What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write Water Memory (The Dog Logic Triptych Book 2)?
That’s an easy one—actually, two. The first was the fun I had writing the first book, Dog Logic, and the second was the success (and the awards) that followed. So this book, Water Memory, is the sequel and picks up the story about 10 years after the end of the first book.
The whole series is based on a play I’d written that had successful productions in New York, L.A., and a bunch of other places. It even won a Kennedy Center award and a couple of others, and that was great—but sometimes, as a writer, you discover a character you want to take on a new adventure. I had a character like that in Dog Logic, the play. I wanted to take him on a new, more epic adventure than I ever could in a play, given the practical and production limitations of live theatre.
So I took elements of the play—the setting and characters—and launched a whole new story: a pretty epic satire about the discovery of a duck-and-cover civilization, basically a time capsule full of people, and the complications that ensue when they’re introduced to the modern world (i.e., our world). It’s kind of time travel with a twist.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of Water Memory (The Dog Logic Triptych Book 2), what would they be?
I’ve got one for the whole triptych—“trilogy” is so overused, and I’m a big Hieronymus Bosch fan anyway. It’s this really weird instrumental cover of What a Wonderful World, played only on a Theremin, that I found on Archive.org. I ended up using it in the audiobook to open and close each chapter. It was perfect for the tone of the book—familiar and recognizable, but just a little off-axis.
What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
As a novelist, this will sound strange, but I don’t really read fiction (though I did read Don Quixote a few years ago, since it’s considered to be the first modern novel, and it’s a satire, which is my swim lane). I mainly read nonfiction—mostly history, with a little science and philosophy thrown in to keep it from getting too depressing—but I also like to slip in some UFO and paranormal stuff (which might actually be fiction as well).
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
Pulpy, low-brow stuff—The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin and Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation—both of which I tried reading in my 20s and recently started again to see if the decades would make them any more understandable. They didn’t, but I’m determined to finish both, no matter how many times I have to go to the dictionary (or wiki).
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
It was a scene I used for the audiobook sample—the portion Amazon and Audible let you listen to for free before buying the audiobook. It’s between the main character, Hertell, who finds himself in the hospital because he’d been shot in the head, and his dad, who is quite defensive about (accidentally) shooting Hertell in the head. It perfectly captured not only the weirdness but also the humanity of the book.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
There’s a trick I’ve carried over from my days as a playwright: I intentionally write myself into a corner so the reader (or audience) is left wondering, “How do we get out of this?” That forces me to invent a twist—some unexpected turn that sends the story in a new, unpredictable direction and helps me avoid the tar pits of predictability. It also keeps it fun for me, since I’m never quite sure where the story will go either—I just end up surprising myself a little ahead of the reader.
Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?
Yes, I do—and it’s fiction slightly askew, because honestly, you can’t make up anything stranger than reality itself. My stories live in a world just like ours—only nudged a little off to the side and tilted at an odd angle.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
That dystopian future they always warned us about? Turns out we’re already living in it, and honestly, there’s so much to mock, so little time.
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