KaraSkinner

Today’s #IndieApril interview is with Joel Spriggs, an architect, software engineer, and father along with being an indie writer. Welcome to Lover’s Quarrel, Joel!

LQ: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

JS: I’m Joel Spriggs, I am a software engineer/architect and writer, native and living in Indiana. I graduated from Franklin College of Indiana in 2004 with a Bachelors of the Fine Arts in Computer Science and Broadcast Journalism.

I have successfully defended my beard from being stolen 1873 times out of 1877 attempts by my elder brother. On the five occasions I’ve failed, I immediately set about growing a new beard and refining defenses.

I live with my wife and three children in scenic Lebanon, IN. I maintain a website and blog and I’m on Twitter, @joelspriggs.

LQ: What does your writing process look like?

JS: I’ll start with a random idea. With Over a God’s Dead Body it really started as a random idea, a one liner that I had while I was out running. “Real Witches don’t ride Rubbermaid” was going to be the title, but I figured Rubbermaid would probably sue me at some point. So, I changed the title and went with that being a one liner Loki uses with Esmy in the novel.

I knew I’d want to make this a longer series, so I just focused on this book being an introductory piece with the characters I wanted to start it out and a really off the wall main arc.

I outlined that broadly for the main arc and some minor arcs to integrate in supporting characters. Then I wrote against that, which took a while but gave me time to learn some more about the process and figure out or work out any issues or story contradictions.

Another Dead Intern was similar. Different kinds of fantasy characters, but the original concept started out as an extremely tropey joke. I tightened up the outlining and the number of characters/subarcs. I wrote basically to the same concept, a broad outline with topics and goals of what would happen per chapter, then expand on those as I’m writing. This book came out shorter, but a lot tighter and much faster-paced.

My shorter pieces are similar on the process.

LQ: What was your favorite book to write so far?

JS: I had a lot of fun with all of them, but so far my favorite one to write was actually the kids novel I recently wrote, The Bear Was Not There. I wrote it for my kids to be able have a book of mine they could read. It was fun mainly because it involved some enjoyable things about being a dad, some challenges about having kids, and let me create a nice little humorous entry point for kids to some fantasy and sci-fi creatures without being too scary. 

LQ: Who is your favorite character to write about? 

JS: That’s a hard one, they all have their own fun elements and drawbacks. Esmeralda Hansen is probably one of the most fun, she’s kind of my main focus in Over a God’s Dead Body and Esmy and Jake find out they are descended from Loki. I want to say she channels the original Loki in certain ways, even before she met her great grandfather or found out anything else about her family.

Esmy was already being kind of a joker and extremely smart, but also a bit lazy because she didn’t see a reason to really work for something. She’s playful, and she was a challenge to write well.

LQ: Who are your favorite authors? Have any of them influenced your work?

JS: I am a long fan of Terry Pratchett and his Discworld novels, same with a lot of works by Neil Gaiman and definitely works by Douglas Adams. In the last few years, I’d been reading a lot of Christopher Moore and recently the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey. So a lot of fantasy/urban fantasy work with humor.

LQ: How are you doing during the current pandemic? 

JS: Maintaining sanity and working from home full time with my software development career, helping with my kids now learning from home full time, and finding places aside to read and write.

LQ: What are you currently working on?

JS: I’m working on the second novel of the Wrong Gods series, the sequel to Over a God’s Dead Body. I’ve got the broad outline put together for the project, tentatively named Dead Ringer.

It’s looking to be fun. I’m also looking into writing a short non-fiction project as a guide/primer for getting into coding/software development without a degree or CS history.

LQ: Anything else you would like to share?

JS: A lot of my current works will be available on Audible soon. Over a God’s Dead Body is already available, Another Dead Intern and Little Drummer Boy are produced and approved, but waiting on approval by ACX/Audible. The Bear Was Not There is currently in production and should be done soon!