Godspeed, Carry My Bullet: Interview with Thriller Author Ian Lewis
Ian Lewis prefers not to be bound by a particular genre.
Though the inspiration for his work varies, it often finds roots in something
he dreamt. He strives for a gritty realism and maintains an interest in the
humanity of his characters. His hope is that readers find themselves haunted by
his stories in the sense that the narrative sticks with them long after they've
finished reading, leaving them with a subtle restlessness for more. Mr. Lewis is the author of The Camaro
Murders, Lady in Flames, and Power in
the Hands of One, all novellas. His first full length novel, Godspeed, Carry My Bullet, was released
in April of 2016. He has been writing since 2002.
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About the Book:
Bobby Clyne has nothing to lose. Two illegitimate
governments have taken the place of the fallen United
States: The Directorate in the East and the
United States Valiant in the West. And he's just
For More Information
- Godspeed, Carry My Bullet is available at Amazon.
- Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
Q: Welcome to The Writer's
Life! Now that your book has been
published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the
beginning? Where did you come up with
the idea to write your book?
A: Thank you. I’m excited to be
here. I tell everyone that Godspeed,
Carry My Bullet started out as an inside joke. It germinated from
conversations I had with co-workers in which we imagined ourselves as
characters in a dystopian, post financial collapse version of the United
States. We asked, “What if the divisiveness
of partisan politics is intentional? What if it’s just another method of
control used by those in power?” We were in the middle of an election year, and
it seemed as though politicians from either camp were really two sides of the
same coin. So our fictional premise began with two politicians who display
public animosity toward one another despite the fact they are actually in
collusion. They sow discord in order to maintain control of their respective
governments—one in the East and one in the West. The idea stuck, and I told my
coworkers I’d write a book about it just for fun. I didn’t have intentions of
publishing it at the time, but here we are.
Q: How hard was it to write a
book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make
the journey easier for other writers?
A: This book was difficult for
several reasons. First, this is the longest story I’ve written to date
(~100,000 words). All of my previous releases are novellas (The Camaro Murders, Lady in Flames, and Power in the Hands of One). It required
me to have a different sense of pacing and plot development than before. This
is also a multi-character story with multiple sub plots and locations, so it
was extremely important to create an outline before I started writing. This is
something I would recommend to any author attempting to write a novel, even to
those of us (myself included) who like a fair amount of organic development in
his or her stories. It’s also critical if a timeline is important to your
story. Even if your outline only consists of one paragraph per chapter, the
exercise gives you the road map of where you want to go and what should happen
at each stop. Once you have a skeleton, everything else is just filling in the
details.
The other difficulty posed by the
story was my desire to keep it factually accurate with regard to location,
climate, vegetation, architecture, etc. The problem was that I’d never been to
many of the locations in the story, and so I relied heavily on Google Maps,
Wikipedia, and similar sites to ground the reader in each environment. This
research consumed much of my time before I relented a bit. Since the book is
technically an alternate history, albeit a recent history, I didn’t feel overly
compelled to get every detail just right, since any number of things could be
different in an altered timeline.
Q: Who is your publisher and how
did you find them or did you self-publish?
A: My novellas were published
with Untreed Reads. However, Godspeed,
Carry My Bullet was self-published via Pronoun.com, which is a really cool
platform if you’re not familiar with it. I can’t say enough good things about
it as a publishing tool. This was my first foray into self-publishing, and
Pronoun made it so easy. The best part is that it’s free.
Q: Is there anything that
surprised you about getting your first book published?
A: The Camaro Murders was my first book. What surprised me most was
the fact that I was offered a contract for something that was so unorthodox in
its format. I wrote the story primarily for myself; I wanted to produce
something that I thought I would like to read. There was very little
consideration given to whether it would be marketable. To begin with, it was a
novella, so getting it picked up in the print world was already going to be
tough. Beyond that, the story is told from four different first-person points
of view in a non-chronological order. I wanted the reader to have to dig in and
think a little bit. There are intentional gaps in the narrative where the
reader can draw his or her own conclusions and fill in the blanks. I rather
boldly envisioned fan forums where heated discussion would take place between
readers who wanted to put it all together.
The other unique thing about the
story is that though it’s somewhat of a murder mystery with
supernatural/fantastic elements, the narrative is stone-cold sober. It’s all
very low key and down-played. To me, it was an interesting juxtaposition to
have these extraordinary events told through inner monologues. It might be my
favorite thing I’ve written, quite possibly because I lived with the characters
for so long. I could rewrite the book ten times over and probably never do them
justice.
Q: What other books (if any) are
you working on and when will they be published?
A: I’m currently working on the
sequel to Godspeed, Carry My Bullet,
which will be the second and final entry in the series. Everyone does
trilogies. Why not a duology? If all goes well, it will be released in 2018.
I’m also doing some ghost writing here and there for a new Science Fiction
series. This slows me down a bit, but it pushes me to be prolific and creative;
plus it’s a certain paycheck. I also have a short novel completed that will
stand as the next entry in the loose series that features the Driver character from
The Camaro Murders and Lady in Flames. I hope to have that out
in 2017. There will be two more Driver books after that. At some point I’d like
to pay homage to Ian Fleming’s 007 novels with a 1950’s spy thriller.
Ultimately I want to do an epic Fantasy type of series. Keeping in mind that I
don’t care for Fantasy as a genre (why does everyone have to speak with a
British accent?), I’d like to turn the genre on its head a bit. However, that’s
a way’s off and I don’t want to tip my hand. I have enough ideas to keep me
writing for at least the next ten to fifteen years.
Q: What’s one fact about your
book that would surprise people?
A: William Reamer, the man who
rules the Directorate in the East, is based on me. Or rather, the original idea
was that my character was supposed to be in charge of the East. Reamer is
otherwise purely fictional.
Q: Finally, what message (if any)
are you trying to get across with your book?
A: I’m typically not a fan of
books, music, or movies that have a political slant. That being said, Godspeed, Carry My Bullet is an allegory
of failed partisan politics. There’s enough of a thrill ride here that many
readers will likely miss this. And that’s fine. I don’t think I was too
heavy-handed with the message. But if I wanted the reader to walk away with
something, it’s that we’d be better off getting rid of the party system and
stop bickering about things that quite frankly, government has no business
being involved in.
Q: Thank you again for this
interview! Do you have any final words?
A: Thank you for the opportunity.
I would encourage everyone to check out my books and leave a constructive
review on their favorite eBook vendor’s site or on GoodReads. Reading
is a consumer past time for many people, and it becomes really easy to slap a
star rating on something if one even bothers to do that at all. As someone who
wants to hone his craft and continue to improve as a writer, I’m always
interested to hear what people have to say.
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