Mike Figliola's Blog: Tales from the Bottom of the Stoop
January 17, 2021
News and Updates for 2021
Hi all,
Been some time - but it's been that kind of year no?
Some housekeeping:
I remain hard at work on the follow to the Slow Midnight - getting there! I hope to have something more complete by end of February. Look for a fall release!
Audio book drop 02.16.21! So excited for this! Right now, you can hear a free sample clip at the link below. Would love to hear what you all think of it!
https://tantor.com/the-slow-midnight-...
I recently made the move from my beloved Queens to Bellmore NY (which was hard but I think for the best given opportunity and space etc) - and the local paper LI Herald wrote a fab piece about the book! Check it out here:
https://liherald.com/stories/bellmore...
I hope you are your famileis are safe and well - thank you to all my new friends and readers - and for supporting me and the book. I will continue to do the same for all of you!
We are all in this together right?
Shine on you crazy diamonds,
M
Been some time - but it's been that kind of year no?
Some housekeeping:
I remain hard at work on the follow to the Slow Midnight - getting there! I hope to have something more complete by end of February. Look for a fall release!
Audio book drop 02.16.21! So excited for this! Right now, you can hear a free sample clip at the link below. Would love to hear what you all think of it!
https://tantor.com/the-slow-midnight-...
I recently made the move from my beloved Queens to Bellmore NY (which was hard but I think for the best given opportunity and space etc) - and the local paper LI Herald wrote a fab piece about the book! Check it out here:
https://liherald.com/stories/bellmore...
I hope you are your famileis are safe and well - thank you to all my new friends and readers - and for supporting me and the book. I will continue to do the same for all of you!
We are all in this together right?
Shine on you crazy diamonds,
M
August 25, 2020
On finding inspiration for my writing
Before the pandemic hit, I spent one late morning in lower Manhattan, right up the block from where old Trinity Church stands observing the ’passerby’s’. By passerby’s I mean working suits, coffee drinkers, Bose ear bud joggers, fashion enthusiasts, lunch vendors, hard hats; the good tax payers like yourself and I. Notepad and pen in hand, I wrote down my hypothesis that this was the microcosm of the universe; millions of people working their daily shift of morning rush, afternoon frenzy and evening drawl home or evening dinner or cocktails (with or without someone to share it with).
The typical Wall Street types and even those suspected of being Wall Street types; pleated pant, red bull drinking, focused, cell phone types - an eerie similarity to what most of the youth look like today. Going with that notion, I noted many of these Wall Street types were young stud bulls with fire in their eyes and belly looking to pull the trigger on a deal that would send them, like my old boss Jim Cramer, into money-making folklore.
What I wondered most was what these Wall Street Kids (as I started to refer to them as) would do at night after a day of madness at the Exchange. What I found will shoot your stereotypical belief down further than the ‘29 crash.
The Wall Street Kids found their way to the urban hipster beat spot of New York: Williamsburg Brooklyn. They congregated in cafe’s and dim pubs that served Manhattan quality Mojitos along side a quirky menu complete with corn and crab chowder, snapper ceviche and a lobster roll which by means of a marquee sign was heralded as the best in New York City. With their suit jackets off and sleeves rolled up, they sat and ordered drinks and food while carrying on hot conversation. Talk of stocks and funds and municipals began to saturate walls of the bar that, if they could talk, would repeat conversations of drug sex and rock and roll. I began to wonder: are these Wall Street Kids any different from rock stars? Hipsters? You and I?
My new hypothesis: The suits of Wall Street covet the torn denims on Bedford Avenue. As investing becomes more ingrained into a cult side of popular culture through television, radio and writer personalities lines that were once clearly drawn, blur.
My recommendation is talk to your son or daughter, even the young buck investor working along side you about where they are going for cocktails at night. After work take the train down with a few buddies and order some food and drink. The stories are there and will help fuel your writing. You can find a lot of these same folks spread across the pages of my debut novel: The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue.
The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue
The typical Wall Street types and even those suspected of being Wall Street types; pleated pant, red bull drinking, focused, cell phone types - an eerie similarity to what most of the youth look like today. Going with that notion, I noted many of these Wall Street types were young stud bulls with fire in their eyes and belly looking to pull the trigger on a deal that would send them, like my old boss Jim Cramer, into money-making folklore.
