There are parts of me or who I want to be in the two protagonists. I’m a foul-mouthed smartass and that comes out in spades with them.
Adam Ingle – 16 October 2014
The Back Flap
For best friends Mestoph and Leviticus the end of the world can’t come fast enough. Mestoph is a demon and troublemaker for Hell Industries, while Leviticus is an angel and cubicle jockey for Heaven, Inc. They might be unlikely friends, but they have something in common – they both hate their jobs. Unfortunately for them The End is nowhere in sight. The two take matters into their own hands when they come up with a scheme to get themselves kicked out of the Afterlife without spending an eternity in Purgatory. Their misadventure will take them from the tiny town of Truth or Consequences, NM to the highlands of Iceland as they cross paths and pantheons with Neo-Vikings, Greek and Norse Gods, and a Scottish terrier named Sir Reginald Pollywog Newcastle III.
About the book
What is the book about?
The quick and dirty answer is it follows an Angel and a Demon who have gotten sick of their jobs after thousands of years and they come up with a plan to get themselves kicked out of the Afterlife. Of course it’s nowhere near that simple and things quickly start falling apart.
When did you start writing the book?
Which time? I think I first started on it in 2009, but ended up shelving it after I read Gaiman and Pratchett’s Good Omens. At the time it felt too similar and I felt like a hack. An unoriginal hack. About a year later a friend ended reading the rough chapter I had and was also familiar with Good Omens and reassured me it wasn’t a rip off. I worked on it for about six months but became increasingly unhappy where the story was going. Again I shelved it. I kept thinking about resurrecting it, but I couldn’t get past the feeling that it wasn’t going where it should. It was supposed to be lighthearted and fun and it seemed boring and depressing to me. In 2011 I finally trashed it all and started from scratch and things suddenly started working.
How long did it take you to write it?
When I started on it the final time it came together in about a year of spare time writing. It came so much easier and more often than not the story just felt right. There were a few hiccups and bits of story I had a hard time lining up with where it needed to go but it was nothing like the first couple times.
Where did you get the idea from?
Most of my ideas start with either a title or a bare bones concept. This one came out of playing yet another fantasy game in which some prophecy or another said your hero was the chosen one and I thought “Yay, another prophecy.” It really snowballed from there – What if someone was manipulating prophecies? What if somewhere prophecies were really as common as paperclips? From there I decided I needed a con artist using prophecies to his own advantage. I knew in advance I didn’t have the organization and planning to do a true con like The Sting or Matchstick Men so I decided to take a more lighthearted approach and that’s when I came up with an Angel and a Demon getting in over their heads.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
Depending on how you look at it I struggled with just about every bit of it. Some people plan a story meticulously and some people fly by the seat of their pants letting the characters and story lead them. I’m the latter. But I ran into problems any time I tried to force the story or characters into situations that weren’t natural. The final time I started over I let things run their course with little guidance from me and for the most part it just worked. I found myself surprised a few times at what happened.
What came easily?
Again, it depends on how you look at it. Once I gave up control most of it was easy. Sometimes there were hard choices, or hard times letting things happen that I knew needed to happen. Mostly I just went along for the ride and found it went much easier that way.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
There are parts of me or who I want to be in the two protagonists. I’m a foul-mouthed smartass and that comes out in spades with them. Some of the characters have elements of people I know. Some of their hopes and dreams are mine. I think anyone who says a character is entirely fictitious isn’t being entirely honest. Writers are a sum of their experiences and I’m no different.
We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
Obviously to some degree Neil Gaiman influenced me. I hadn’t read Good Omens until after I started writing this book, but I had read some of his other works already and his writing is in there. I’ve always wanted to be able to recreate the feeling I got from reading Chuck Palahniuk’s early work. In most ways I don’t think I get as gritty and primal as him, but I try at times. I also drew a lot of inspiration from Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love. That book has become a sort of litmus test for being friends with readerly types. They don’t have to like it, but they at least have to see the merit of it as a piece of work.
Do you have a target reader?
Me and the other unfortunate people like me. People who don’t take things too seriously – there’s some religious fun-poking that some people don’t take kindly to. People who can appreciate a consummate smartass. People who are pretty damn awesome.
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
I think I’m kind of weird in the way that I have to go about writing. I’m attention deficit, but in a way that requires pre-planned distractions so that I don’t go looking for them and end up spending the day cleaning my house instead of writing. As such, I tend to write out in public. I’m one of those coffee shop novelists. Or library. Or shopping mall. That way, anytime I start feeling my mind wandering, or that itch to be productive in ways that don’t involve writing, I can take a few minutes to people watch, or get a coffee, or browse a magazine. After a few minutes of indulging the monkey I can get back to work. There have been a few times though that I’m feeling blocked and total seclusion is the only way through it. I don’t believe in muses or the conventional idea of writer’s block, just an aversion to putting in the hard-writing hours. Anyone can write in the simple-writing moments, but you have to put some actual elbow grease into the blocky type moments.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
I don’t really outline in the traditional sense, but I do brainstorm, and mind map, and recap the “story so far” for myself to help get out of those kinked up knots. I ask myself questions about why a character would do something, where they should go, how they would do it and the answers help point me in the right direction.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
A little bit of both, though my editor would probably call bullshit on that. Even after self-editing I use commas like machine gun fire, run-ons like it was a marathon, and unnecessarily reiterate things because I think other people are as short attention spanned as I am.
