Interview with Kent Sievers

Greetings, all.  I recently had the great pleasure of reading Kent Sievers’s novel, LITTLE MAN.  It is a contemporary thriller-mystery set in Omaha focusing on a homeless everyman, Alex, who yearns to reconnect with his daughter while avoiding the turmoil of the street and the mounting menace of a zealous killer.  Kent and I are both Fiction Works authors and members of the Nebraska Writers Workshop.  While our books are different in subject matter, they share connective tissue with these two organizations.  They also both make use of the word “repent”, though with radically different context.  And the two stories involve fathers and the bonds tying them to their lost daughters.

I recently interviewed Kent about his book and was delighted by the insights he provided:

1) Alex’s struggles with just surviving the street were as compelling as the mystery of the killer. What inspired you to write a story about a five-foot tall homeless man as the central protagonist?

To help you understand how I arrived at my decision, let me give you a little of my background. I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona in a family business located between a busy homeless shelter and a welfare housing project. From the loading docks I witnessed and often had to deal with all manner of violence, addiction and desperation that accompanies life on the street. In the early 80s I was working as a newspaper photojournalist and noticed cardboard and plastic tent cities popping up all over the old neighborhood. Whole family’s living out of their cars were adding themselves to the usual mix of street people and the results were often tragic. For weeks after finishing my late shift at the paper, I’d wade into the homeless camps with cameras in hand, earning trust, taking pictures and drinking gritty coffee boiled up in rusty, #10 cans. Long story short, the front-page story that came out of those late nights brought a flood of generosity. I saw those who were desperate to climb out of homelessness find help and those who preferred the street (don’t kid yourself, there are a lot of freeloaders out there) take advantage of the windfall and move on. Because I was comfortable navigating that often unseen world, I became the go-to guy when homeless issues surfaced wherever I was employed.

Alex was inspired by a real man who lived in a doghouse on the fringe of Omaha’s north downtown. We met while I was shooting a story on a brutal winter’s impact on Omaha’s homeless population. Now, the real Alex was far from the American dreamer/everyman I created for LITTLE MAN, but I liked the guy and I suppose the made-up Alex was my way of giving the old fellow the sort of life I wished for him.

Several years ago when I finally gave into my need to write fiction, homelessness seemed the logical starting point and Alex, who had died years before, seemed the perfect witness. To make him fit, I did a “what if,” placing a good portion of my 50+-year-old, non-college-educated self in Alex’s shoes, then let my imagination fill in the rest.

2) You deftly portrayed the wintertime city of Omaha as a “character” in your story.  What went into the research of the settings of this book, both above and below ground?

Time spent navigating snowdrifts, shelters, dumpsters and soup kitchens with the real Alex played a big part in getting to know the area. Other familiarity was gleaned while on various news assignments, but a lot of the knowledge came from just stopping in to visit the places I found interesting. I’ve had readers send me pictures asking if they’d found the location of a setting in the book and I’m touched that they felt compelled to look. Some of the buildings are there, some have been demolished and other were purely made up in my head. My version of life inside the shelters and soup kitchens was an amalgamation of every shelter I’ve ever been in with a smattering of imagination thrown in.

As to the below ground settings, I love that you ask because I had a great time writing it. The underworld was a mix of imagination, a now-demolished building in the north downtown and a tour of a water-eroded cavern beneath an abandoned apartment complex in north central Omaha. I’d gone to the apartments to shoot a picture for a story on their pending demolition and ran into a shady bunch of copper scavengers who wanted to show me something “cool.” It made for an interesting picture, but I was really happy to make it out uninjured and with all my possessions intact.

3) The Michael antagonist was just plain creepy.  How did you wrap your mind around writing such a disturbed person?  Did you have any inspiration for his motivations or behavior?

Michael is a disturbing “what if,” born of many sources. Several years ago I shot pictures for a series that examined how the state of Nebraska deals with the issue of mentally ill children. During months of talking with professionals and families and documenting the worst and best case scenarios, I gained a better understanding of the endless complications and heartbreaking damage it can do.

Since mental illness and homelessness often go hand in hand, I wanted it to play a big part in the novel. I’d learned that some believe a trigger for schizophrenia in teenage boys may be sexual abuse by a trusted friend or family member. I have no idea if that is theory or documented fact, but it stuck in my head and resurfaced when thinking about Michael. The “what if” I built around Michael was a perfect storm of what could happen when horrific child abuse collides with greed and indifference. Trust me when I tell you that it was difficult to let my imagination wonder into those dark corners. Antagonists can be fun to write but Michael was not. I worried his sickness might be too much for some readers and struggled with balancing the need to show a profoundly disturbed man while keeping the perversion and violence from seeming gratuitous.

