Second of a two-part interview with John M Donovan, who likes this format so much it might become a three-part interview, a four-part interview, or just the way all future blog entries appear.
Q. In the last entry you mentioned that your next novel would be called Fluffball. This was referred to in the Jim Bouton blog entry as your Nerf basketball novel, right?
A. This book is about professional Nerf basketball, yes.
Q. Sound kooky.
A. There are definitely some kooky aspects to it. I found it incredibly freeing to write something outside the confines of the realistic Colby County universe.
Q. And we can expect this when?
A. Well, Yoda, I should have it ready to go by this fall. I’ll finish editing Fluffball when I’m done writing the draft of the novel that will follow it, Ghosts and Not Ghosts. That’s the working title. Might be the real one too.
Q. What’s this one about?
A. A middle-aged professor who might or might not be getting visits from the ghost of Jack Kerouac. This one takes place in Spalding (county seat of the Colby County universe) and, like The Rocheville Devil, it was one of those “What if this happened?” situations that I had to write so I could find out the answer.
Q. There’s more in the pipeline behind that, right?
A. There is, although I don’t know if I like referring to works I haven’t written yet being in a pipeline. I mean, what if it bursts and my writing contaminates the groundwater?
Q. That’s a bit of a stretch.
A. Probably. After Ghosts I want to go back to Colby City and write a novel about how various residents there are affected by the results of the 2016 election. I hope the USA hasn’t turned into a fascist dictatorship by then, though given the general nutlessness of the GOP Senate I wouldn’t bet against it. (Just kidding—there’s enough good people out there to vote these sycophantic creeps out in November.)
Q. And after that?
A. After that, or possibly before it, I’ll release a collection of short stories. Then I’ll see if it makes sense to finish up the Parker Graham story with a third book, and then, upon request of my friend Bill Dotson, I’ll finally get around to rewriting my very first novel, Bob Smith. This is the one where an unassuming college student travels to a parallel universe and joins Poe, Melville, Whitman, Twain, and Hawthorne on a quest for the secret of immortality. That one might make a good series.
Q. Sounds like you’ll be busy for a while.
A. That is my plan. It’d be nice to retire from advertising sometime before then.