Featured Artist
Local author debuts “The Buddy Snatchers”
Devin James Leonard’s debut novel released on October 9th
When it comes to creativity and the written word, we here at Main Street are big fans. We’re even bigger fans when those creative juices flow in our local area. We were thrilled to catch up with local author, Devin James Leonard’s and learn all about his latest novel, The Buddy Snatchers, that released on Friday, October 9th. Devin shared insights on his newest book as well as his thoughts on writing, his inspirations and aspirations.
What’s the book about?
The Buddy Snatchers is about an alcoholic man-child named Cal McCarthy who, during his upcoming ten-year reunion, pretends to be sober to win back his high school sweetheart. But once he reconnects with his old friends, he realizes he isn’t the only one pretending to be someone he’s not. Everyone in town seems different, and that’s because something has infiltrated Cal’s tiny Adirondack village. Whatever it is, it’s found its way inside the residents and altered their minds and taken control of their bodies. Cal hasn’t seen his friends in a decade, so he has to rely on fading memories to figure out who’s been infected, who’s simply lying, and who’s just grown into someone he no longer recognizes. It’s a paranoid, character-driven small-town horror novel about addiction, identity, adulthood, and the terrifying possibility that the people you used to know might already be gone.
What inspired this story?
The obvious inspiration is in the title, taken from Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers and the subsequent films, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I have this memory from when I was a kid where I ran into an old family friend whom I hadn’t seen in some time. This man used to be fun and energetic, but when reuniting with him, he had become so subdued that his behavior seemed off. I remember feeling scared to be near him. He was so different… so alien… from what I remembered. Later, when I got older, I realized it was because he was an alcoholic and had quit drinking during the time of his absence. Sobriety had altered his personality. That memory stuck with me.
What was the writing journey like and how do you feel now that it’s complete? What surprised you about this process?
This was the first thing I’d ever written, and I had a blast doing it. You might recall, you did a locals’ profile on me in, oh, I don’t know,? 2016? And I mentioned I had written a novel… or it might have even been a screenplay at that time. Well, that was The Buddy Snatchers, though back then it was going by a different name. So, you can see, it’s been over ten years in the making, with many drafts/rewrites/edits along the way. It’s been “complete” since then, but now that it has a publisher (shoutout to Crystal Lake Publishing) and it’s finally out in the world, I guess I feel… relieved.
What surprised me about writing it, and what surprises me about writing in general, is how the characters take over and reveal the story to me. It’s as if these fictional people are behind the wheel and I’m just sitting in the backseat writing it all down. It’s a strange kind of possession I can’t explain.
What’s your hope with this book? To land it on the Amazon bestseller list?
My hope is threefold: that people buy it, read it, and like it. Who wouldn’t want their book to hit #1 on the bestseller chart?
So tell us all the things: when, where, how can people buy it? What about signings or events?
The book came out Friday, October 9th, and is available to order now on Amazon. I’m working on getting local shops to stock it, and hopefully have some events in the future so check back with me. Nothing concrete yet, so Amazon!
I’m a sucker for a good book cover. Tell us about yours.
Thanks to the folks at Crystal Lake Publishing, I was allowed to have a lot of input on the book’s cover design. The story takes place during a ten-year high school reunion, so I wanted to show an open yearbook with all the students’ eyes ominously blacked-out, and sprinkled around it some mysterious items to foreshadow what’s coming: there are a couple of shotgun shells lying about, a liquor bottle, a tranquilizer dart, not to mention some slimy-looking black stuff.
That sounds ominous yet intriguing. But tell us about you! What’s your background and what inspired you to start writing?
I wasn’t much of a reader, and especially not a writer in school. I didn’t get into either until my early twenties. I first started penning screenplays when my friends and I would make funny short videos to put online for our friends to watch. That’s where/how/when I discovered writing. This was around 2014, and The Buddy Snatchers was the first longer work I wrote. It was a screenplay that became an eight-part teleplay that, when finished, just sat there doing nothing. Then I read an article about why you should turn your screenplay into a novel.
I did that.
And I learned as I went. Kept reading. Kept drafting, editing, tweaking. Ten or so years later, I wrote a few other novels, but nothing happened. Then my sister Samantha encouraged me to try short stories, and everything took off from there. I’ve been writing shorter works for about four years now, and I’ve got over fifty published pieces in magazines and anthologies. Short stories taught me how to be a better writer, and my sister taught me how to “pivot” my goals. She’s my inspiration.
What is your process when you write?
Usually a concept materializes first, or sometimes an image of a character gets me going. A clever first sentence helps. Sometimes I’ll think of a line of dialogue and work from that.
What types of stories do you write?
Mostly horror. Native American folklore inspired quite a bit of my horror. That’s my favorite research—learning about these mythological creatures and spinning them into a modern-day tale.
The non-horror stories are a genre in and of themselves, but I guess since there are crimes typically involved, they’d be considered crime. I have a series about three wannabe actors/filmmakers who, instead of actually pursuing their dreams, stumble into some illegal activity along the way. It’s mainly farce, and their titles are the most fun to make up—Role With It, That’s a Wrap…Sheet, Zero De Niros—to name a few.
Another series involves a white trash boy named Daryl Fox who also finds himself in unpleasant circumstances. I call this genre “Hick Lit” because Daryl grew up in a very poor and sometimes abusive household. When he’s not actively stumbling into trouble, there’s a friend or family member right around the corner waiting to drag him into a scheme of theft and violence. Some of the stories’ titles are very telling of their content: Single Barrel Shakedown, Twelve Gauge Tune-Up, A Dull Disinterment, Guide My Slay, This Sorrowful Home!
What’s your favorite book? Who is your favorite author?
I’ve read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Stephen King’s On Writing more than any other books. I could never pick a favorite, but those two are on that list. My favorite authors are, of course, the two mentioned above, as well as Elmore Leonard, Donald E. Westlake, and more recently Joe R. Lansdale. I also have a soft spot for Ernest Hemingway and Charles Bukowski, but only their style. Their stories are, in my opinion, crap.
What’s next? Do you have another book concept that you’re working on or have already begun writing?
I’m always writing short stories, and I’m working toward rewriting the sequel to The Buddy Snatchers. I wrote it seven or eight years ago, and it’s massive. I haven’t read it in a long time, and I need to reacquaint myself with the world before diving in.
I’m reworking another novel I wrote a few years to not only condense into a novella but to add a few characters into it that first appeared in a short story called The Good, the Bad, and the Balloon Animals. That story was about a brother and sister living together in a trailer park, and they cross paths with a supernatural clown-type monster. They were fun to write, and I’ve been trying to bring them back in something.
To learn more about Devin and his writing, check out the following links
