Check Out Raymond’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Raymond.

Hi Raymond, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have always wanted to be a creative person. I have a vivid imagination which comes up with so many interesting observations which make me laugh. I’d often tell them to others. Their reactions varied from laughing themselves to saying “You’re sick.” Eventually, I started writing the ideas down, began to write stories, which I found to be a very enjoyable process. I do not plan my stories. A set of characters and a situation come into my mind, and I never know beforehand where it is going to go. The characters come to life in some almost magical way and a story is born. I’m in two writing groups and the other members refer to my stories as a “Ray story” because of their originality and breath of topics involved. I write them partially to find out what I think and feel about a situation or character.

I began with a musical play, Passion’s Reward, writing the dialogue and composing the songs. It’s never been produced. I wrote other plays and one, Nothings Plenty for Me was presented at Theatre Row in Manhattan. I’ve composed and performed several music albums and published a book of short stories, Joyful, Sorrowful and Other Mysteries. My new book of short stories, The Hypokrisis Mirror and Other Stories is to be published in May 2026.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Is anything in life smooth? I’d say the answer is often no. Whether it is in creation of art, writing or music, there is often a great deal of variation. One day you are brimming with ideas and enthusiasm and the next, every action requires you’re willing it. I find this particularly related to publicity. I don’t like to put myself forward but it’s necessary. And there is the problem of expectations. How I hate my expectations and judgements as to whether or not I’m meeting them. It’s best when I’m happy with my efforts and enjoy the process. I also enjoy going back, a goodly amount of time later, and re-reading or re-listening to what I’ve created and just enjoying its goodness. It makes you very thankful to be alive.

An almost better question is “should the road be smooth?” I find that an expectation that it should be smooth and easy is a big obstacle to creativity. If one has fewer expectations, one puts fewer psychological barriers to your work. One of the stories in my new book of short stories is named “It is what it is.” So true. Sometimes so hard to embrace.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I think that what sets me apart from other writers is that I can hold different and to the outsider, contradictory, views of one topic or situation at the same time and feel the rightness of the emotions and logic of each side.

The title story of my latest short story collection, The Hypókrisis Mirror and Other Stories, is about a man who recreates an ancient Greek mirror that a person can see their own internal contradictions and hypocrisy. This is extremely unnerving, but he’s a scientist and he feels he must use it. He follows through very reluctantly.

In a way, this story reflects my internal writing process. I can see many sides of an issue. I don’t know where I stand. I don’t want to really think and feel about it. I want to be safe and already know what’s right, but I know that I really don’t know. And so, a story is born.

I compare my writing process to enjoying eating sweet and sour tofu. There is never one taste without the other and both are vital and enjoyable. That’s not to say that each character I create can see both sides of an argument, but I can and do create characters on both sides of an issue who sometimes fight it out and sometimes come to understand each other. I learn a great deal from my character’s fights, loves and life.

I’m planning on releasing one book per year going forward. I published one this year and have next year’s book completed and am working on the short stories for a book in the next year. That’s my plan but as we all know, man proposes, God disposes. These are my plans and hopes but there aren’t guarantees in this life. We need to be grateful for our life each day and enjoy it as best we can and accomplish what we are able to do.

I’ve also taken up sketching as a hobby which forces me to look much more closely at the physical world around me and try to replicate it on paper. It’s an extremely interesting exercise and you soon realize that there are so many things you didn’t notice before and now you do. You see more expressions on people’s faces, how they hold themselves, what the physical world looks like. All this also helps with writing. My writing concentrates a great deal on ideas, and the experience of sketching has grounded me more physically. I think the two work well together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.raymondfortunato.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raymondfortunatoauthor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaymondFortunatoAuthor
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/FortunatoAuthor
• Youtube: https://linktr.ee/raymondfortunato
• Other: https://bsky.app/profile/raymondfortunato.bsky.social

Image Credits
Raymond Fortunato on all photos, except for the photo that credits CanoeTheWild.com