Book Giveaway and Interview: Mike Duran

EDIT: See the bottom of the post…

Mike Duran is the author of The Resurrection, due out this February 1. He also has written a zillion blog posts about religious belief, speculative fiction, and getting published — and he can probably bench press you. I’ve won two contests that he’s held, so it only makes sense that I do one for his new book. See the end of the interview to see how to win a copy of The Resurrection.

What’s The Resurrection about?
Mike: The story revolves around a remarkably ordinary housewife who inadvertently raises a boy from the dead, and the chain reaction those events precipitate. I have always been fascinated by alleged miracles, and how differently people deal with such allegations. On one hand are those who completely deny that miracles can occur. On the other hand are those who sensationalize everything, and turn the miraculous into a three ring circus. In the middle, are the rest of us who grapple with the intersections of science and superstition, fact and faith. This is a story about people who occupy those extremes, and some who land in the middle.

How would you describe your writing style?
Mike: Hmm. That’s a tough one. According to the website “I Write Like” writing analyzer, I write like William Gibson. Gibson’s been called the father of the “Cyberpunk” sub-genre, which throws a bit of a monkey wrench into any comparison. I have always been enamored with atmospheric novels and films, especially of the gothic, nour-ish kind. I also have a great fondness for literary books. So if you put those things in a blender and mix them up, I probably write something like “gothic noir” with a twist of Gibson.

Your blog is the first one I’ve ever read that mentioned the subgenre “speculative fiction”. Can you explain it better than Wikipedia does, and how The Resurrection fit into it?
Mike: Yeah, “speculative fiction” is pretty broad. It’s an umbrella term for fiction that involves supernatural, paranormal, and pseudo-scientific topics. In that sense, a whole bunch of genres may fit into the spec-fic category: horror, science fiction, paranormal romance, etc. My novel falls into that speculative fiction category because it contains some paranormal elements (via a specter, premonitions, and a territorial entity) and tinkers with many religious and philosophical questions.

A lot of writers are pulled between actual story writing and maintaining their blog. How do you handle your situation?
Mike: This is a very important issue to me, Jay. And frankly, it’s a very hard balance to maintain. Which is why many published authors either don’t blog or, when they do, they blog sporadically. Seems like every 6 months or so I reevaluate whether I should continue blogging. I usually emerge feeling that I get more out of blogging than I put into it.

There’s several reasons why I think blogging works for me. For one, I concentrate on things that really interest me: writing, religion, philosophy, culture, art. Also, I’m not afraid to ask hard questions, point out the obvious, and challenge the status quo. The reason I point that out is because I’ve discovered that many aspiring authors are rather reluctant to speak their mind and breach controversial subjects for fear of hurting their publishing chances. While I have made my share of enemies, being abrasively honest had also won me a few fans. Also, I approach blogging as a break to my novel writing, rather than as a drain from it. After working on a fictional story for hours, it is refreshing to blog about something totally unrelated. Finally, blogging works for me because I don’t do it every day. I’ve noticed when people blog every day, it tends to show in thinning content.

What are some of the non-writing things that you do or have happened to you that you think inspire your own writing?
Mike: I was raised in a pretty dysfunctional home. My father was an alcoholic and my family kind of fractured because of that. Expectations for me were pretty low growing up and, as a result, I lived “down” to them and fell into all kinds of trouble. Nevertheless, I had some creative talents that always seemed to buoy me during darker times. Writing was one of them.

I asked a rhetorical question in Facebook a while back: “Am I ‘running to’ or ‘running from’?” For me, writing is like running: running away from something I could have been, and running to someone I want to be. It’s definitely escapist, one of those creative outlets that has become cathartic and therapeutic for me.

Do you have any ideas for future books that you’d care to share?
Mike: I am contracted for one more book. My next novel is about a disfigured modern-day prophet who must overcome his own despair in time to seal one of nine mythical gates of hell. It will explore concepts of destiny and identity, the power of words and choices, as well as the tethers between myth and fact.

EDIT #2: Contest is now closed. Go pole vaulting over playgrounds and extravagantly shower the amazed children with rainbow-colored manna from up your sleeves.