An Interview with Dr. Richard Shrubb, author of Raise My Ebenezer

BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE

Why a novel?

It was just always in me to do it. I don’t know if I ever even asked myself that question. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve been working on this book for decades. In college, I majored in literature and very much liked Dante, not just The Divine Comedy, but all of his writings. I knew if I ever wrote a book, I would base it on Dante. My wife and I are devout Christians, and all of his books are based in Christianity. I started probably in my mid-20s, working on the book off and on. I was blessed with a career that just took off. I got a master’s and a PhD, then another master’s. I was first a teacher, then a dean, then a vice president and finally president. How much I could work on the book depended on my career trajectory. As president, I had no time to devote to writing. I didn’t write a word all those years.

Tell us about the structure of the book.

Dante’s The Divine Comedy focuses on the three big levels of sin. One is the categories of selfishness, and the next is minor sins, followed by violence and treachery. If you think about the flow of the book, I had to do that. My character begins in medias res, when he rescues the woman in the parking lot. In the very next chapter, he goes back to his childhood, a good kid who is self-occupied and pompous. I had to invent these stories about him getting his heart broken and show why he doesn’t value sexual monogamy anymore. I had to transition from sexual deviation to violence, so some of the early murders in the book are very sexual in nature. I wanted him to be an antihero, but I wanted him to be likable. Early readers claimed he sounded like Dexter – he kills people but he only kills bad guys. I wanted to show a nice guy could be deadly. 

You’ve described the genre for Raise My Ebenezer as Transgressive Fiction. Can you tell us about that?

Similar to thrillers by Alfred Hitchcock, this is a type of literature where the protagonist violates basic values of society in a search for self-identity, inner peace, and personal freedom. In this genre, rule-following, sweet-natured people transform into acts of aggression (transgression). Tension is courageous and conflict begins within a complicated yet sympathetic protagonist. Themes of Transgressive Fiction are often sexual in taboo ways and usually involve gender conflict and dysfunctional family relationships. Protagonists shock readers in pursuit of a better life for themselves and for their surroundings. Imbedded psycho-social commentary is insightful, ironic, and deadpan. Transgressive writing is humorous in wise-cracking, paraprosdokian, self-deprecating ways along the lines of Joan Rivers, Chelsea Handler, Michelle Wolf, Whitney Cummins, or Alexandra Wentworth. Transgressive Fiction describes things in careful detail yet manages to surprise readers. The storyline delivers suspense and shock without abracadabra or tricks because readers receive details the whole time and still miscalculate the curveball, left feeling like they should have seen it coming, but didn’t. 

You’ve described your main character Mark Antony as an anti-hero. How much of you exists in that character?

If I write another book, I won’t base it on anything. It’s too hard to do because you’re always basing it on the original author’s pattern. In Dante, all these episodes, or cantos, are separate from each other. In an effort to tie the episodes in my book together, I needed a timeline. My editor suggested choosing a timeline in history or mirroring my own. Like me, Mark Antony was born in 1958, a child of the 60s and a young person in the 70s. So, the only parts of me that are in there are my attempts to establish that timeline. I really am a veteran. I was married and divorced. After graduation, I joined the military and never really went back home again. In higher education, I took jobs that took me all over the country like the character, who doesn’t really have roots. Those parts of the novel are autobiographical, but very loosely. None of the female characters are real; they’re all in the aggregate. Here’s the part that is real – Phideaux the dog. He’s my Catahoula Cur, and he really does everything that I put in the book. He has these gorgeous, wonky eyes. He’s a rescue dog, and he’s crippled. I adopted him from Four Paws. He really does like to chase lizards in my firewood which aggravates me and rubs up against my rocking chair. I often sit and scratch his ears. Phideaux is the only character that is specific – his name, identity, the shenanigans he pulls – all of it. 

Tell us about the publishing process. 

When I tried traditional publishing, the feedback was very positive, but nobody knew my name. I heard, “We really like your book, but no one knows you and no one will buy it. Good luck.” One publisher recommended hybrid publishing, a merge between traditional publishing and self-publishing. The larger publishers use different names for their hybrid companies, but authors get all the same services, as long as I take on part of the financial risk. 

Tell us about the sequel you’re considering.

If the book does well, I’ll turn the parts originally cut out into the sequel. I want that one to be called Make a List, Check It Twice. It would be based on the woman Beatrice at the end who finds the diary. The sequel would be the same sort of vigilante novel, but from her point of view along with her friends. It would be called Make a List, Check It Twice because that’s what they do, to be very careful about who they plan to kill. 

Where can our readers purchase your book?

Copies of Raise My Ebenezer are on sale at Number 9 Books in Ruston and online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Target, as well as my website: RichardGeraldShrubb.com Similar authors are Chuck Palahniuk, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Frank McAuliffe. Similar movies and television shows are Mr. Right, Mr. Inbetween, Breaking Bad, and Dexter.