Featured Interview With John Rachel
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I like to speak in the third person, as if I am introducing myself at a huge book convention, full of adoring fans . . .
John Rachel has a B. A. in Philosophy, has traveled extensively, is a songwriter and music producer, and a bipolar humanist. He has spent his life trying to resolve the intrinsic clash between the metaphysical purity of Buddhism and the overwhelming appeal of narcissism. Prompted by the trauma of graduating high school and having to leave his beloved city of Detroit to attend college, the development his social skills and world view was arrested at age 18. This affliction figures prominently in all of his creative work.
In his own words: “I write trivial garbage to clutter the world with nonsense, but do it with penitent irony and great reverence for literary tradition.”
He is author of eight novels, four of which are coming out in 2014 and 2015. He has also had over 30 short stories, 7 poems, and numerous political articles published in both print and online magazines. Currently in development is a new novel set in Japan, another in Africa, and a creative non-fiction work, allegedly an account of his extensive travels, but more likely the product of the voices in his head which have plagued him since puberty.
Author Rachel has been traveling through and living in over twenty-six countries since leaving America August of 2006. He is now somewhat rooted in a small traditional farming village in Japan near Osaka, where he proudly tends his small but promising vegetable garden.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
While I was an infant in an orphanage in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the nuns used to play catch with the New Testament. One of them missed and the heavy, leather-bound book landed in my bassinet. Actually, it hit me in the stomach and I upchucked the formula I had been fed only minutes before. This was my first contact with a book and it inspired my obsessive reading ever since, though I admit most books now still give me a stomach ache.
I dabbled in writing for many years, mostly bouncing checks and leaving the phone #s of people I disliked on bathroom walls. As a songwriter from my early twenties, I penned both music and lyrics to over a hundred songs, many of which are now used at Guantanamo Base in Cuba as part of their ongoing program of psychological torture.
I wrote a crossword puzzle in 1977.
Finally, I started writing novels in 2008. It has been a phenomenal and rewarding journey since.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors include but are not limited to: Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut, John Irving, Stanislaw Lem, Studs Terkel, E. L. Doctorow, Jerzy Kosinski, Ken Kesey, Sinclair Lewis, Ralph Ellison, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Chris Hedges, Howard Zinn, Thomas Kuhn, Aldous Huxley, Neil Postman, and Jared Diamond.
I am inspired by the man who appears in my toast every morning, who has been giving me stock tips and lottery numbers since a bad acid trip in 1972.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
“The Man Who Loved Too Much” is a trilogy. Book One was published November 9, 2014. Book Two is coming out in March 2015, Book Three July 2015.
Book One . . .
Poor Billy Green! When he was just turning four, his father tried to throw him in the trash. He was a smart kid but that just seemed to create enemies. His mom did everything to protect him. But this was Detroit, armpit of the wasteland! Catholic school didn’t help much, except the time he got his first kiss from an atheist nun. Home life was dismal. Was his father capable of anything but drinking beer and farting? And what was with that neighbor who made puppets and tried to molest Billy? Golly! Detroit was sucking the life out of him. At such a young age. Then adolescence swirled around him. Like water in a toilet bowl. High school was a B movie. Only without a plot. So finally he did something about it. Billy ran away … to college. Cornell University. That was a good move for sure! He studied hard, lost his virginity, met the love of his life. Things were definitely looking up! What could possibly go wrong?
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