Insanity By Increments received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Alaric Cabiling .
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Insanity By Increments is the name of my debut collection of literary short fiction. It was published in March 2015.
What’s the book’s first line?
The first line comes from the opening story, Once Found, Once More Forsaken. “I drifted in and out of sleep throughout the night.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Insanity By Increments uses Gothic elements in modern contemporary settings with contemporary language. Gothic fiction was one of my greatest influences in embarking on a literary career, and everyone knows that the genre hasn’t been around for years, so I wanted to revisit some of the elements used in the Gothic template and present them with a contemporary approach. It isn’t a Gothic fiction redux. It is a modern interpretation of the old Gothic fiction template.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
By far, my greatest influence in all of literature must be Edgar Allan Poe. I knew however, that I couldn’t write like him or other greats like Shelley and Nathaniel Hawthorne, so I interpreted the old style my way. Dulcinea is a classic example of a haunting tale about an encounter with a ghostly apparition that is re-invented. In reality, I’ve always wanted to be a writer, in spite of my brief sojourns into other careers such as art, graphic design, and web design, so I wanted to start my career by paying tribute to influences of old. It was a way in which I could start with something familiar yet also different.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Insanity By Increments has often been described as ‘dark,’ but I don’t agree with the assessment. They are closer to being ‘bleak.’ Fans that appreciate stories that border on melancholic and dour will like Insanity By Increments. I also believe that in spite of the contemporary approach, the narration still retains a fair quality of confident articulacy, so fans who like short stories that are literary in nature and can appreciate language as an integral aspect of the story-telling process will like Insanity By Increments. I hope readers will like reading it as much as I have enjoyed crafting it.