Far Out Man received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Chuck Snearly.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The name of my book is Far Out Man, it was published in May 2022.
What’s the book’s first line?
“If this was a premonition, it was bullshit.” (In the front of the book is a syllabus of the required reading for the main character’s English class, but this is the actual first line.)
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Professor of Sixties literature Jack Crost is the victim of a vicious online hoax. He loses his job, has a near-death experience with a TV show puppet and becomes the target of a psychotic drug dealer. To solve the mysteries of his life and death, he consults with a hard-drinking Buddhist detective and a beautiful physicist conducting a strange experiment. Together, they embrace the spirit of the Sixties to catch a killer on the loose among the ruins and rooftops of Detroit.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
A lot of things intrigued and inspired me at the same time, so I threw them all into the book to see what would happen. The main character, Jack Crost, was inspired in part by a great friend of mine who embodied the free spirit of the Sixties. Jack isn’t that free spirit but he very much wants to be one. I am a paranormal skeptic, but a few years ago I had a dream that predicted a future event in my life with incredible detail and accuracy. I thought that would make a great start to a novel. After that I came across some articles about well-documented near-death experiences that intrigued me. I also am fascinated by cutting-edge science, such as quantum physics, that defies logic and can’t be explained rationally. I also had a “who-done-it” plot in mind that I liked a lot. When I put all these unexplainable things together I had a mystery novel with a lot of mysteries in it.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
To be entertained – that’s what mystery thrillers should do. I hope I’ve also given readers something to think about and laugh about. In many ways Far Out Man isn’t a conventional crime thriller, it starts a little more slowly, and demands a bit more from the reader. But ultimately I believe it rewards the thoughtful reader with a fast-paced thriller that also touches on themes of life and death, love and loss and how people should treat one another on the most basic level. I didn’t write it with these times in mind but it seems very timely right now.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The main character, Jack Crost, is someone carrying a deep burden of pain who presents himself with a façade of humor and indifference. Jack reminds me of a lot of people I know, myself included. He wants to be a free spirit, but he can’t quite get there yet. His stoic acceptance of bizarre and threatening circumstances is reminiscent of many of the characters in Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, something I did not consciously try to achieve but was made aware of after I’d written the book. Vonnegut is a favorite of mine, so it’s no surprise that all those books of his I read stuck around in my mind and seeped through in my writing.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I grew up reading every book I could get my hands on and from the earliest moment I can remember knew I wanted to write novels. True story: in 5th grade I had to do a researched report on what I wanted to be when I grew up. Unfortunately, the encyclopedia didn’t have a listing for Writer, Author or Novelist, so I wrote about being a Journalist, which was listed in the encyclopedia, and then I became one. I didn’t want to be a starving artist so I earned a living as a reporter, public relations executive and speechwriter. I am returning to my youthful dreams by making a career transition from successful speechwriter to struggling novelist.
No, the first book I wrote was a How-To about speech writing called Speech Right. My first novel was The Guardian of Detritus, which includes several of the characters found in Far Out Man. The two books are now part of a series – Motor City Murphy Murder Mysteries – and the third book is already written. Importantly, each book can be read as a stand-alone novel.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing books I write speeches, which pay well. I’m not quitting my day job yet.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
I don’t write novels all the time but when I get seriously into working on a book I try to write every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time. During the pandemic I wrote for 6-8 hours a day because I didn’t have much else to do – a blessing and a curse.
The best part of being an independent author is not having to deal with corporations and corporate bureaucracy. God bless them, I’ve worked for corporations all my life but they’re not really set up to support and encourage individuals. The hardest part of being an indie is doing the marketing and sales on your own because they require a totally different skill set and passion than writing. It’s like being an Olympic-level swimmer and then being asked to compete in downhill skiing.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Perseverance. Full stop. Nothing else is as essential. It’s scary and lonely to sit on your ass for hours, days, months and years at a time writing your first novel. There is nothing to prepare you for it, no one to cheer you on and say don’t worry it will all be worthwhile. (If someone does say that they either really don’t know or they are lying.) After that mountain climb, which you thought would be the greatest challenge of your life, comes trying to find an agent, a publisher, a reader who will pay full list price. Good luck, get ready for rejection. But… and it’s big but… hang in there and just keep trying. Turns out the process is priceless, the rewards intrinsic, the rejection irrelevant. And then, finally, when you hit it big and score a critical and financial success – well, I’ll let you know when I find out myself.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
In a heartbeat. Not just for the money, which would be great. More importantly, for the validation that what I’ve created is worthy of consideration, that someone else gets it, that it touched another human being. I’d also love to have professional support for marketing, sales, promotion, etc., all the stuff that is so important that I don’t want to do.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
At this point in my life I’ve made enough money and had enough public acclaim to appreciate them both but not worship either one. It would be wonderful to have more money and fame but I sincerely just want to touch people’s lives, brighten their day a bit and perhaps make them think a little. That sounds like bullshit but it’s true. There is nothing in the world that makes you feel better than making other people’s lives better.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
It’s a tie between Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut. Not just for what they wrote, which is brilliant, but for how they approached their lives and treated the people around them. A sense of humor, which they both possessed in abundance, tends to be underrated and dismissed in literature and in life. Which is a terrible mistake that makes me laugh.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Another answer that sounds like bullshit but is absolutely true: I’m delighted and amazed that I wrote Far Out Man, I can think of nothing better for me to have written.