The word author comes from Latin, auctor, meaning, 'one who causes to grow'. As a lifetime author, this is exactly the why of writing.

When it comes to writing for me everything that is made is part of the project, e.g., sketches, voice memos, notes jotted on napkins and coasters, youtube viewing history, articles consumed, podcasts half-completed, interviews and late night conversations, family trees, and the relative positions of the stars...

Past Works

A journey from poetry, to essays, to novels, to one-liner jokes, and standup routines, have all comprised my authorial craft. A ship has no place at sea without a bearing, so to, an author has no place with a pen without a telos, a driving theory, a raison d'être, (a justification for existence). All works written by one man are the same work, though a robust kaleidoscope of many facets and angles within. I believe it was James Joyce who noted that all authors only have one story within them, and they just keep re-writing it.

Published Works

My published works to date are a collection of short stories, Nineteen Stories (2017), available on Amazon, and a novella previously published under an alternate title and pseudonym, soon republished under its original name, Kinney (2019), which consists of a day in the life of an artist named P. in Venice Beach, California, exploring the psychological out-cropping of a U.A.P. seen over the skies of Los Angeles on November 9th, 2015, claimed to be a "unarmed test flight of the Trident II (D5) missile."

Though LAX officials notified the media about the change Friday, Castles said her office didn’t receive a flood of questions about it until Saturday night, when people from San Diego County to the Bay Area noticed a mysterious white cone of light streaking across the night sky. - Los Angeles Times

Forthcoming Works

Forthcoming works include a fiction trilogy entitled Kansas (2023), consisting of three books: Lantis, P.S. Dear Douglas, and The Vagabond Chronicles all written during my travels to Europe and Asia in the mid-aughts sometime after I graduated from University.

LANTIS

Lantis is about a travel companion of a writer named J., and his wayward hero's journey through genius and poverty, looking out at the world through a lens askew.

P.S. Dear Douglas

P.S. Dear Douglas is series of handwritten letters from a character named Winston to his best friend Douglas, over the course of a month and a half while traveling the path of the Me Kong river throughout Southeast Asia.

The Vagabond Chronicles

The Vagabond Chronicles is a book designed like an editorial magazine composed of three different travel writers, J. Hobo, Citizen Winston, and Fehu Daodaluz, (two of whom appear in the previous two books of the trilogy). TVC explores the nature of time, the purpose of experience, and the multi-faceted aspects of personality, as each of these voices is a part of the author's weltanschauung (view of the world).

Pay Attention to Bitcoin

Currently I'm developing a non-fiction book on the evolution of money entitled, Pay Attention to Bitcoin: The Rise of Digital Gold and the Evolution of Money. The book is designed to serve as a primer on this emergent digital technology.

Author Bio

Joseph Voelbel graduated from New York University with concentrations in English Literature, Dramatic Writing, and Philosophy. He received a Masters from The Annenberg School of Communications at The University of Southern California with a focus on Entertainment. Voelbel is an author, comedian, and musician.