Take Five: Yuvi Zalkow and I ONLY CRY WITH EMOTICONS

We are thrilled to showcase an interview with Writer Unboxed contributor and author Yuvi Zalkow today! Yuvi is known here at WU as that funny-wise video guy, but if you have never read his debut, A BRILLIANT NOVEL IN THE WORKS, you may have missed that he’s also insightful about the human condition and a wordsmith of the highest order. We’re so excited to learn more about his second novel, officially releasing this Tuesday, I ONLY CRY WITH EMOTICONS–a book that KIRKUS calls “A refreshingly zany story about the pitfalls of modern technology and the importance of chasing dreams… a resounding success.”

More from the flap copy:

Saul doesn’t get why he’s misunderstood. At his high-tech day job, he hides in the bathroom writing a novel about his dead grandfather and wonders why his boss wants to fire him. He tells his almost ex-wife about a blind date and wonders why she slams the door in his face. He aches with worry for his 7-year-old son who seems happier living with his mom and her new man.

When the blind date becomes a complicated relationship, and Saul’s blunders at work threaten the survival of the company, Saul has to wake up and confront his fears.

I ONLY CRY WITH EMOTICONS is a quirky comedy that reveals the cost of being disconnected—even when we’re using a dozen apps on our devices to communicate—and an awkward man’s search for real connections, on and offline.

What Yuvi interview would be complete without videos? Read–and watch–on.

Q1.  Why did you write your new book?

YZ: Several years ago, I was struggling at a startup company that made social collaboration software. The work was decent and there were many great people there, but I really didn’t enjoy the fact that everything we posted with our software got “Likes” and reactions and responses, and then you’d respond to those responses, and then those response responses would get Likes as well, and it just never stopped. It felt like all my human interactions were turning into Facebook posts, and I did NOT like that. Anyway, to cope with this feeling, I started writing about a guy struggling at a social collaboration company. The guy was also struggling to connect with the important people in his life, especially his seven-year-old son. I really wanted to explore how we connect (and how we DON’T connect) to the important people around us, especially in a world where we’re sometimes rated and ranked on our collaboration skills. This guy in my novel is kinda-sorta-almost divorced and also trying to navigate joint custody and dating and a few other messy things. I really loved exploring this territory of connection and disconnection.

Q2. How did the writing process go?

YZ: The first draft of the book just shot out of me faster than any other long project I’ve ever done. I think this happened because the story was going through my head for a few months before I started writing it. And it was a refreshing break from a more challenging historical fiction project I was working on at the time. But I don’t want to pretend that the book was easy to write… The subsequent drafts were not that magical to work through!… 😜 There were many dead ends and awful ideas that I had to clean up over the years. You can see a lot about my struggles writing this book in my videos. This particular video talks through my experience writing this book.

Q3.  What would you like people to know about this story?

YZ: Even though there is a lot about technology in this book—the characters are constantly online, or getting messages on their phones, tablets, watches—it’s really a simple story about people trying to connect. It’s got a lot of my self-deprecating humor in there. And even though I sometimes describe it as a romantic comedy, the parent/child relationship is at least as important as the romance. The main character, Saul, he’s just trying to be a decent human, and a decent dad. I think that is at the heart of the story.

Q4.  What unique challenges did this book pose for you?

YZ: None. I’m a brilliant writer and there were no challenges whatsoever.

I just wanted to test out how it feels to fake confidence…

There were are few big challenges. For one, in the time I started writing this, I’ve been dealing with chronic migraines. Learning how to continue to create while dealing with chronic pain was not a trivial thing for me. (And, hey, I did a video on that as well!)

Another challenge involved finding the essence of the story. Earlier drafts had way too much geeky tech stuff in there. It took a few drafts to realize that my readers don’t need to be coders to understand the book (slight exaggeration, but…). It also took a few drafts to understand how not to get too derailed with fun side stories, and stories within stories. I have a soft spot for metafiction and I needed to reign that in a little bit to make the book work better. The final product is much more coherent and focused.

Q5.  What has been the most rewarding aspect of having written this book?

I love getting to the end of a big project and looking at what I’ve created. Well, I should clarify that, I sometimes hate looking at the project when the project is a big horrifying mess. But EVENTUALLY, after a bunch of drafts, I find some delight in seeing a story come together.

As far as publishing the book, now that the book is out in the world, I just love getting feedback from people who were affected in some way by the story. I love having conversations about how stories work and how they affect us. I’m happy to talk about my stories, sure, but I also love talking about other people’s stories. I treasure these conversations. ❤️️

Learn more about Yuvi and I ONLY CRY WITH EMOTICONS on Yuvi’s website, and by following him on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.