Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest Michael J. Coffino author of Truth Is in the House.

Michael has authored, co-authored, ghostwritten, edited, and coached in multiple genres, including memoir, business, and sports.  Truth Is in the House is his first work of fiction.

Before becoming a full-time author, he had two parallel careers: one in the courtroom, as a trial and business litigation attorney, and the other in the gymnasium as basketball coach, primarily at the high school level. He was raised in the Mott Haven and Highbridge neighborhoods of the Bronx, served in the military from 1968-1970, graduated and earned a B.S. in Education from the City University of New York, and earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He lives in Marin County, California.

Good day Michael and thanks for taking part in our interview.

Norm: What do you think is the future of reading/writing?

Michael: Provocative question. It is tempting to worry about the future of reading and writing after the alarming disdain for truth and reality we’ve endured in recent times. But I think that will pass.

Probably more importantly is recognizing we live in a stressful world, which means we need a wide range of escape avenues. Books, especially works of fiction and memoir, should increasingly provide that vital outlet.

Those genres in particular accord readers mirrors into their own lives, validate them as it were, and that need is never going away. Also, the innate hunger for knowledge and new horizons will continue to thrive. In the end, reading and writing will triumph. They must. The alternative is too disheartening to contemplate.

Norm: What is the one thing other people always seem to get wrong about you?

Michael: Ha. That I’m intimidating. I’ve never understood that, although in fairness we New Yorkers get tagged as having socially sharp edges.

There is of course some truth in that, but most of us, below the surface, are sentimental softies. We are passionate and have a healthy sense of loyalty, collegiality, and empathy. But, yeah, I’ve gotten the “intimidating” label on occasion, which shakes my head, since I’d like to see myself as accessible.

Norm: How did you get started in writing? What keeps you going?  

Michael: My writing career has its deepest roots first in college and then my legal career. In college I became a voracious reader, which I believe is essential to becoming a sterling writer.

It was then I began a lifelong love affair with word play, inspired initially by the polysyllabic ruminations of Charles Dickens. Legal advocacy writing—a quintessential form of storytelling—came next, accompanied by the role of legal writing coach.

I moved into creative writing at the same time writing roasts for family and friends’ celebratory events, like birthdays and anniversaries, where I predicted their futures in caricature. I eventually had a burning desire I couldn’t resist to devote myself fully to professional writing, relegating my legal and basketball coaching careers to the back burner.

Norm: Is your writing an art or craft or some combination of both? 

Michael: It is for sure both, as it is, I dare say, for anyone writing in earnest. The two are inextricably bound. For example, writing a scene with a single character POV (point of view)—a craft rule of thumb—cannot be done effectively without describing the nuances of character perspective and sensibility in the particular moment.

The same is true of observing rules of grammar and syntax. That alone will not produce smooth reading cadence that keeps the reader not wanting to stop. You still need deft word choice, imagery, and mood creation. So, too, for writing dialogue, which on the one hand requires various technical things like formatting, punctuation, proper placement of quotation marks, using ellipsis to indicate pauses, and Em dashes for interruptions, and on the other, must be embellished with inserted action words that enliven a scene, allowing readers to visualize speaker interactions.

Art and craft, hand in glove.

Norm: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?  

Michael: No question, growing up in the streets of the Bronx gave me a social edge and cocky confidence. To varying degrees, we all had to be that way to survive, psychically and emotionally. We got tested daily.

Most everyone had a wise ass perspective that manifested typically in tongue-in-cheek and sometimes biting candor and sarcasm. I come at creative writing with all that in play, admiring characters and dialogue with sharp comedic edges.

I eagerly look forward to writing more fiction in that frame of mind. I think it makes characters more compelling and plot more captivating. On the other hand, I am mindful of how much I don’t know and how much learning I still need to grow my writing. When I wrote Truth Is in the House, for scene inspiration and to extract narrative authenticity, I read countless books, watched countless videos, and interviewed about thirty people.

Norm: How did you become involved with the subject or theme of Truth Is in the House?

Michael: I set out to write a work of fiction to honor my Bronx neighborhood, Highbridge. I had a gas growing up there, and remained proud of how we kids built a subculture removed from the clutches of traditional institutions like school, church, and family. I had planned to collect anecdotes from as many of my childhood friends as practical and build a narrative from there. 

But the first interviews I did set me down a different path after learning about a twin-homicide resulting from racial tensions at a local neighborhood bar. I was in the military at the time, and by the time I got discharged, my family had moved to a different neighborhood and I didn’t know what had happened until fifty years after the fact.