4) Your novel has a lot of food for thought regarding society’s tendency to sweep the vulnerable, the forgotten, and the sick under the proverbial rug.  If you could put this story in the hands of a policy maker, what do you hope this person would glean from it?

As a working journalist I have to be careful not to take sides on public policy, but I think all would agree that the issue of mental illness is something that deserves constant, clear-eyed and non-political examination.

5) What haven’t I asked you that you want your readers to know?

I’d like readers to know how much appreciate their taking time to read the book. Moving from telling stories with a camera to telling stories with words was a scary leap, but once I realized the grandeur and scope the process offers it became a joyous addiction. Hopefully readers will want more, because I have a head full of characters and an imagination that has found its perfect outlet.

 

Thanks so much to Kent for taking the time for this interview.

I highly recommend LITTLE MAN.  You can purchase it on Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Apple iBookstore, and many other ebook retailers.  For more information on Kent, please visit his website.

Feel free to comment on this blog entry on my Facebook page or tweet me on Twitter under @Stelfire.

Keep on powering the fight.

Comics Wednesday 6/5/13

Howdy, all.  It’s time for another comic pre-commentary of my purchases for this week, courtesy of our friends at Krypton Comics.  As always, they are ranked from least to best.  Crazy-heavy week this round:

Hypernaturals #12: I want to love this series.  Cool concept with a computer called the Quantinuum that runs humanity in the future.  I love DnA’s run on Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy.  The art just is not up to the task of conveying all the high concept ideas.  I like the character Thinkwell a great deal.  He writes inky equations that are basically like spells.  I’m on the fence with this series overall.  I might keep buying it, I might not.

Dark Tower: Gunslinger: Evil Ground #2: I understand this series is going to end.  It’s probably time.  They’ve pretty much mined all they can from King’s source material.  Fun ride while it lasted though.

Thanos Rising #3: I’m so glad they put Thanos back as a supreme bad ass.  Loved the Infinity Gauntlet as a teenager.  This origin series is as twisted as you would expect for a villain of his magnitude. POP! POP! (Couldn’t resist for you Community fans out there).

Earth 2 #13: Same sentiment as last week’s annual.  It’s the alternate-alternate DCU.  Green Lantern (Alan Scott) is gay.  Flash (Jay Garrick) is now a college kid after spending forever as grey-templed dude. Holds my interest.

Abe Sapien #3: Holy snikeyes I enjoy Abe Sapien.  Always have in Hellboy and BPRD.  Glad they brought him out of his coma.  Hate that Fenix chick for shooting him, but she likely did it so he’d mutate and help save humanity from the crazy shiz-nit gong down.  Yay for fish guys!

X-Factor #257: Jamie Madrox and company are very complex characters.  Looks like PAD is wrapping it up.  Sounds like it’s on his terms, so that’s cool. I’ve dug this book for years.

Archer and Armstrong #10: I like this iteration more than the original run from the 90’s.  Aram is a greater boozer character, and Archer is a good straight man.

Daredevil: End of Days #8: The last issue of this alternate future title where DD gets killed and Ben Urlich has to find out what his last words, “Mapone” mean.  Big noirish fun.

East of West #3: Hickman is setting up another epic story here.  An alternate reality where the US fragmented into several nations after the Civil War, 3 of the 4 Horsemen come back as malicious kids, and Death is mad.  I likey.

Astro City #1: Busiek describes his fun archetypal series as a chick flick with a big budget superhero movie happening in the back ground.  I’ve loved each volume of this series.  All manner of genre conventions are turned on their head, or looked at from other points of view.  Great stuff.

Avengers #13: More epic-ness from Hickman.  Looking forward to the journey on this big ass story.

All New X-Men #12: The idea of the past X-Men visiting the present continues to bear lush fruit.  Love how awkward past Cyclops is with everyone hating him.

Age of Ultron #9: This series 2nd and 3rd acts have just been plain fun to read.  Time gets bent up something fierce.

A dozen this week.  A dozen that I’ll likely read some Sunday in a four hour binge with another 30.  I love comics.  Don’t want to write ’em, though.  Though any who have read Repenter will see that I’m heavily influenced by them.  Stay tuned for another entry soon with an interview from Kent Sievers.  You will enjoy.

 

 

Comics Wednesday 5/29/13

Starting a new feature featuring the comics I purchased on any given Wednesday.  I’m a customer of Krypton Comics in Omaha.  It’s an outstanding store staffed by friendly folks and not a sun-faded poster from the 90’s to be found.  My pile is always overflowing, so I likely won’t actually read any of these for a few weeks.This week’s purchases are ranked from least to best.    I always save the best for last.

BPRD Vampire #3: I LOVE BPRD’s regular series.  Mike Mignola is not afraid to eff up the status quo.  The artists always do a good job of conveying the off-kilter, apocalyptic world.  This mini series is about an agent running afoul of vampires.  Not expecting much.  But the dialogue is always strong and the atmosphere is always creepy, so I’m in.

