Hourglass received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Daniel James.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Hourglass was originally published in 2020, but after I signed with my agent, I took it down for a tighter edit. It was then re-released in March and May 2024, in paperback and ebook respectively.
What’s the book’s first line?
The Ilyushin 76 ascended through the kingdom of clouds like a steel dragon, powerful and proud.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Two best friends from either side of the grave are picked-up and trained by a governmental paranormal defense department. But their traumas and existential growing pains are put on the backburner when they must enter the dead realm to stop a powerful secret society and their private army of mercenaries from plundering souls for profit.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Hourglass is a huge overhaul of the first book I ever wrote. It was an enthusiastic but very amateurish story about a private government department of paranormally gifted agents, who largely acted like drunken idiots when they were not fighting for their lives. Whilst I retained and improved the characters of Clyde, Kev, and a few others from that original story, everything else in Hourglass is brand new.
Growing up a big fan of monsters and superheroes and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I think a part of me always wanted to create my own world of memorable, larger-than-life characters, full of adventure, explosive action, horror and suspense.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Strong characters and an interesting world. I’d also say it’s quite unique in tone, and believe me I’m saying that modestly!, but despite alot of searching, I haven’t found many novels that meld dark fantasy and militaristic action/thriller, with a dash of paranormal super-heroics. The best way I can describe this book tonally (and the whole series, for that matter) is like a prose version of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and BPRD comic book series.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Clyde Williams, though only a novice in this first book, has the ability to walk the Median: a bright, neon-washed dream realm composed entirely of soul threads, bordering the worlds of the living and the dead.
I first created Clyde in about 2012 or so, he was a character in an older story I eventually reshaped into Hourglass. But at the time of his creation, I was watching the first few seasons of Community, and so Donald Glover quickly became my visual cue for Clyde. I also think of Liev Schreiber as Ross Rhea in the movie Goon as the inspiration for my character Ace.
When did you first decide to become an author?
After I wrote the original version of Hourglass whilst I was finishing up at university. When I realised how satisfying it is to get all those ideas cluttering up my head onto the page, it was tremendously satisfying, even if that first book was terrible!
Is this the first book you’ve written?
I wrote five books before Hourglass, including the original incarnation of that story. I dabbled in horror, crime-noir, and a dark and trippy fantasy about a high-schooler and his “imaginary” friend, a synthetic drug-induced killer frog-man, fighting back against the school’s drug dealer and his gangster uncle. But I have since unpublished all of them, only wanting to focus on the Hourglass series. Clean slate.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I read, watch movies, dabble in drawing or guitar; but my discipline for the last two is terrible, and every time I make a little progress and show some improvement, I’ll stop practicing for months. I’m a mess.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
It varies day to day, and the mood I’m in. I used to set targets of 2000 words a day when I was working on a book. But I’m a lot more laidback with the process now. Some days, weeks even, the entire process is a struggle, but instead of beating myself up about it, I’ll simply do what I can, even if it’s only cranking out a few hundred words a day, it’s still chipping away at the story or the next draft.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
I suck at networking. I’m talking terrible! I’m far too introverted, and wish I could just write my stories without having to play salesman afterwards. I’d be happier putting a few copies of my book on a table, then smokebombing out of the place.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Honestly, I’m not even sure anymore. I think every author likes the fantasy of getting published by a big shot and getting paid handsomely. But even then, it’s rarely retirement money, and even worse, I don’t like the idea of having a publisher trying to remould my story into something that’s currently trendy and marketable.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
The only thing that motivates me is an itch to finish writing the Hourglass series.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Robert McCammon was the first author whose books blew me away. Stinger, Swan Song, They Thirst, Gone South, Wolf’s Hour; unbeknownst to the teenage me, these books were a gateway, with McCammon’s brilliant melding of colourful and fearsome antagonists, breakneck pacing, tension-filled horror, and pulse-rattling action informing me of how I would eventually wish to write.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
That’s a question without a straight answer. I could say Stinger or They Thirst by Robert McCammon. But then, I’d also be mighty proud if I had created F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack series, Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt series, or George R. R. Martin’s Wild Card series.