An Interview with Jim Wollak

A lifelong devoté of Jane Austen and all her works, James Wollak is a retired financial data analyst and lives in San Francisco, California, a third-generation San Franciscan. He is an avid reader, numismatist, and music lover, enjoying all kinds of music such as classical and opera, Motown and soul, ABBA, Celtic, blues, bluegrass, and zydeco. He also loves silent and classic Hollywood films, and the “Poldark,” “Downton Abbey,” and “Sanditon” series. He is a confirmed Anglophile, and Pride and Prejudice is his favorite novel of all time.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

I’m good at coming up with names of characters and locations, but story titles are a lot more challenging, so I struggled to come up with Distress and Determination. I wanted something alliterative and balanced; that is, I wanted one part to cover the challenges or struggles Frederick Darcy experiences, and the other to balance or counter that, lifting him up so that he’d become more confident and accomplished. Then, like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, the first word had to have fewer syllables than the later word. Should be easy, right? How I struggled to come up with my title, and Insight and Suitability wasn’t any easier!

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

Like the first two novels, I was speechless when I saw the cover of Distress and Determination, Part II. Its entire composition – image, fonts, and color scheme – is perfect. Part II is also the first time I’ve had a hardcover version available; the quality of the craftsmanship is so high and so stunning that I was afraid to touch the proof copy when it arrived!

All the cover art Atmosphere Press’s graphic design team has created for my novels has been perfect, excellent, and amazing! Each novel has its own distinct look, but all are related to each other in their imaging and reflection of the historical time period in which they take place. I think they look great next to each other on a shelf, down to their spines!

It’s always wonderful to hold a copy of your book in your hands, especially when it first arrives; that’s when the realization sinks in – that I had written this, and here was the tangible result!

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I began writing because I was exposed to many great stories and books in school, starting with grammar school English and composition classes, including the Junior Great Books program, and books lent to me by others. And my lovely mother was a librarian! I ended up imitating the stories I enjoyed reading, first The Little House Books, then Sherlock Holmes and other mystery novels.

About the same time, my grandmother’s basement got flooded, and cleaning up the mess uncovered mystery magazines my Dad read from the early 1940s through the late 1950s (what a treasure – I still have them)! Then, starting with Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen, I eventually read almost nothing but mystery novels for many years, until I began reading classic literature as a young adult; all this helped me become an Anglophile. I think I’ve read 1,000 mystery novels by now, and even completed two handwritten manuscripts half a lifetime ago that are pretty awful, but maybe salvageable someday.

I didn’t even consider myself a writer, though, until I completed the first draft of Insight and Suitability in 2010 and got some feedback from friends. Before that, I thought I just dabbled in writing because I did it occasionally; my major was Econ, not English.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

Last year I retired from my career as a financial data analyst with a national regulator after almost twenty-six years. I loved working with numbers, but my job also included lots of writing – answering questions on forms and instructions for reporting financial institutions, creating user guides for applications, and documenting issues uncovered during audits and reviews.

I also reviewed writing samples submitted by job applicants and was considered a general grammar expert and reviewer of documents and emails so that some coworkers and managers nicknamed me “The Professor.”

After writing author bios and sharing all about my writing journey, it can be difficult to come up with something that readers wouldn’t know about me, certainly something that isn’t embarrassing or cringeworthy I hope. I will admit that one of my “secret” pleasures is reading Dear Abby every day and trying to think of how I would respond to the letter writer’s request or situation, before I read Abby’s printed response!

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

The most meaningful parts of publishing my books have been (1), realizing I did it – completed it with the help of others; and (2), holding the proof, the actual copies, in my hands. It is such an amazing feeling, a combination of gratitude, accomplishment, and awe!

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

What a great, fun question! It’d be easy to suggest plenty of classical pieces that would be suitable, but I decided to rely on contemporary popular music I’ve enjoyed over the years. Some songs I previously suggested for Part I (*).

“True Colors” (Cyndi Lauper)*

“Book of Love” (Fleetwood Mac)

“Everywhere” (Fleetwood Mac)

“Desperado” (Eagles)

“Have You Never Been Mellow?” (Olivia Newton-John)*

“Beauty’s Only Skin Deep” (Temptations)

“It’s My Life” (Talk Talk)*

“I Wonder/Departure” (ABBA)*

“Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” (Frankie Valli)

“Come See About Me” (Supremes)

“Angeleyes” (ABBA)

“You’re No Good” (Linda Ronstadt)

“Lotta Love” (Nicolette Larson)

“I’m Still Standing” (Elton John)*

“Carried Away” (Olivia Newton-John)

“I’m a Marionette” (ABBA)

“Head Over Heels” (ABBA)

“Don’t Mess with Bill” (Marvelettes)

“Everyday People” (Sly & the Family Stone)

“In God’s Country” (U2)

“Suavecito” (Malo)

“Always and Forever” (Heatwave)

“Higher Love” (Steve Winwood)*

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

I hope this novel helps readers discover significance in the interactions of people from earlier historical periods, men and women who were able to navigate the class, culture, and mores they inherited, but try to strive for better. In addition, I hope readers can accept and appreciate that men in the early 19th century were also bound by social restraints, though not as tightly as the women, and expected to have fine characters as opposed to mere reputations.

My perfect reader would be anyone who likes historical and classical fiction – and anything by Jane Austen, of course. I think both parts of Distress and Determination will resonate with young adult readers too.

What new writing projects are you currently working on? Or, other projects that are not writing?

I’ve been focused on preparing this novel for publication, but it’s fun and fulfilling to keep writing something new. I write short stories in two genres, Jane Austen and ghost/horror/paranormal stories set mostly in San Francisco where I live; I’ve written six of them so far this year. I want to post a few existing ones from both genres on my author website. I still also want to write a short story about the emergence of an unknown, illegal-to-own 1933 double eagle (a $20 gold piece).

Since I recently retired, I have a long list of home projects I want to work on, and they mostly involve removing lots of clutter! However, I haven’t really made much progress on them yet.

How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?

Working with Atmosphere is great! You can submit a manuscript in any genre at any time for review, instead of only specified genres, time frames, or writing contests. Atmosphere offers services to help build and maintain author websites, as well as marketing plans to help get your book out there, with plenty of great resources to use going forward. I can’t say enough about the wonderful staff, from the editors to the designers and marketing folks – it has been fantastic working with all of them. Even as an author retaining final control, it really has been a collaborative, positive experience for me, for each novel. I highly recommend Atmosphere Press and encourage writers to consider giving them a try by submitting their manuscripts! It has done wonders for me.

I would also advise writers to write and keep writing, find a mentor or someone whose feedback you trust, and write what is meaningful for you, or whatever feels right in your heart. To all of you out there, I wish you the best.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.