The Next Best Book Club discussion

G - interesting how you all see Big Bopper so differently.

Personally, I felt he was outside of time. My sense was that he/it was more like an invisible entity, or chaotic energy, that just sort of latched on to the town right as that gas leak/black cloud appeared, and when things rectified themselves, off he/it went, onto someplace else, to act as another harbinger.

Hi Lance,

One thing I forgot to mention: this book also reminded me, in a way, of the graphic novel "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac" in that, in a way, Greg was a "cosmic toilet" for the town. Have you ever read "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac" and was that source material as well?

Joe

I thought of the Big Bopper as a weird Rod Sterling - as the start of the show - kind of leading you into the story. But I have a weird mind.

Hey Lance, sorry, my internet's been down lately so I am late. But if You are still answering, here is my question:

What inspired you to make the fictional world so twisted for the protagonist to live in? Also, exactly what genre would you put it in?

Joe wrote: "Hi Lance,

I loved this book. It was obvious from the start that you were trying to evoke The Metamorphosis (Greg(or) Samsa, the cockroach dream, etc). I felt a little bit of House of Leaves in the..."

I read The Metamorphosis while I was writing The Unmentionables. Since Greg's transformation was the theme of the book, I decided to tie in some references. Greg was initially named Tim, but I liked working in the Samsa name instead. Also, Greg's dream at the end of the book where he turned into a cockroach was directly inspired by the Metamorphosis. That was one of those things that I didn't see coming but I felt that it fit the story perfectly, so, yeah, thanks Kafka. Otherwise I didn't constantly have The Metamorphosis on my mind while writing. But, I have found that books that I am reading often find a way of seeping into my works.

As far as House of Leaves, I haven't had the opportunity to get to that one yet, but it is on my list. Any similarities to that one are coincidental.

Okay, so we're going to talk about the Big Bopper now. I loved hearing people's thoughts on him.

Firstly, Findlay did have several real life characters that were kind of quirky, or mentally ill, or just outsiders. One such was an elderly lady who just walked all over town and never talked to anybody. People just called her The Walking Lady. People said that since her husband died she just walked the town talking only to herself (I don't know if that was true or not but it made sense). She was in part the inspiration for the Bopper. Also, in Tampa, there is a homeless man whom I have noticed for years and years who just kind of bops around with headphones on. He looks like he's tuned in to something completely different from everyone else. I always wonder what he's hearing in those headphones.

I basically combined aspects of the the Walking Lady and Tampa Man to come up with the Big Bopper and tried to imagine what he was tuning into on those headphones he always wears. And it turns out he's tapped into something powerful and unexplainable with those headphones.

I saw the Bopper as a fun way to help me move the story along and I really enjoyed his staggered chapters. He absolutely is tuned in to the psyche of the town and its residents and in a way, as someone said, sort of is the spirit of the town.

On the other hand, I liked that someone said that he is time, because in a way that is true to. There is reference to spacetime an how it is different from his perspective. He helps to move time along in certain spots in the story. So I guess that it could be fair to say that he represents time.

Lori is not far off in her interpretation of the Bopper. He does appear as things begin to go bad and leaves town as the madness abates.

And, G., you are not far off either. I never thought about the Bopper as a god, but your impression of him as a well-wishing but impotent god is probably pretty accurate.

I guess I kind of cheated on this one by asking for readers thoughts before I answered. But, I wanted to see what people thought of the Bopper. He was definitely intended to be an empath who tapped into the town's energy. I wanted him to have a supernatural, spiritual kind of bearing. I left him vague in many aspects because I thought it would be fun for readers to try to decide on their own what the hell is going on with the Bopper. I suppose I could have entirely left him out of the story, but it just felt like he added something indefinably special to the tale.

And it seems that he can be whatever people want him to be. So how's that for a vague answer?

Aeon wrote: "Hey Lance, sorry, my internet's been down lately so I am late. But if You are still answering, here is my question:

What inspired you to make the fictional world so twisted for the protagonist to ..."

