Moonlight Falls’ author, Vincent Zandri, is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called “Brilliant” upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. Presently he is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for Russia Today TV (RT). He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia and Globalspec. Zandri’s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine. He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thriller Writer’s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz. You can visit his website at www.vincentzandri.com or his blog at http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/.
Q: Welcome to Beyond the Books, Vincent. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?
Moonlight Falls is my 4th published novel. I’ve written about twice that many. I’m also a fulltime photojournalist.
Q: What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?
I actually forget most of the circumstances, because this is going back some 20 years. The novel bore the curious title of “The Life and Death of Mike Sullivan” or something horrific like that. It didn’t get published because it was really bad.
Q: For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?
Not many rejections. My agent at the time, Jimmy Vines, sold it in two weeks. Several publishers tried to buy it and it went up for auction.
Q: How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?
No one likes rejection. I worked harder. And drank a lot of beer.
Q: When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?
Delacorte. They chose me.
Q: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?
I felt vindicated and of course, high as a kite. How did I celebrate? By engaging in a year long party! I don’t recall a whole lot from that period.
Q: What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?
Interviews for the local print and TV media. The general rule of thumb is, start in your hometown and branch out from there.
Q: If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?
No, traditional publishing is the only way I will go, be it small, indy, and/or commercial press. That’s why it’s been eight years between books. For now anyway, I believe that publishers and writers should be separate entities. There’s a reason why the system works like that. I’m not knocking self-published authors. I’ve actually blurbed quite a few of them, deservedly. But for me, the only way I would self-publish is if I’ve already achieved a major bestseller that’s been reviewed well, sold the movie right, etc.
Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri (click on cover to purchase at Amazon)
Q: Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?
I’ve grown up, I guess. I was terribly immature when As Catch Can was published. I didn’t quite know how to deal with the success and I went through a bit of a crack-up period. I partied too much, got divorced, got married again, got divorced again, made a whole bunch of bad decisions that need not be repeated here. In any case, being published taught me that I should never have given up being a journalist since there is never any guarantee that your next book is going to generate any real cash. So I’ve returned to serious journalism while writing fiction. Plus I’m not nearly the party animal I once was. ‘d be dead now if that was the case! What’s replaced all that is traveling, travel writing, exploration.
Q: Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?
Well, strange question…But if I had to answer truthfully and I will, I’d say, Don’t get married, don’t have kids, don’t buy a house, don’t buy a brand new car, don’t get into debt, don’t do anything that keeps you from having the freedom to write and travel. Full-time jobs get in the way! LOL! However, life gets in the way also, so who knows what the true answer to your question is.
Q: What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?
It isn’t PC, and sometimes it isn’t pretty, but I realize now that before all else, I’m a writer. I love my family and I provide for them, but they can’t compete with what lies beneath-the undying insatiable need to quiet my mind and get it out….I’ve moved through a drought period that would break most people…I had the rock star life…I had the locked in a room with nothing but blank paper and silent keys…I’ve had heartbreak, divorces, lost friendships, and more. But I’ve moved on through it all to where I am now…published with perspective…
Q: If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?
Archeologist or Punk Rock Drummer!
Q: Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?
Yah, I have. You can check out my other word at http://www.myspace.com/theblisterz
However, no I would not give up being an author for being a Blister!
Q: How do you see yourself in ten years?
Rolling out of bed while it’s still dark, cool and quiet, making the coffee, and heading into my writing studio…In the South of France.
Q: Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?
Write and don’t let anyone or anything discourage you from succeeding.
Beyond the Books 