As an ongoing promotion for my new novel, Null_Pointer, I will be interviewing some characters from the story. Up this week is Glenn Becker who plays a dead person.
My View: So you turn up dead in this book?
Glenn Becker: Yeah, I’m only in one scene and I’m stiff as a board. Just like Kevin Kostner in The Big Chill.
MV: That’s funny.
Becker: You’re a twisted writer, man.
MV: But you are the reason the hero is trying to help out by finding out how you were killed. That counts for something, right?
Becker: Look, I’m just a little upset at how you portrayed my house. You make me out to be some kind of sad, shut-in or something.
MV: You were a reclusive nerd. At least I let your aunt clean the house up.
Becker: Yeah, I’m sure that was a thrill for her. Look, not all nerds are reclusive and fat. Why did you make me such a cliché?
MV: I’ll do the interviewing here if you don’t mind. You were not a cliché, I simply needed you to be out of shape so that the coroner and everyone who knew you would not suspect that you were murdered. We writers do that all the time.
Becker: So you’re saying I was just a plot device then.
MV: Yeah, pretty much.
Becker: I suppose someone has to die for there to be a mystery. Might as well be the fat guy with the crummy diet.
MV: Look, I gave you some secret plot revelations about your work. That should count for something.
Becker: I guess. At least I took one secret with me to the grave.
MV: What secret? You knew something else, I didn’t explain? Care to share with us?
Becker: Can’t. I’m dead, remember?
MV: So Glenn, were you a Bronco fan?
Becker: I went to the University of Oklahoma. *
MV: Awkward. Okay, thanks for coming back to life for the interview. I’ll let you get back to your dirt nap.
Becker: Funny.
I believe that was my first interview with someone I killed in a novel. Clever readers may read deeper into this interview for clues to the next Joshua Jones novel. You can buy the paperback book from GB Press and keep coming back here, for more character interviews from Null_Pointer.
* The Boise State Broncos beat the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl in 2007 in what has been called the greatest college football game of all time.