Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written four unusual format books and one novel. My first was The Miniature Book of Miniature Golf, a playable mini golf course in book form. I followed that up with The Pocket Book of Pocket Billiards, a book about billiards games from around the world and throughout history that comes with a tiny working pool table. Then I created two children’s books — Train and Rocket — where a plastic vehicle moves across the page… and then onto the next page! Children can drive the train or fly the rocket across the page, following the words of the story, and then onto the next page and to the end.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, Selfdestructible, is a departure from my previous books. Those all involved paper engineering; this one’s a regular novel. It’s about Marie, a 20-something borderline alcoholic who’s still trying to put her life together years after her parents’ death, and Charles, a straightlaced high school freshman who nearly burns down his school. Both of them just want to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble, but it’s hard to stay out of trouble when you have super powers.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My first four books were unusual in that my “writing” process was building prototype after prototype until the mechanics worked, and the text came later. (In the case of Train, my wife Lorraine wrote the text.) Although Selfdestructible involved more actual writing, my process was messy — I wrote at home, on my lunch break at work, on the subway, at my kids’ swimming lessons, on laptops, on phones, on scraps of paper. I have a full-time job and two kids, so any time I could snatch a few minutes to write, I did.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I grew up on sci-fi/fantasy, and my favorite was Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series. When I was in 4th grade, I wrote to him with a question about the ending of the series, and he wrote back with a thoughtful response, and that really stayed with me.
When I had the idea for Selfdestructible, I wasn’t entirely sure how to make it work as a book until I read Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. He uses fantasy genre elements to tell a more literary story — his main character goes to a secret college for magic, but the real heart of the story is the main character realizing that, if he’s still not happy after literal wish fulfillment, the problem might be him. Once I read that book, everything clicked into place for mine, as I wanted to use superhero elements to tell a grounded story about wasted potential and damaged characters looking for emotional connections and a sense of purpose.
What are you working on now?
A YA sci-fi book about a teenage girl who was born on a spaceship in the middle of a 26-year journey to the nearest star. (Proxima Centauri, which we recently discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting.) Hers is the second ship, and three years from landing, they get a message from the first ship: S.O.S.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still figuring that part out, sadly. My early books had the good fortune to have a traditional publisher—Workman—who put a lot into promoting my books and getting them into stores. But their fiction imprint focuses on Southern authors and doesn’t do much genre material, so I decided to self-publish Selfdestructible, rather than take a chance on another publisher letting the book die on the vine, which happens too often. I know enough to design a good cover, do some advance promotion, use social media, etc., but promotion has still been a process I’ve had to learn. I’m hoping I’ll get better at it with every book.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find a beta reader who’s not afraid of hurting your feelings. That can be someone you know, or a stranger on the internet (usually someone who wants you to critique their book in exchange, which is something else you should do — taking a microscope to someone else’s writing is a good way of thinking about what works and what doesn’t, so you can apply that to your own writing.) The worst advice you can get is, “that’s great!” It tells you nothing. What you want is someone who’s honest about what works and what doesn’t, so you can fix what doesn’t.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
What are you reading now?
I’m always in the middle of a bunch of books. Right now it’s Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes, that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)’s Mycroft and Sherlock, Tim Mohr’s Burning Down the House (about punk in East Germany) and I’m reading Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon with my kids. And shout-out to two terrific self-published books I recently finished. Paul Briggs’ scarily realistic climate change disaster novel Monsoonrise, and Mege Gardner’s Undertakers, Harlots, and Other Odd Bodies, about a woman trying to escape her oppressive family and work at a mortuary in 19th-century Maryland.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I mentioned the Y.A. book I’m working on. I’m also pitching a kids book about the solar system to my nonfiction publisher. And I write a weekly column for The A.V. Club called Wiki Wormhole, that looks at odd Wikipedia pages.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m stealing Ardal O’Hanlon’s joke: I’d bring a big inflatable book, and one called How To Build Oars Out Of Sand.
Author Websites and Profiles
Mike Vago Website
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