Flirting with Extinction received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Joanna Kadish.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Flirting with Extinction was released January 14 2025
What’s the book’s first line?
“There’s a picture of me at three cutting my hair with kitchen shears hoping to look like my brother, leaving me with stubby hair bordered by bald spots, leading to haircuts for all my dolls.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”
In mourning the deaths of cherished loved ones who followed my example and lived wild lives, and I point the accusatory finger incriminating myself, while my essays and stories ask the question, where do you draw the line? When is the thrill-seeking too much?
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
The deaths of my beautiful boys, revelers who danced on the thin line separating life and death.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
When your sons begin to exhibit signs of distress, learn what not to do.
When did you first decide to become an author?
When I was a child, I wanted to write stories like the ones I was reading, but I knew I had to learn how to write first, so I wrote essays and short stories for myself in a notebook, and read books, history, philosophy and fiction. I wrote for the school newspaper in high school and college, and became a journalist after that with the idea that sometime I might try to write a book length work.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
I’ve written two others: Swing Set and Charting a Marriage.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
Researching.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
When I’m in the writing phrase of a book, I’m writing most of the day six or seven days a week with a midday break for a walk or a visit to the gym.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
When you’re published by an indie press, you receive minimum marketing help. It’s hard to stand out in an increasingly crowded market.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Be prepared to attend book conferences and enter contests to stand out from the competition.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
The big publishers have extensive marketing and pr departments and make it easier to sell books, with established reviewers and booksellers paving the way.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
In my writing, I explore where I went wrong for my own edification, and in the process of understanding the mistakes I’ve made I could also warn others not to fall into the same traps I did, or to at least detail how to skirt them.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Virginia Woolf, one of the greatest writers, male or female. She is a poet at heart and that’s how I read her, she writes more about feelings and interpretation explaining what it felt like to be at the end of the gilded age when electricity, indoor plumbing and cars became the norm, and then WWI happens. Ms. Woolf said some powerful things. One of the things she said “If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people” and she also said “You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. The craft is sublime.