Southold resident James Sleckman spent 35 years selling gold leaf to book binding companies. He put his energy into making certain kinds of books more beautiful, but he was always a novelist at heart. In high school he wrote parody songs; in college, it was plays. In 2019, just shy of retirement, he dipped his toe back in the field with an essay about the Yankees. That started the ball rolling, and in 2020 he began what would become Even to a Jellyfish, his first novel.
What inspired this story?
I always wanted to write. When I retired in 2020 I started writing a novel. One day I was listening to this TV commercial, because I get bombarded by drug advertisements, and it said something about a drug that’s supposed to help your memory. And I thought, ‘I have a memory problem.’ Let me hear more about this. And they said it was made from jellyfish. And I said, ‘you know, I got jellyfish like down the road in the bay. Well, I’m gonna try eating a lot. I wonder if that would help my memory problems.’ And this light went off on top of my head, like, ‘Man, this is an idea for a book,’ and I just went with it. And all of a sudden I end up with this great novel.
What is the book about?
I call it ‘Goonies for old guys.’ It’s really an exploration of male friendships, which are rarely found in contemporary fiction. When I got into this book, I was writing stories about just, you know, guys having fun. And I said myself, you know, it’s more than that. Guys have regrets too, even though we’re boys at heart, we go on these adventures, but it’s really about our feelings. And you’ll find that throughout the book, there are a lot of interesting feelings that come out, and you really don’t expect to come from men.
What was your process?
It took me a year to write the book, and then about a year to edit it and start sending it out. So this two-year process, and then I sent out about 300 query letters, and got many, many rejections. But an editor from a small company called the Wild Rose press, she wrote me back saying, ‘You know what, I liked it. I felt like I was in the kitchen listening to my brothers, after they gone fishing the Lake Ontario, send me more.’
Why did it take so long for you to begin writing?
I just never had the time to do it. Plus, I failed English in high school. Just freshman year, I had to go to summer school. But I read these, these wonderful books, these wonderful authors who have just a great sense of prose and a terrific vocabulary, and I learned so much. I don’t consider myself a good author, but I do consider myself a good storyteller.
What’s next for you?
I already started on another novel, of course. It’s also about the North Fork. It’s set in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. It’s centered around one family, commercial fisherman and his family, and the controversial bridge from Orient point across the Long Island Sound. I’ve written about 10 or 12 chapters so far.
Why did you choose the North Fork for your setting?
I’ve been here for a long time. I’ve been here for over 30 years. I’m an avid fisherman. That’s what I know. I know all the fishing spots. I know how to all the different types of fish. If you look at my book, you will see everything from descriptions of fish to recipes and how to cook the fish so, but I just think there’s a lot of history out here which has never been explored.
Even to a Jellyfish is available at Burton’s Books in Greenport and A Book Place in Riverhead.