Literary / Humor
Date Published: December 2017
Publisher: Cur Dog Press
Not yet thirty, and already Selraybob is beaten down and washed up. He spends his days on his lounger, drinking quarts of beer and talking to his buddy Herm on the phone. Until, during his wife’s long overdue kiss-off speech, he notices two clocks. They’re seven minutes off. And he has an epiphany. Time, he decides, is a count. It’s only a count.
Einstein was wrong.
And life on the lounger will never be the same.
Interview with Author Selraybob
As a writer, what would you choose as your
mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
A Corvair Monza convertible. She’s not alive like a
cat or eagle or some mystical three-headed creature, but when her top’s down
and the wind’s blowing and she’s shimmying just a little, she’s as beautiful as
any goddess anywhere. No one’s going to call me a goddess, or a shimmier, and
I’m certainly not as sleek as a Corvair, but my life’s come down to a
transition between an old, beat up recliner lounger and an old, but well-waxed,
Corvair. And since it’s about looking forward, it’s got to be the Corvair.
How many hours a day do you put into your writing?
It varies. With The Unlounging, I wrote whenever
I could, little by little. I wrote on breaks at the library, on my buddy Herm’s
porch, and even in the Corvair sometimes, I’d pull off and write something in
my pad. I still work that way. But I count pages.not hours.
Do you read your book reviews? If yes, do they
affect what you write in the future?
Yes. Sadly. Luckily most aren’t horrible. I’ve been
fortunate to have some kind reviewers. And while they don’t affect what I
write, they do affect how much I write. A bad one and I get frustrated, or angry,
and that keeps me from writing as much. A good one’s like a pat on the back, so
I write more after reading one of those. Getting named a best book of the year
by Kirkus Reviews gave me a real boost. Right now, though, with a project
going, I’m trying not to read any reviews, just so I can keep moving steady as
I can.
Do you leave hidden messages in your books that
only a few people will find?
Well, there’s more to the story than I put in, so you
have to look between the lines to really see what’s going on with me and
Joalene, and even with Herm and Susy Liu Anne. That’s the way it is with most
stories I think. And it wasn’t on purpose. But as for secret messages, or
easter eggs or anything like that, there’s one.
Can you tell us a little bit about the
characters in The Unlounging?
The main characters—Joalene, Herm and Susy Liu
Anne—have all been part of my life for a while. Herm I’ve known since high
school. I was a left tackle, and linemen didn’t really hang with the prima
donna wide receivers and running backs, and definitely not with the
quarterback. Herm was the quarterback’s brother, and kind of like I did on the
field, Herm kept his brother from getting his rear knocked in. He just did it
academically. For me too, really. He helped me graduate. Plus, Herm liked the
river and fishing, so we had that in common too. Susy Liu Anne is his wife, and
as amazing as she is, she’s still kind of mystery, which is how she wants it.
Joalene, my ex, I respect a lot, even through our difficulties, which is putting
it mildly as readers will see.
Can you tell us a little bit about
your next books or what you have planned for the future?
I’ve been working for a while on a couple sciencey
books. One’s about the theory of Time, and another is about Heisenberg’s uncertainty
principle. As you’ll see in the first chapter of The Unlounging, the
theory of Time got stuck in my craw with three inch barbs, so it’s not coming
out easily. I decided that if it’s not going away, I may as well ride with it.
It hasn’t been easy though, with all the physics and math I’ve had to learn,
but I have to. Because I tell you, a lot of people have things all mixed up in
their heads about physics, and a lot of them are stuck hard on what they think.
So if you’re going to come out and say, ‘Hey, Joe, that idea you’ve been
believing for the last twenty years, that everyone says is the truth absolute,
well, it’s wrong.’—then you got to have your reasoning down pretty clear. So
it’s been slow.
Mostly though I’m working on a follow up to The
Unlounging. A lot’s happened since the end of that. And it shook me up
pretty good. So Herm and Susy Liu Anne think I need to put it down too, and
they’re right, as usual—which is why I’ve been writing so much lately.
Do you allow yourself a certain number
of hours to write or do you write as long as the words come?
I write whenever I can, and when I write, I write
until I can’t write anymore. Sometimes it’s one sentence. Other times, I get
two pages down. Work or sleep can get in the way, and I never know when the
acorn in my head’s going to get over-toasted and I just have to stop and go for
a drive to clear it all out.
Do you have a certain number of words
or pages you write per day?
When I’m working on a project, like now, I try to
write at least one page a day, six days a week. I hand-write on big sketch pad
pages, so even with my fat fingers and big writing, it’s a decent page. And if
Herm and Susy Liu Anne are on me to finish a chapter or a section, and if they
make space for me on the porch and give me a pencil and fresh sketch pad and a
half a chicken, then sure as the river, I bust my rump to get it done.
What inspires you to write?
My craw. Because sometimes I have to get stuff out.
It could be about figuring out a problem, or explaining something the science
community is wrong about, like Time. When that happens, I got to start reading
and thinking and learning more math. That’s why I started the non-fiction
books. Other times, it’s that all these things happen in my life and I go
through them over and over trying to figure out what they mean and why, which
keeps me up late at night. I spill to Herm when he’s around, but I can only do
that so long before he gets agitated, shoves a sketch pad in front of me, and
heads inside for a drink. So I write it down, and that seems to help.
Would you rather
Read fiction or non-fiction?
I’d rather read fiction, but lately I’ve been reading a lot of
science books, physics mostly, and old research papers, which are definitely
not my preference. But that’s where the Time calculations are and Heisenberg
studies and a few who go into alternative (but more logical) theories of Time.
Working at the library helps, sometimes I have to go to SEMO, the university in
Cape Girardeau, to get some really technical stuff.
Read series or stand-alone?
Depends on the book. Stand alone if it’s sciencey. Who wants to
read a series on Relativity? But if it’s a good story, or the characters get me
remembering them for a few weeks after, I’d sure like to read a second, or third.
Read Science fiction or horror?
Science Fiction. Life’s scary enough.
Read Stephen King or Dean Koontz.
Stephen King, but the Gunslinger stuff, not the horror. And I’ve
never read Dean Koontz.
Read the book or watch the movie?
Book, as long as it came first. But if it’s not something I’m
really into, and if the movie comes on, I’ll watch it. Like Harry Potter. I
never opened one. But the movies were fun. One thing I haven’t done is watch
the movie and then gone back and read the book.
Read an ebook or paperback?
Paper, hard or soft.
Be trapped alone for one month in a library with no computer
or a room with a computer and Wi-Fi only?
Library, absolutely.
Do a cross-country book store tour or blog tour online?
On-line blog tour. Maybe with the sequel, I’ll traipse around the
country, but that’s far from decided.
About the Author
Selraybob is a philosopher, writer, and, given his modest Missouri background, one of the least expected deep thinkers on the planet. His theory of time—that Einstein and Hawking and the rest of the spacetime preachers are misguided to the point of lunacy—has invited ridicule and hatred and threats of violence. He has become, arguably, an iconoclast. Selraybob continues to pursue Time, related physics theories, and, with the help of his buddy Herm, Herm’s wife Susy Liu Anne, and a small but growing band of supporters, battle the narrow minds of the Time Fixers.
Contact Links
Website: selraybob.com — Curdogpress.com
Purchase Links
1 comments:
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