Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Q&A with Gabriele Russo, author of Incompetent Gods





Now available from Fiery Seas Publishing is Incompetent Gods, book one in the Gods Inc Series, by author Gabriele Russo.





The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her newest novel.


When did you become interested in storytelling?

Telling stories is my family’s official pastime, we love it. And the more embroidery you add, the better (although it does sometimes make it difficult to get a true medical history when you need one). Anyway, I’ve always had the desire to write stories, but for some reason, it never quite clicked until I discovered satirical fantasy.

What was your first book/story published?

Incompetent Gods is my first published book. Two more will follow in the next year: Inclement Gods and Incoherent Gods

What inspired you to write?

It all started with the back-story of one of my characters. A friend of mine had lost her keys, and her kids were becoming unbearable (I’m not very good with kids), so I decided to make up a story to distract them. I told them how the Carthaginian god Ba’al, weakened almost to the point of death after the Romans had conquered and destroyed his city, had then had then been recycled as the Lar of Lost Objects, the Eater of Socks, the Thief of Keys… To get into the spirit, we even sacrificed a few Monopoly dollars. The idea of a bunch of unmotivated deities working in a Dilbert-like company was born.

What character in Incompetent Gods is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Queen Louhi is a lot like the little dictator inside my head, you know, the one who has all the solutions to fix the world… And I did use to have red hair. As to the character that’s the least like me, that’s harder, because they all have a bit of me inside them. I guess I would have to go with King Japhet as he demonstrates a degree of superficiality and self-centeredness I have difficulty understanding.

What is your favorite part in Incompetent Gods?

When Queen Louhi tortures the CEOs by threatening to drop them into the platypus pit.

What was the hardest part to write?

The hardest parts are when I focalize through a god. How does a god think? I’m always wondering if I should be thinking backwards or something.

What would your ideal career be, if you couldn't be an author?

I would have liked to be a teacher, and maybe a decorator.

Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

I certainly plan to. I always pay attention to criticism (the constructive kind), and then I choose whether to reject it or not. The hard part is not to take it personally, but luckily, my life has given me a pretty solid ego armor.

What well-known writers do you admire most?

So many… I will certainly forget some. Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Rabelais, Lewis Carroll, Bill Watterson, Goscinny, Umberto Eco, Margaret Atwood, Frank Herbert, Steven King, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Tom Sharpe, Alexandre Jardin, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, my professors Alain Beaulieu and Neil Bissoondath, and finally, my brother Louis Jolicoeur.

Do you have any other books/stories in the works?

Yes, I haven’t quite finished writing Incoherent Gods, and in between drafts I’m translating Incompetent Gods to French. There is also a project I have put aside for the moment that I would like to rekindle: a pseudo-memoir about my father’s life.


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About the Author: Gabriele Russo, AKA Lucie-Gabrielle Jolicoeur-Rousseau, was born in Quebec City amidst a family of book lovers – her father had dreamed of being a writer and both of her brothers are published authors.

Since she earned her Bachelor’s in History, it was no surprise (except to her) that she ended up working in restaurants, eventually owning two, which almost drove her mad. She sold them and was nursed back to pseudo-sanity by Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

That’s when she answered the family calling and decided to write. Armed with her ideas for the Gods Inc. series she went back to the University and got her Master’s in Creative Writing.

She now lives with her husband in Culpeper, Virginia, where she divides her time between painting, ripping apart and reconstructing her recently bought historical home, playing tennis and, of course, writing more books.

You can follow the author on Facebook, Twitter, and on her blog.

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