Did you hire a professional editor?
Originally I wasn’t going to, but after seeing what my editor did and had to slog through I think that would have been the worst mistake I could possibly have made with my book. Aside from the copy editing and making it read like an intelligent person wrote it, she streamlined the story and helped make parts of the story I felt dragged take off again. I’m glad I didn’t listen to cheap ass inside of me and try to take the frugal way out.
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
Most of the time the silence kills me and my writing – it’s part of that attention deficit. I’ve listened to everything from Queens of the Stone Age and Mastodon to the score of Battlestar Galactica and Pan’s Labyrinth with some dirty south rap, 40s and 50s standards, and a healthy dose of 90s alternative in between. In those rare moments when I absolutely can’t focus and can’t see the light at the end of a difficult tunnel I’ll go on sensory lockdown and isolate myself from anything that could divert my attention.
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
Boy did I. Dozens. 83 according to my QueryTracker list. My best guess is that only about 1/4 ever bothered to respond one way or another and obviously all of them ended up going with “no.”
What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?
That’s a bit complicated to answer. There was a definitive event that made me decide not to seek an agent anymore, but it was a gradual process that led me to self-publishing. I had sent my query to a relatively young, newcomer of an agent and she had requested a partial and then a few days later a full manuscript. A couple weeks later she replied to let me know that she was interested but had some reservations and wanted to think on it over the weekend. I was ecstatic at just the prospect. I knew it wasn’t a “yes” but it sure felt like one. The following Monday I got a form letter from a different agent within the same agency saying she was going to pass and the agent originally looking at my book had left for a job not even remotely in the publishing industry. It crushed me and made me angry at the same time. I was sorry for myself and anyone else she may have left high and dry. I decided then that I was done with the agent hunt and for about a year I was done with trying to be a published author. After that year of doing anything but working on my book I started to get the itch to self-publish. I had started seeing more and more success stories. The tools for self-publishing were getting more and more robust and accessible. And it seemed like the stigma of self-publishing was starting to wane (in some ways that’s proven to be very true and very wrong – the readers don’t seem to care, but the industry definitely does. Just try to get a trade magazine to review a self-published work)
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
Much like hiring an editor I considered doing the cover myself. I think I would have done a passable job since I have some background in graphic design. However, I know books are judged based on their cover, and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted and knew to do it right was beyond my own talents. In the end I hired a designer who goes by the moniker Pale Horse. I found that many talented artists weren’t as prohibitively expensive as I had imagined. Another good decision in my mind.
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
My plan since launching the book has been to wing it. I thought getting the book out there was the most important part. Unfortunately taking that route of book first, marketing second meant that I came out of the gate about three months behind on the marketing part.
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
I didn’t realize how much trouble it would be to get trade mags to even look at the book, and the lead time that even small review blogs need. A lot of the better known marketing and review options cost money, and seem to require some notoriety and reviews before they’ll even talk to you (BookBub being a prime example). A lot of it seems like a Catch 22. Although I believe a well written book is the most important thing you need, it can’t be stressed enough that you need, need, need to start the buzz-building, review wrangling, and marketing at least 3 months before publishing.
About You
Where did you grow up?
I was born and raised in The South but I’m not your typical Southerner. I don’t care about NASCAR, don’t like collard greens, don’t follow my high school football team after graduating, but I do love me some sweet tea.
Where do you live now?
I actually spent a lot of time during my high school years plotting my escape from The South. I was going to go to college out in San Jose, but after a chance encounter in which I sat in on a meeting where the college I wanted to attend announced they were temporarily losing their accreditation I put my plans on hold. In the meantime I came to terms with the fact that although I’m not really a Southerner, The South isn’t a bad place to call home…or at least home base. I’ve since moved a whole 25 miles from my hometown and live in Greenville, SC.
What would you like readers to know about you?
I’m kinda weird. And despite being from The South I don’t really have a Southern accent. But mostly I’m just weird.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a short story with the same protagonists as Necessary Evil that I’ll be giving away when it’s done as well as a sequel called The Sons of Light and Darkness. And binge watching shows on Netflix.
End of Interview.
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Get you copy of Necessary Evil and the Greater Good from Amazon US (paper or ebook), Amazon UK (paper or ebook), Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords.