Rogue's Angels Present: Of Gods and Madness by Justin D. Herd

Please welcome Justin D. Herd author of Of Gods and Madness

Justin D. Herd will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host.

Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful

by Justin D. Herd

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IINTERVIEW:

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

While I don’t know what actually got me hardcore into writing, I can tell you that R.L. Stine is the person that got me into reading. His Goosebumps series definitely caught my young mind and in Elementary, I became obsessed, even getting in trouble for reading them instead of History (I attempted the old book inside the textbook trick). From there, my parents misguidedly let me read Dean Koontz instead of Stephen King and I fell further in love with Horror novels. It wasn’t until my teens that I was finally able to read King’s novels (and even then I’m not sure I was allowed).

Mel Odom was also a big force in getting me to understand the technical aspects and learn how to get a novel out.

2. What elements are necessary components for this genre?

“Raine Morgan pulled a crushed pack from his jacket, fished out a twisted cigarette. A match’s flame flickered. He took a drag, stared at the seedy bars from his niche across the street. Neon flashed through the evening haze, calling the shuffling drunks out into the dead of night for some faintly promised tail.”

Well, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. Fantasy Noir is a subgenre of a subgenre, really. What I would say is that it is more about the setting, the feel of the place, rather than any certain plot points or writing style. While you could focus on the stoic hero with metaphorical internal dialogue, that’s not something I’m really interested in. Instead, I’m in love with the layer of grime, the way the neon lights pour through the mist, the blood sliding through the hero’s fingers as he fumbles with his gun.

3. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

Honestly, this book has gone through so many different jumping off points that I’m not sure how to answer that.

Originally, the idea of the novel was about a guy who has chronic migraines. He takes so many pills that aren’t helping and his girlfriend believes that he’s causing them with the pills. So, she starts switching out placebos, which causes him to start seeing demons and crossing over into another world.

I ran into some difficulties plotting that out, so I got the idea of this society with multiple living gods, all living in the real world. My main character would have the migraines, a variation of the original idea, but with a fantasy flair. There would be a murder, the gods would be involved directly in it, and I’d have a cop character that was investigating my MC. The problem I ran into there was something that the first season of True Detective was able to sidestep: how would a detective not be able to put together that the majority of the people involved in the case were named after the gods people were worshiping in the streets.

So, at least for the initial story, I had to reset the setting to decades later, where the gods were no longer believed in. They still existed, but the society had become atheistic, which allowed my cop character to be able to investigate without looking like a complete idiot. Add to that a mob family that controlled the city and were the only ones to believe in the gods still . . . you’ve got a story.

4. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

The only thing I’ve really brought is my technical proficiency. I’m able to look at a document and completely reformat it and fix it within a few minutes. I also have a creative, but logical mind, so when I’m writing, I focus on a goal (like doing 15k words in a week), then blowing past it to 20k.

5. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

I’m an open book, as cliché as that might sound. The biggest thing from my past that still affects me today is that I had a couple fingers cut off my bully when I was seven. I’ve adapted and actually type faster than most people I know, but, as a result of the surgeries and drugs administered, I do not remember much before Junior High.

6. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I have three completed novels that are all in various stages of editing. You can read more about them on my website, JustinDHerd.net. I think the next one that will be available will be The Magician.

As for continuing plans with the Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful story, I have ideas that could split the story off into a Of Gods and Madness series and a The Faithful series. I’m currently developing those ideas.

7. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

It’d probably have to be Theon, the Trickster god. He’s someone that keeps showing up in my writing, just for how callous and carefree he is. He will just as soon cut your throat (or worse) as he would go out on a bender with you. He’s constantly getting into trouble, but it’s only in this story that he might actually have to face the consequences of what he’s done.

8. Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?

Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful is about Raine Morgan, the right hand of the dominant mob family, and his struggle becoming a new god, even as the old gods return home and break out into divine civil war once they realize they can die too. There are several points of view, ranging from an Officer to a streetwise artist to the gods themselves.

Angry flies attacked the flickering light. The small bathroom reeked of decay. Offerings from the filthy and unclean coated the walls. Raine managed to keep himself there through sheer necessity. He had nowhere else to go.

As the hot water struck his face, crimson cascaded onto the white basin. His knuckles screamed in protest, the foul air doing nothing to help the steady burn. He wiped his hands on his tainted suit, but found his skin still stained. Surely he’d wiped away all trace of her, but more blood kept appearing.

