Jacob M. Appel is a prolific writer based in the US, his work encapsulating a variety of genres and forms. He has been published extensively in literary journals and won many awards. The team at Constellate Literary Journal are delighted that Jacob has found time to answer some questions about his life as a writer, and his new collection The Liars’ Asylum. We hope that all our new and aspiring writers find his comments helpful.
Constellate Literary Journal:
Hi Jacob, welcome to Constellate Literary Journal. Constellate aims to offer a voice for new and aspiring writers so it would be great if you could offer some advice to new writers about what or who inspired you to commence writing?
Jacob M. Appel:
I confess I was initially motivated more by the stick than by the carrot: As a child growing up in a bedroom suburb, I recall watching the businessmen disembarking from the commuter trains each evening, looking depleted and demoralized, and thinking, I don’t want to do that when I’m an adult. And then I discovered there was a job a person can do in his pajamas. I also used to have this fantasy that if I wrote a major literary novel, Sophia Loren might fall in love with me. Over the years, I’ve given up this dream; my new plan is to win her over with my good looks and charm.
Constellate Literary Journal:
You have a varied and interesting resume including many degrees. Do you find that you draw on any of your own educational and life experiences when writing and if so, how does that influence your subject matter and character choices?
Jacob M Appel:
School is far more fun than work. Anybody who doesn’t realize this should be sent back to school until they do. As my resume indicates, I am a physician, attorney, bioethicist and undercover double agent working clandestinely for a branch of the government so secret that if I mentioned its name, civilization as we know it would come to a grinding halt. I draw heavily upon this last role for my subject matter and characters. Less so upon my work as a doctor or lawyer, because who wants to read about doctors and lawyers when you can just get sick or sue somebody on your own?
Constellate Literary Journal:
Your latest collection The Liars’ Asylum brings together eight short stories each one skilfully compelling. Before you began writing the collection where did your ideas about characterization and plot evolve from?
Jacob M Appel:
Whenever I feel the urge to write a story, I go to the public library and look up copies of slick magazines from the 1930s and 1940s: Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, etc. Then I retype them on my own computer, changing names like Lucinda and Winifred to Samantha and Madison, and add in a few modern conveniences – sometimes I find-and-replace words like “telegraph” with “email” and “exchanged glances” with “fucked like rabbits” – and voilà, I have a story. It’s called recycling. I’m told that it’s good for the literary environment.
Constellate Literary Journal:
Tell us a little bit about The Liars’ Asylum, how would you best describe it?
Jacob M. Appel:
The Liars’ Asylum is a damning commentary on all the people who have wronged me in present and past lives discreetly passed off as a collection of literary short stories. For those of you who prefer the concrete, it’s a paperback volume, 180 pages, 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches in dimension, weighing 1.2 pounds and perfectly suited for use as a paperweight or doorjamb. It features a considerable amount of prevarication. If any readers would like a free electronic copy of the volume in PDF format (or copies of several of my other works of fiction), they can email me at jacobmappel@gmail.com and I will be glad to share.
Constellate Literary Journal:
Was there any advice that you were given when you started writing that you felt actually helped you to achieve the success you have attained? Conversely were you given any advice that did not work for you?
Jacob M. Appel:
Good advice: Never take advice from anyone who is not personally invested in your writing. So if an editor offers to buy your story, you should certainly accept her feedback and suggestions. But if an editor turns down your story, take her suggestions with many grains of salt.
Additional good advice: Always put on clean underwear if you’re going on a date.
Bad advice: Focus on the writing, not the audience or the publishing.
Worse advice: The reason Sophia Loren doesn’t answer your fan mail is that she’s playing hard to get. Just bide your time and play it cool – you’ll hear from her eventually.
Constellate Literary Journal:
Over the years what obstacles, if any, have you had to overcome as a writer? Were you able to find solutions to these barriers and if so how?
Jacob M. Appel:
Frequently I run out of ink for my pen and then I have to go out and slaughter a squid. If I’m writing a short story, I can sometimes make do with a smaller cephalopod like a cuttlefish. But a novel requires a squid, or occasionally several, and it’s not an easy business, let me tell you. There’s a reason Ahab stuck to whales.
Constellate Literary Journal:
Finally what one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring writer just starting to write?
Jacob M. Appel:
Be relentless. Anybody can be persistent, but relentlessness is what separates the boys from the wheat (or something like that). I learned this from my mother, who is particularly relentless if I don’t call at least twice a week (although she is neither a boy nor a sheaf of wheat). The world is full of gifted writers who have unsold manuscripts abandoned in bedroom drawers and attic chests. Do not let yourself be one of them. Keep sending out work until you run out of parchment or your scribe develops tendonitis.
Constellate Literary Journal would like to thank Jacob M. Appel for his time. Buy his latest collection, The Liars’ Asylum, in paperback at AmazonUK. AmazonUS.
Check him out online at:
www.jacobmappel.com or in the photo display at your local post office.
If you’d like a free PDF of his new collection (or many of his other works), please email him directly at jacobmappel@gmail.com
