Q & A with author Jack Webb and Susan J. Farese of SJF Communications

SJF: In a nutshell, tell us about your book or written piece.
JW: Bragging about oneself is always boring, both to the braggart and to their auditor. I’ve published more than 26 books — at least one each year since 2003. I’ve also appeared on countless TV shows and stages with famous writers around the world, including Maya Angelou, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Billy Collins, and Dana Gioia, sometimes in stadiums with 15,000 in attendance, including here in San Diego.
Boring.
It’s the NEXT book that interests me, the next show.
That’s because there has been only one purpose for all these books and events (including my most recent tome, entitled The Harp of Heaven).
The purpose?
To give people the tools to dig deep into their own souls, to find the glory of art and truth that lies inside. Once people have that, what they say is worth listening to. A conversation is possible.
We’ve gone a long way toward achieving that goal, using thousands of workshops in schools throughout San Diego. School principals have said that their students are ”writing writing writing” after Border Voices workshops, and their scores on standardized tests soar. Sandra Alcosser, head of SDSU’s MFA program, said hundreds of students have entered her program because of what they learned from Border Voices.
Lovely.
This year, we plan to expand our workshops to senior citizens, to put them in our books and TV shows along with the famous poets from around the world.
Double-lovely.

SJF: What has your experience been as a writer in San Diego?
JW: See above. Also won all sorts of awards for our books and TV shows, served on the governor’s committee to pick the state poet laureate, etc. A lot of newspaper and magazine stories about our work.
Dana Gioia said I’m the “face and voice of poetry in San Diego.” Dana is the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, among other things (like poet, critic, author of the book Can Poetry Matter).
Fame is nothing, except as a tool. As I said, the goal is everything.

SJF: How has storytelling influenced your life?
JW: It got me in a lot of scrapes, but it also opened my eyes to the world.
One example: For many years, I was an investigative reporter for Copley News Service and the San Diego Union-Tribune. I got a tip from one of my law-enforcement contacts about a crime group that was smuggling weapons (and mercenaries) to terrorists in Africa. I called the leader of the group, a Mafia-connected lawyer. The only time he would meet me was at midnight in Anaheim.
I met him in his office, where he was accompanied by a CIA assassin who had gone rogue, as well as a right-wing thug. All of them were members of the El Kamas crime organization.
I’d barely started talking when the CIA guy said,
“The last guy who asked questions like that was carried out of here with shit dribbling down his leg.”
Oops.
How I got out of that room, and how I brought those guys to justice, is a big story, and helped to open the door of the world just a crack. That door is still opening.

SJF: If you had a magic wand, what kind of opportunities would be available to writers in San Diego?
JW: We have a chance for a writing renaissance in San Diego. There are writing tools available in the ether that haven’t been used in centuries, a blending of the techniques of prose and poetry that the greats of other ages used to create the literary wonders of the world — I’m talking here of Shakespeare, Homer, Dante.
That will be the focus as we expand our current, highly successful program to seniors and others.

SJF: What are you excited about when it comes to participating in the inaugural San Diego Writers Festival?
JW: The chance to share insight and goals with other writers, as well as the general public.

SJF: What advice would you give to a new writer in San Diego?
JW: Write, and write some more. Don’t be afraid.
I recall that the wonderful Joseph Conrad had his wife lock him in a room, until he’d written something. He’d already published Lord Jim and many other great novels.
She heard him crying, shouting from behind the locked door: “Let me out! I’m a fraud! I can’t write!”
Don’t be afraid. Each new work is an exploration of what you are, what you don’t know yet.

SJF: Many thanks, Jack!

Learn More about Jack Webb 
Learn More about Susan J. Farese of SJF Communications