What I wondered most was what these Wall Street Kids (as I started to refer to them as) would do at night after a day of madness at the Exchange. What I found will shoot your stereotypical belief down further than the ‘29 crash.
The Wall Street Kids found their way to the urban hipster beat spot of New York: Williamsburg Brooklyn. They congregated in cafe’s and dim pubs that served Manhattan quality Mojitos along side a quirky menu complete with corn and crab chowder, snapper ceviche and a lobster roll which by means of a marquee sign was heralded as the best in New York City. With their suit jackets off and sleeves rolled up, they sat and ordered drinks and food while carrying on hot conversation. Talk of stocks and funds and municipals began to saturate walls of the bar that, if they could talk, would repeat conversations of drug sex and rock and roll. I began to wonder: are these Wall Street Kids any different from rock stars? Hipsters? You and I?
My new hypothesis: The suits of Wall Street covet the torn denims on Bedford Avenue. As investing becomes more ingrained into a cult side of popular culture through television, radio and writer personalities lines that were once clearly drawn, blur.
My recommendation is talk to your son or daughter, even the young buck investor working along side you about where they are going for cocktails at night. After work take the train down with a few buddies and order some food and drink. The stories are there and will help fuel your writing. You can find a lot of these same folks spread across the pages of my debut novel: The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue.
The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue
August 1, 2020
Short Q&A I did for the book!
Hi everyone,
The book publishes in 3 days! I wanted to share this short Q&A I did for the book. Enjoy!
A Conversation with Mike Figliola
Q: What inspired you to write The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue?
A: I tell this story a lot. Growing up in Queens, NY, the streets and the apartment buildings are very much alive here. They are like people in many ways. The brick buildings aren’t just structures people inhabit. The city streets and city blocks aren’t just the paths folk’s travel. They all feature their own unique name or number and a style that invokes a feeling or sentiment in me and quite frankly those who frequent and live in the neighborhood. I liken it to how most people will associate Broadway with theater or Bourbon Street with Mardis Gras—same goes for Cypress Avenue just minus the same sheen. That’s what intrigued me the most. I had walked around these streets for most of my life and while everyone knew Cypress Avenue, what it stood for and its surrounding streets and their names, it wasn’t glamorous or even romanticized. Everyone there wanted to move away and stay forever at the same time—and it was those same streets and buildings that fostered it all. It’s in that dissonance that attracted me to bring to life the people and places of Cypress Avenue.
Q: What do you feel is the overall message of the book?
A: I didn’t go for an overall message, but an idea dissonance that I was talking about above. There is a lot of beauty as well as an ugliness to be found throughout the book. Each character you meet, whether it’s Sam Jean and Dezzy cooped up in the apartment, or Goldie, who almost flat lined at the liquor store or Earl the Fisherman in a sad haze living with his Ma, even Father John; they all exhibit redeeming and sometimes beautiful qualities despite their blatant disregard for common civility or kindness—but that led me to ask myself: don’t we all? Not to the extreme as these characters do, but I see it as all part of the human condition. I see it as our ability to be both Jekyll and Hyde in a given situation. I also used a lot of religious themes and imagery in the book. I am not particularly a religious person, but I did go to parochial school for part of my education and did attend church for a while there. I broke the book up into three parts and made 6 chapters for each part—I again liked the contrast between the Holy Trinity (3 parts) and the 6 chapters a piece (666) which is usually associated with the devil. I have great respect for religion and faith and it was important to me to incorporate those themes into the plot. Queens is known for its cemeteries and churches, and I now remember a poem I wrote (which I read with the incomparable David Amram live at the Cornelia street café in NYC) where I was noting how every work day morning I would walk to the train from my home alongside the length of a cemetery. Beyond that green gated fence were the dead, and there I was: alive walking to and from in that perpetual wake-shower-walk-train-work-lunch-work-punchout-train-walkhome-sleep cycle. I thought of the duality of this a lot during the time I was writing the book and it inspired me to incorporate those themes into The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue.
Q: What was the most challenging part of writing this novel?
