About the Book:
Salvatore “Sal” Slocum is a sales representative at True North, LLC, a direct marketing company hawking a self-improvement system based upon the personal experiences and wisdom of the company’s founder, the enigmatic Burt Leathers. Thirty years earlier a blinding flash of light erased Leathers’ memory, yet also imbued him with strange persuasive powers and a keen intuition. Even more curious – any compass within his vicinity points directly at him. Taken together, Leathers interpreted these signs as proof that he had achieved enlightenment, and promptly set about building a business empire imparting his knowledge to the masses for fifty dollars a pop.
One morning, shortly after arriving for work, Sal is summoned to Leathers’ office and given the shocking news that he has been chosen to take over the company following his boss’s imminent departure. The part Sal wasn’t told about – the death threats being sent in by a disgruntled customer named Don Bagley, a Stetson-wearing, gun-toting, wannabe cowboy who has vowed to exact vengeance against the company for ripping him off.
As Bagley travels across the country toward True North’s headquarters, he has no idea that he himself is being pursued by a woman with whom he had a chance encounter at a roadside bar, one whose identity and relationship to both Salvatore Slocum and Burt Leathers will change everything.
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Author Interview:
1: Tell us a little about yourself and what got you in to writing?
Like a lot of writers, it was a teacher who first kindled my interest. My tenth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Aiello, also ran my high school’s Creative Writing Club, and at her suggestion I signed up the following year. I had always been a voracious reader, but it wasn’t until I joined Creative Writing Club that I realized writing stories and books was something that anyone could do, so long as they were willing to put in the time and effort. We tried our hands at a little of everything – different styles of poetry and prose, essays, letters to the editor, book reviews, even letters to various businesses seeing if we could convince them to send us free stuff! It was a fun, loose atmosphere, with just the right balance of instruction and encouragement.
2: Do you have a favourite time and place where you write?
Ideally at home, either sequestered in my bedroom or basement office, or – when the weather allows – on the back deck. In order to write my best, I need quiet and solitude, no distractions. My mind is sharper in the morning, so I prefer writing before work or during breaks than in the evening. But in reality, it’s wherever and whenever the opportunity arises. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that if you’re always waiting for the perfect conditions before you sit down and start to write, it’s never going to happen.
3: Where do your ideas come from?
I sometimes wonder that myself! All over the place, I suppose – overheard snippets of conversation, random anecdotes from my own life, friends’ and family’s stories, all of the pop culture I’ve consumed over the years, etc. It all gets chopped up, combined, and rearranged in my mind. I’m a daydreamer by nature, so often ideas will just occur to me seemingly out of nowhere during the course of the day. It would take some serious reverse-engineering to try to pinpoint the source of any given story idea.
4: Do you have a plan in your head of where the story is going before you start writing or do you let it carry you along as you go?
Most of my stories begin as something small, an individual scene or image or a couple lines of dialogue. Once I succeed in capturing that, a loose framework for a story will sometimes suggest itself, which I’ll use to create my initial outline. From there it’s a constantly shifting dynamic, at times using the outline to dictate where the story goes and at other times allowing specific scenes to chart their own course, even if it means the outline needs to be revised when it’s all said and done. I’m still working on finding the right balance between the two, but I’m understanding more and more the importance of both to the creative process.
5: What genre are your books and what drew you to that genre?
I suppose it’s what the industry would term “literary fiction” (or “contemporary” or “general fiction”). I enjoy having the freedom to let the story take me wherever it will, without the need to adhere to specific genre tropes. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of genres I enjoy (science fiction especially, but also fantasy, mysteries, detective/crime, and westerns), but I like being able to play with and incorporate elements of those genres into my story without necessarily being confined by their strictures.
6: What dream cast would you like to see playing the characters in your latest book?
Martin Freeman as Sal, Julianne Moore as Colleen, Reese Witherspoon as Sheila, Bill Murray as Bert, Stephen Root as Bagley, and Jennifer Coolidge as Elmie. (I realize as I’m saying this that almost none of these actors look like how I pictured the characters when I wrote the book, nor am I taking things like current age into consideration, all of which is giving me a newfound appreciation for casting directors.)
7: Do you read much and if so who are your favourite authors?
I read as often as I can, when work and writing and life in general allow. There are so many authors who have written books that are important to me, but the two I go back to most often – my “desert island” authors – are Charles Portis and Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve also read most everything John Irving, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Vladimir Nabokov have written. Humor is important to me, so I would add P.G. Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett to the list.
8: What book/s are you reading at present?
I’m just about to start White Noise, which is one of those books that’s been on my TBR list forever and which I recently happened to come across at a local used book shop when I had store credit to burn. I figured it was fate telling me it was finally time.
9: What is your favourite book and why?
Slaughterhouse-Five. When he’s at his best, few capture simultaneously life’s absurdity, hilarity, misery, and dread as well as Vonnegut. His way of looking at the world was instantly familiar to me; the first time I read Slaughterhouse Five it just clicked, and while there had been books before it that had resonated with me, none felt as though they had been written specifically with me in mind.
10: What advice would you give for someone thinking about becoming a writer?
All the advice you’ve heard a million times is true. Read, often and widely – learn what good writing can sound like. Don’t give up – it can take a long time to develop your own voice, let alone understand how much work and planning goes into writing a book-length story. Have patience – writing involves a lot of rejection and failure. If you’re the type of person who needs to see results right away in order to stick with something, consider starting small. Find websites, magazines, or journals that accept short fiction and try your hand at a thousand- or two-thousand-word story. It’s less of a time commitment and gives you the opportunity to experiment, but still requires many of the same tools you’ll need to write a longer work. Most importantly, it will help you develop the writing habit. Prioritizing and setting aside time to write each day is the only way to see consistent improvement.
11: What are the best Social Media Sites for people to find out about you and your work?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/randall.devallance.author
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181332817-true-north
Litsy: https://www.litsy.com/web/user/The_Penniless_Author
About the Author:
Randall DeVallance is the author of four books. His most recent novel, True North, is scheduled for publication on August 19, 2023. Other titles include the novella/short story collection The Absent Traveler, published in 2010 by Atticus Books, and the novel Memoir of a Doomsday Prophet and novella/short story collection The Cosmic Embrace and Other Stories, published in 2021 and 2022 respectively by Beacon Publishing Group. His stories have also appeared in more than 30 publications online and in print. Currently, he lives in Vermont with his wife, Petya, and daughter, Laura.
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