Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest M.L. Grider, author of The Book of Jobs.

The Book of Jobs is the second published novel to escape the twisted mind of M.L. Grider. In addition to writing, Grider is a professional photographer.

He is busy at work on the next adventure in the Helen Wu series among other wild and warped stories.

Bee: What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?

M.L.: How can I answer that? That’s a lot like asking me which is my favorite daughter.

So much work has gone into the finished product, and so much gets edited and refined by the time I get to the end, I find it impossible say which is my favorite.

While some scenes came more easily than others, each one was important to moving the story forward or revealing something about the characters.

I try to keep to scenes that are necessary to either advance the story or develop character.

Bee: Where do you get the names for your characters?

M.L.: Most of my principal character names come to me fully formed with their personalities. Helen Wu was just always Helen.

In an earlier work, a character that evolved into to Helen had a more ethnic name but went by Helen to simplify it for Americans, as many Asian people living in the U.S. do.

But as it became more apparent to me the Helen was A.B.C. the difficult to pronounce first name just sort of evaporated.

For characters whose names aren’t immediately apparent, I determine their age and look up the most popular baby names of that year. If nothing pops out at me, I roll dice.

Bee: How completely do you develop your characters before beginning to write?

M.L.: I think the existence of the Book of Jobs is a good indication of that. It is, after all, a collection of expanded back stories for Helen and Amy.

Some of the stories were originally to have been part of “Bitter Vintage” as background or even flashbacks but were cut because they didn’t have any relevance to Pearce stalking Amy.

There are other stories I know about. Both of them that didn’t make this book, like the incident that leads Holly Wiesmeier, Helen’s first love, to violently reject Helen.

Or the time Amy quit taking Taekwondo classes back in Chicago when the Navy Seal boyfriend of one of her classmates beat the McDojo instructor silly in front of the class for groping the female students.

Oh, and if anyone reading this is interested in those stories, let me know; there might be another book in them.

Bee: How does being a professional photographer impact your writing?

M.L.: The truth of the matter is first and foremost I always wanted to be a writer. But suffering from severe dyslexia made academic pursuits almost impossible, and one had to make a living, so I found a profession that was not hampered by my condition and also let me tell stories.

Being a photographer makes me think more visually, I guess. Readers have often told me that my stories often feel like movie scenes or how easily they can visualize the things I describe.

Although I think my habit of over-describing things is more J.R.R. Tolkien’s influence on me than anything else.

Bee: Tell us about your cover. Did you design it yourself?

M.L.: I didn’t have a whole lot to do with the cover for The Book of Jobs. The problem was, I wanted a different cover for each of the nine stories, and I could not make up my mind on which one to do.

Which one would have worked best? Amy in her makeup as a statue form “The Paint Job,” Helen in uniform emerging from the steam from the squad car’s shot-up radiator in “New on the Job,” or maybe Ted getting kicked out of the gym in “Don’t Give up your Day Job?” I considered commissioning a black-and-white line drawing for each chapter, but finding an artist I liked proved to be cost-prohibitive.

Bee: What writers have you drawn inspiration from?

M.L.: There is a laundry list. I do make an effort to have my own style and voice but, of course, nobody works in a vacuum. I readily admit I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. I take inspiration for different aspects from a variety of sources.

For instance, I’m not a big fan of horror, but I really admire the way Stephen King makes his characters live and breathe. No matter how farfetched the plot, the reader is drawn into the story because they are invested in the characters.

Dashiell Hammett was a master of plot driving the narrative. Sam Spade may not have been particularly sympathetic but the reader really wants to know what the bird is and who will get it. Elmore Leonard was brilliant at combining both plot and character.

Thomas Harris seamlessly blends clinical psychology of deviant minds with plot and character.

Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut integrate dark absurdist humor throughout even the most serious work without breaking the tension.

Lee Child, Nelson Demille, and Michael Connelly are experts at putting believable, sympathetic charioteers through an action grist mill without allowing them to become invulnerable superheroes. And, of course, who can hold a candle to the world building of J.R.R. Tolkien?

Bee: What was your first job?

M.L.: Some fast food, minimum wage, slow death back in high school, just like everyone else.

Bee: What do you do when you are not writing?

M.L.: Drive aimlessly in circles listing to audio books.

Bee: What books are you reading at present?

M.L.: At the moment, I am reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest by Ken Kesey, and I just finished Poisoner In Chief by Stephen Kinzer, both as research for an upcoming Helen Wu novel in which the antagonist is a sort of Manchurian Candidate.

But that is at least two books away.

Bee: What are you currently working on?

M.L.: I am editing The Con Job, a collection of independent stories that all take place at the same comic book convention from hell. I am about 85% through a first draft of a new Helen and Amy novel entitled “Bitter Sacrament” involving a cult of religious fanatics murdering people they believe to be witches.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Follow Here To Read Bee's Review of The Book of Jobs