Joseph L. Selby

W  elcome to a world of boundless imagination. Joseph L Selby DOT COM! is your portal to the written works of author and playwright, Joseph L. Selby. Whether it is irreverent sarcasm and chicken wings in BLACK MAGIC AND BARBECUE SAUCE, unemployed prophets desperate for a break in WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING, or the decline of man and the end of The Third World in CAUSE AND CONVICTION, you'll find everything you need to keep apprised of Joe's writing, his future publications, and his upcoming appearances.       The Inkwell is your first stop to see what projects he is currently working on and those recently completed. It even includes samples of his work! The Queue is where you go to see what's percolating in Joe's brain. Rumors persist that his head is filled with strawberry pudding, but we won't know for certain until it explodes (most likely from writing too much). Please come in and look around. Maybe you'll find some pudding!

In the News!

I did not only lose my job in 2008, I lost my ability to write. So overcome by fear of not being able to provide for my family, I did not write a single original word in the five months of my unemployment. Hired by another (and far better) publisher, I invested in an Eee PC so that I might write during my commute to and from Boston. I was unsure of how effective that would be, but one year later (almost to the day), I have my results. I wrote and revised Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce and Help Wanted: Chosen One, Now Hiring. I am soliciting agents for representation. Now I have finished the first draft for the script to a graphic novel, "Mistaken," and have begun work on a steampunk titled The Triad Society. Be sure to check in frequently for any updates on these and future works!

What I'm Reading

Having enjoyed my time with ELANTRIS, I decided to move on to Sanderson's next book, MISTBORN. There's something about Brandon's writing style I really enjoy. Specifically, it reminds me of the way I write. I often worry that my vocabulary isn't broad enough or my sentence structure isn't complex enough, but I see Sanderson's work and think, if he could do it, so could I. Now, the converse to this is, since he writes so much like I do, I can also see where his stories are going to go. I knew the conclusion to MISTBORN very early on. And, much to my frustration, he used the phrase Forgotten Gods, something incredibly relevant to my own stories in the Seven Kingdoms. Regardless, this was a heartening story to read, professionally if not also for enjoyment. It's almost enough to make me try THE WHEEL OF TIME and its successive books, even though everyone I talk to tells me the series craps out after book four or five.

I enjoy good entertainment biographies. There are some key words there: good and entertainment. I could care less about a politician's book or a pundit's. Jerry Lewis, Craig Ferguson, and now Steve Martin. BORN STANDING UP is not only a first-hand peak into coming up in the Silver Age of Comedy, but it's a testament to Martin's intellect, which many people are unaware of. The man has a PhD! We have some stereotype that to be in show business, you have to be dumb, but the man is smart and it shows in his writing. I love Golden and Silver Age comedy (especially golden), so getting to read about what it was like for this seminal fixture in American comedy to start out is just a treat. I would have purchased this book, but now that ebooks have moved to the agency model, most of them have been priced out of my range. Thankfully, this is on a "read in the store" list, so I can take my nook to B&N and read it there. $3 cheaper and I would have bought it, people!

The "which authors influenced you" question comes up a lot, and it's one I don't like. I'm not a mimic. I do not write like Robert E. Howard or Tad Williams even though both of them had a tremendous impact on me. I list most of the authors that really influenced me on my Recommendations page. There are a few that I read during school that were significantly better than most of the drivel we were forced to ingest. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., of course. But one less people talk about is Willa Cather. MY ANTONIA had a dramatic impact on me. No, not just the story, the writing. The writing was better than Steinbeck, it was better than Hemingway, it was better than Pearl S. Buck (the only other female author I remember being required reading in high school). Strangely, for how great MY ANTONIA was, I never continued on to the other well known Cather novel, O, PIONEERS! So now I'm rectifying that oversight. If you've never read Cather, give her a try.

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