To help celebrate Pride Month, Storyshares is thrilled to shine the spotlight on one of our talented authors, Julian Simiński. Julian’s book, Math = Silence, is a popular and compelling title in the Storyshares library. Now onto the interview…!
Name: Julian Simiński (alternatively J.G. Simiński)
Where are you from? I’m originally from New York State along the border with Canada.
How long have you been writing/what inspired you to begin?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. Originally, I was just fascinated with words and their etymology and often participated in spelling bees in school. I was also very much like an immigrant child, without actually being an immigrant. My parents spoke Polish at home, so when I was a child, I had an accent when I spoke English.
Tell us more about your book, Math = Silence. Why did you write it?
Math = Silence is primarily a story about courage. Tyler, a teenager, and the protagonist in the story is not open about his sexual identity. In fact he’s still coming to terms with what that exactly means. He is afraid to say anything about his sexual orientation, but after a school math assignment on Leonardo da Vinci he gets the courage to be open. One of the points I was trying to make with this story is to partially clear up a misconception about what it means to be courageous. It doesn’t mean unafraid. It means you can be very afraid, but you will still do that brave thing even in the face of that fear. For Tyler that fear is to not be accepted or potentially bullied or ostracized. One of the very inaccurate stereotypes of gay people is that they are weak and afraid, but quite the opposite is true. It takes a tremendous amount of strength to fight homophobia, or sexism, or racism, or be open about their sexual identity in often a hostile environment.
The other point is more about helping young people to be aware that being gay is only part of who a person is, and that gay people have been around since the beginning of time. They may not have been called gay, but there are gay people documented throughout history. A case in point is Leonardo da Vinci, who was not only a master painter (artist), but a brilliant mathematician and a genius inventor. He was also gay, so including da Vinci as part of this story was to enlighten students about some of the amazing individuals from history who were also gay.
One other important reason is that when I was in school, especially middle school, I was bullied incessantly. I was small, pretty, slightly effeminate for a boy and I also had an accent. That constantly made me a target for the other kids in school. I grew up in a working-class neighborhood and boys were expected to stick out their chest and be macho, be a certain way and being smart didn’t fit into that “brawn” mentality. So personally, I want to give kids who are like I was, a reason to be strong, to be courageous, and to know it gets better.
What advice would you give to a writer working on their first story?
I love writing in all its forms; poetry, short story writing, creative nonfiction writing, essay writing, writing specifically for Young Adults, picture book writing, and long form writing. If you don’t know where to start, I suggest keeping a daily journal. Write down your thoughts especially if nothing creative comes to mind immediately. There are also many places online that will provide you with a daily writing prompt – an idea or subject to write about. I would keep your pieces short at first, until you get the hang of it. Another great thing to do is read books in the genre/area you think you want to write. If it’s poetry, do some research online on who some of the better poets are or find poets whose work you relate to, that feels like something you could write or would want to write. I also highly recommend reading the work of your local, state, and national poet laureates. Ada Limon is the current national Poet Laureate, and her work is incredible.
If you like short stories, there are dozens of literary journals online that publish short stories. The best kind of writing to do when starting out is writing from what you know, where you live, your neighborhood, your hobbies, your family. All these things I mentioned are good ways to start. Short stories are a good stepping stone to preparing to write longform, like a novel.
What comes first for you - the plot or the characters - and why?
That’s a great question. Sometimes I just have an idea for something I want to write and then I get down to the essence of the plot and the characters. With Math = Silence, I wanted to write something about Leonardo da Vinci. He is one of my heroes. Another short story I wrote, called Gabriela, is very character driven. My idea was a story about a young Latina girl facing some monumental obstacles in her life. I knew who she was. I could see her in my mind’s eye, so the first thing I did was create a character description of her to get to know all aspects of her and then I had something concrete to build my plot around. Character descriptions give you a chance to really build your character’s history, likes and dislikes, environment, professional background, if they have one, as well as their age, race, religion, sexual orientation, politics, and how those things play out in their life. All these attributes will fill out who your character is and how they might act in your story.
What are the easiest/most difficult parts of the writing process for you?
The easiest part of writing is when I really know my characters and they lead me through my (their) story, and I get into a kind of rhythm where my writing just flows. The more difficult part is starting the story. Openings, your first page or two must be really strong. They must give your reader a sense of who your characters are and the setting and time period in which the story is taking place. For some writers it comes very naturally to them. I need to work at it a bit more.
Are there authors that you turn to for inspiration and mentoring?
I was just honored with being a 2024 Fellowship recipient from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. I studied with some amazing instructors there and it’s not something I will soon forget. I found their own writings to be truly inspirational, including the work of the institute’s founder, Alexander Weinstein.
One of my favorite writers is also a longtime friend of mine, New York Times best-selling author, Catherine Ryan Hyde, who wrote the amazing Pay It Forward. She also penned a book I found incredibly moving, Have You Seen Luis Velez? I can’t recommend that book enough. There are three other books and writers I discovered recently that I really love. The first is Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. It was written in 1971 about a man confined to a wheelchair who sets out to write a book about his grandparents. Gallant, a YA Gothic horror novel, by V.E. Schwab is just brilliantly written. It has a flow and lyricality to it that is quite unique. And the other is The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams. I love this book, it’s really inspired.
I also want to add that the plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare are an incredible tool for learning about plot and story structure. At first reading, Shakespeare’s writing may seem intimidating, inaccessible, or even antiquated but actually, many really good story writing and movies as well, have borrowed from the story structure and the highly developed characters that Shakespeare created. Romeo and Juliet is a perfect example, so many great love stories have been based on Shakespeare’s creations – ever hear of West Side Story?
What prompted you to write for Storyshares?
I think the fact that Storyshares focuses on the younger reader. And with subjects like sexual identity, race, religion, civility, these age groups are when young minds are most curious and are experiencing and finding their place in the world. Storyshares goes a long way to enlightening the young.
Where do your ideas come from?
My ideas come from everywhere! They could come from conversations I’ve had, a movie I watched, or a book or an article I’ve read. Often, they come from my own life experiences or at least those experiences have helped me to tell a story, even if it isn’t exactly what happened to me.
What question do you wish you’d been asked about your work? What is the answer?
I don’t know if there is anything I would like to have been asked about my work, but I do think that having a point of view, creating your own unique perspective in your writing is what makes some stories more memorable than others. I also like to mention that I have narrated several LGBTQ audiobooks, including the 12-book series Widdershins, by trans author Jordan L. Hawk. The audiobooks are on Audible, and I narrate them under the pseudonym, Julian G. Simmons. I’m very proud of that work. It has helped me in understanding how to flesh out the characters for my own stories.
Thank you, Julian! To check out Julian’s book, Math = Silence, as well as our full collection of LGBTQ+ titles, visit our eLibrary. Happy Pride!!