Excerpt
I guess there’s always been a Department of Intangible Assets, in some way or another, since humanity first banded together against the dark. Ancient orders of knights, sects of religions, monasteries and their like had been the first real organizations determined to hold off the things that bled into our world from other realities. Great and epic individuals did a lot of work in the past, though more often than not mere pawns as one ultra-powerful being played against another. Gilgamesh. Solomon. Miyamoto Musashi for a while even worked as a kind of Japanese defender against the supernatural. Things must have been easier back then. If somebody had a problem with a corpse rising from the ground and eating people, or with creatures slinking out of the mountains and taking children, they could talk openly about it, and people would fit it neatly into whatever cultural narrative they had. No press releases concerning carbon monoxide leaks, no awkward local police trying to stutter their way through an ogre rampage by blaming gang violence and drugs. If you were a 17th Century farmer in the Tajima Province of Japan and tengu started picking off your village one by one, Musashi would come by one day, cut down all those dark spirits, and then leave. You’d replant your fields, mourn your losses, and tell warning stories about warding off evil. And, probably, pay him whatever he wanted.
Modern times gave way to a general idea that reason and logic were enough to stop something from dragging you into the sewers and wearing your skin to protect itself from daylight. It’s easy to see why: it doesn’t happen to a lot of people, therefore it must not happen. I see it all the time, people who say things like “I’ve never seen a ghost, so they must not exist.”
Oh yeah? Because if spirits did exist, they’d all be tripping over their ghost dicks to haunt you? Do you understand the preternatural forces that conspire, the circumstances that line up, to create any kind of ghost? Let alone one that shows up in your room at night and moans about revenge or betrayal or rattles some chains and teaches you a valuable lesson about being selfish?“Well, there’s no such thing as Bigfoot. All those pictures are super blurry and grainy,” they say, their voices nasally and snobby, like all the knowledge of the world is pumped directly into their tiny brains through their tiny phones. I don’t care to get into whether or not any of the literally thousands of kinds of entities that flit in and out of forests would like to be called “Bigfoot,” but just because you haven’t left your couch in twenty years doesn’t mean there’s not something out there you don’t understand. Go stand out in a remote Colorado forest one night.
Turn off your phone, open your eyes and ears, and wait. When you feel those eyes watching, and when you know, deep in that primitive monkey brain, way, way down inside, that there’s more than just the animals you have names for sharing that clearing with you, then you can call me to tell me that there’s no such thing as Bigfoot.
That is, if you live to turn your phone back on again.
The Book Junkie Reads . . .Reckless Dreams Interview with . . . Robert Gainey . . .
What mindset or routine do you feel the need to set when preparing to write (in general whether you are working on a project or just free writing)?
One of the perks of working as a career firefighter is that there can be a lot of downtime for personal activities, such as writing. The other side of that coin is sometimes you just have to get in the writing whenever you get the chance. That’s shaped a lot of my routine when it comes to writing, and while I love being able to put two or three hours’ worth into hammering out a story, sometimes it’s snatches no longer than twenty minutes. I find that the breaks can even help with story development. Gives me plenty of time to consider where to go next, or reconsider where I’ve just come from.
At the house, I tend to just sit and write for a few hours at a time. This is especially important when it comes to doing editing or revisions, because that’s where cohesive storytelling finishes coming together.
Do you take your character prep to heart? Do you nurture the growth of each character all the way through to the page? Do you people watch to help with development? Or do you build upon your character during story creation?
Characters tend to find their own lives as the story progresses. While I have some characters who have been with me a long time, I think the organic process of writing means having characters react in ways that come naturally, depending on the situation. Sometimes it comes as a bit of a surprise, but that can be a good thing in keeping things fresh.
I don’t do much people watching as a rule, but in my life there are a great number of people who I admire. There are also those who disgust me to my core. People who I respect but do not like, and friends of mine who I’ve seen change for the worse over the years. It’s little qualities that get pulled from life to flesh out characters and make them real. No one person can claim a character is based off of them, but some might see an aspect that reminds them of someone they know.
Do you have a character that you have been working on for a long time that still isn't quite ready, but fills you with excitement to work on the story?
Lately, I’ve been thinking about a guy who stumbles into being a hero in a world where heroes aren’t really a thing. This guy, who goes by the letter D, is a science experiment on the loose from a technological conglomerate who developed him for high-stakes corporate espionage, but D got bored with that pretty quick and decided to try and make his own way in the world. D is self-centered, cocky, and he doesn’t quite know what the right thing is these days, but in his heart he knows that he’d rather be good than bad. It’s just hard to do the right thing when the alternative is so much easier.
The idea of having a protagonist who’s a little amoral but trying really hard to be the hero is kind of appealing to me. D, being a super-advanced genetically engineered superhuman, doesn’t have a lot of natural predators out in the world. The only things keeping him on track are the shredded remains of his conscience and the advice of his sidekick/moral compass, Drew.
Right now, I’m tentatively calling the story Gestalt, and I’ve got a very rough first draft I’m tinkering with between other projects.
Can you share your next creative project(s)? If yes, can you give a few details?
I’ve been working on continuing Reports from the Department of Intangible Assets with a direct sequel. Currently, the working title is Witches Get Stitches and follows Diane Morris on her next big assignment as she heads out to find out why a few of her fellow field agents have gone missing. She winds up in a small Georgia town called Wickston, where things aren’t quite as picturesque as they may appear. Right now, I’m in the final stages of polishing it up, editing, and working out some minor details. I couldn’t say when it might be available, but I’d like to see it out sometime 2022.
What are some of your writing/publishing goals for this year?
With Dragon(e) Baby Gone releasing this year, I’ve met a lot of my goals already. It’s not an exaggeration to say this has always been a lifelong dream of mine, so everything moving forward is kind of just extra gravy. I think in my wildest dreams I’d like to see the book take off a little, but even just having one or two complete strangers enjoy it would be enough. I did promise my wife a long time ago that if I sold enough copies, I’d finally get a tattoo. I have mixed feeling about that, but a deal’s a deal.
I’d like to get back to doing some short stories, even if they’re just for fun and casual use. I also have some work I’d like to do on some of my other projects, maybe polish up the old zombie novel and give that a whirl.
I greatly appreciate you hosting me today. I had a blast with the questions, and it gave me a wonderful feeling to wake up and see this posted on your blog. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteI love detective books and throwing in fantasy is an interesting twist. Nice cover and blurb.
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