Josef Lemoine

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your hobbies and interests.

I’m a Filipino American writer from the San Gabriel Valley in SoCal, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son. I’m the child of a devoted Catholic nurse from the Philippines and a graphic designer with roots all over the world. Since 2011, I’ve worked in story development for a renowned entertainment company, helping to design the world’s most beloved theme parks, attractions, and immersive experiences. I love crossing destinations off of the travel bucket list. This summer my family and I crossed off Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and Santiago, Chile. Personal hobbies include drawing, playing guitar, and singing. I’m deeply interested in what makes people tick—human psychology, social hierarchies, why people give up their personal freedom to join cults and oppressive institutions. And I will forever be interested in the science behind love, attraction, and joy.

When and why did you start writing books?

I started writing books in my early twenties, but I never finished a full draft until my thirties. During the recession, when I couldn’t find work, I returned to college for a degree in creative writing (I know, I was insane). There, I took a novel writing workshop. The book I started in that class evolved into The Unsaid Summer. I got serious about writing books when I realized no story-driven experiences beat reading. As much as I adored film and television (I originally wanted to write and direct films), the stories that stuck with me most were novels. And it’s no wonder because no other medium comes closest to giving us the experience of seeing the world through other people’s eyes. A good book is sheer magic.

What made you decide to tackle writing as a career?

I don’t know that I’ve ever consciously decided that, and I say that having made my living as a writer for a major entertainment company for twelve years. I think a major turning point, though, occurred in the spring of this year, 2023, when I received word I was a runner-up in the 2022 Red Hen Press Fiction Contest. I was on the verge of forgetting my novel and letting it waste away in an abandoned computer folder. But getting that news was the sign I needed to finally release this story out into the world.

Which one of your books or characters is your favourite?

Without question, my favorite character from The Unsaid Summer is Dresden, who enters the story about a quarter of the way in. Like some of my favorite people, Dresden is a non-model minority. Foul mouthed, controversial, and wildly unpredictable, Dresden challenges the protagonist in ways he’s never been challenged before, which forces him to change—maybe for the better, maybe for the worse. And Dresden is free in ways I can only imagine.

Which one of your books was the hardest to write and stretched you the most as a writer?

I began working on this book over thirteen years ago, but the seed of this story started off as a feature-length screenplay that I finished writing five years before that. If I’d had a kid at the time, that kid would now be an adult. (Holy shit, that’s crazy to think about.) But the hardest part wasn’t the writing. The hardest part was workshopping the novel and deciding which critiques were actually worth considering. Probably the greatest writing advice I’ve heard about workshops is that reviewers are great at pointing out the symptoms but terrible at providing prescriptions. Even though we writers often get too close to our stories to see their problems, we know best how to solve them. But I failed to heed that advice, so I did five complete rewrites based on workshop critiques and they mostly led me away from what I was trying to achieve. I also took time off between rewrites. Sometimes years. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I picked up my dusty second draft and realized that nearly everything I wanted to say was already there. It wasn’t perfect. It required some serious work. But it was there.

Who is your favourite author and book?

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is my favorite book by my favorite author. I’m drawn to art that breaks my heart, and that story broke my heart so thoroughly it compelled me to change my life. I had a similar experience with another favorite of mine that he wrote, Never Let Me Go. Both books explore the ways certain groups and classes in society have been conditioned to give up everything and forced to believe this is normal.

What book are you reading right now?

I usually consume two or three books at a time. Right now, I’m listening to Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and reading The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin.

Where do you get your inspiration for your books?

True inspiration usually comes to me in moments of stillness: during showers, walks, long drives, chores, workouts at the gym, or while lying bed on the verge of sleep. It also comes to me when I force myself to sit down and write long enough to punch through that inevitable pain point where my inner enemy tells me that I’m a shitty writer, that I’m wasting my time, that I’d be better off playing Super Mario Run on my phone, which it’s actually telling me to do right this very moment. But once I cut through that wall of fear and discomfort, I reach a place beyond inspiration. I reach a place of freedom, exhilaration, and abundance, where I’m racing to transcribe a flood of imaginary experiences that feel true and believable. And I honestly don’t know where that inspiration ultimately comes from. A part of me thinks, for a moment, I’ve been able to rip away the blindfold of ceaseless distractions and see and hear the life experiences of my ancestors. I want to believe that. That feels like a possibility. But I may never know, and I’m okay with that.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I enjoy taking walks down the tree-lined streets of our neighborhood to the park, improvising children’s stories for my kids during car rides, and watching videos on YouTube with my son about how to draw ghosts and berries with cute, beaming faces. If my wife and I ever get free time again, I’d love to take her salsa dancing. We met while taking lessons. Of course, I also enjoy reading/listening to books. What writer doesn’t?

Do you have any new books in the works?

Yes.