C. Joseph Socha

 

C. Joseph Socha is like that watch commercial:“He takes a licking but keeps on ticking.” He survived life in The Great Depression, served in the Navy in WWII where he survived the sinking of his ship off Anzio, Italy; then on to Pacific duty in Okinawa. (His ship was only around 625 miles from Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the American atomic bombs were dropped and the war ended.) After the war, at home, the day before his wedding, a freight train plowed into his car, but he survived, and made it to the church on time. Marriage lasted 47 years! In a business where one person in ten survived the first year, he lasted twenty-seven! “Writing for a living is not easy,” he says, “but he’s not going to stop until his ticker does.”http://www.cjosephsocha.com

PageOneLit.com Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

C. Joseph Socha: From a very young preteen I showed a lot of creative ability. It was not easy as I grew up in a very tough area and resisted reading because the kids in my neighborhood thought anyone who read a book was a sissy. I was short for my age at the time and had curly hair and my name was CLARENCE, which I hated which resulted in a lot of fights. Two things that helped me survive - I fought back and I ran like the wind. But I didn't back down from bullies and won respect.

Two teachers made up my mind to become a writer: the first was our library teacher who got me interested in reading in a sneaky way. I went bonkers about reading, walked miles twice a week to get books from the public library. Reading became my passion. Then in intermediate school a mean English teacher bawled the heck out of me because of my poor grammar and gave me an ultimatum. You learn and get better or I'm going to flunk you. I could not let that happen to humiliate my parents. Then she also said, you have great ideas and you should join our schools writer's club. Which I did and went bonkers again submitting lots of stories, poems, ect.. Our school won that year and a beautiful painting prize still sits in the hallway of my intermediate high school.

My father who lost several residences he had bought for investment purposes, and all his money in three local banks worked very hard to give us necessities. Yet he bought me an Underwood portable typewriter (how he got the funds is a mystery to me) and I started writing aggressively (including putting out a neighborhood newspaper). And that machine served me all through college and beyond.

 

PageOneLit.comWhy do you write?

C. Joseph Socha: Why do I write? Because I have so many ideas for stories filling my mind. I have a psychological need to express myself in writing. My syntax may still suffer but not ideas. After the war (Navy 4 years, European and Pacific Theaters) and college I got started in the advertising business and served top Detroit agencies. And I am still writing. Finished book six in October of '08, and I am working on TWO novels now.
 

 

PageOneLit.comBriefly discuss your new book COME LIVE WITH ME ON MARS? How is this novel different from others in the science fiction genre? Do you believe there may be life on Mars?

C. Joseph Socha: How is this book different from other science fiction stories?   I treat the story as if it were happening right now.  I don't want it to be a fictional story -- want it to appear to be factual reporting of an existing situation now.

And that is also the reason I used the first person pov. I want the reader to feel and experience him being on Mars, and as much as possible I want to make the characters come to life to that end. 





PageOneLit.comWho is Thomas Carlson? How does this character grow/change as the story moves forward?

C. Joseph Socha: Who is Thomas Carlson?  He is the writer of this book, and he changes as would anybody who meets the book characters and the book location.  And I want the reader to be feel that Carlson is an actual person in real life and by some miracle of him being on Mars he becomes one of them in true spirit; and if there is to be a sequel, it would be easy for me to just go on expanding the plot and characters and ideas.  

A previous book I had written, "Promise" is handled much the same way.   Real life or fiction? I would hope the reader allows me to haul him out bodily and put him in the story so he feels HE IS THERE.

 

PageOneLit.comCOME LIVE WITH ME ON MARS is told in a first person point of view - Why did you choose first person to tell this story?

C. Joseph Socha: I use the first person POV because the stories work best for me in that POV. I am IT, therefore I can best express the plot requirements that way.




PageOneLit.comThe plot of COME LIVE WITH ME ON MARS is carried by the relationship of Thomas and Nathan -- Describe this relationship and the message in their friendship.
 
C. Joseph Socha: Thomas Carlson is, therefore, me and I really feel myself in that Martian situation. Is there life on Mars? Why not? That planet has become my other home.

The plot of the book is carried by my relationship to Al DeVlieg, who acquaints me with his Martian friends and is a perfect solution to my going to Mars and back and learning the history of the Martians and their philosophy of life. Since he lives on Earth and makes a living there as a psychiatrist, he is the perfect figure to tell my story through.
 

PageOneLit.comWhat did you learn from writing COME LIVE WITH ME ON MARS ? 

C. Joseph Socha: I there is a lesson to be learned from my relationship on Mars, it is a comparison of our Earthian attitudes and Martians'. Gives me an opportunity to express my feelings about people relationships, and probing the mysteries of possible outer space creatures.

Now, what about the book: What has it done for me? How did I come upon the idea? What are these Martians in my imagined planet trying to do for me? What great mysteries are there that I will explore in my Mars?

If you are a writer, and you create a place, a situation and idea, you LIVE it during the creation. And I found Mars an unbelievably wonderful place. Peaceful. Relaxing, and informative about the kind of thinking an Earthian, like me, had and how I would react to some interesting and possibly REAL understanding of life that I longed to return to over and over again -- to that red planet, Mars, and to the wonderful Martians who truly LOVED, in the true sense of love that our creator intended for us.

There I learned that our planet, Earth and Mars, were mere specks in the limitless space of the heavens, way out there and visible only from our Earth perspective, as though our solar system was all there was out there. We are mere specks. And how do the Martians feel about Earth? About its people, its struggles, and how unfortunate it was that we did not understand and appreciate LIFE, it's true meaning, about the others around us.

Today, when I look up at the night sky and see all those twinkling stars, I can imagine that they are creatures out there looking at us, at Earth, and knowing what we have here. how awesome it is what we have, and perhaps the Martians know this and are trying in their limited way. to let us know, to help us appreciate our life, and the life of others, that we are all together and my GOD how important it is for us to understand and appreciate and become together.
 

 

PageOneLit.comYou are veteran novelist, would you like to plug a few of your other books?

C. Joseph Socha: Yes, I am a veteran novelist and would like to promote a few of my other books, especially, PROMISE (includes past life exploration, Detroit now and Fort Detroit days of 1776). And there is Paul Krol, actually my first novel which I introduced later by adding a main character who is a stick fighting private investigator. That book has everything: Romance, drug traffickers who control crime in a one peaceful community, a dedicated stenographer who saves the life of the main character, and the hero's Polish girl friend who is beautiful but the kind of girl you don't want to mess around with her man. There is something else that could make this book serve as an idea for a weekly TV series with a Polish theme. Krol, in Polish, means King.
 

PageOneLit.comWhat do you hope to achieve with your novels?

C. Joseph Socha: What do I hope to achieve with my novels? The books keep my creative juices rushing. Those who have read my books are impressed and wish the books were longer but there are recurring qualities of my books. They MOVE. Chapters are short. Plotting keeps the reader's interest alive, and the characters are much true to life as I know them, and these characters are not forgettable. And my short story book DYING IS NO BIG DEAL is the best of my creative stories including such characters as two fisherman who get a huge fish drunk to catch it; nursing home characters who rob a bank and much more. In this book I explain my technique of plotting and character building that I learned from my experience of sales promotion audio visual business.




PageOneLit.com  Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?
  
C. Joseph Socha: I'm eighty-eight years old and my mind is as sharp as ever which I hone with playing chess and cribbage and poker, at least which I excel.