My friend and fellow writer, Paul Genesse, made a post to his blog answering ten questions about his current work in progress. It sounded like a fun exercise so I thought I'd follow suit.
1) What is the working title of your next book?
Faint Souls
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
Gen Con - many years ago. I was in the audience of a discussion panel about brainstorming (I think), and Richard Lee Byers made a comment musing about happy, well-adjusted zombies (he also stated that every story should have a character named "Wally"). That got me thinking about zombies as government employees (with benefits and a health plan), and how they'd make good spies for suicide missions. The plot and background have mutated several time since then, but I'm finally starting to make decent progress.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
"Urban Fantasy" is the best bet, though I suppose it could be squeezed into "Horror", "Science Fiction" or "Fiction".
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I hadn't really thought much about this. Since the main character keeps being put into new, fresher, bodies his appearance changes multiple times. It would take an actor who has a good grasp of the physical side of performance to make it really work. Given a choice, I would pick James Marsters just because I'd like to meet him.
There's also a secondary character that Billy Crystal could do really well.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Ugh! I hate doing these. Um ... let's see ...
"Raymond, a dead spy for over forty years, has been assigned to recruit or capture an amateur necromancer before an opposing agency gets to him, but there are others who have similar plans, including the reincarnated spirit of a long-dead sorcerer."
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I'll be shopping it around as soon as it's finished.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It's still in progress, and seems to be taking forever. It would go a lot faster if I stopped taking on other projects.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files springs immediately to mind.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
A combination of the above-mentioned panel at Gen Con, years of Anthropology courses, and Johnny Depp's role in the movie "The Ninth Gate".
10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
The approach I take to the occult in general and zombies in specific. I needed a good way to have a main character that was dead but also durable and sympathetic. In working that out I ended up creating an internally consistent background that allows for all sorts of fun occult stuff, without descending into the "anything goes" type of magic.
As long as I can keep it going then we'll see how it all turns out.