Firstly, with regard to genre, I generally promote The Unmentionables as horror. Although I don't know that horror is accurate. It's about teenagers but I absolutely do not consider it to be a YA book. It is absurdist. It could easily be considered bizarro, but I don't know if bizarro is a genre or just an umbrella term that covers strange tales that don't fit nicely into other categories. I try not to put my stories into a box because they never seem to fit. They are just stories that come out the only way that I know how to tell them. Of course, by refusing to categorize my work, it makes it difficult to figure out how to promote it. I'm guessing that this must be the reason that I am not a celebrity author on the top seller lists. It must be.

With regard to the twisted fictional world, that is based in my hometown. Of course Findlay is not full of evil people, but it was fun to set it there where I knew every corner of where Greg was going. Yes, the setting was twisted. I think I mentioned earlier that I tried to see how much hardship I could pile onto Greg so that I could see how he would handle it. I guess this was my effort to see how much conflict I could work into the story without having everything completely fall apart. In doing so, things did get a little twisted, but I think that is what makes the story interesting. How boring would it have been if Greg was a popular student who excelled at sports and had everything go right for him? The story would have gone nowhere and I wouldn't have wanted to write it. It was the adversity that made the writing a challenge and, I hope, kept readers' attention.

Lance wrote: "Firstly, with regard to genre, I generally promote The Unmentionables as horror. Although I don't know that horror is accurate"

I recognize that genre is just a marketing scheme to make it easier to categorize books as product to sell them. That being said, I read the book more as Weird Fiction (like H.P. Lovecraft, China Mieville, or Jeff Vandermeer's stuff prior to The Southern Reach Trilogy).

Benjamin wrote: "Lance wrote: "I consider myself an absurdist author. The whole point of this is to take a fairly normal character and place him or her in absurd circumstances to see how they react."

I don't know ..."

I don't know if some of these would be considered absurdist but I think so. Definitely Kurt Vonnegut, although he is sometimes sort of considered science fiction. Douglas Adams, same thing. Christopher Moore. Maybe check out The Divine Child by Pascal Bruckner, maybe not absurdist but definitely bizarre. Cold Dog Soup by Stephen Dobyns. Albert Camus' The Stranger (or is that existentialist? I don't know).

Lance I have been out of town last two days. I just wanted to say thank you for a great read and a great discussion. I will be reading more of your works soon. Thank you also for great responses.

Lance, what's a typical day for you when you're writing? Do you have a routine of sorts?

Chris wrote: "Lance I have been out of town last two days. I just wanted to say thank you for a great read and a great discussion. I will be reading more of your works soon. Thank you also for great responses."

Thanks to you and all who took part. I really enjoyed the q&a.

Lori wrote: "Lance, what's a typical day for you when you're writing? Do you have a routine of sorts?"

I wish I could say I have a routine. I usually will write during my lunch at my real job or at night after everyone else in my house has gone to sleep. I cram my writing in wherever I can fit it.

Hey everyone! Today's the last day to get a question in for Lance. Our discussion will be closing doors later on this evening!!!

Lance, thank you SO MUCH for returning again to TNBBC and making copies of your newest book available for the group.

I believe I speak for all of the winners when I say how I much I enjoyed getting behind the book!!!

Thanks, everyone, for the interesting discussion. Lance, thanks for the book--it really has expanded my reading world, which is a gift I truly appreciate :)

Thanks to everyone for taking part. I really enjoy this kind of interaction with readers. It was a lot of fun. And it is always nice to have people say that they enjoyed something that they typically would not have read.

I have one huge favor to ask. If you enjoyed the book and haven't yet posted a review, please do so. Reviews are so helpful to independent books. Readers sometimes might not realize how much they mean to the author, but believe me, they are so important.

Thanks a lot to all. And if people get on here and still have questions, feel free to post them. I'll still come back and answer if I see a question on here.