The Next Big Thing: One Night in Sixes

Not going to lie: getting invited to participate in my very first blog hop is pretty dang exciting.  It's like I can close my eyes and hear Oprah asking the questions.  (A book club selection?  Oh, O, you shouldn't have!)

Ten thousand thanks to K.E. Skedgell for officially tagging me in to the Cool Kids Club.  Here we go!

What is your working title of your book?

One Night in Sixes.  Because some hack already took Tombstone, and The Good, the Bad, and the Amphibious doesn't have the right 'snap'.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I'll be straight: I've rebooted this book more times than I care to count.  The idea for the successful version came about when I quit saying, "okay, now I have all these cool characters lined up, what will I make them do?" and said, "okay, so there's a cowboy and a salesman trying to trade some horses – what goes wrong?"

What genre does your book fall under?

I've heard epic fantasy, historical fantasy, and Weird Western, but probably the best thing to call it is "rural fantasy."

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Well, right now I'm thinking Big Macintosh for the lead.


(With a big tip o' the hat to Lauren Faust, Hasbro, and GeneralZoi's Pony Creator, into which I have now poured several extremely pleasurable hours.)

I kid, of course.  But let's face it, re-imagining the cast as ponies is probably more fun for the casual observer than me waxing wishful about Max Pirkis and Rudy Youngblood.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

"It's a cowboys-and-Indians story, except that the cowboy's accidentally shot an Indian, and if the victim's family doesn't come after him, the fishmen will."

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

I am the *luckiest* SOB in the world, because I am represented by none other than the Agent of My Dreams, Jennie Goloboy at Red Sofa Literary.  Don't hate me because she's beautiful.

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

Let me put it like this: if my book was a person, it'd be old enough to read itself.

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

I can't say The Rose of the Prophet, because that's too obscure.

I can't say The Dark Tower, because that's too awesome.

I can't even say True Grit, because that's not fantasy.

So I'll just have to say, "oh, I couldn't possibly – it's too devastatingly original, you see!" while thrusting Firefly and The Wire DVDs at you under the table.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My fellow Americans, let me be real.  We are citizens of the most seminal, exceptional, infinitely improbable nation on earth.  But our history is a radiation that has been seeping into our bones for five hundred years.

This story is about people who are literally, supernaturally altered by the world they were born into and the cultures they've inherited. And about the only thing worse than what that prompts them to do to each other is what they've already done to themselves.

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

In the fantasy genre, Molly Boone would not be considered an exceptional horse.  She can't fly or fight or be summoned by an ocarina, and she doesn't have a telepathic bond with anybody.  But I am proud as hell to say that she has already inspired a MapleStory character of the same name, and I think the old girl is well on her way to a storied career.

That reminds me, I have an e-mail to write.

In the meantime, you should absolutely check out five of my very favorite fellow bloggers, to whom I bequeath this meme:

Lena Frank, who writes the WEIRDEST Westerns I have ever seen!
Matthew Borgard, the Man of Many Muses (and seriously brain-stimulating blog posts)
Jamie Wyman, who is Schtupping my ego AS I TYPE
Cynthia McGean, the mythological creature known as The Teacher Who Still Makes Time to Write

and the mysterious masked figure known only as... The Sneaky Burrito


So maybe the better question is, am I the kind of brass-balled swindling son of a bitch you want to do business with?