Silas blog tour #3 - Presented by Kismet

Today Paranormal Wastelands is the next stop on the Silas book tour hosted by Kismet.

Silas is written by Robert J. Duperre and is about a man at odds with his life. Ken hates his job, is disappointed in his marriage, and feels resigned to leading a mundane existence.

That all changes when his wife brings home a rambunctious Black Labrador puppy named Silas, who forges a remarkable connection with Ken and begins to heal his inner turmoil. When some neighborhood children start to go missing, he takes it upon himself to protect those around him and is thrust into a surreal world where monsters roam. Not everything is what it seems to be, he soon discovers, including his new best friend.





After Greta read the book she just couldn't wait to pick at Rob's brain.

These are the questions she asked him:


1) There aren't too many Man-Friendly fairy-tales in the world. The heroes never eat beef jerky. The princes all have embarrassing poofy shirts on. And they always wreck them with the girl finding a dumb shoe and getting married because she can sing songs that make the man swoon.... BORING! But while I was reading Silas I kept telling my husband how much I thought this would be the perfect MANLY MAN fairytale. Was that ever your goal?

Yeah, in a lot of ways it was. I wanted to tell the story of a man rediscovering his place in the world, while letting the events he experiences and the people he meets in the "other world" act as allegory for his life's issues - issues he has to overcome if he's going to live the rest of his days with any amount of joy. When I thought of categorizing it, I originally dubbed it a fantasy adventure, but hearing you call it a man-friendly fairy tale makes much more sense.



2) Silas revolves around a select few moments in Ken's life, but these moments are very pivotal in any 30+ man's life - From the Incredible Hulk You won't like me when I'm angry midlife crisis, to the giant I ate too many nachos in my life health scare, to learning how to chilax as the wife yammers on about wallpaper swatches - While writing Silas did you have a target audience in mind? Did you feel you were getting the Every-Man's story out there?

Funny enough, my target audience was females, not males. If there's one thing I know, it's the mind of a man. So I wanted to dive into this character, who's an amalgamation of myself and many other personalities I've met in life, and present to women a sort of "inside view" of the masculine psyche. But I also wanted it to be open to a wide audience. So yes, it is an exploration of the everyman. And my only hope is that whoever reads this will come out of it with a greater understanding of what this man, at least, feels about love, companionship, compromise, and growing up.


3) I couldn't stop thinking of two fairytales as I read this story. One would be Peter Pan and the next would be Pinocchio. Do you feel Silas is similar to either one?

I did think more than a little of Pinocchio when writing this - in particular the island of bad boys who turn into donkeys. You know, using certain aspects as metaphor for masculinity raging so out of control that they become something different. But to be perfectly honest, Peter Pan never entered my mind.


4) Nicholas Goodman is a villain to Ken and yet in Nicholas's mind he thinks he's doing exactly what's needing to be done to become the hero. Just curious but was he based on Little Red Riding Hood's wolf?

Hah! Yes, he was. Actually, I created him to be the combination of the Wolf and Judas Iscariot.





5) Planet of the Apes is one of those movies that could definitely be considered a MANLY MAN fairytale. RAWR RAWR RAWR!! I mean monkeys and time and space and destructions, role reversal, and get your hands off me you damn dirty ape OH MY!! Was there ever a time that you watched Planet of the Apes and thought of Ken and Silas before they were put onto paper?

It's like you have a wormhole that's digging into my brain, Greta. Planet of the Apes is one of my all-time fave movies, and the scene at the end, when Charlton Heston shows up at a buried Statue of Liberty and bemoans the arrogance and thoughtlessness of his race, directly influenced the creation of the "other world" Ken finds himself in. In fact, the scene that Ken starts writing over and over again was a scene I came up with for myself one day while watching that movie for the one-billionth time. You...simply...are...amazing. Well, either that or I'm completely transparent.



Want to win a most awesome kindle? Oh you know you do!! Check out this lovely!!

Here's how you can get your grubby little hands on it!


Contest Info: Answer the question of the day in the form provided and you are entered in the Kindle3 Giveaway. Questions provide contestants the chance to choose one of two answers (questions center around a playlist of songs Rob put together for Silas). Contestants are awarded three points for the correct answer (one point for the wrong) with the chance to gather up to 45 entries by answering each question. Open US/Canada







Are you late to the party? Want to know the next stop? Here's the tour dates:

Monday, August 29th - April, My Shelf Confessions
Tuesday, August 30th - Johnny, Pages of Forbidden Love
Wednesday, August 31st - Greta, Paranormal Wastelands
Thursday, September 1st - Lisa, A Casual Reader's Blog
Friday, September 2nd - Karen, The Slowest Bookworm

Monday, September 5th - Melissa, Books and Things
Tuesday, September 6th - Heather and Pushy, Bewitched Bookworms
Wednesday, September 7th - Cindy, Oodles of Books
Thursday, September 8th - Theresa, Just One More Paragraph
Friday, September 9th - Gef, Wagging The Fox

Monday, September 12th - Mandy, The Well-Read Wife
Tuesday, September 13th - aobibliophile™
Wednesday, September 14th - Aparajita, Le' Grande Codex
Thursday, September 15th - Farrah, The Book Faery Reviews
Friday, September 16th - Nevey, Le Vanity Victorienne

Tuesday, September 20th: Announcement of the big prize winner on Rob's Site!

Zompacolypse is coming. Are you infected yet? Robert Duperee is!