Interview about Odin Rising

Here's a recent interview I did with a local author about my new novel. 

What inspired your latest novel?

It was inspired by my rebellious adolescence, my first encounter with extreme metal, heavy drinking, and the radical philosophies of nihilism and Satanism. Adults are always quick to judge teens as naive or reckless, but I wanted to explore an intolerant teen's judgment of adulthood as a realm of weakness, slavery, and decay.    

How did you come up with the title?

Carl Gustav Jung wrote a famous essay "Wotan" in 1936, where he explains Hitler's rise to power in terms of the awakening of Wotan (Odin), the god of war, in the collective unconscious of the German people. The title is used ironically, as Tudor, Alex, and Edi—the trio of anti-social teens I follow in the book—think they too are under the martial spell of the Norse God.

                           
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

I enjoy blurring the distinction between life and death and uncovering what philosopher Emil Cioran calls "death's imminence in life." That is, that being alive is just a form of being dead; that we're nothing but complex zombies, mechanical systems that function based on a multitude of algorithms designed by a blind evolutionary process. And this is the sinister side of Tudor's insight that Satanism is necrophilia: the rebellious, satanic impulse to transcend the monotony of ordinary life is a paradoxical impulse that denies itself as it's annihilated by that which it negates. In other words, absolute freedom is nothingness, or a void that lies outside our language.

How much of the book is realistic?
Most of it is realistic, except the last three chapters in which I use a few dream-sequences and finally, in the last chapter, the distinction between dream and reality is completely eliminated.

Are your characters based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Yeah, they are mostly based on my friends from high school.

Where can readers find you on social media and do you have a blog?
facebook.com/AxeBarnes/;  twitter.com/axlbarnes I'm also on Goodreads.

Do you have plans or ideas for your next book? Is it a sequel or a stand-alone?

My next novel is called This Town Must Burn and it grows naturally out of Odin Rising but it's not a sequel. It will be a more extreme horror novel, influenced by Edward Lee, Bryan Smith, and Tim Miller.

Of the characters you have created or envisioned, which is your favorite, and why?
I love them all, but especially Tudor Negur as he has the courage to follow the self-destructive consequences of his beliefs.

Do you favor one type of genre or do you dabble in more than one?

I like the sub-genre of psychological horror as most of my characters are mentally disturbed in some way, mostly by being psychopaths. But there's also a lot of philosophy in my writing, so it fits the label of philosophical fiction as well. I like my monsters to be inquisitive, lucid, and intellectually challenging for the reader.

Do you plan your stories, or are you a seat of the pants style writer?

George A. Martin draws the distinction between  "two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house [...] The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it." I'm a gardener, I plant the seed of a story, I water it with my sleep, my boredom, and my loneliness, and hope it would grow into something true and beautiful.

What is your best marketing tip?
I'm just getting a handle on marketing and have no tips so far.

Do you find social media a great tool or a hindrance? 
A great tool.

What age did you start writing stories/poems?
16. I started out with poetry and then short stories.

What genre are you currently reading?
I'm reading The Fireman by Joe Hill, so horror/dark fantasy.

If you could meet one favorite author, who would it be and why?
Stephen King. He's my #1 influence when it comes to fiction writing and also an amazing human being.

Do you see writing as a career?
No, I dislike the term "career." Too ideologically loaded. It links art to commercial success and entertainment value and cheapens it. I see art as an expression of spiritual freedom, as something good in itself, something connected with our deepest nature as beings contemplating mystery and searching for revelation.