The Next Big Thing: Subliminal Messiah Preview

I’ve taken a few minutes today to get involved in The Next Big Thing, an online blog interview where authors such as myself can give readers a glimpse into an upcoming novel.

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

Subliminal Messiah

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

Honestly, this entire project began as a speedwriting exercise. I’d been trying my hand at writing lyrics and a friend suggested speedwriting as a way to get the creative juices flowing. (If it’s not obvious, the lyrics thing never worked out.)

I was writing about a character with an expanded sense of time, and the only goal was to hit one thousand words in the forty-five minutes given. To keep you honest, if you stopped typing for more than about ten seconds, the browser window would freeze and you’d lose everything. That was a very good motivator. I typed about eighteen-hundred words in that time and decided to save it.

Then I came back an hour later and kept writing most of that night. Within two months I had over eighty thousand words, working toward what has now evolved into Subliminal Messiah. It was very clunky at first, but that initial draft formed the basic framework of what I have now. There are quite a few lines I really love that have survived all the way through every level of revision and editing up until to now.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

I’d say Literary Fiction with a slight Transgressive Fiction leaning. But five different people might give you five different impressions, so I’ll let my publisher decide on genre as they plan marketing and so forth. Categories aren’t my thing.

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

My main character, Ezekiel, would have to be played by Hunter Parish. From his amazing performance as Silas Botwin on Weeds (Showtime) to his solid supporting roles in movies like It’s Complicated (alongside acting giants Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin), Hunter has everything this character needs and then some.

The female lead, Mona, would have to be handled by Lea Michelle who plays Rachel Berry on the hit TV show Glee. She has a rare gift for delivering an elegant, beautiful performance underscored, when needed, with a subtle hint of tragedy. Michelle’s really matured as an actress in recent years and I’d love to see how she would take the role of Mona and make it her own.

Alexander Gould would almost certainly nail the role of Ezekiel’s amputee half-brother, Eddie. And not just because he plays Parish’s younger half-brother, Shane Botwin, on Weeds. Gould’s got the right persona, the right frame and stature alongside Parish to establish the right interplay between Ezekiel and Eddie. The fact that these two have tried and true onscreen chemistry is just an added bonus.

And of course, I’d love to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman take on the role of Ezekiel’s pompous, overconfident grade school counselor turned third-shift nobody who chances back into the story at such an opportune moment. I need someone who can be full of himself and intelligent and a nobody all at the same time. I don’t think his qualifications bear repeating at this point; He’s brilliant.

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

Eighteen going on dead, Ezekiel Downs has sensed his demise for years and now, with only weeks to live, he may have finally found his savior.

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

Subliminal Messiah will be published through Perfect Edge Books. I don’t have an agent, but my lovely (and quite patient) wife seems to fill that role quite well.

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

Like I said above, two months. However, it took another two years for the manuscript to reach any level of readability, as I had a lot to learn. In that time it was cut down to around fifty-five thousand words, heavily revised and edited. Right now the word count rings in at a much more polished fifty thousand, and I’m very comfortable with that.

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

This question is tough, so I’ll try not to shoot the moon. With respect to the pace and flow of the novel, I’d say it’s on par with Beat The Reaper (Bazell) or Survivor (Palahniuk): Fast moving, up close and personal. And like Survivor, there’s a fair amount of backstory interspersed throughout the main plot, which itself takes place over a rather short period.

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

I came up with a character I really like, Ezekiel Downs, in those first eighteen hundred words, as well as the mechanism for his unique version of clairvoyance, and frankly I couldn’t stop writing.

On a more personal note, there are aspects of omniscience and even predestination that I needed to work out for myself during that time, and having a character to take through such experiences and see how they would respond has been life changing for me.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Given that my first draft was more or less an exercise for my lyrical ambitions, and also given my love of music in general, I’ve organically woven song lyrics into the dialogue. Now it’s not that I don’t love classic rock, but you won’t find any Dylan within these pages. I chose to reference artists whose music fits the mood of the novel (and might even make for a great soundtrack), which would be late nineties alternative and industrial music, though there is more than enough old school jazz mixed in to keep things interesting. But that’s for the reader to comb through and discover.

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Up next, I’m going to give these fine authors a tap on the shoulder for next Wednesday: Eddy Rathke, Michael P Gonzalez and McKay Williams. Feel free to check out each of their sites now and then why not subscribe so you can get notified the moment their’s go live?

ADJ