Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with August Niehaus
Book Title: Daugment
Released: 01/31/17
Genre: Adult SciFi
Interview by Heather L. Barksdale
What inspired you to write “Daugment”?
Niehaus: I was inspired to write Daugment because I have always loved talking animal stories. One year for NaNoWriMo, I still didn't have an idea with about 48 hours to go before the start of the month. I had recently met a very sweet beagle named Master Chief who belonged to one of my coworkers, and I wanted to immortalized him in a story. I decided that I would do a book about talking animals that was not your typical talking animal story, and so I started with the premise, what if someone became a dog, but it wasn't because they wanted to? Exploring the concept of being in a foreign body was also very fascinating to me, and probably my favorite part of writing Daugment was exploring what it's like to be in a form that doesn't match your brain. Finally, I was reading a book of Irish fairy tales at the time, and there was a story in there about the Hounds of Fionn, and I really appreciated the idea that this folk hero's loyal dogs were actually once people, so it felt like the perfect place to start.
How did you come up with the names of your main characters?
Niehaus: The names of the main characters are all inspired by the names in the Irish folk story. Fionn, which you say "fawn" like a baby deer, is the name of the Irish folk hero. The two hounds are Bran (meaning "raven") and Sceólang (meaning "survivor") and so we got Ravenna and Pit's last name, Scolan. "Pit" is the short version of his name that I started with (I love one-syllable names that are actually nicknames, haha, it's a personal weakness), and I expanded it to Pitney when I saw a printer from Pitney Bowes! The rest of my characters I named as I met them, which is common for how I develop a cast.
Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process or your book?
Niehaus: Daugment was my first novel, and so there are a lot of things that I do differently now when I'm writing a story. However, a lot of the ways that I find inspiration are the same, and the kinds of topics that I love to write about have not changed. Daugment is a fitting first book from me, because I've always been a weirdo on the fringes of what is normal and mainstream, so choosing a non-romantic love story as the key relationship to focus on fits my brand.
If "Daugment" was adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?
Niehaus: No question, hands down, I want Tom Hardy to play Fionn. And... I know it's maybe a little cliche to choose Mr. Sci-Fi Voice Actor himself, but I would swoon if Mark Hamill would play Pit. If you're just asking me for people I know about, Tara Strong could certainly pull off Ravenna, though I would love to work with a lesser-known talent.
When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?
Niehaus: I'll tell you, writer's block used to be a huge thing for me, and I would often go to great lengths to "physicalize" my book. Daugment, for example, sat in editing hell for a year and a half, and it wasn't until I wrote down the scenes on index cards and taped them up on my laundry room door that I got past it! Now, though, I have a set of steps that I take to ensure I'm never stuck. I always know what's motivating my character and what's at stake, and when you know those things... it's hard to get bogged down in traditional writer's block.
Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?
Niehaus: The biggest piece of advice that I can give is: don't accept any one way of doing writing. I'm a process person, not a free-flowing person, and my creativity blooms most when I am following a strict set of steps (which I can then break out of, if the occasion calls for it). But for a long time, I let myself believe all those writerly books that say, outlining kills creativity, process kills creativity. Absolutely not true for me! And now that I've embraced that, I'm more prolific, stuck less often, and positively giddy about my projects. It took a lot of experimenting to find exactly the right steps, and no one writerly book had those steps for me. So look all around for inspiration and find your writing process.
What is your favorite genre, book, and/or author?
Niehaus: My very favorite book, the one I can return to endlessly and never grow tire of, is Watership Down by Richard Adams. That book got me through being an outsider with no friends and very little exposure to real life, and in adulthood, it's become my manual of leadership.
What are you working on next?
Niehaus: I have another book coming out in November called Kinfolk! It's set in the same universe as Daugment -- in fact, Pit may or may not mention a certain space gang around which the A Mutiny of Pirates series revolves -- and follows a grumpy space dad type who realizes that his chosen family matters most of all and rescues kidnapped members of his crew, in the face of a cruel and resourceful socialite. If you're interested in getting a free copy of this book in exchange for a review, sign up for my mailing list. Beyond that, I'm planning sequels to Kinfolk and my other novel, Boiling Point, and a stand-alone novella about a daugment spy.
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