He looked up, caught a glimpse of his haggard face. Blood speckled his pores, his shirt, though his vest appeared untouched. He didn’t dare hazard a look into his eyes. Their surface burned too bright — too alive — to belong to the man he saw before him.

By Oki, he’d killed her.

His stomach flipped and the alcohol he had earlier no longer belonged to him. Skull pounding, he fought tears back. He couldn’t lose it here.

Someone knew what had happened. Two men in fact.

Jaiden and Turrell.

He couldn’t forget them. They’d raped that girl. He’d tried to save her. He’d just lost control.

His resolve strengthened. He had to find them, stop them from spreading lies, tainting his good name.

From telling the truth.

He shook the bitter thought away. No, he had to make this right.

He scooped up dirty water, threw it on his face.

In the spinning emptiness behind his eyelids, he glimpsed something eager lurking on the periphery of his vision.

When he opened his eyes, it was waiting.

9. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

I am currently in search of a critique group. I had been a part of one for the better part of ten years, but we had about a three to four year hiatus where we became a drinking group that occasionally talked about writing. They worked with me, chapter by chapter, on Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful, but, at the end of the day, I had to go with my own gut.

Part of the issue came with it helps me to have someone else read my stuff out loud, so I can mark oddities in speech patterns or pauses in the text. Others didn’t find that helpful. I also have several issues when it comes to editing, where I believe the text should reveal things about the characters rather than having me state explicitly that the character doesn’t care what another character is saying. Our group tended to be brutal in their honesty, which I respect, but it also meant we had trouble attracting new members.

But, at the end of the day, I have odd notions and, as I previously mentioned, certain impossible ideas that I like to try to form into reality. I’ve run into the same problem with critique groups as I have with development edits: if you don’t subscribe to the base concept, you’re going to have issues with the product overall.

10. When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful has been on submission since May 4, 2013. I had been submitting my first novel, Between the Shadows, for years before that, but I finally got Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful to a point where I felt confident in it. I had about a 10% request rate, which is pretty good considering, but after over 100 rejections, I felt it was time to take it into my own hands.

To be completely honest, there was more pushing me to not take control, just with subpar products I’ve seen in the past. However, the many authors at OWFI (Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc.) promoting the current Indie Revolution. Jerry Simmons had a lot of great things to say about opportunities you can take as an indie writer that traditional publishing cannot compete with.

But, overall, I’d say the Authoress (of Miss Snark’s First Victim) has been instrumental over the years with keeping me in the game. She has always been a big supporter of writers, even if her site leans more traditional, and has given me many breaks over the years I’ve been following her blog.

11. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

The best advice is the one that no one believes. It’s simply “Do not edit while writing your novel.” It’s a great temptation, but the only way you’ll get it out there is to get words on the page. Now, there’s the occasional typo or you wanting to add something cool in earlier to set up what you’re currently writing – that’s fine. But do not get bogged down in hard edits. It’s not worth it and will just get you second guessing yourself. Unfortunately, I tell every new writer this and have yet to have anyone listen to me at first.

The worst advice . . . this is two-fold. One was “Put it off-world.” Long story, but essentially I was told to put the original concept of this book off-world to give it a reason to happen, even after I explicitly told the person that I didn’t want it off-world.

The other was probably my own telling me to hold off on the story, to make it perfect before putting it out there. I should’ve released this behemoth three years ago, but issues with other writers not taking their time caused me to put my nose to the grindstone and ferret out every issue in the novel. It’s a better book for it, but I’m not sure the extra time would translate into better sales.

12. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I tend to open up a document and do a rough outline of the society I want to put in there, maybe a magic system or two, then go character by character and write one or two things about them and their histories with the other characters. For Of Gods and Madness: The Faithful, the document is 22 pages long. One thing to note though is that it never holds up to the writing of it. If you read my original writeup, it’d be unrecognizable. I also have not modified it since 2009.

When I am writing, I attack the story linearly. Any other attempt causes continuity issues and leaves me struggling to make sure everything fits in. I keep descriptions of characters in a separate document to easily be able to jump back to. If I run into a particular patch where I cannot seem to continue the story, I will loosely plot out the next three chapters to give myself some direction, but often the characters will take over and lead me astray.

13. How do you maintain your creativity?

I use art websites, places like DeviantArt and the late CGHub. I try to save anything that inspires me while I’m writing, whether it’s the lighting of a particular piece or the creatures shown by the artist. I save the pieces by original name and the artist and occasionally feature them on my website so people can see what I’m going for with the current title.

