Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Jennifer deBie
Book Title: The Adventures of Dogg Girl and Sidekick
Released: 8/26/20
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
Interview by Heather L. Barksdale
What inspired you to write “The Adventures of Dogg Girl and Sidekick”?
deBie: Later in this set of questions I’m going to rant about the necessity of reading if you want to be a writer, so it’s a little ironic that the inspiration was actually movies. I started writing DG&SK over Christmas 2014, or at the (then) height of the Marvel cinematic universe and launch of the DC universe. I watched all of these cool films portraying these archetypal characters that I’ve loved since watching Batman and Justice League Unlimited cartoons as a kid and said to myself “I can do that”, and so I did. I created my characters, set them in a mirror of my college town (I was halfway through my final year of undergrad at the time), and went to work.
Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process, or your book?
deBie: Nothing much to me: I’m a small-town Texan with a novel, most of a doctorate, a cat, and a flat in Ireland where I’ve been locked up for the past year because of the coronavirus. About my book, there’s a lot: I love the story (I hope you will too), I adore the characters (I hope you will too), I cringe at the editing (I’m sure you will too), and if/when I ever revisit the world of Kary and Johnnie and the supers of Commonland at some point in the future, I hope you will join me.
How did you come up with the names of your main characters?
deBie: I’ve always liked names that describe their characters- so when I named my protagonist Karissa Dogg, I wanted her to embody that. She’s loyal, but can also be vicious, and she’s got a nose like a bloodhound for sniffing out trouble and puzzles. Similarly, Johnathan Foxx- foxes are found on almost every continent on earth. They’re clever and adaptable and are easy to underestimate because of their size. Plus I just liked having the contrast between dogs and foxes.
For Adam Adamson (Adamant), I love the alliteration that comes with really cheesy comic book characters. I wanted him to embody that in name, stature, and heritage. And then I wanted to subvert that by making him gay and giving him a surly teenaged niece (the first girl born with his powers) and see what happened.
For the superhero noms de geurre, I had a lot of fun on thesaurus.com looking for words that worked, sometimes changing their spelling, and then checking Wikipedia to make sure I wasn’t accidentally infringing on copyright.
Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?
deBie: Read. I once met a poet in a workshop who hated reading other people’s poetry and it blew my mind. I met another guy at a literary festival, 30 years old and admitted that he’d never read anything he didn’t have to, but decided that he wanted to write a novel and I had to walk away from the conversation because I couldn’t think of any response other than “are you a moron?”. If you want to write, then read other work- know the market for the genre you want to write in and know other genres outside of it. I write and love genre fiction, but I also love biographies, histories of diseases, and medieval poetry. Check out my goodreads shelves and you’ll find an absolute mish-mosh of genres and interests because I believe firmly that you can’t write something if you’ve never read anything.
If "The Adventures of Dogg Girl and Sidekick”" were adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?
deBie: Tough one. Easy castings first: I want a Chris Evans type for Adam/Adamant. Not Evans himself, I’m sure he’s sick of supers and I’d never have the budget for him, but tall blond and stereotyped is what I’d be looking for in Adam. Like I said, we’re subverting tropes with him. For Kary, a Latinx actress, obviously. She’s not an actress, but I am adoring the musical artist Jesse Reyez at the moment. She’s shorter than I imagine Kary, but I love her attitude and at the end of the day attitude counts for a lot. For Johnnie, I’m torn between a magically teenaged Sam Rockwell and Timothee Chalamet. Chalamet has the look, Rockwell has the physicality- but hey, if I’m dream casting Evans, might as well splice Chalamet and Rockwell while I’m at it.
When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?
deBie: I do something else. I’ve never seen the point of trying to hammer through writer’s block because the material I produce under those circumstances is always substandard. So I read something or I go for a walk or I go back and edit what has already been written (or, you know, work on my research/plan lessons/grade papers- those things I’m actually paid to do) and accept that the block will dissolve when it’s ready to.
What is your favorite book, genre, and/or author?
deBie: I love “genre” fiction and adore the fact that genre fiction can encompass just about anything. Right now I’m on an urban fantasy kick, in the past six months I’ve burned through Ilona Andrews’ entire oeuvre and I’m on the hunt for something similar. I’ve enjoyed TA White’s Burned Lands series recently too, and I’m always up for revisiting someone like Neil Gaiman.
What are you working on next?
deBie: Right now (April 2021) I am editing my doctoral thesis on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein because my adviser says I need to get my ass in gear. He’s right and was far too polite to say ass, but the impression was the same. I also have a lockdown novel (who doesn’t?) that I’m tentatively sending out to agents and publishers, an urban fantasy of sorts with a pair of immortal mages trotting the globe (I finished it and realized I miss travel) and trying to save the world.
Learn More About the Author and The Adventures of Dogg Girl and Sidekick Here:
Goodreads: (Jennifer deBie)
Twitter: @deBieJennifer and instagram: @JennideBie.
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