Spillage received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Michael Gross.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Spillage. Paperback published February 14, 2024; eBook release date March 28, 2024
What’s the book’s first line?
Eliot asks Joan to marry him.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Spillage is a wild play on the Faustian musical Damn Yankees, a rock and roll romance and a wickedly fun throwback to the chaos of 1970s New York City.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
When I began writing Spillage in 1976, I had just fallen in love with the woman who became and remains my wife, though at the time it all seemed so tenuous. My father had just died—suddenly, from a heart attack – and in the novel the dead come to back to life, among other strange things. I loved New York in all its graffiti-ridden, bankrupt, burning-Bronx squalor. And my mind was exploding with a fractured- fairy-tale vision of this magical melting pot that I just had to get out in a way that matched the moment.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
To relive the special chaos of 70s New York in a delightfully devilish way or experience it for the first time through the eyes of a young couple trying to make it through the storm.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Joan French, who makes a Faustian bargain at the center of the story, is an obsessive character – when she’s into something she gets really, really into it, pursuing it with unrivaled passion and determination. In that way, she is reminiscent of Joan of Arc.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I spent the better part of my 20s trying to become a novelist, before embarking on a forty-five-year career in communications. When I stepped back from full-time work and cleared out my office, I found an early version of Spillage at the bottom of my desk drawer. Reading through it, I could see why I couldn’t get it published. It was unreadable, even for me – far too long, too disjointed, too many characters darting in and out, just too much altogether. But buried within, there was still much I loved about it. It was, after all, a statement of who I was at the time in all my youthful, anarchistic fervor. So, I have reworked the novel with the perspective of age, tempering its excesses while trying to maintain its original vitality.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
It’s the first book I’ve finished.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I counsel companies on how to manage communications in times of crisis.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
I try to spend a few hours a day writing.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
I think it’s great that the opportunity exists today to find an audience as an indie author. That opportunity didn’t exist when I first began Spillage nearly fifty years ago. Back then it was all or nothing. You found a mainstream publisher, or you stashed the book in a file drawer to collect dust. Had this opportunity existed when I was young, I might have persisted longer in pursuing my dream.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
With Spillage, my drive was to take care of unfinished business, to return to my creative roots, test my imagination and make something I could be proud of. Now that the book is complete, creative writing has become more like therapy for me. Of course, I’d love the widest possible audience, but self-expression has become more of a goal in and of itself.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Donald Barthelme, a post-modern short story writer who was my mentor at the time I began Spillage, is an author I greatly admire and one who had a profound impact on my work.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.