Earth 2 Annual: Earth 2 is the only New 52 book I purchase.  DC just isn’t turning my crank, and it hasn’t since Final Crisis.  I get this because I enjoy James Robinson’s writing.  Check out his Starman run from the 90’s.  Opal City is a great fictional location.  Oh, yeah.  Another Batman shows up.  I shall read it with the expectation of punches being thrown.

Indestructible Hulk #8: I enjoy Mark Waid’s run on this title.  This latest arc with Thor feels a little “fillery”, but I still enjoy it.

Captain America #7: The Dimension Z Saga is going to be better in my eyes after Cap has lived through it and is haunted by it in future issues.  Crazy ride in the meantime though.

New Avengers #6: The Illuminati continue to march toward the death side of Jonathan Hickman’s massive epic.  Very dense, but worth it.

Thief of Thieves #14: This crime series about a pro thief who can’t escape the people in his life is awesome.  I understand AMC is developing a series based on it.  If so, it will partly fill the hole left by Breaking Bad’s passing.

That’s all for now.  Happy Wednesday!

Repenter will be on Amazon tomorrow!

Hey, all.  Just got word from my publisher that Repenter will be on Amazon tomorrow.  It will be on B/N, Kobo, and the Apple store in a few weeks.  I’ll have links to it soon.  It has a comparable level of violence as Game of Thrones or Walking Dead, so if that’s your bag, you’re in for a treat, and if it’s not for you, I’m betting you know someone who just might dig it. 

Or to summarize: YAY!

Ides of April Update

Howdy, one and all.  I attended the NWG writers conference this past weekend.  I got some very cool information about blogging from Jonathan Maberry during his presentation.  It’s not about me, it’s about others.  And that’s outstanding to know.

But one brief thing about me, just to be contradictory, I’m going to be working on the “gallies” for my ebook novel with my editor, Sally, very soon.  So it’s a last getting closer to being published.  Yay!  I’ll be working on getting links to purchase the book through various venues when the zero hour approaches.

Random plugs:

I started watching “House of Cards” on Netflix.  I enjoy it so far.  Well done.  Kevin Spacey plays bastards so well.  The wife character is also horribly fascinating too, especially what she makes a co-worker do in advance of doing the same to that same co-worker.

Read Saga by Brian K Vaughn through Image.  An outstanding sci-fi fantasy comic book with well-drawn characters (in both senses).  Lying Cat is one of the best fictional animals ever.

Play Mass Effect 3.  The ending is poignant and haunting in my opinion.  If you can handle a bittersweet finale, its well worth your time.  Joker is always fun.  Seth Green walks the line between comedy and drama well.

Read Star Carrier: Earth Strike by Ian Douglas.  “Zorch” is my favorite new, made up word.  It means to fly very fast.

Keep on believing.

-Jim

 

Violence in Fiction

Repenter is still on track to appear on major ebook retailers in the near future.  I’m still hard at work on the Bloody Empress too.

Also feel free to jump in on the conversation on my facebook page regarding violence in fiction.

Come on feel the noise.  Girls rock your boys.

Publication update and reading info

Repenter is getting closer to publication.  Expect sometime in October on e-book format.  Print is still up in the air, but hopefully will occur sometime in 2013.  I’ll through out more info as I know it.

I need to be much better about blogging and putting web content out there.  Anyone have any favorite sci fi/fantasy/horror authors who have a good web presence?  Or any bloggers or podcasters in general who love all things super and natural?

Also, I’ll be reading at the Ralston Library this coming Sunday sometime between 2 and 5 pm.  It was a fun time last year.  Hope some can make it.

The Bloody Empress is plugging right along.  I hope to have it finished in a few months.  I’ll also get more web short story content out there too.

Plugs for others:

  • Check out Paranorman if you’re looking for something quirky, creepy, and sweet.  A very well done movie.
  • The new Valiant comic book line is off to a good start.  The new X-O Manowar series is the stand out best in class.
  • I recently discovered Community.  Hilarious.  The stop motion Christmas episode is right up there with the Multiple Santa Tick episode

That’s all for now.  Stay so fine.  So fine, you blow my mind.

-Jim

 

 

Late Summer Update

Got the newly updated copyright in the mail yesterday.  So, things are on track for a fall release.  Woo Hoo!!

Also got the latest part of the Bloody Empress done and am fleshing out parts that need it before moving on to the books third act.

I’m considering releasing a Players of the Game Book 2.5 showing what other major characters that will be introduced in Book 3 were doing in Books 2 and 1.  Ping me on Twitter as @Stelfire to let me know if you’d be interested in such a novel (or possibly novella).

The rain is Spain falls mainly on your brain.