We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joseph Carrabis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Joseph, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?
I don’t know any authors who haven’t wondered, “Do I have what it takes? Am I really any good at this?”
I have several fiction and non-fiction books out, have published leagues of short stories, some poetry, and editors and publishers routinely ask me to contribute to their publications and anthologies.
Still, I have moments.
Long, long ago (late 1990s), I wrote a novel and had no idea if it was any good. Prior to writing that novel and even further back in the Before Time (1987), I took part in a workshop led by AJ Budrys, a well known and respected late Golden Age early Modern Age SF author. During this month long intensive, residential workshop, AJ confided in me that I was one of the top three in attendance (there were about 20 participants). Between then and the late 1990s, he started “Tomorrow,” a print magazine. I reached out and asked if he’d be interested in my work. He said definitely.
AJ accepted much of what I sent him and definitely not everything.
But here’s the thing.
When he did reject something, he told me what worked and what didn’t work. He explained why something didn’t work and made suggestions for making it work. He never attempted to make me his clone, never attempted to take over my writing, always patiently listened to my explanations of what I worked towards and gave me ideas on how to get there. Often he accepted the rewrite, a few times he didn’t, and always explained why, sometimes explaining the story was fine, it was something in him which wasn’t working.
Whoa!
Imagine that kind of gift! A mentor who’s self-aware enough to know when it’s their problem, not yours or your offerings?
Whoa!
So I’d written this novel, The first draft was fifty or so pages, and I stunned myself being able to write something that long. A few rewrites later and now 85k words, I knew I liked it. Some friends liked it.
But did it suck or was it great?
I sent it to AJ with a note asking him to read it and let me know if he thought I would ever make it as a writer or should I go back to my quiet life of desperation.
He got back to me three weeks later. The novel – The Augmented Man – was amazing, magnificent, stunning, and would I accept him as my agent?
Took me a few minutes to get off the floor. Susan (wife/partner/Princess) helped me up.
I’m not kidding.
Yes, AJ, definitely yes.
His willingness to help me, to guide me, to mentor me, to teach with patience and love, is something I remember always and apply when I’m working with others.
Like AJ, I’ll make you work for it because when you’re done, you own it and nobody can take it away from you. Ever.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Joseph Carrabis told stories to anyone who would listen starting in childhood, wrote his first stories in grade school and started getting paid for his writing in 1978. His work history includes periods as a long-haul trucker, apprentice butcher, apprentice coffee buyer/broker, lumberjack, Cold Regions researcher, mathematician, semanticist, semioticist, physicist, educator, Chief Data Scientist, Chief Research Scientist, Chief Neuroscience Officer, Neuromarketer-in-Residence, and Chief Research Officer. Prior to becoming a full-time author, Joseph sat on several advisory boards including the Center for Multicultural Science and the Journal of Cultural Marketing Strategy. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research; an Annenberg Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future; Director of Predictive Analytics, Center for Adaptive Solutions; and was an original member of the NYAS/UN’s Scientists Without Borders program. He held patents covering mathematics, anthropology, neuroscience, and linguistics, and all based on a technology he created in his basement and from which he created an international company. He retired from corporate life and now spends his time writing fiction and non-fiction based on his experiences. His work appears regularly in anthologies and his own novels. He’s the author of The Augmented Man, Empty Sky, The Inheritors, Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires Volumes I and II, The Shaman, Search, Tag, and the non-fiction neuroscience-based That Th?nk You Do Volumes I and II, all available through Ingram and Amazon. You can often find him playing music or taking long, woodlands walks with his wife, Susan. Learn more about him at https://josephcarrabis.com and his work at http://nlb.pub/amazon.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Regular readers tell me I have a truly unique authorial voice, and they’re able to recognize my writing whether my name’s on it or not. I’m also told by people who know me they can hear me narrating my work when they read it. “It just sounds like you, Joseph.”
Flattering, and not accurate, as they also say they can easily identify different characters by speech patterns, language, and the like.
This recognition is great for Branding, rotten for marketing, because my brand is “Joseph.”
Have you ever seen a “Joseph” shelf at a bookstore or Amazon?
Know how you can tell if someone’s a brand? Check the position, font, and size of their name against the book or movie or whatever’s title. Is their name bigger? Bolder? On top of? They’re a brand.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
People regularly tell me how moved they are by my work.
This is gold to me. Okay, Gold, oil, and real estate.
I’ve had people vilify me about something I’d published only to end their harangue with “and the fact you could get me this pissed off in (x pages/y words) tells me you’re one hell of a good writer.”
Thanks!
I work and practice my craft because I want my readers and any one else who comes near to experience the world I experience, so when someone tells me they had strong reactions – positive or negative – to something I wrote, I know I’ve done my job.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://josephcarrabis.com
- Instagram: http://nlb.pub/Instagram
- Facebook: http://nlb.pub/Facebook
- Linkedin: http://nlb.pub/LinkedIn
- Twitter: http://nlb.pub/Twitter
- Youtube: http://nlb.pub/YouTube
- Other: Goodreads http://nlb.pub/Goodreads
Pinterest http://nlb.pub/Pinterest
BookBub http://nlb.pub/BookBub
Substack http://nlb.pub/Substack
