A writer for over three decades, Rocco
Lo Bosco has published poetry, short stories and two novels. His first
novel, Buddha Wept (Greycore
Press, 2003), about a spiritually gifted matriarch’s experience of the
Cambodian genocide, received good reviews (e.g., Publishers Weekly) and much
praise from readers, many of whom
called it “life changing.” His current
novel, Ninety Nine, is published by
LettersAt3amPress. Lo Bosco also has a nonfiction book in press with Routledge
(2016), co-authored with Dr. Danielle Knafo, a practicing
psychoanalyst, entitled Love Machines: A
Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Age of Techno-perversion. He is currently
working on his third novel, Midnight
at the Red Flamingo. Additionally, he has edited papers in the fields
of psychoanalysis and the philosophy of science and has also worked
as a ghost writer.
Check out his book on Amazon
Connect with Rocco on the Web:
Interview:
Tell us
about your book! What is it about and what inspired you to write it?
My book is about
a poor and mixed––mine, yours and ours–– Italian-American family fighting
desperately to survive in Brooklyn in the early 1960s. The story centers on the
two (step) brothers living in a family threatened by psychological
fragmentation from within, dangerous levels of poverty and two vicious loan
sharks who will have no trouble killing the father if he doesn’t find a way to
pay their boss. Meanwhile the two boys run with a small gang, The Decatur
Street Angels, led by one of the brother’s cousins, a dark-minded genius who
invents wild and daring exploits for the group that become progressively more
dangerous during the summer of 1963. One of the brothers is involved in his
first (and secret) love affair with an older woman while the other is losing
his mind over the abandonment of his mother. The event streams of the book
culminate at the novel’s end in a stunning and unexpected climax.
The novel
creatively draws on my early years growing up in Brooklyn, but its inspiration
emerged from two very specific things: a dream and a book. When I was five years old I had a dream that
has stayed with me my entire life, a dream that in essence predicted the
character and quest of my life. The
dream appears in the book, and it will become clear to the reader why that very
dream inspired the novel. The second
inspirational element came from finding a book I was never supposed to see.
When I was fourteen I found it in the bottom of a box that held my father’s war
memorabilia—a
large, government-issued volume about the Second World War. It
contained far more pictures than text. I returned to this forbidden book
repeatedly and viewed images that literally altered the trajectory of my life
and shaped my particular interests in human endeavor. I knew I could not remain
silent. Though I did not yet know that I would write, I knew that I would not
want to pass through this life quietly, hunkered down in some existential
bunker until the danger passed. At
fourteen I already knew the danger never passes. That forbidden book appears in
Ninety
Nine,
but it was also part of the inspiration for Buddha
Wept.
Tell us
about your publishing process. What was it like? Did you go indie or the
traditional way?
I
published with an independent small press, LettersAt3amPress, because the
publisher, Michael Ventura, whose fiction and nonfiction writing I have
followed and greatly admired for decades, read my novel, loved it and wanted to
publish it.
How did you
choose the title for your book? Did it come to you right away, before you
started writing the story, or did it come later?
The title of the
book is taken from the dream I mention above.
Tell us
about the cover design process. Did you have a basic idea of what your book
cover would be like?
The family in
the novel lives alongside the Myrtle Avenue Elevated. They can see the faces of
the people in the train as it passes their tenement, shaking it and them with a
deafening roar. The cover had to feature that El, what else? My daughter is a
graphic artists, and she found just the right angle for the shot––beneath the
black El that appears to continue infinitely in the distance, everything in the
image overlaid in caution yellow. It is a cover that both moves and disturbs
the viewer. It captures the spirit of the novel beautifully.
Who is your cover designer and how did you
find him/her?
I helped make
her for I am her father.
How was
your experience working with the designer?
She knew within
minutes what to do. It was easy.
What has
been the readers’ response to your cover?
Everyone loves
it so far.
My daughter did
covers for both of my novels. She is an outstanding graphic artist. My advice
is to find an outstanding artist and to look at his or her work before you ask
them to do a cover. See if their designs vibe with your taste. If so, and they
are eager to work with you, have them read your book. Then discuss what might
best convey the spirit of your work before they try a cover prototype. Creating
a good cover is as important as having a good title.
Anything
else you’d like to say about your book?
Read it. You
won’t be sorry.
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