J.B. Wocoski

What book from your childhood do you remember the best? Why?

Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson because my father read it to me over and over again.

What’s your most favorite under-appreciated novel?

Andy Anders and the Rebel Spies by Allen Alright – If Tom Sawyer was a teenager during the civil war this would have been his story.

Does writing energize you, or exhaust you?

Writing and reading my stories aloud are fun to do, thrilling and delighting me. I often ask, did I really write that, yep I did.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Your family will always under appreciate you and your writing. They think of you as an underling or child to be corrected. So have confidence in what you write, you have to find your audience yourself. Start building your audience by finding classmates, friends and co-workers who enjoy reading and listening to your stories.

What inspires you?

I dream and talk to myself a lot, I mean it is almost a constant inner dialogue. I will see or hear something which triggers my inner story telling voice and I cannot hold back, I have to type it out..

Did you always want to be an author?

No due to an accident to my hands at 5 years old, my handwriting is almost unreadable, it was not until I got my first computer and learned to type when I discovered I had a way with words others enjoy reading.

Besides hard work and talent, what other traits has led to your success?

Growing up in a family with a strong oral tradition for telling and retelling stories which became more outlandish with every telling. LOL

What is a little-known fact about you?

Even though I am not Japanese, one of the first short stories I ever wrote, The last Master of Go, won the 2016 Little Tokyo Short Story competition. It is free to read online.