FLOCK: Tales of the Hooviverse: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
FLOCK: Tales of the Hooviverse: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.Following find an interview with author James Bitter:
1. What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The book is called FLOCK: Tales of the Hooviverse and was released on January 1, 2026.
2. What’s the book’s first line?
“Cold hooves again, not to mention my arse.”
3. What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
FLOCK follows a team of highly trained SAS assault llamas on a mission behind enemy lines. The story is set in an alternate world called the Hooviverse, which is essentially Earth in the early ‘90s, except hooved mammals evolved intelligence rather than humans. It’s a fairly dark war story with dark humour and several chapters that are literally dark (because they happen at night).
4. What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
In the beginning, I just loved the absurdity of placing the reader inside the mind of a llama and making them feel real human emotions for the character. It felt like a magic trick, as if I was creating an out-of-body experience.
After that initial, rather silly idea, it began to take on a life of its own. As soon as I asked ‘why’ the llamas could talk and why they were intelligent, there was a sort of explosion in my mind — a big bang, if you will — and the Hooviverse was born, with all of its hooven species and their different roles, abilities, personalities, and politics. Essentially, all of those fun worldbuilding things you get in fantasy, but with fewer swords and more fur.
5. What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
To be entertained. It’s humor wrapped in page-turning action. And it has characters you love because they’re funny, which makes it all the more heart-wrenching when bad things happen to them. And bad things do happen to them.
6. What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
I suppose the fact that he’s a llama is rather distinctive, particularly the ears and tail. I shan’t reveal who he reminds me of because they might take offense at being likened to a llama.
7. When did you first decide to become an author?
I think it happened halfway through writing this book. It was the first time I’d ever entered that “flow state” where you’re so focused on something that time just disappears. I would look at the clock and think, “Oh, it’s 2pm already. I haven’t had breakfast.” I’ve written two books since then and it never feels like work to me. If anything, it’s more work trying to wrench myself out of the Hooviverse and reintegrate into the real world.
8. Is this the first book you’ve written?
There were four very short books before this that I printed for friends, but I never thought about publishing, so they don’t really count. My favourite was a book about birds that were so incredibly rare that nobody had ever photographed them, so I had to draw them myself. Badly. I suppose FLOCK injects much of the same playfulness into a proper adult novel, with more of those fun adult things like war and death.
9. What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’m a neuroscientist. I believe a career in science prepared me quite well for writing fiction. First there is the fact that I had already finished writing one big book, my PhD thesis, so I more or less knew how to make it to the end of a novel without completely losing my mind. Also, I think that inventing characters and plots has a lot in common with designing experiments. They are both like piecing together a big puzzle and trying to discover some sort of logic or truth to the whole thing. And in my case, at least, they both involve a lot of spreadsheets.
Lastly, I’m pretty sure that the absurdity of the Hooviverse is a direct reaction to the incredibly dry and joyless research articles I spend so much time writing. I suppose you could see Tales of the Hooviverse as my cry for help!
10. How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
At the moment, I work part-time and write on my days off. I have ghosted all of my friends and given up all other hobbies, like exercise and going outside, allowing me to simply write, write, write. And I’m quite happy living like this, to be honest — if a bit pale and low on vitamin D.
11. What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The hardest part is the business side of things, like building a website, working out taxes, and the many other things that take up time I would rather spend writing.
One of the best parts is that I do my own marketing. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I see it as another funnel for my creativity. I have a lot of fun scripting BookTok videos, and I also enjoy the filming and editing. It’s just hard to keep on top of the marketing and also write books at the same time!
12. What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Write the book that you would want to read yourself, and you will have the best time of your life. Or, if you want to make money, write about dragons.
13. Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I would certainly invite them in for a cuppa. They would say something like, “James, we love the book; it’s the best thing we’ve ever read, and we’ve read the whole of In Search of Lost Time, so that’s really saying something.” I would nod and offer them a modest selection of biscuits, cautiously, because I don’t trust them. After all, nobody has read all of In Search of Lost Time. I would cut to the chase and say, “What’s the offer?”, and they would hand me a check with some zeros on it, and I would say, “Add another zero and you’ve got yourself a deal,” before adding, “Oh, and can we do a bank transfer instead? Because checks aren’t a thing anymore,” and we would all live happily ever after.
But seriously, I would consider trad publishing because they can open you up to a whole new audience, and I would get a real kick out of seeing my books in an airport. But I would try to hang onto the eBook rights, depending on the number of zeros involved. Have my cake and eat it.
14. Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I find fame off-putting, but it’s quite hard to become properly famous as an author, so that’s reassuring. Fortune has never been a motivator for me, hence why I chose a career in academia (although I have some regrets!). My main motivation is just to spend my life doing something I enjoy, and I absolutely love writing Tales of the Hooviverse. I would simply be happy if it made enough money to buy me one of those massage chairs you see in the mall to help soothe my aching bones.
15. Which book do you wish you could have written?