Featured Interview With Harry Patz, Jr.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in New Rochelle, NY in Westchester County and went to college in Boston. I have had a twenty year successful corporate career in media and technology. I returned to Westchester and live here with my wife and daughters.
I love to spend time in Nantucket, MA with my family.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
As far back as I can remember, I’ve loved reading. I was an editor on the literary magazine in high school. After graduating college in the early 1990s, I wrote some sketches, but remained focused on my corporate career. In the early 2000s, I wrote the first few chapters of what would become The Naive Guys, but put it down due to my professional focus. In the last few years, while undergoing a career change, I had to time to focus and write and complete the novel.
I’ve also been a participant of the Nantucket Atheneum Writer’s Group since October, 2013. I contributed a short story, “Off Season” for the group’s published anthology collection, The Moving Pen: A Nantucket Atheneum Writer’s Group Anthology, published in June, 2014.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love the classics including Ernest Hemingway and JRR Tolkein. For comtemporary authors, I’m a big fan of the historical bent from Joseph Kanon and Erik Larsen. But I am most in awe of Richard Ford. Ford, as well as David Chase (“The Sopranos”) and Matthew Weiner (“Mad Men”) are tremendous storytellers.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Against the historical backdrop of New York City in the 1990s, The Naive Guys: A Memoir of Friendship, Love and Tech in the Early 1990s is a hysterical yet poignant coming-of-age novel. Mark Amici embarks on a challenging journey through the postcollege world, where he struggles to emerge from his sheltered upbringing to a life of sex, love, friendship, and career success.
Fighting through the bad economy of 1991, Mark takes an entry-level sales role at a growing tech company, Fishsoft, at the dawn of the Internet Age.
Living at home with his gruff uncle, mother, and older sister, Mark pursues his aspirations with a trio of wingmen, Pete, Sally, and Kostas. His quixotic search for love, his desire to truly understand his family, and his pitfalls through corporate machinations all provide a humorous glimpse during an uneven period of life transition.
Interwoven with key moments of the times, including the Bill Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani electoral victories, the first World Trade Center bombing, OJ Simpson, and New York’s NBA Knicks and NHL Rangers simultaneously in their respective finals, The Naïve Guys tells the story of one man’s journey to uncover and fully understand his identity.
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Thomas Mullooly says
Great book. I look forward to the authors next work!