Interview With 2019 Debut Joseph Moldover!

In 2019 our goal is to work with as many debut authors as possible and spread the word about their debut novels. Follow us this year as we pick the minds of the 2019 debuts and chat with them. Also stay tuned for news of giveaways, Twitter Chats, and more! 

Over the summer of 2018, we had Tweeted about wanting to discover more debut authors and their books, and we reached out to Joe, author of EVERY MOMENT AFTER, because it seemed really intriguing and we wanted to know more. We are so excited to have Joe on the blog today to answer some of our questions! 

About Joe! 

Joseph Moldover is a writer and clinical psychologist who lives and works in the Boston area. He has written a number of short stories (often under the name Joseph Sloan), as well as works of nonfiction focusing on issues of health and disability. He is the grandson of the novelist Sloan Wilson, author of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. 

Keep up with Joe:
 Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads 

Interview!

The Book Bratz: First of all, congratulations! How does it feel to be a debut author?

Joe: It’s incredibly exciting and a total roller coaster. Writing is usually such a private and solitary process, and it is head-spinning to share it with so many people in so many different ways. But there’s no question that it’s wonderful. 

The Book Bratz: In your opinion, what is the best part of the writing process? What's the hardest?

Joe: For me, the best part of the writing process is when a story comes together and connects on an emotional level. I can create plot outlines and develop character arcs all day, but there’s this mysterious process where a story (sometimes) takes on a life of its own, sort of like Frankenstein’s Monster suddenly sitting up. In terms of the hardest, I think it has to be the effort to get perspective on my own work and see what’s effective and what’s not. That’s why having generous friends who will read for me and give me honest feedback is so important. 

The Book Bratz: Now let's talk about EVERY MOMENT AFTER. This topic is super intense, so what made you want to write this story?

Joe: We see school shootings on the news all the time, unfortunately. There’s this intense coverage for a week or two, and we have conversations about violence and about guns, and then we all sort of turn away. I really felt that there was story that wasn’t being told about what happens to the people in these schools and towns in the months and years and decades after: how do they go on with their lives? What is it like for kids who will always have that terrible event in their past? I wanted to try and tell that story. 

The Book Bratz: Who was your favorite character to write? Who was the most difficult?

Joe: The book is told in two alternating first-person voices by best friends Cole and Matt. I’m pretty attached to both of them, but I have a special place in my heart for Cole who is a lot like I was when I was his age. In terms of the most difficult: well, without giving too much away there is a villain in the story who is sort of erratic and destructive, and it was sometimes hard to figure out exactly what was making him tick in a given situation.  

The Book Bratz: Were there any scenes, characters, or plot points in the original story that you took out after rounds of editing?

Joe: After I wrote the first draft of the book a reader who I shared it with suggested a radical change to the backstories of the two major characters. It basically involved changing them around so that major events in the life of one were transferred to the other. The reader (who I trusted) felt that it would create a more interesting relationship between the characters; it was hard for me to see at first but I tried it, and it was tremendously effective. 

The Book Bratz: What do you hope that readers will take away from reading EVERY MOMENT AFTER? 

Joe: The book does have a school shooting at its core, which is obviously a very specific and particularly horrendous type of trauma. I hope, though, that readers will respond to the way that the characters in the story – particularly the two main characters, Cole and Matt – are helping each other go on with their lives. It’s a story about the way in which we go on while carrying the things we can never leave behind, and it finds part of the solution to that universal problem in friendship. 

The Book Bratz: Do you plan on returning to the world of EVERY MOMENT AFTER in the future, or do you have other ideas in store? Can you tell us anything about them?

Joe: Right now it feels as though I’ve left the world of EVERY MOMENT AFTER behind. I feel like the book ended on a note of closure, and I don’t have any plans to open it back up. I am working on a new project. I’ve been wrestling with it for over a year now, and what I’ll say is that it centers on the idea of lying: what it accomplishes, what it corrodes, what it does to a family, and what happens when a strange medical condition forces one seventeen-year-old to suddenly stop doing it. 

About Every Moment After!

Title: Every Moment After

Author: Joseph Moldover

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: HMH Books For Young Readers

Publication Date: April 9th, 2019

Summary: Eleven years after a shooting rocked the small town of East Ridge, New Jersey and left eighteen first graders in their classroom dead, survivors and recent high school graduates Matt Simpson and Cole Hewitt are still navigating their guilt and trying to move beyond the shadow of their town's grief. Will Cole and Matt ever be able to truly leave the ghosts of East Ridge behind? Do they even want to? As they grapple with changing relationships, falling in love, and growing apart, these two friends must face the question of how to move on—and truly begin living.

We'd like to extend a huge thank you to Joe for stopping by and answering our questions! We are super excited about EVERY MOMENT AFTER and wait for it to be out in the world on April 9th! Jessica already read it and loved it!