I had known both boys who died. The event took a hold of me, and I began researching and interviewing down a different path. One thing led to another, and I came across a well-reported gang attack about ten years before the bar tragedy in an upper Manhattan neighborhood, also the product of racial tensions. I decided to connect the disparate events using two main characters—one white, the other black—as vehicles to explore racial themes reflected in my lifetime. The book grew from there. 

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Michael: From a literary standpoint, I wanted to achieve a few things. First more than anything, I wanted to craft a novel that made me proud of the storytelling. I fictionalized a wide variety of actual events, virtually all disconnected from each other. The challenge was weaving them into a single coherent narrative. I am quite pleased with the result.

Second, I wanted to celebrate my cherished Bronx background. In that regard, I did precisely what I set out to do, albeit I am curious to know how others, whether those I know or those with similar backgrounds, will react to that aspect of the book. Third, I wanted to address race in a different way. I wanted my characters to have a rough time of it for sure, but I wanted them to enjoy a positive character arc. Consistently immersing myself in the world the characters inhabited was energizing.

I have to say this too, at the risk of self-absorption. I love my book. I pick it up now and then and read a random chapter to check the pulse of its staying power. Each time I feel sated.

Norm: How did you go about creating the characters of Jaylen Jackson and Jimmy O'Farrell? Are they based on anyone you know?

Michael: Both characters came to me early, not based on anyone I know, although they have slices of real people in them, but based on what I wanted my characters to represent viz. their subcultures and communities. My goal with them was to distill the values of their separate worlds into their personalities and become building blocks for their personal missions. Of course, I drew on the life experiences of others and myself in setting up theirs. But in terms of their personal journeys—their internal silent wars—they are for the most part crafted from whole cloth.

Norm: How much of you is in the novel? 

Michael: Several experiences (and related undercurrents) in the book come directly from me, e.g., Jimmy O’Farrell dropping out of college and getting drafted, his father working at a Penn Station newsstand, the basketball game where different races come together to compete in a playground setting, Jaylen Jackson’s epiphany about client-representation, and watching a junkie nod in mid-sentence, and so on.

The underlying dynamics throughout the book, however, the more subtle aspects of personality and character perspective, are harder to parse. I often tried to get inside each of my characters and have them express what I felt as them. To that extent, I am all over the place.

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this book and what did you enjoy most about writing this book?

Michael: Honestly, the book presented no noteworthy difficulties. On a relative basis, the most difficult part happened in the early goings when I worried about how some people might react to certain parts of the story, not only in how I depicted certain events, but as a white man writing about race. But another writer of fiction set me straight, admonishing me not to compromise my art out of concern for how others might respond or feel, that I should write what I wanted to write, and let the chips fall. I took that advice.

What I enjoyed most was the organic nature of the storytelling. Once I decided on the race theme, I gave my characters and the plot permission to unfold naturally, scene by scene, chapter by chapter, plot point by plot point. Routinely, I’d end a chapter and ask the question, what is supposed to come next? I loved that. 

Norm: Did you write the novel more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process. 

Michael: I think the guiding force was intuitive, feeling out the characters, placing them in situations, and finding ways to lead them along the path of the narrative. Again, I spent much of my focus getting inside their beings, trying to understand them, help them make decisions, good or bad, so they could express themselves and confront their demons. This was partly cognitive, but it had more to do with my “sense” of things. A more linear and fact-based approach occurred with certain historical aspects of the book that I didn’t fictionalize, like the Vietnam War chapters or the seventh game of the 1960 World Series. But in the main, I wrote intuitively.

Norm:  Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?  

Michael: I learned that I love writing fiction and that my writing style can vary within the same narrative so long as it produces a smooth reading rhythm. I also learned how much fun it is to write dialogue. I learned too that I am well served as a writer by having personal connection with my characters. I don’t have to like them. But I do have to know them, get inside their skin and see the world from their perspective.

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and Truth Is in the House? 

Michael: MY  WEBSITE 

Amazon Author Page

Goodreads Author Page

Norm: What projects are you working on at the present?  

Michael: I am working on a few memoirs for others—I ghostwrite for clients—and have begun my next novel, based on an extraordinary hitchhiking experience I had as a young adult. 

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, if you could invite three writers, dead or alive into your living room, who would they be and why?

Michael: Oscar Wilde, for his sharp wit, penetrating sarcasm, and elegance in depicting the human condition; James Baldwin, for his fluency and passion on all matters of race and justice; and Richard Russo, for his unmatched ability to describe the nuances of human frailties.

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with Truth Is in the House and all of your future projects.

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of Truth Is in the House