An MWA-NY members since 2015, A.J. Sidransky is a long-time resident of Washington Heights, New York. He travels frequently to the Dominican Republic. His debut novel, Forgiving Maximo Rothman, was selected as a finalist for the Outstanding Debut Novel by National Jewish Book Awards. His second novel, Stealing a Summer’s Afternoon, was selected as a finalist for Best Second Novel by the Indie Book Awards. His third novel, Forgiving Mariela Camacho, was released last year.
What made you decide to be an author?
I wanted to be a writer from the time I was a teenager. When I was in my senior year in high school, my parents asked me what I wanted to study and what I wanted to do. I told them I wanted to study English and be a writer and they said, “No, no, no, no, no. You need to be able to earn a living.” I ended up in the real estate finance business for 30 years and I was miserable. I stated writing in earnest I 2008 and in 2009 I lost my last job in real estate finance. It was the middle of the Great Recession and I knew there wasn’t going to be a bank job for me. My wife said, “Please finish that novel. I’m tired of hearing about it,” and so my writing career began.
Do you outline or fly by the seat of you pants?
I have a general outline of the plot when I sit down to write but it’s not written in stone and I don’t outline. I fly by the seat of my pants as directed by the characters. They talk to me in my head and as I write I get to know them. They tell me the story. In some circles I would be considered insane and would be institutionalized. Luckily, I don’t live among those kinds of people.
What non-crime books do you enjoy reading?
I enjoy historical fiction and a good thriller when I’m not reading crime stories. As a teenager I enjoyed science fiction as well. Particularly extra-planetary stories like Dune by Frank Herbert. Recently, I’ve been thinking about rereading that.
What advice would you give to beginning writers?
I would give a beginning writer three pieces of advice. First, don’t give in to frustration, keep going. Second, embrace criticism. It will make your work better. Third, don’t get bogged down in editing your work. Write it out then edit.
How do you handle rejection or bad reviews?
I put out a contract for a hit on whoever rejects me or writes a bad review! Only kidding. As a writer you have no choice but to learn to handle rejection and bad reviews. As concerns rejection, you keep going till you find a reader, agent, publisher who understands what you’re doing. As concerns bad reviews, understand up front that not everyone will like your work and that you need to take it from whence it comes. Sometimes a bad review from the right person can help you grow and improve and other times it the person isn’t qualified to make the review accept it and move on. It’s part of being a writer.