When I’m writing, I use Hard Rock to keep me focused (right now I’m listening to Seether’s Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces). Without music, I’m left searching for words, stumbling over simple concepts, and generally tripping with any document. My favorite bands to listen to are Hurt, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, and Karnivool.

14. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

With so many point-of-view characters, I have to love them all in some way or another. At the end of the day, I think my current favorite is the Shade. He’s an enigmatic figure that is playing behind the scenes, directly interacting with only one character and he’s not a POV character – which might make him more fun to write because he’s a mystery, something that is revealed in contextual clues rather than explicitly detailed.

15. Are your plotting bunnies angels or demons?

I think they’re more Nephilim. I tend to spend days agonizing over the next movement of a certain character, what logically they would do, rather than falling to my whims. Sometimes they are helpful, but other times they’ll help me realize that I need to cut out a ten page chunk and add fifty pages in its place.

16. Anything else you might want to add?

I’m a firm believer in free distribution of ideas. My site itself is under a Creative Commons license, so you can share my writing as long as you attribute it to me. I also have a podcast called The Dubious Consumers where my friends and I talk about everything from novels to mo

BLURB:

The right hand of the dominant mob family, Raine Morgan is tasked with hunting down two miscreants messing with the bottom line. He finds them on the docks, but, in the confusion of the fight, accidentally kills their victim and lets them escape. Horrified at what he's done, Raine seeks redemption as well as revenge.

Things spiral out of control when a greedy middleman overthrows Raine's mob organization. It's only with the help of a friend inside the crumbling mob as well as a streetwise artist that Raine remains undetected as he searches for the men who started this all. Raine doesn’t realize, however, he has caught the attention of a disparate conclave of gods in the process.

As the pantheon returns to the city they'd abandoned, old conflicts re-emerge, causing divine civil war. Both sides try to pull Raine to their side, expecting to find a naive god for them to manipulate. Instead, they find a man stripped of everything, intent on playing both sides as they learn an awful reality - even gods can die.

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EXCERPT:

Turrell planted his hand on the table as he leaned in, allowing Raine to fully inspect every flaw in his wretched face. His features had been rearranged multiple times and looked all the better for it. His ragged beard helped hide this from a distance. He smiled, a grin of shattered teeth, and let out a deep breath, wafting over Raine like broth bubbling from a cauldron. “Take a big whiff.”

Raine made a big production of inhaling deeply. Not bad actually, a familiar mixture of hard liquor and tobacco. His breath probably smelled similar at this point in the night. “You should really go see a doctor, Turrell.”

“Why's that?”

Raine drove the glass into Turrell's hand, twisted.

The room fell silent as his scream hit the air.

Raine pivoted back, planting his foot on Turrell's chest and shoving with all his might. Turrell's hand shredded as the glass ripped through the flesh. He hit the floor.

Jaiden swung with his left; Raine raised his arm, deflected the blow. He pressed forward as Jaiden attacked again. Raine ducked under, throwing his whole weight into Jaiden's body. Jaiden slipped past as Raine toppled over Turrell. A whimper accompanied the contact as Turrell cradled his hand.

Raine hit the ground, scrambled to his feet, rebounded off a table. He spun on his heel, avoided Jaiden's fist, returned with one of his own. It connected with his jaw. Jaiden crumpled.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Justin D. Herd is a Fantasy Noir author, who has been writing novels for ten years. He absolutely loves dark, twisted stories that take readers into unexpected places. Horror movies are his passion and he often takes stories to task for not logically thinking out their concepts. His home has been invaded by three eccentric cats, one of which is obssesed with all things digital. He is married with two children.

Website:          http://www.justindherd.net/

Facebook:       http://www.facebook.com/realjustindherd

Twitter:            http://www.twitter.com/justindherd

Patreon:           http://bit.ly/1cLVobm

Amazon:          http://www.amazon.com/author/justindherd

You can buy his books at the following links:

Amazon:          http://amzn.to/1z2xC51

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/1HJhacW

Nook:               http://bit.ly/1dH2q1H

iTunes:            http://apple.co/1K5I0tg

Google Play:    http://bit.ly/1FJIeHf

Kobo:               http://bit.ly/1zGWboy

Createspace:  http://bit.ly/1cf04qv

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

Justin D. Herd will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host.

RAFFLECOPTER CODE: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f1141