1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"
I see a lonely day-drinking goat in a run-down bar. Flipping through a photo album on his phone, of him with the one he lost.
2. What is the working title of your next book?
Knuckleduster.
3. Where did the idea come from for the book?
I was doing laundry, daydreaming, hands on autopilot as one does when they have to pair a thousand identical socks when a scene just hit me. A man in an interrogation room. Just this scruffy, roughed-up fella who was unwilling to speak in his own defense at all. He knew he was in the wrong and was completely okay with it. Brody, the main character, appeared in that sudden mind-gust just as he does in the novel.
4. What genre does your book fall under?
Science fiction. Near-future SF with a light sprinklin’ of noir gumshoeing.
5. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
For Brody, Dermot Mulroney was who I saw as I was writing the novel. For Thorp, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
6. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
After an injury in the military, blind vigilante Brody Calhoun tempers his rage with brass knuckles -- but is he really in control?
7. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It’s being published by Medallion Press, March 1st, 2013.
8. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It took me probably close to three months to do the first “draft.” I tend to do those pretty quick, get all of the broad strokes of the story out as fast as possible. I let it sit for a month or two, then go back and tweak, then let it sit again. I accumulate ideas for additions and changes, set them aside, and then dive back in a third time and rejigger where needed. I consider all of that to be the “first draft.” So, collectively, close to eight months, nine.
9. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I’d probably compare it to Richard K. Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels. Similar vibe, with the stiff-upper-lip protagonist and grimy future backdrop and what-have-you. Grunge. Nastiness. You know, that fun stuff. Maybe some early William Gibson stuff as well, when he was writing stories in the Sprawl.
10. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I was living in a small town out in rural Minnesota for a few years in a rented house, writing precious little. Nothing really inspired me there. Work, home, work. When my wife and I moved into the Twin Cities, I experienced what I consider to be picture perfect culture shock. I wasn’t a bumpkin or anything, I’d been there before, but living in the city, being there all the time, I felt like such a fish out of water. It wasn’t like it was in the sticks, no one waved to one another, everybody here had this look on their face like, “Get the hell out of my way.” Noise, traffic, the smells, that relentless hum of the highway you can hear no matter where you are. Being out of the boonies made me want to write about it, oddly enough, and feeling like an interloper to urban life made me feel constantly anxious when outside. Those two things collided and my version of a near-future Midwest is what came out.
11. What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
Brody Calhoun is based on a certain individual in Greek mythology who also had a remarkably short fuse, Hercules. If my homework is correct, Hercules went through twelve trials. And if I’m to keep with that theme, Brody should experience twelve trials as well. We cover just one in Knuckleduster. That leaves eleven more . . .
Thanks!
Goat
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