AGENDA 2060: The Future as It Happens was the winner of the Popular Fiction category of the 2022 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author A.I. Fabler.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
AGENDA 2060: The Future as It Happens by A.I. Fabler was first published in July 2021
What’s the book’s first line?
“Jordan McPhee started the evening with the very best of intentions: he …”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
AGENDA 2060 takes the hot button subjects of today’s woke agenda – such as gender and racial identity, cancel culture, free speech and climate change – and enshrines them as ideals pursued by the One World Government 40 years in the future. The unintended consequences of those ideals are portrayed as sometimes farcical, outrageous, absurd, and even harmful when carried to the extreme. It is deliberate satire bordering on absurdity.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
While on a creative retreat in Italy in 2019 I found myself in the company of some college academics from California and was alarmed to find how many subjects they held positions on in ways that effectively stymied open discussion. They treated alternative views like hand grenades. It was only when I resorted to exaggerated “comedy of the absurd” that they felt freed from their conscription to political correctness, enabling them to laugh. That triggered the idea for the book.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who – real or fictional – would you say the character reminds you of?
Alexa Smythe is the poster girl of the deep state. She’s college educated, academically high-achieving, and fully accepting of the high ideals that drive social policy – until she’s forced to confront the reality of people manipulating those ideals for their own ends. The struggle to break away from the comfort of conformity and group think is a challenge for many of the young woke elite when they confront real life.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
While laughing in disbelief (or outrage) at the extremes to which ideals can be taken, readers are invited to re-examine their own biases. These are big social topics you’re reading about, but the idea is that you should have fun while getting your head around them.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I’ve been a journalist and copywriter for many years and won a number of awards for screenplays. My first novel was published in 2005 under a different name and I started writing fulltime in 2013. I now have two more novels in the publishing pipeline for 2022 and 2023.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’ve retired from business and am fortunate to be able to apply myself solely to writing.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
Having already dealt with sensitivity editors and the editorial “requirements” of the industry’s publishers and agents, I felt angered and constrained creatively to the point where I wanted control of my subjects and their treatment. That’s what indie publishing provides. The downside is that the writer needs to give over a large chunk of time to marketing.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
The money argument would have to be shown to work. If an author can successfully build a brand and a following independently, it is unlikely that the traditional publisher can offer a better deal. There are exceptions, as for instance with access to international rights and movie rights.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
Writers write. That’s what they have to do. It’s a poor choice of a pastime if you need fame and fortune as the reward.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
John le Carré for his consistent quality over such a large body of work.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
1984.