A: Two moments—same issue. I hit a wall in the middle of writing the “Afternoon” part of the book. I forget exactly what chapter, but I just distinctly remember being unable to write anything I was happy with. I stared at the screen for days and days. That was the worst part of it all: the staring at the unfinished page and just wanting to write. Then it came back—I was off pounding the keys again. A week later I was back in the same spot. That too eventually broke but it took me completely stepping away from the manuscript for a short while before I felt ready to get into it again. The worst feeling when it comes to writing, is not writing what you want to be reading on the page after writing it.
Q: Do you have a favorite novel or author that you drew inspiration from when writing The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue?
A: No. However, I must list these beautiful writers for all that they have done for me and the literary arts: Jack Kerouac, Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Emily Dickinson, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, E.E. Cummings, Charles Dickens, Aldous Huxley, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Shirley Jackson, John Steinbeck, and Lewis Carroll.
Q: What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?
A: The late great poet and former poet laureate of NY Robert Creeley once told me “Onward!” This was after I read him one of my poems at some event in NYC. I asked after I had finished the poem if he thought I’d be published one day. That was almost 20 years ago. There I was: just a kid green with everything and he took the time to reassure me that day with that one word: “Onward.” What a great notion to impose on a young writer. Keep going. Never stop. Robert Creeley. What a beautiful idea. What an amazing person. To this day I tell every writer I meet the same thing. I always credit Creeley.
Q: How much of your own life did you bring into the book?
A: I believe that all good writing is always based on what an author knows best, or primarily first hand. This book is inspired by my childhood and teen years, my experiences and regrets, funny and not so funny moments, but mostly because I love writing about the back alleys, the street signs, the cracked cement stoops, the graffiti adorned garage doors, and the sidewalks decorated with gum tar. Queens is a place with so much to offer, good and bad— but always unique. While this story is fiction, I tried to capture the essence of it all while infusing some of my own experiences into the prose. My goal was to dump the reader off in the middle of Cypress Avenue and blend them in without them realizing it. Maybe they will use the lingo offered by the characters or find themselves searching for Nunny’s so that they too can have some of those fabled bubbles. In the end, I hope they laugh and cry and smile as much as I did while writing it.
Q: What is one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you?
A: I write with a ton of stimuli around me. The TV is on, music is on, Christmas lights going, incense burning: the more the better. I can’t explain it. It just works for me.
The book publishes in 3 days! I wanted to share this short Q&A I did for the book. Enjoy!
A Conversation with Mike Figliola
Q: What inspired you to write The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue?
A: I tell this story a lot. Growing up in Queens, NY, the streets and the apartment buildings are very much alive here. They are like people in many ways. The brick buildings aren’t just structures people inhabit. The city streets and city blocks aren’t just the paths folk’s travel. They all feature their own unique name or number and a style that invokes a feeling or sentiment in me and quite frankly those who frequent and live in the neighborhood. I liken it to how most people will associate Broadway with theater or Bourbon Street with Mardis Gras—same goes for Cypress Avenue just minus the same sheen. That’s what intrigued me the most. I had walked around these streets for most of my life and while everyone knew Cypress Avenue, what it stood for and its surrounding streets and their names, it wasn’t glamorous or even romanticized. Everyone there wanted to move away and stay forever at the same time—and it was those same streets and buildings that fostered it all. It’s in that dissonance that attracted me to bring to life the people and places of Cypress Avenue.
Q: What do you feel is the overall message of the book?
A: I didn’t go for an overall message, but an idea dissonance that I was talking about above. There is a lot of beauty as well as an ugliness to be found throughout the book. Each character you meet, whether it’s Sam Jean and Dezzy cooped up in the apartment, or Goldie, who almost flat lined at the liquor store or Earl the Fisherman in a sad haze living with his Ma, even Father John; they all exhibit redeeming and sometimes beautiful qualities despite their blatant disregard for common civility or kindness—but that led me to ask myself: don’t we all? Not to the extreme as these characters do, but I see it as all part of the human condition. I see it as our ability to be both Jekyll and Hyde in a given situation. I also used a lot of religious themes and imagery in the book. I am not particularly a religious person, but I did go to parochial school for part of my education and did attend church for a while there. I broke the book up into three parts and made 6 chapters for each part—I again liked the contrast between the Holy Trinity (3 parts) and the 6 chapters a piece (666) which is usually associated with the devil. I have great respect for religion and faith and it was important to me to incorporate those themes into the plot. Queens is known for its cemeteries and churches, and I now remember a poem I wrote (which I read with the incomparable David Amram live at the Cornelia street café in NYC) where I was noting how every work day morning I would walk to the train from my home alongside the length of a cemetery. Beyond that green gated fence were the dead, and there I was: alive walking to and from in that perpetual wake-shower-walk-train-work-lunch-work-punchout-train-walkhome-sleep cycle. I thought of the duality of this a lot during the time I was writing the book and it inspired me to incorporate those themes into The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue.
