Author: Ritch Gaiti
Title: The Big Empty
Publisher: Sedona Editions
ASBN: B00CTA3P56
Pages: 257, Paperback/Kindle
Genre: Mystery
Author Interview with Ritch Gaiti
The Big Empty – Author Interview
By: Ritch Gaiti
Interviewed by: S. Marie Vernon, Pacific Book Review
1). PBR: Welcome Mr. Gaiti. Good to have such a talented author with us today. Actually I should say multi-talented and in several areas. You’re a writer with several published books, The Big Empty being the latest one. You’ve written screenplays and produced movies, and you’re an artist, a pilot and a former Wall Street Executive. First, just tell us a little more about yourself. Did you grow up in New York? And what made you leave Wall Street to develop your more creative side?
RG: I grew up in Brooklyn— far removed from what I write and paint about—then I moved into the horse country of New Jersey. At Merrill Lynch, I managed a large technology organization. I was part of the machine. I worked in big and small companies as a high level manager, a peon, and most things in between. I was a comer, a take-no-prisoners young gun, and a rising star; I was successful, recognized, promoted and anointed. I was the next in line to be next in line. Then I resigned. I had a list of accomplishments that I had been proud of and a few bucks in my jeans (ok, my 401k). I had always felt that the only real failure was not trying and there were many things that I had not yet tried — among them, writing, filmmaking and painting. So I shifted — from my analytical left-brain to my creative right brain; from the buttoned-up structure of big company bureaucracy to the free flowing world of creativity. Both had rules and structure but the latter had my rules and structure.
2). PBR: With so many interest, that of writing, displaying your artwork, and producing movies, how do you balance your time between each of these?
RG: I put movies on the back burner— although I would like to direct someday. Paradoxically, it takes a lot of money to be creative with films. I focused in arenas where I could produce and explore what I could do. My current modus operandi is that I normally write in the mornings, when my left-brain is more engaged, and paint in the afternoon. I don’t have a rigid structure; rather, I flow with the creative juices and the priorities of the day.
3). PBR: Your latest novel is called, The Big Empty and is set in The Big Apple. Wall Street is a big name player in the ancient conspiracy that unravels as an average guy like Rick Wallace returns to hunt down some documents. Tell us how does your experience as an executive working for Wall Street play into the theme of The Big Empty? Or does it play into it at all?
RG: Working on Wall Street was one of the joys of my life. I really loved what I did and where I did it. Physically, it is unlike any other part of New York. It smelled of tradition, history, and greed. I marveled at the incestuously winding streets and the clash of new buildings and historical monuments. In The Big Empty, I tried to convey my impressions of Wall Street, not from the business side, rather from the ground up. The history of Wall Street plays a big part of The Big Empty.
4). PBR: Ultimately, The Big Empty, is about the injustice done to the Native American Indians that inhabited New York City and the tactics the government used to remove them from their land when the white man took over in the early 1800’s. And, much of your artwork shows a lot of appreciation for the Natives. What draws you into this culture? Do you have direct roots to the Native American heritage?
RG: I’m a Jew from Brooklyn. You’d have to go to the beginning of mankind to find the connection between the Native American culture and myself. For some reason, I’ve always loved the west—the beauty, the expanse, the colors. When I began to paint I used Native Americans as subjects –the more I painted them, the more I read about them. I was immediately drawn to their culture. There was no sense of ownership; they believed that everything in the world should be shared. As most of us now know, what we were taught about the demise of their culture was far from true. I wanted to bring this out in The Big Empty. When I started writing this book, I wanted to write a gritty mystery with a much higher purpose.
5). PBR: In this novel, many of your characters, including the protagonist, Rick Wallace, are just normal everyday people complete with their own unique quirkiness. Did you fashion these characters after people you have known or were they created strictly from imagination?
RG: Most of my books have based the characters on familiar people’s attributes. The Big Empty strayed from my norm. I invented all of the characters. I wanted to develop unique personalities and have them play off with each other.
6). PBR: One of my favorite parts of this book is Rick Wallace encountering E.P. Smith’s protective wife. It’s especially funny what occurs. Is there an episode in the book that you like best or that was especially fun to write?
RG: Even though The Big Empty is a serious mystery, I tried to infuse humor into the lead character’s perspective and several of the scenes. After all, it’s life. Also I believe that a bit of humor humanizes the story and serves as a good contrast to mystery/thriller. I love writing humor. In fact, my first two books, (Points and Tweet) were 100% humor. The E.P. Smith episode was a lot of fun, particularly when his wife, a very heavy woman, sits on Rick and pins him to the ground while he eats Corn Flakes. I also loved the Elias Opdyck character; his unique personality was a lot of fun to write.
7). PBR: The Big Empty is very down to earth in many ways, but it does have an underlying message of divine providence and an element of the characters being guided or led by external forces. With this in mind, what is the ultimate message you would like your readers to get from reading The Big Empty?
RG: There is an underlying theme of divine province – people being guided and influenced in a spiritual way. I tried to communicate the ethereal nature of Native Americans. I left several messages open-ended. I was not attempting to send a message about things we cannot control, rather, I was just depicting another way of life.
8). PBR: You’ve been on many talk shows, including The Today Show and also several radio shows promoting your books. Has this helped you in the promotion of your book? Do you recommend it for other authors, and if so, how does one get invited as a guest on a talk show?
RG: You have to pick you market carefully. Believe it or not, talk shows etc. can be a very expensive ordeal. Unless you are a well-known author, with a publisher with deep pockets, I would tread very lightly.
9.) PBR: Is there a sequel to The Big Empty in the works? Do you think you will produce it as a movie? And, what’s on the horizon for you Mr. Gaiti? What should we look for?
RG: No sequel planned for The Big Empty yet. I’ll see how it is received. One of my favorite aspects of The Big Empty is the lead character transformation. You can only do that once. Interestingly, The Big Empty started as a film script. I was very close to getting it produced but the economy got in the way and I rewrote it as a novel. I think that it would make a great movie, maybe with Javier Bardem or Benecio Del Toro, in the lead.
Next on my lists of to-do’s…hmmm. I have three books in some stage of development right now. Mox Nix, conundrums of a half Jew; Mosaic, a black comedic mystery; and Up the Corp, a satire on succeeding in the corporate world. I will probably jump on one of them, or something else will pop up.
PBR: Mr. Gaiti, thank you for being here today and good-luck with the promotion of your book.
