As an author of adult and young adult fiction, Joseph Falank has had many of his stories featured in magazines and online publications. Most recently his adult-themed shorts "The Morning After" and "Answering the Call" have appeared in issues of RiverLit Magazine.

 

He has written and directed over twenty independent films and is a performing member, Master of Ceremonies, and co-manager of The Puzzled Players Comedy Improv Theater. Since 2002 he has worked with children, young adults, and special needs kids in a classroom setting from pre-K through grade twelve.

 

Joseph lives with his wife in Endicott, minutes from his hometown of Binghamton. Seeing is his first novel.

 

 

 

How did you get started writing?

I began creating stories at a young age - I think most writers do in some way. Books of all kinds, scary movies, Star Wars, and superheroes defined my childhood, and I would create my own version of the tales I absorbed through creating short stories, comic books, screenplays, and acting out scenarios with my toys and actions figures (Batman getting the most use) to bring the stories in my head to life. When I was in high school I took Creative Writing and it was in that class that I not only fell in love with the craft but learned that others were enjoying what I had to say through my fiction - one assignment of mine (a short story) was taken off the teacher's desk, Xeroxed, and passed out in the hallways. I was a celebrity for, like, a day. Which is a big thing when you're in a high school of 1,600 students.

Who influenced you?

Growing up I would catch old episodes of The Twilight Zone on the SyFy channel (then spelled Sci-Fi), and, as it happened, the show's creator and head-writer Rod Serling had spent many years of his youth in my hometown of Binghamton, New York. I just thought that was so cool because I already loved how the show mixed moody suspense and dark/dreary imagery with flawed characters, good stories, and always featured a moral, but to know the guy responsible for the show had lived where I lived influenced me in a big way; it let me know even I - a relative nobody from a small town - could be someone of importance. As a dedication to Rod, his surname appears as part of the name for the fictional town in my debut novel SEEING.

Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

My absolute favorite book is A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness. I read the book shortly after writing a draft of SEEING. At the time I was worried because my manuscript featured a lot of tenderness, a lot of heart, and heartbreak, as well as loss. I didn't know if my story would sell, let alone attract a YA audience, because it wasn't about a hero, it wasn't about an alternate future, or a wizard boy, or a sharp-shooting teenage girl, or zombies. SEEING was more about finding hope. I was attracted to A MONSTER CALLS by the haunting cover and description and when I read it I was so overwhelmed with the emotion of the tale and, in a way, the book inspired me; it let me know a story about hurt and redemption did have a place on the YA bookshelves.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

Sounds cliché, I know, but DON'T GIVE UP. You'll write, and write a lot. You'll get rejected, which isn't fun, but you grow a thick skin for it. Just keep on writing and submitting. And reading! Reading is very important. If you keep reading, writing, and submitting eventually you'll get that YES you're looking for. SEEING was the fifth novel I wrote, so it took a long time and a lot of work and a lot of hearing "No" before it was my publisher, Winter Goose, that said "Yes!" Looking back, I wouldn't have done anything different.

Where is your favorite place to write?

My wife and I just moved into our first home and I finally have my own office (!!!). I love to use the space to write but, really, I can write anywhere. Just yesterday I spent my lunch hour writing the beginnings of a story in a composition notebook while cramped in the front seat of my car, but it didn't bother me one bit. As long as there are no distractions, like TV. It's not so much the place for me but the time of day and the amount of inspiration. I write better in the mornings because I'm rested and everything feels fresh. By evening, after working two day jobs, I'm spent and it's a lot more difficult to come up with anything of quality. If I have to write in the evenings, I'm usually spending most of the next morning's writing session reviewing what I wrote and fixing it.

What else would you like to tell us?

This is a very exciting time in my life because not only did my first book, SEEING, just come out in June, and, as I also mentioned, my wife and I just bought our first house, but we are also expecting our first child - a baby girl - in October! I just finished painting her room (yellow), and we're still in the midst of sorting through her ever-growing wardrobe that includes many adorable outfits, including whatever Batman and Superman and Star Wars onesies we can get our hands on.