There Is No Death in Finding Nemo received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Jeffrey M. Feingold.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
There Is No Death in Finding Nemo. Publication date 9/3/2023.
What’s the book’s first line?
A tree-lined parkway serpentined for miles along the center of the City, dividing affluent neighborhoods north from the indigent south.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
I think IndieReader’s review said it best:
“A short story collection that depicts protagonists whose seemingly mundane lives change in surprising ways as they step into a realm of the fantastic … poignant, frequently hilarious, and almost always surreal.”
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
These seven stories question the trajectories of life, at a time I was questioning mine, during the pandemic, when I wrote the book. Most of us look back and at times puzzle over how we got where we are in life. All of these stories are about seemingly simple lives yet full of surprises. Many readers will relate to these tales – an aging man pining for youth in “The Mirror”; and woman long denying her own very real mental condition in “The Loneliest Number”; yet surreal moments crop up throughout the collection. As IndieReader wrote: “A short story collection that depicts protagonists whose seemingly mundane lives change in surprising ways as they step into a realm of the fantastic.”
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
There Is No Death in Finding Nemo is full of sublime characters, and, as IndieReader again said, “Frequently, there is a surreal twist to a story. What makes them great is their nebulous nature. Sometimes they are real. At other times, they exist solely in the protagonist’s mind. This makes the stories delightfully unpredictable.”
Delightfully unpredictable – that’s the essence of the why someone should read the book. Don’t we all feel – at times – are lives are nebulous? Don’t we all question – at times – what’s real and not, what’s been fabricated or least “colored” by our minds? That’s a universal theme in each of the stories in the collection.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
As this is a short story collection, rather than a novel, there’s no single main character; however, a number of characters make appearances in more than one story. A few characters pop up in more than one tale, including zany wife and husband Mary and Phil. As a supporting character, Mary offers telephonic advice to one of her sisters while simultaneously dominating an argument with her mostly ineffectual spouse. They lead their own story in the collection’s last and shortest offering, “There Is No Death in Finding Nemo,” which finds them in their weirdest squabble yet. In many of the stories, characters sometimes talk at rather than with other characters. This adds an element of humor, even inanity, yet again is a universal theme – we often at times in our lives don’t feel listened to, don’t feel really heard. And in these stories there’s much humor (and sometimes pathos) as characthers are talking “at” but not really with each other.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I wanted to be a writer while I was growing up, all through high school and into college. But I put aside, for decades, then took it up again about three years ago, early on in the pandemic, which features as the setting/timeframe for the first story in the collection, “The Narcissist’s Library”.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
It’s the second, written immediately after my debut collection. The two written so close together that the debut, The Black Hole Pastrami, published in August, 2023 and the second, There Is No Death in Finding Nemo, publishes in September, 2023.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I own a small, boutique tax consulting firm.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
That’s a hard one, as some stories have come quite quickly, written in an afternoon, but on the whole most are written in a few days.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
Doing my own marketing. I actually enjoy marketing, but it’s a lot of time and effort and distraction from the writing.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Take the business side of writing seriously. Put time and effort into promotion of the book. Create a sell sheet, one page, with a pic of the cover, a few great blurbs, the basic facts (publisher, ISBN, price, distribution) and include that whenever you email or otherwise approach someone for a review, reading or signing event, etc.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I would take a serious look and weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?) The creative impulse. I want to write something great, that moves people, that is equal parts humorous and poignant, and that is, above all, me – my own voice. Ultimately, it’s about the desire to live on, to deny death, to make a mark, but also about the need to connect with others, to touch others and to share what – although at times feels unique and soley mine – in our universal life experience.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Chekhov, I suppose. So many.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
My next one.