was influenced in different ways by different writers. I loved Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I was influenced by the structure and of course the indelible title character. Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock was a searing collection that captured his difficult upbringing. In this, I fully realized truth in fiction. I think, however, I was most influenced by Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Written in the bildungsroman genre, it was a fictionalized autobiographical tale. This is what I strived for in COMETS.
What are you working on now?
I have two projects I’m working on concurrently. I am putting the finishing touches on a new screenplay. I’m also working on a second collection of linked short fiction.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=joseph+allen+costa&i=digital-text&crid=1UC0XBR9YEKLA&sprefix=joseph+allen+costa%2Cdigital-text%2C75&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes! Read. Read. Read. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t just read in the genre you want to write. Cast a wide net. Also, write what you know, especially if you are a new writer. If the world you’re building and the characters you create don’t ring true, you will lose your readers very quickly. I worked in my dad’s cabinet shop for more than 15 years. I know that world. If you read COMETS, I want you to come away with the taste of sawdust in your mouth and the scent of fresh cut wood in your nose.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
First, write one scene at a time. Then as your story builds, continue to read and reread what you have written. Explore the themes that are emerging. When you’ve finished, set it aside for a week or month or more then go back to it with fresh eyes. Don’t be afraid to rewrite and cut what doesn’t work. Don’t fall in love with your characters. Flaws make characters interesting.
What are you reading now?
I’m always reading short stories new and old. I revisit the classics quite often and each time, I discover something new. Read beneath the surface! Think of Hemingway’s Iceberg theory. In good fiction, 90% of that story is imbued through symbolism, imagery, metaphor etc.
I just started The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I am working on a collection of short fiction and am in the midst of the fifth story in the collection.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Only four! Jeez. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett.
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