We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Josh Hickman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Josh, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My latest book, Songs In The Key of H: Tales of Irony & Insinuation. I’ve probably worked on it longer than any other single book (on and off for two years). It is a combination of a culmination of my themes and styles mixed with a bit freer form and variety of subjects. I sort of let myself go on this one, as it were. I wrote more about just whatever I wanted to write about without comically justifying every detail to myself. This book is perhaps a clearer picture of what was going on in my head at the time of writing. I didn’t hold back much, and I didn’t force myself to bend. I also dared to mix seriousness with the humor–poignancy with the pathos, puns, and parody.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve written for various papers, periodicals, and websites in Dallas and Los Angeles. I started writing comic novels in 2017. I love the research and the creative process; I am also an artist and musician. Having started several thriller novels but finding myself unable to finish them, I found my niche and natural talent in comedy writing. My books are surely for laughs, but all have a poignant undercurrent about human frailty, societal misfits, the righteously misguided, and seemingly unavoidable hypocrisy. My characters are searchers, dreamers, and charlatans–the winners, but more often the losers in the game of life. In my work, if it doesn’t make you chuckle and self-reflect a bit, it isn’t worth writing. My published novels include Through Tick & Tinn: The True Story of the Greatest Unknown Comedy Team Ever Known, Ambergris, Five Slices of Fear: A Connoisseur’s Hoagie of Horror, The Kinfolk: Cult of Sex & Cheese, and I Am Luney: The Untold Story of the World’s Naughtiest Man. Often period pieces, I exhaustively research the periods and places in which they exist. The stories are filled with my particular brand of surrealism, absurdism, and a heavy helping of pathos. I’m most proud of my most recent work, Songs In The Key of H:Tales of Irony & Insinuation, my first official collection of short stories. Of all my books, I think it is freer and fresher in its approach and expresses best the matters on my mind in the current time–aging, death, technology, political hypocrisy, hive-mind thinking, and societal fears.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The creative process–the work and seeing it come to completion in a finished form. A book half-finished is worthless. Although I am an artist and a musician as well, my brain and my creativity are functioning at their highest and most rewarding when I write. There are so many aspects on which to focus–the research, the vocabulary/word choice, the sentence structure, the chapter structure, the story arc, character development, the title, even the book cover. It forces one to creatively multi-task. And when the book is finished, you know you have accomplished something–there it is in your hands, available for others to read and experience. You’ve taken invisible thoughts and people and situations from your brain and translated onto paper in a relatable, readable form. It’s no small feat. And you hope other people read it, get it, have a laugh, and actually be personally affected by it. It’s magical.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

For the most part, the answer is “laughter,” but “thought” is a close second. The reader is disarmed by humor–it’s a very powerful thing–and later they consider the characters, situations, and absurdities and hopefully reflect and identify with some of them. How did I get to this place in my life? What did I do to deserve this? Where did I go wrong? Where did I go right? These are all questions my characters ask themselves (or at least should ask themselves). Choices. Circumstances. Meetings. Missed opportunities. Hope. Belief. “Luck.” These are all part of life and the human condition. I sneak them in between the jokes and satire to make the reader mull over these things in their own lives and of the lives of those around them. But, when all else fails, the healing power of laughter–especially being able to laugh at oneself–can redeem and reinvigorate us all.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joshhickmanbooks.com
• Instagram: @therealjoshhickman
• Facebook: /therealjoshhickman
• Linkedin: Josh Hickman