Q: What was the most challenging part of writing this novel?
A: Two moments—same issue. I hit a wall in the middle of writing the “Afternoon” part of the book. I forget exactly what chapter, but I just distinctly remember being unable to write anything I was happy with. I stared at the screen for days and days. That was the worst part of it all: the staring at the unfinished page and just wanting to write. Then it came back—I was off pounding the keys again. A week later I was back in the same spot. That too eventually broke but it took me completely stepping away from the manuscript for a short while before I felt ready to get into it again. The worst feeling when it comes to writing, is not writing what you want to be reading on the page after writing it.
Q: Do you have a favorite novel or author that you drew inspiration from when writing The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue?
A: No. However, I must list these beautiful writers for all that they have done for me and the literary arts: Jack Kerouac, Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Emily Dickinson, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, E.E. Cummings, Charles Dickens, Aldous Huxley, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Shirley Jackson, John Steinbeck, and Lewis Carroll.
Q: What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?
A: The late great poet and former poet laureate of NY Robert Creeley once told me “Onward!” This was after I read him one of my poems at some event in NYC. I asked after I had finished the poem if he thought I’d be published one day. That was almost 20 years ago. There I was: just a kid green with everything and he took the time to reassure me that day with that one word: “Onward.” What a great notion to impose on a young writer. Keep going. Never stop. Robert Creeley. What a beautiful idea. What an amazing person. To this day I tell every writer I meet the same thing. I always credit Creeley.
Q: How much of your own life did you bring into the book?
A: I believe that all good writing is always based on what an author knows best, or primarily first hand. This book is inspired by my childhood and teen years, my experiences and regrets, funny and not so funny moments, but mostly because I love writing about the back alleys, the street signs, the cracked cement stoops, the graffiti adorned garage doors, and the sidewalks decorated with gum tar. Queens is a place with so much to offer, good and bad— but always unique. While this story is fiction, I tried to capture the essence of it all while infusing some of my own experiences into the prose. My goal was to dump the reader off in the middle of Cypress Avenue and blend them in without them realizing it. Maybe they will use the lingo offered by the characters or find themselves searching for Nunny’s so that they too can have some of those fabled bubbles. In the end, I hope they laugh and cry and smile as much as I did while writing it.
Q: What is one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you?
A: I write with a ton of stimuli around me. The TV is on, music is on, Christmas lights going, incense burning: the more the better. I can’t explain it. It just works for me.
July 27, 2020
8 Days away
Hello everyone,
To new friends and followers - and those who are just passing thru - WELCOME! I'm Mike. Most people call me Fig. Either one sits well with me so take your pick. I hope I get to meet/know some if not all of you as well so comment as you see fit and let's talk about some good 'ol writing.
My novel publishes on August 4th 2020 - a mere 8 days away. Man, it's been a crazy road, albeit an exciting one. Watching my book go from a word document to a query letter to a pitch to an agent to the publisher - then to the green light and drawn up contract alone was wild. Surreal sums it up best for me (like most of what 2020 feels like for all of us).
Then began the editing process, which for me was a scary proposition. What if I had an editor chop this thing to bits? What if they thought it needed a ton of work? What the IF IF IF...
Instead, my editor and I had a productive relationship of mutual respect with minor edits. I truly was paired with one hell of a an editor and team over at Permuted Press. I was blessed with that.
There is some stuff in the middle that I would like to touch on in another blog post, but it included: art work, art direction, book layout, press kits, and final edits that followed. All of which took patience and work, but felt more like mini goals to get done rather than impending doom of say, writers block.
