"THE NEXT BIG THING"

Writing my meta-novel tends to be a solitary process.  So when Melissa McPhail, author of "A Pattern of Shadow & Light," series invited me to "The Next Big Thing," it was an honor and a pleasure.

The first novel in the series by Melissa McPhail, Cephrael's Hand, is a monumental achievement of epic fantasy world-building, which recently evolved into book 2: The Dagger of Adendigaeth.

Ms. McPhail, who lives in Oregon, was tagged by Clive Eaton of Norfolk, England ~ sci-fi based, mystery-thriller author of The Pyramid Legacy, which has attained a #1 ranking on GoodReads.

These invitations beyond borders, link international writers with a common passion for their works-in-progress.  All are considering this same 10 question interview. Here are my own 10 questions answered:

1. What is the working title of your next book?  

A DISTANCE TRAVELED

2.  Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was tapped on the shoulder by a searching character with something crucial to consider; I listened to his energetic ranting for a good long time, trying to understand his potential.  He led me through an underground of fringe eccentrics much like himself.  I thought this was "his thing."  Once I thought I knew what he wanted, I created the matrix for his world to express themes he felt I'd be compelled by as a novelist...until he made an unexpected choice.
He entered another arena entirely, out of reaction to who he was, and this new arena was abundant with more material objectives and enticements; all of this new action seemed more to his needs, so I followed him to the tops of the buildings out of curiosity.  When we attained that height, and I looked into his eyes, I saw he was as needful inside as when I found him on the fringes.  There still remained something charismatic about his torrential viewpoint which was unique, and I liked him for that.  I wanted to know how his story could turn out.

That is when he left the city of underground and overground, to journey where the street signs eventually disappeared, apparently after a goal I couldn't even see.  He was so intense about making his journey down that treacherous road.  The character was adamant that his answers waited 'beyond'...so we traveled the distance together, the road turning harsher, darker, until we found...

3.  What genre does your book fall under?

My hybrid cocktail is one part redemption romance, one part counter-culture, one part noir/road journey, with a liberal floating of enlightenment tale, inside of a not-so-distant period glass.

Or...it's "a novel."

4.  What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I would rather just allow the characters to take shape in readers' imaginations.  When the roles finally appear for fulfilling, the actors who are meant to personify them, in step with timing, will step forward. 

5.  What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A searching rite-of-passage for one conflicted but passionate man in his twenties, through the experiences of expressive eccentricity, material reality or brutality, and a personal awakening, before returning full-circle to make peace with his own ghosts.

6.  Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I have been considering small presses for my first full-length novel, but I will likely self-publish.

7.  How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

First draft, when I actually committed to completion, took me the better part of a year.  Life sometimes interrupted my process.  

This book, however, has an enormous history of process that led up to its writing.  I wrote various sections of the book experimentally, grappling with stylistics, and story-structure, searching for the key balance.  There came an eventual saturation point, where this book demanded my commitment over other manuscripts, and I have not cheated on it with another story since!

8.  What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

In broad strokes of approach or tonality, without resembling specific story elements or characters:  

SIDDHARTHA by Hermann Hesse...ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac...and SHANTARAM by Gregory David Roberts

9.  Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I have always admired authors who wrote their most relevant novels from the currency of personal risk and experience, maybe some illumination from their own times.  The authors who venture beyond their desks to gather unique perspectives, to my thinking, bear the torch of "the individualist."  I don't mean memoir, but a gathering of deeper truths, forming a foundation for meaningful story-telling.

I love creating worlds in books as pure act of imagination.  With my first novel-length publishing, however, I do strive to produce a book which only I could have written.  As Cervantes once wrote, "Time Ripens Everything."

10.  What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

My novel is primarily telling the story of searching, struggling, flawed individuals, and yet I promise a satisfyingly full growth arc, toward a more transcendent state of being.  My intention behind this novel, is to offer something uniquely informed, in the body of metaphysical writing available.  I don't mean to trick any reader with the promise of unattainable states, indecipherable jargon, or worse, delusions, unless such delusion is to show a compassionate mirror toward human fragility.  I mean to share both methodical, and intuitive pathways toward a physiologically-immersed, self-healing.

On an emotional level, this is not a story about people who take the normalized passages of life.  My story is about the off-beat wanderers, night prowlers, more alive in the dead-of-night, than when the sun is out.  These are the misadventures of the maybe crazy, or the all-too-human, being both heroically inspired and in dire need of saving.  Most of all, this is a ferocious love story, full-blooded, fearful and fearless. For this larger-than-his-own-life searcher to be tested and rise above...he will get sparked by his own fiery match!

It is my pleasure to nominate these Writer/Authors for "The Next Big Thing":

R.P. Kraul

J.D. Mader