The Bent Nail follows a man born into filth and neglect who becomes both a victim and an instrument of a shadowy organization bent on reshaping the world through brutality. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration for The Bent Nail, or its predecessor, Nails, came from a sole source.  The initial story structure stemmed from a challenge made by a close friend to see if I could develop multiple, separate plot lines and weave them together into a single, coherent, exciting story line.  Challenge accepted.

What came from that challenge was the original Nails, a story that introduced the reader to three truly flawed individuals: Tau, Gideon, and Simon; three individuals who erroneously thought they were the uncontested wielders of power in their respective worlds.  In effect, they thought they were the hammers of society; individuals who could pound on others and rule with impunity, only to discover their power was an illusion.  They were merely nails just like anyone else.

The inspiration for the main character, Tau, is personal experience.  I had the opportunity to work closely with an organization whose cause was helping the hopeless.  That effort brought me elbow to elbow with people society had cast out into the streets because that was easier than looking for productive alternatives.  These people were the products of an unforgiving world, chemical abuse, mental instability, or just bad luck.  That was where Tau came from.  Tau represents those in our society who are forgotten, lost, and disposed of, but he refuses to be dismissed.  He resorts to violence because it’s the advantage he possesses.  We fear him because he has nothing to lose.  His character hits us hard, not just because he’s a repugnant and vicious individual, but also because he’s so damaged and we see his potential for good.

The story is motivated by what we experience contemporarily.  We are bombarded by streams of questionable, repetitive soundbites intended to manipulate, separate, and control.  What we end up with is a powerless people subjugated to the will of others.  I wanted to portray the sinister nature of power and those individuals who use this to their advantage.  Some readers consider The Bent Nail as a warning of the future, others, a reflection of today.  

The violence in the book is raw and sometimes difficult to endure. What role does discomfort play in your storytelling?

I wrestled with this.  You use the term raw, and it is.  And that is very intentional.  The violence was necessary to drive home the idea that the world we know is not the comfortable place we believe it to be.  A veil of civility might cover up the violent, self-serving nature of man, but that rawness still exists.  We see violence, greed, and the desire to control in almost all aspects of society when we look close enough.   The Bent Nail challenges us to check ourselves so as not to be seduced by power and wealth.

For me, storytelling requires emotional engagement.  Comfort rarely seems to fit with that concept.  That’s not to say that my stories are all violent or even troubling.  I would suspect many would suggest my Countenance of Man, a touching story of man rediscovering his father through the eyes of others, is emotionally wrenching, but hardly troublesome.  The Bent Nail deals with power and corruption; it would be unfair to treat this kindly.   

The book challenges the idea of freedom itself. Do you believe freedom is real, conditional, or illusory?

Superb question.  Certainly, The Bent Nail would suggest that freedom is illusory, something we think we possess even when the evidence would suggest otherwise.  Do I believe that?  Not really.  In our western society, freedom is absolutely real, not just an abstract concept; however, it is continuously under attack.   The struggle is that freedom is not an immutable idea.  We have become too comfortable with the notion that freedom never changes, something that once we have it, it will always be there.  It’s not.  The Bent Nail throws that reality in our face.  It challenges us to continuously fight for it even when the consequences might be frightening.  In this story, I hope the reader grasps that however frightening it might be to stand up for one’s rights, the alternative is far worse.  If not, The Bent Nail becomes something more than a novel; it becomes prophecy.  

To quote Benjamin Franklin, “Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

If The Bent Nail leaves readers unsettled long after they close it, what do you hope they do with that feeling?

I hope it leaves the reader unsettled.  We live in an unsettled world filled with warring factions fighting for power.  The Bent Nail surfaces that and it should bother us all.  It illustrates how easy it is for those in authority to manipulate us, be it through engendering class envy, spoon feeding us with blatant misinformation, seducing us with the promise of power, or imposing their will through coercion.  Our challenge is to understand who is behind the manipulation and to stand up to them. 

The second point I want to leave with the reader is the need to be objective in assessing the world.  Not everything is as it seems; adopting the beliefs of friends and neighbors merely because it seems easy and comfortable is dangerous.   Of course, if one desires to be nothing but a nail, hammered into acquiescence, in a world similar to one I’ve invented, just keep capitulating to those who desire to control us through power. 

Lastly, speaking of power, it is insanely seductive – for all of us.  It can overwhelm the desire to do what we know to be right.  People might look at these comments in light of what is going on in our society today and assume that The Bent Nail is either right wing or left wing.  That’s a perspective thing and would be a tremendous mistake.  Neither political side has a monopoly on being correct.  Don’t let others tell you what to believe.