It all leads to here; 8 days away. I am now doing media to building to the pub date which is August 4th; just 9 days shy of my birthday. Ever since I was a little Fig, August has always been a weird month for me. Yes it was my birthday month which meant lots pool and presents and bbq's with the friends and fam, but it also meant that summer was rapidly coming to a close. The Johnny pumps would be sealed and the parks would slowly be emptied and well, SCHOOL would come back around. Which I was a total half nerd so and loved school, but I played sports and music and so I basically blended in with all the circus folk. It all was just one big train for me to ride.
My birthday would roar around that July 31st corner and people would start bemoaning the end of summer. I'd agree but secretly be in love with the doldrums that summer becomes - and the last drag of innocent and no so innocent (as we got older) good times that would surely lead into an early November NYC patented blizzard. The blizzard of 1995 comes to mind but that was a January. November, January, same thing: cold, dreary, and weather designed to destroy your LIFE.
But here we are, July 27th, 2020. August 4th is coming. The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue is a mere 8 days away. My birthday comes next. I can already hear the whine in the chorus of voices: summer is over already, can you believe it - but not as loud as other years as the coronavirus has most of us shut in.
Me? I couldn't be happier - or more excited - just like the August's of my entire life up until this point. My dream and personal goal to be a published author is a mere 8 days away. So glad you're here to take the ride. My name is Mike. Most people call me Fig. Love to get to know you all. Say hello. Drop a line. Whine that summer is almost over. It's cool. Just glad you are reading this blog. Maybe you'll even pick up my book.
The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue is 8 days away.
Shine on you crazy diamonds,
M
To new friends and followers - and those who are just passing thru - WELCOME! I'm Mike. Most people call me Fig. Either one sits well with me so take your pick. I hope I get to meet/know some if not all of you as well so comment as you see fit and let's talk about some good 'ol writing.
My novel publishes on August 4th 2020 - a mere 8 days away. Man, it's been a crazy road, albeit an exciting one. Watching my book go from a word document to a query letter to a pitch to an agent to the publisher - then to the green light and drawn up contract alone was wild. Surreal sums it up best for me (like most of what 2020 feels like for all of us).
Then began the editing process, which for me was a scary proposition. What if I had an editor chop this thing to bits? What if they thought it needed a ton of work? What the IF IF IF...
Instead, my editor and I had a productive relationship of mutual respect with minor edits. I truly was paired with one hell of a an editor and team over at Permuted Press. I was blessed with that.
There is some stuff in the middle that I would like to touch on in another blog post, but it included: art work, art direction, book layout, press kits, and final edits that followed. All of which took patience and work, but felt more like mini goals to get done rather than impending doom of say, writers block.
It all leads to here; 8 days away. I am now doing media to building to the pub date which is August 4th; just 9 days shy of my birthday. Ever since I was a little Fig, August has always been a weird month for me. Yes it was my birthday month which meant lots pool and presents and bbq's with the friends and fam, but it also meant that summer was rapidly coming to a close. The Johnny pumps would be sealed and the parks would slowly be emptied and well, SCHOOL would come back around. Which I was a total half nerd so and loved school, but I played sports and music and so I basically blended in with all the circus folk. It all was just one big train for me to ride.
My birthday would roar around that July 31st corner and people would start bemoaning the end of summer. I'd agree but secretly be in love with the doldrums that summer becomes - and the last drag of innocent and no so innocent (as we got older) good times that would surely lead into an early November NYC patented blizzard. The blizzard of 1995 comes to mind but that was a January. November, January, same thing: cold, dreary, and weather designed to destroy your LIFE.
But here we are, July 27th, 2020. August 4th is coming. The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue is a mere 8 days away. My birthday comes next. I can already hear the whine in the chorus of voices: summer is over already, can you believe it - but not as loud as other years as the coronavirus has most of us shut in.
Me? I couldn't be happier - or more excited - just like the August's of my entire life up until this point. My dream and personal goal to be a published author is a mere 8 days away. So glad you're here to take the ride. My name is Mike. Most people call me Fig. Love to get to know you all. Say hello. Drop a line. Whine that summer is almost over. It's cool. Just glad you are reading this blog. Maybe you'll even pick up my book.
The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue is 8 days away.
Shine on you crazy diamonds,
M
Tales from the Bottom of the Stoop
This blog is dedicated to discussing the world of my debut novel: The Slow Midnight Cypress Avenue. I will take you into the writing and publishing process, some fun anecdotes and side stories related
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